A Wee Tuscan Lovely
I hope everyone had a wonderful Civic Holiday. Terry, myself and the yute took in the Highland Games (we almost became caber kill, but Angus saw better than to toss the caber into the stands we were sitting in....I rather liked that...last year someone tossed a caber right where we sat this year....seven years of university..I know) ate too much, had friends over for dinner Sunday...ate and drank too much....but had a good time.
Now that I have recovered, I had leftovers from the meal and a really nice Tuscan with them.
Music is vinyl (of course) and is a rare find: Kimiko Itoh. She's a Japanese jazz singer whom I discovered while living in Toronto. It's from 1989 and is quite good. She does standards so is similar to many other torch singers, but every once in a while you can hear her accent. It's just really smooth and nice.
Dinner again was warmed up from Sunday. Well Sunday we had bruschetta,cheese, dip for our appetizer. For the pasta course I took grape tomatoes and cayenne peppers from my garden added shrimp garlic, basil(garden again) and olive oil with good pasta. Main course was veal picatta (local veal), local corn and some green beans. Its funny but many people make a big deal about 100 mile meals but this one was either from my deck and local if possible...within 20 miles...Wines served were: Sauvignon Blancs from Pelee Island (The Ladies of course...Walter..please keep making it..please) and from Smith and Wilson.With the pasta we had Pinot Gris from Muscedere and a Viognier from Peninsula Ridge..both very nice. With the veal we had a Vapolicello Ripasso which was very nice along with a Mastronardi and Erie Shores Cabernet Franc. Oi..no wonder I was a mess Monday. Lindsay..can I take that rehab spot off your hands...its obviously not working for you. Well we never did make dessert (wonder why) and it was made by our pastry chef friend...I had some and it was verrrrry nice...a take on Tiramesu.
Well what was nice is that the local wines again were more than good enough. The I Galli Ripasso is a very good bottle of wine and really should have been way better than anything else. It was quite good but the local Cab Francs were more than up top the challenge. I realize the styles and grapes are 180 degrees apart but class is class and all the wines had class...I liked that.
Tonight its another of my Italian treasures. Its from a Tuscan subregion (I believe...I found some cleaning up..and a glass that Terry had dropped behind something during our last dinner party...she broke one of my Rosenthals but we found another German glass so I guess I netted out to no losses). Its an 2004 Rosso Piceno.
As with Tuscans, the color is a nice deep red. I get a nice earthy nose with hints of leather, and dark fruit. Nice blackish fruit like a prune plum. Very earthy aroma.
This wine has tannins. Not like a big Australian, but my tongue is still recovering.The flavour seems to grow. It starts muted then explodes..which is not unlike a good pepper...the taste lingers and again, I find rather dark, earthy. A friend of mine once said that with Tuscan's “you taste the dirt”. This one I certainly do. It just tastes how I imagine Tuscany to be: old castles, old vineyards and grapes. Through the darkness, I taste really good grapes who are just hanging back....leather, some tobacco and dark berries. This is a well made wine.
As with most Italian wine it is made to go with food and does food great and stand alone ok. Give this veal, a Boulognase sauce(with freshly made pasta ..of course) and this would be heavenly.
One more thing...Italian grapes, just don't travel well. I have had new world Sangeovese and it just isn't the same. It must be just the convergence of climate, terroir, grape and that specialness of the Italians that make this grape work.
