Chateau Toumilon 2003 graves

Lovely Bordeaux! Very round, good balance of tannins and acidity. Subtle bouquet on the nose, aromas of dried fruit, red berries. As well on the palate- soft and rich. Could wait a few years in the cellar. But wonderful right now.

Château Perruchon 2009, Ac Lussac St émilion

Bordeaux-Right Bank France 

 

 

Complex aromas of plum, cedar, chocolate, leather and minerals with a lifted floral note. Lovely concentration on the palate with good balance, and well-integrated tannins and acidity. Flavour replays are consistent with the nose, and lead to a ripe fruit centre. Fresh and medium-full bodied, with emerging minerality. Lovely length to the finish. 

 

 

Wine Tasting

When I do my wine tastings, I want people to have fun. I want it to be memorable and interesting.

This time my theme was Old World- New World. I brought Primitivo and Zinfandel. And I brought two Chardonnays, one from Burgundy another from Chile.

It is so exiting and interesting to try wines that are made from the same grapes, but from different regions andto see how their taste differs!

I had this Chardonnay from Burgundy, it was very nice find - Domaine Gueugnon Remond Grande Réserve Macon-Charnay Chardonnay 2008. Very smooth and satisfying. 

Santa Carolina Chile Chardonnay 2009 - is different, little spicy, more aromatic. 

Dancing Bull Zinfandel 2010 and Sasseo Primitivo 2008. 
It was an interesting experience to see how people change their views on the wine when they taste it with the food.

What I had on the menu:

Appetizers

• Caprese salad on a stick
• Crostini with caramelized pear and goat cheese
• Wild rise salad

Seafood plate

• Shrimp in a batter garlic sauce
• salmon with cream cheese
• fish with tomatoes and green olive tapenade

Meat plate

• serrano ham wrapped chicken
• cocktail meatballs
• lamb cutlets
  
  
  We tried all wines with all kinds of food to see what works for our palate and what doesn't. It was amazing how Primitivo work wonderfully with the food and  was not so great by itself. 
  For dessert I had Eatons mess.
  
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcQF12AlJts 

And with that dessert this sparkling rose  Cremante de Loire Monmousseau was very balanced. Acidity in the wine cut through whipped cream and fruitiness on the wine from Cabernet franc, Pinot Noir and Grolleau tasted nicely with berries in the dessert.

http://ninaswineandfood.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-to-expect-from-my-tastings.html

Amarone

Great Italian wine from Veneto region. Made from Valpolicella grapes.
There is a legend, that Amarone was made by mistake. Usually sweet wine Recioto was made, but something went wrong and wine went dry.  And Amarone was born. Rich, dry, full bodied, high in alcohol and very delicious.

I had Amarone
Farina le Pezze Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2007
 15% alcohol

Intense, fruity, layered aromas-mocha, prune, vanilla, and a little smokiness.
Dry, rich, good balance with tannins. It could age, but great right now.
Rich wine like that would go great with rich roasted meat.

My Italian adventures

In my last day in Italy I got really lucky! We drove to Barolo, Barbaresco region.  There were amazing views as long as we were going up and up the hills. Nebiolo and other grapes are growing at every inch of the hills. This summer was very hot, very unusual. So the grapes this year were harvested earlier this year- in September.
My friends and their friends took me to typical trattoria in Piedmont. We had mix of starters. Each one could be easily a dish of it's own. The taste is out of this world!
The atmosphere at this place is family-like. With the food we had a local Dolchetto, which balanced wonderfully.
Then there was pasta-main Italian dish and meat plates.
Italian dinner-never ending pleasure!
Semifredo- never tried anything like that in my life! So full of flavours!
There is something we can learn from Italians, they not just know how to eat, but how to drink. The wines are changing with food, one with starters and pasta, another with meat and sweeter wine with desserts.
And we had these wines not to get drunk but to have a harmony and balance with taste and aromas.
After this wonderful dinner we went to one of the small towns of Alba, Barbaresko area. I was ecstatic!
It was small, old town, with the gorgeous view. Everywhere one could find local wines, cheeses, grappa made from local grapes and lots of handmade jewelry. There were also home made jams and compotes.
Amazing weather, warm October,  warm atmosphere, people enjoying living.
Italy- gastronomical heaven! And this is just small part of this beautiful country. Country with a lot of history, culinary traditions and wine. There are so many different grape varieties in this country, so many unknown wines. I think Italy is still undiscovered. What we know about this country is just a tip of the iceberg.

nebiolo

local cheeses

Tomorrow I'm leaving, but I hope I'll come back to discover more. Goodbye Italy, and hope to see you soon!

My Italian adventures

Turin

chocolate

me

Turin-Torino

So from Lugano on a train I arrived to Milan. From Milan it was 2 hours to Turin. My hotel is very close to the train station, subway and to the centre of the city. Turin is not a very big city, very nice, calm. People are very nice everywhere in Italy.
I visited the royal palace - history here is vey old, it's very interesting to walk around places which have seen history and where history was made.
Then I went to see a place called Eataly- I wish we had such a place!
It's a mall almost but only with food from all over Italy and wine. And also there are places to eat meats, pasta, pizza, seafood, and sweets with gelato. I spent a long time walking around this place.
The next day was very special! A lady, who knew me from the Internet, took me around Turin. We saw people selling amazing chocolate, and there was also a market for meats and wine. After that we went outside Turin to see one cantina ( wine maker), one of the many, of course. So this cantina is very small. The owner of this cantina worked most of his life in IT and then decided to change his life and now his Spumante gets first places over all Italian wines!
He also has very nice passito.
After tasting many wines at his cantina we were very hungry, so we stopped by a local ristorante. I love this Italian tradition-in some places you come for just a glass of wine and you have a good choice of appetizers, like a buffet. We filled ourselves very well with those very tasty appetizers- all kinds of bruschetta, salads  sandwiches, cheeses and salami.
Another thing I really love in Italy-Enoteca. Just small place to come and have a glass of nice wine and a little snack like a sandwich, panini or pasta. Nothing big.
I visited couple of these enotecas, and loved it.