Brunello Aperitivo
Brunello di Montalcino is a very special wine variety made in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is known the world over as being a very good wine. Our friends Erin and Chris, who lived for a year in Florence, had a bottle that they wanted to share with us. They had fond memories of a night in Florence that they spent with friends savoring a bottle of this wine, and wanted to spend another evening like that with us! So of course we were game and very excited to taste wine from a very different bracket than what we are used to.
Since they were bringing such a nice bottle, I offered to find some tasty morsels to go along with the wine, so we could have a proper Aperitivo – or the Italian version of Happy Hour! If you would like to learn more about Aperitivo, please check out Ms. Adventures in Italy. Sarah has a great passion for Aperitivo and has great tips on how you can have your own – or where to go for the best ones in her hometown of Milano!
I knew this was a special wine, so I enlisted the help of a professional to come up with food ideas to compliment it. With the help of my buddy, Vince DiPiazza (no known relation – though I am sure there is one somehow, not many of us DiPiazza’s in the world) from D’Italia – an online specialty store of food products from Italy, we came up with a menu of aperitivi, or small plates:
Variety of cheeses of different flavor profiles served with Rosemary Grissini and Garbanzo Crackers
Parmigiano-Reggiano is Italy’s most famous cheese, known as Parmesan in the English language. We know it well as a cheese for grating on top of pasta. However, if you eat it in cubes, it is a whole other experience. The cheese is made from raw cow’s milk, it is then put into a brine bath for 20-25 days to absorb salt, and then aged for 12 months. My favorite part (and Erin’s too) are the little crunchies you get in a good Parmigiano – the crunchies are bits of crystallized salt.
Morbier is a raw cow’s milk cheese from France. It is a Gruyère-like cheese with a vein of ash running through its middle. The two layers of the cheese originally came from two milkings, one in the morning and one in the evening, over it with a protective thin layer of tasteless ash, both to prevent it from both drying out and to keep away the flies. The next day, they would add the leftover curd from the morning milking and production. The result was a two-layered cheese.
Goat Fromage Blanc is from a batch of the pasteurized goat milk cheese that I made recently. I added some basil and a little dried dill – as well as a few sun-dried tomatoes (Vince said they pair well with Brunello) stirred in.
Cabot Seriously Sharp Cheddar is one of our favorite cheeses, and we decided to add it at the last minute. It never tastes the same from one batch to the next. It is the cheese variety that Cabot used to sell to hunters and truckers…on their way out of town. Chris said it tasted like ham to him, which as a vegetarian, was a weird experience. This cheese is amazing paired with a sweet bread and butter style pickle.
Miscellaneous Treats
Sautéed Mushrooms
Hummus
Assorted Nuts
Assorted Olives
Pickles
Dessert
French Truffles
Chocolate covered mint cremes
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The Tasting :
When Erin and Chris arrived we opened the bottle to give it about 20 minutes to breathe. We decided to do the tasting in two stages, the first without food, and then one with food. We each had a piece of paper and a pen. We spent about 5-10 minutes sniffing and tasting the wine, and individually writing our impressions of both the nose and the taste without sharing.
NOSE:
Erin: cheese – brie, sweet chocolate, metal
Chris: robust, dank – wet wood or earth, finishes smoky
Roberto: cherries
Jenn: woody, tannins, blackberry/cherry
TASTE:
Erin: milk chocolate, cheddar, old smoke – like what your clothes smell like after a BBQ or fire
Chris: pungent, truffles, finishes with citrus (mild burn, fruity end) and something like ginger, but not quite ginger
Roberto: old fermenting cherries, blueberry and ends with citrus
Jenn: black pepper, herbal/smoky, cherry
After we shared our observations, we found it interesting that both the guys had noticed a citrus end, while the ladies had both noticed a smoky taste. Is it coincidence, or do males and females taste wine differently?
Once we headed over to the food, and had a second glass with food, we all agreed that the wine tasted much sweeter, and it was at that point that Erin and I noticed a bit of a citrus taste.
It was a really fun night. I can’t say that I have ever really enjoyed wine in this way, and I think it is a really great way to spend the evening with friends. We decided we had so much fun, that we definitely need to do it again, with different wines and food pairings.
City Girl - January 21, 2010 at 1:29 pm
What a fun post. Thank you for sharing 🙂
City Girl - January 21, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Apologies for the double comment. I saw your Vita Mix post – curious if you got just the wet blade container or also a dry one. I am debating a Vitamix for when my current blender dies, so trying to the research before-hand.
erin :: the olive notes - January 21, 2010 at 1:36 pm
i LOVE it! such a fun post…to follow such a fun tasting night. Can’t wait to do it again 🙂
Jessica @ How Sweet It Is - January 21, 2010 at 1:51 pm
I don’t know much about wine, so this was so interesting. The only thing I know is that I like to drink it.
