Hello, Wine Lovers! It’s 10a.m. Monday, June 15, 2009 and Mike is running late to work so he asked me to post something about tonight’s wine tasting at Ralph’s downtown (on 9th Street between Flower and Hope). To those of you who don’t know, Mike Berger hosts the tasting from 5p.m. to 8p.m. and it’s an unbelievable value. Tonight, the featured category is Italian red wines. The two most internationally famous regions in Italy will be featured; they are called Piedmont (Piemonte in Italian) and Tuscany (Toscana in Italian).
Piedmont is an absolutely beautiful region in the northwest of Italy whose name means “foot of the mountain”, (from the Latin, pied for foot and monte for mountain), due to its proximity to the majestic Alps. There are three major red wine grapes planted there, the most vaunted of which is Nebbiolo (named after nebbia, the Italian word for fog, which is integral to the ripening of these grapes). Mike will be serving a Barolo tonight, one of the two great Nebbiolo-based wines of Piedmont. Barolos are known to be among the longest-aging wines of Italy, many drinking well after more than fifty years. They are dark and chewy with flavors of chocolate and anise leading to a deep raspberry center. There can be prodigious complexity in the bouquet beyond the classic signature notes. The Barolos under ten years of age require hours of breathing time to reveal their flavors and aromas. To this end, Mike always pours his selections of “big reds” into decanters in advance of the wine tastings. What this does – and what “breathing” means in the jargon of wine connoisseurs – is accelerate the aging of the wine through exposure to the air. Very old wines should be drunk immediately as they are fully aged and exposure to the air deteriorates their quality, sending them to a premature end.
Tuscany is notable for its pastorally beautiful countryside and its spectacular capital city Florence, which dates back to 59 AD. Continue reading HELLO, WINE LOVERS!
