Wine of the Week

Every semester I take my students to visit a winery so that they can see how much work actually goes into making one. One of the truest quotes I have ever heard is that once you go to a winery you understand why wine can be so expensive, in fact you wonder how it could ever be cheap. The winery I have been taking my "kids" to for the past couple of years has been Vini Pallavicini in Colonna, in the Frascati DOC zone. They also have vineyards in Cerveteri and they make a wide variety of varietal and blended wines, both DOC and IGT. And they do so at amazingly cheap prices, at least at the winery. Everytime I go I stock up, in the winter on their Bordeaux blend Casa Romana or the lovely sangiovese-based Moroello or their Amarone-style Amarasco. In the summer I fill up on their refreshing Frascati, whether their base or their higher-end Poggio Verde, or their 1670. This week's wine of the week is the latter, named after the year the winery was founded. A blend of 70% Malvasia Puntinata (the local, highly-prized version) and 30% semillion, the wine spends 10-12 months in large oak barrels on its lees, and another two months in the bottle before it is released. The result is a lovely, creamy yet still refreshing wine, with notes of tropical fruit, toasted hazelnut, and honey. The large barrels mean that the wine is never overwhelmed by the flavor of the oak, and careful vineyard and cellar management means the wine retains its acidity. It is wonderful with vegetable appetizers and crustaceans, lighter first courses as well as fish. I recently paired it with penne al salmone, and the creaminess of the dish was perfectly matched by the wine. While the wines are well-prices in restaurants around Rome, they can be a bit difficult to find in shops. The next time you're out in the Castelli, Pallavicini is well-worth a detour to stock up for the summer. At the winery nothing is priced higher than 15 euros, and on a sale I recently picked up a half-case of Frascati for 10 euros! Just the thing for impromptu barbecues on hot summer nights.

Wine of the Week

The other day I met up with my girlfriends for a much needed catch up session. These are always fueled by wine of course, but for one of us (not me obviously!) who had just spent two weeks in the field in Africa, a glass of good red wine was just what she needed. As we’ve been friends for quite some time, I know her palate almost as well as I know mine. She prefers reds, but they must be soft wines, with smooth tannins, light acidity, and lots of fruit. Luckily we were at Cul de Sac, a great little wine bar with a huge wine list, so there were plenty of choices to suit her. Since this wine bar is  one of the few places in Rome with a good selection of foreign wines, I chose a red wine from the Douro region of Portugal. The area was made famous by one of the great fortified wines of the world, which is Port. Though I personally am a big fan of the rich, inky, chocolatey deliciousness in a glass that is this iconic dessert wine, its reputation has suffered with modern wine drinkers, perhaps because of the images of stuffy British gentlemen’s clubs the drink conjures up. At any rate, what has wine industry people buzzing lately are the dry wines from this area. Based largely on the same grapes that go into Port, they offer excellent value with the fruit and concentration of the fortified wine, without the weight and sweetness. We drank the Duas Quintas 2008 from Ramos Pinto. Over 100 grapes are officially sanctioned by the governing body for winemaking in the Douro, but the Duas Quintas blends together three that are considered amongst the best: Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo) and Touriga Nacional. The wine is reminiscent of young Port, with spicy and black fruit flavors and silky tannins. Only 20% of the wine is aged in oak, the rest in stainless steel, so the wine feels modern and sleek without being overpowered by the wood. For those of you in Rome, this wine can be had for less than 20 euros at the bar, less if you take it away. For those of you elsewhere, if you can’t find Ramos Pinto, ask your favorite wine shop or restaurant for their favorite Douro non-fortified wine. And if you’ve got a sweet tooth, give Port another try too.

Cin Cin!