Category Archives: Italy

Sep 25 2012
12 Comments
2010, Chianti, Italy

2010 Melini Chianti Borghi d’Elsa DOCG

2010 Melini Chianti Borghi d’Elsa DOCG

Besides the rather chilly temperatures in the morning, how do I know fall is creeping in? Because we start going through our red wine bottles that accumulated over the summer: gifts, the random buy, you name it. Don’t get me wrong, I love my rieslings and summer whites, and I will miss them dearly, but there is something about reds, calming and soothing.

Cantine Melini is a big Italian wine producer. Their top notch wines have garnered attention by Italy’s leading wine guide, the Gambero Rosso (e.g. the 2006 Chianti Classico Riserva La Selvanella got the coveted 3 glass rating). The winery was established in 1705 and today covers over 550 hectares of land in chianti and chianti classico. The vineyards reportedly cover 136 hectares divided in 5 farms. According to Snooth, the wine was produced with Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Malvasia and Trebbiano grapes and was aged for 6 months in large oak barrels as well as stainless steel casks.

I have always had a weak spot for chianti, mainly because the wines are tend to be distinctly different from brunello and vino nobile (which I both love), in that it seems lighter. I am not very familiar with the Northern Italian reds, and because I pretty much spent all my childhood summers in central Italy, that region is just closer to me emotionally. So these are my lighter Italian go to reds.

There are tons of reviews out on this one, because it is also a steal: the wine retails from $5.50 in the United States. So go and compare with my notes, if you care. We received the bottle as a gift from friends. The alcohol content is a moderate 12.5% ABV.

The wine poured red as blood with a silky viscosity. On the nose I got mostly floral notes (I noticed lavender), it is quite perfumy. Then I noticed strawberry jam, slight oak notes and a hint of soap. On the palate the wine was medium bodied with sour cherry, raspberry. I still got lavender and slight oaky smoke. The wine was a tad too astringent for my taste, but it had a nice level of tannins with a short finish. The acidity made the wine seem a bit off balance. However, this was a solid chianti, I think, especially given the price tag. It paired nicely with my pizza.

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Sep 21 2012
6 Comments
2007, Apulia, Food and Wine Pairings, Italy

2007 Epicuro Salice Salentino Riserva

(This is a review of the 2007 vintage. The current vintage on sale is 2009, which I reviewed over here.)

Epicuro’s wines have been my go to Italian reds since I moved to Ann Arbor. They are reasonably priced ($5.99, I believe) and easily available at Trader Joe’s. I actually had my first sip of an Epicuro during my last weeks in Germany, when  my friend who gave me the Scharzhofberger, brought this wine for a dinner I had cooked. I had seen the bottles before, but it being such a mass label, I never tried it. They have a row of wines, differentiated by the color of their labels:

Red is a primitivo; blue is a nero d’avola; silver is an aglianico; and gold a salice salentino. They also produce a white, a vermentino.

I am not fond of their aglianico and nero d’avola, but I thought the 2008 vintage of their primitivo was great. A nice table wine, chewy and interesting, we had it for many BBQs and other evenings of just drinking wine. The currently available 2010 vintage, however, does not fit my taste. It is quite sweet, something that 2008 did not have to that degree. I don’t think I will keep buying that wine. But there still is the 2007 Salice Salentino Riserva…

Salice Salentino is a red wine from Southern Italy and has had DOC (denominanzione di origine controllata) status since 1976. The village it is named after is in the heel of the Italian boot. The main grape in a salice salentino is negroamaro, which is generally described as a rustic and earthy grape.

This red has 80% negroamaro and 20% malvasia nera in it. It has 13% ABV.

It poured as a medium to dark red. The nose was alcoholic and perfumy, with hints of leather. On the palate, I first noticed how nicely chewy this wine was. I then got cherries and herbal tastes, as well as rather strong leather and tobacco notes, which gave the wine depth. It had good acidity and the tannins came through well. A long finish made it a really enjoyable wine on a later evening. To me, this is definitely the star of the Epicuros.

As I indicated in Wednesday’s post, I had never had red wine with my risotto, so I gave it a try. And oh man, this really worked very well with the earthy flavors of the mushroom risotto. I wish I had paired them to begin with, but by the time we opened this one, I was already stuffed…

I will definitely be stocking up on this wine. Who knows how long it will be around, being a 2007 vintage? At $5.99, there is hardly anything wrong with it. It definitely tasted like a more expensive wine.

Photo taken from leftovers the next day. That said, I do like my risotto less creamy than most American chefs.

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Aug 17 2012
10 Comments
2007, Chianti, Food and Wine Pairings, Italy

Greek Tomato Sauce…and 2007 Gaetano d’Aquino Chianti Riserva

What do you do when the wine you want to write about was somewhat underwhelming? You write about the food that you had with it because it was amazing…and mention the wine later.

It is tomato season, guys. How do I know? Because our awesome landlady brings us bags of tomatoes every other day!! I love putting them on my sandwiches or make a tomato salsa but we still have tons. So, Nina remembered a recipe that my brother was taught by one of his friends’ grandmother who lives on the Romanian border in Greece (I swear, I did not make this up!). It is incredibly simple, but you must, must, must have tomatoes that actually are fully ripe and taste like tomatoes, so usually not the supermarket stuff…Give this recipe a try if you love tomatoes. It will not let you down! And it stores well in the fridge, too, so make as much as you can.

Greek Tomato Ragù – final result (no pictures of the process because I didn’t intend to blog about it)

Here is the recipe to the Greek Tomato Sauce:

Ingredients
as many fully ripe, fresh tomatoes as you want
1-2 onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
fresh basil
olive oil, pepper, salt

Preparation
1) Get your grinder out and grind the tomatoes (skin and all) into a bowl. Yes, I mean grinding, as in cheese grinding.

2) Fill a pot with a very generous amount of good olive oil. You think you put in enough? Put in more! You want the onions and the garlic swimming in oil! Heat to medium heat and throw in onions and garlic. Let cook for 10-15 minutes. The onions and garlic should not brown if you put in enough oil, they will just become soft.

3) Pour in the tomatoes, bring to a simmer. At that stage, the ground tomatoes are quite liquidy. No worries.

4) Let simmer for 1 1/2-3 hours, until the sauce is not watery any more (varies with the amount of tomatoes). The texture depends on your idea of sauce. Season with salt and pepper, throw in as many fresh basil leaves as you want.

5) Done. Serve with penne rigate or rigatoni and fresh parmiggiano. It is divine.

The wine we had with it was a 2007 Gaetano d’Aquino Chianti Riserva I picked up at Trader Joe’s a while back. I think chianti pairs well with tomato-based sauces, so I opened it up. The color was light red, slightly browned with some viscosity. On the nose there were prunes, sweet cherries. Nina got paint thinner, I did not detect that. But the wine smelled a bit fusty. The taste was rather sour, with some marzipane (sweet almond paste). It had nice tannins but was rather thin. The finish was longer than expected, but the sour notes dominated. It was not a bad wine, but it was also not a good wine. Of a riserva, I do expect a bit more. However, I thought it paired alright with our dish.

Nothing special but paired alright with the food.

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