With the Fourth of July weekend festivities rapidly approaching and the weather starting to heat up like the inside of a firecracker, I’ve been thinking a lot about food-friendly, refreshing white wines. One that I absolutely can’t do without is the Marisa Cuomo Ravello Bianco. I first had this wine from Italy’s Campania while working at Pizzeria Mozza. It paired wonderfully with the truffle and sage flavors of the Bianco pizza. I’ve brought bottles home since then and paired it with grilled chicken and pork dishes, pizza, salads, fruit and seafood—it’s like the little black dress of white wine.
Marisa’s vineyards are located in Salerno, a small village on the Amalfi Coast near Mount Vesuvius. The proximity to the notorious volcano has created highly acidic soils perfect for indigenous varietals like falenghina and allowed the vines to thrive for centuries, even through phylloxera. The Ravello Bianco is a blend of biancolella and falenghina and is a lighter to medium-bodied white with zippy acidity and a kiss of sea air-like salinity. The fruit flavors tend to toward crisp Granny Smith apple, grapefruit and white flowers. At about $20 a bottle, this isn’t the cheapest white on the shelves, but it’s less expensive than most California chardonnays with a lot more complexity.
Cin Cin.
Next up? Now that you’ve got the wine, I’ll be working out the details for Sage-Smoked Pork Loin…
Wine of the Week: 2007 Côtes de Provence Rosé Château du Rouet Cuvée Reservée
Let’s get this straight. This wine is not pink. It’s not blush, either. Blushing is for schoolgirls. This is rosé. Don’t think white zin; think pale red wine. Made from free run juice from the first pressing of grenache and syrah (a process called saignée), this is red wine with just a kiss of color from the skins. It has body and freshness and is packed full of fruit, but there’s nothing cloying about it. I love this rosé before dinner, with dinner and after dinner. It’s glistens like copper in the glass and smells like lavender and wild strawberries and watermelon. On the palate, the wine’s creamy mid-palate, high-toned fruit, minerality and vibrant acidity make it the perfect foil for farmers market fare. If you buy only one wine this summer this Provençal gem should be it. I’ll have a bottle with me at the Hollywood Bowl, at every backyard barbecue and in the fridge for after work. I wrote this wine up for work already, but I can’t resist singing its praises again here. It’s that good.
This past week I had the opportunity to attend the Family of Winemakers tasting in Pasadena. Family Winemakers is an advocacy group for California’s smaller wine producers, protecting their right to make, market and sell their wines. The Southern California tasting is always a great opportunity to discover new wines and to taste some things we carry at K&L, but that are made in such small quantities that it’s hard to get to taste them. Continue reading »
I’ve been struggling this week. Fighting a cold, a migraine and exhaustion brought on by working an extra job to pay off my credit cards and writing a book proposal with Brooke of Foodwoolf, I must say finding time to blog, let alone rest, has been a bit of a challenge.
But tonight, with leftovers in the fridge, my boyfriend back east for a wedding and the first preseason Red Sox game on the TV, I can sit back and relax with a glass of wine.
You hate me, I know. You’ve just figured out that Red Burgundy means Pinot Noir and white means Chardonnay and here I am throwing a French wine at you with a name longer than a Spanish surname. If you’re like me, you find wine names like the one above intimidating and, frankly, annoying. What’s in the bottle and is it any good? That’s what I want to know. Continue reading »
Wine of the Week: 2006 Elio Grasso “Gavarini” Nebbiolo d’Alba
The garlicky, earthy flavors of our New Year’s cotechino con lenticche paired exquisitely with this fresh Nebbiolo from Italy’s Elio Grasso. Its high-toned cherry, rose petal and tarry notes on the nose were intoxicating, while the fine-grained tannins and lively acidity cut through the fattiness of the sausage. Each sip made you want to take another sip, then take a bite, then take another sip.
Elio Grasso is easily one of the top Barolo producers; his estate precariously carved into the hillsides outside the town of Monforte d’Alba. This is Grasso’s entry-level wine, made from the same grape as Barolo, without the requisite aging. The fruit comes from the 1.2-hectare Gavarini Vineyard, a south-facing site perched at 350-380 meters above sea level. Its loosely-packed, well-drained limestone soils are ideal for growing Nebbiolo, keeping vigor low and allowing for balanced, concentrated berries. Elio works most of the vineyards himself, leaving his son Gianluca in the cellar more and more.