Bob - January 21, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Love wine posts, even if I’m probably never going to be able to try the wine. Heh.
lisaiscooking - January 21, 2010 at 1:57 pm
That sounds like so much fun. I love Italian wine, and it’s always so interesting to taste and compare notes with friends.
Estela @ Weekly Bite - January 21, 2010 at 2:01 pm
I love doing wine tastings like that! I like how you did it with food then without.
Simone (junglefrog) - January 21, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Oo that sounds so good! We are going to Florence (well among other cities) in June of this year so will definitely keep this wine in mind and see if I can find a bottle!!
Rosa - January 21, 2010 at 2:08 pm
I love Italian wines! That one sounds interesting…
Cheers,
Rosa
Happy Cook - January 21, 2010 at 3:09 pm
It is nice that your friends wanted to share their goof bottle of wine with you all.
i am always curious when everybody talks about the tastes when they drink wine. I must agree with jessica’s comment, i love to drink wine but i don’t think i have the nose for tasting like you all .
Toontz - January 21, 2010 at 3:14 pm
What a great post!
ValleyWriter - January 21, 2010 at 3:17 pm
Oh what fun! Mike and I will sometimes play the wine tasting game with each other – but it’d be great to do it in a group (we clearly don’t have enough wino friends!).
Scorpio Woman - January 21, 2010 at 3:47 pm
mmmmm wine and cheese. It would be so good while doing the 10in10 but not a great idea for now LOL
Jenn - January 21, 2010 at 4:41 pm
I love wine tastings. It’s amazing to always find out the many varieties out there.
dawn - January 21, 2010 at 6:00 pm
I know so very little about wines. I cook a lot with red wine and drink my prosecco, a lot actually with rasp. We need to go to more wine tastings, as long as they have food there too. Right?
Margot - January 21, 2010 at 6:25 pm
Jenn,
It looks like four of you had great evening with the wine & friends! 🙂
I usually don’t drink wine (gives me headache) but I have couple of bottles sent to us in Christmas hampers so maybe I should do the same when my friends come over :)))
kat - January 21, 2010 at 7:11 pm
looks like a great evening!
Peter G @ Souvlaki For The Soul - January 21, 2010 at 7:16 pm
I love wine nights! Especially with a little bit of everything! This looks fantastic and amazing!
Natasha - 5 Star Foodie - January 21, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Such a fun wine tasting! I have to put the Brunello di Montalcino on our list to try soon!
peter - January 21, 2010 at 11:23 pm
A fine lubricant for your cheese and garbanzo crackers. Nothing like getting the appetite worked up with nibbles and wine.
Allison Arevalo - January 22, 2010 at 2:06 am
I LOVE Brunello. I don’t have it often, but my father always picks up a bottle for the family to share when I visit New York.
Great idea for a party. Really excited to try this with my friends.
Oriana - January 22, 2010 at 4:50 am
love the mix of italian and french, we’re usually never together anywhere….including on the same table…for extra info on Montalcino if anyone cares: http://ow.ly/ZgzG thanx for sharing
Alta - January 22, 2010 at 9:19 am
Sounds like a nice, complex wine! And what a fun evening, to do a bit of tasting with that good wine and some munchies!
kat - January 22, 2010 at 10:52 am
That’s my kind of feast!
bellini valli - January 22, 2010 at 12:49 pm
This is definitely a perfect way to spend an evening Jenn.
Natashya - January 22, 2010 at 2:03 pm
What a fun way to spend an evening!
I love wine tasting, although my palate is still in its infancy. Guess I need more practice! 🙂
Arlene (MOM) - January 22, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Nothing like turning sharing a bottle of wine into a full blown event. Good question about the differences in taste between genders.
Joan Nova - January 22, 2010 at 5:03 pm
A foodie (or wino) take on the old Venus-Mars argument.
Toni - January 23, 2010 at 1:09 pm
What a great idea! I’m getting together with some foodie friends tomorrow nite – I think they’ll love doing this!
DebinHawaii - January 24, 2010 at 8:41 pm
What a fun evening–I love to taste wine with different food pairings to see how the taste changes.
BTW–I used your Vita-Mix soup as a starting point for a Vitamix 10-Minute Thai-Creamy Tomato Soup that I just posted. It was delicious! Thanks for the inspiration. 😉
Michelle - January 25, 2010 at 9:52 pm
Sounds like a lot of fun! I’ve never done anything like this – maybe we should try it!
The Leftover Queen - January 26, 2010 at 6:17 pm
City Girl – only the wet blade…
Christine - January 27, 2010 at 4:11 pm
So much fun! I love to do things like this! Any excuse to drink wine, actually.