 The bottle that started our own Brunello journey.🚶♂️
While the single Vineyard Montosoli may be a benchmark 💯 bottle their straight Brunello is rarely too far behind. A collectors bottle from the best years, these have been great irrespective of how perfect or imperfect were the years they grew up in. This one from the 2007 vintage was magnificent when it started after an hour and a half of decanting and remained as such until the last drop. Sincere thanks to a generous wine buddy. This was the last of the lot and he still agreed to open 🤪😅🕺 2007s can comfortably run another decade with the same intensity and love. 💕 We just restocked their 2010s and 2012s two of the recent exceptional vintages from Montalcino.
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“It’s stupid not to be organic in Sicily,” Ms. Occhipinti said. “We have the perfect climate.”
While the wines of Mount Etna have come to signify wines from Siciliy (and are a wonderful introduction to Sicily), those are not the only great wines Sicilian land has to offer. If you focus too much on Etna, you may even miss the best of what grapes such as Frappato and Nero d'Avola have to offer. Long considered to play second fiddle, wines from Vittoria in Sicily, have their own personality, not unlike the personality of star winemaker Arianna Occhipinti. As Eric (@ericasimov ) shared in the article, "back in the 1980s and ’90s, international grapes like Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay were seen as a way of proving Sicily’s ability to make fine wine despite its reputation for heavy, powerful wines sold in bulk." Fortunately, this didn't take off and all the star winemakers that we have now grown to love went back to indigenous grape varieties like the Frappato and Nero d'Avola. Arianna started at age 16 in her uncle Giusto Occhipinti's cellar and loved the whole winemaking so much she decided to pursue oenology to pursue her own wine production. She began with a mere one hectare of abandoned vines attached to a family vacation house. Fast forward to 2006 when she bottled her first commercial vintage and in less than two decades, what Arianna has achieved has few parallels. Her 25 hectares are certified-organic she practices biodynamic farming, featuring only native Sicilian varietals-Frappato, Nero d'Avola, and other white varieties Albanello and Zibibbo and her wines are among the best the land has to offer. Her Nero d'Avola, made from vines with an average age of 35 years and aged in big Slovenian 25hl oak barrels for 22 months followed by 2 months of bottle ageing is class defining. As Arianna puts it, Nero is the grape that unites Sicily from end to end. We just finished a family celebration opening this bottle.The nose was perfumed, the wine was lively, full of fruit, juicy and spicy. DM/WA 91089395 to order.  Morellino di Scansano from Fattoria dei Barbi is born and raised in Maremma (a region famous for its own, relatively untouched rustic beauty 🏔⛰) in Southern parts of Tuscany.
A blend of 85% Sangiovese and 15% Merlot and coming from vines with an average age of 14yrs, it is meant for early drinking to 4-5 yrs of ageing. So we were a bit surprised when the 2013 vintage became the most sought after at a wine dinner we hosted a few years ago for Raffaela from Fattoria dei Barbi. The bottle earned the third spot after the Brunellos displacing its more illustrious cousin Rosso di Montalcino and was the choice of almost every table considering its value appeal. 2016s seem to have taken that same attitude and moved forward. Infact, a bottle we opened early last year almost seemed upset with us for doing that for the first hr before it settled down. Morellino shows the refinement of a well crafted bottle yet at a price of extreme affordability. 2016s are matured and in the best possible drinking window. The wine has notes of small red fruits mixed with ripe cherry, hints of myrtle and Mediterranean scrub as the winery describes it. In the glass 🍷 the wine is medium ruby red with a medium- body and polished tannins. Goes well with meat 🍗dishes, particularly roasts, savory meats and cheeses. Excellent combination for fish 🐟soups and in general any type of fish cooked with spices or tomato sauce per the winery recommendation. WA +65 91089395 for a piece of this Tuscany native.
Biasiotto Prosecco-for any occasionThe Sunday lunch vibes 💕with the Biasiotto Prosecco (@vini_biasiotto) expertly paired with the shrimps by Brendon @iwoodwoodu.
Proseccos, are like Champagne when it comes to food pairings. Amazingly comfortable in most food settings and totally at home with South east Asian cooking 🇹🇭🇻🇳🇸🇬🇲🇾 The bubbles 🥂 may not be as fine as champagne but the wine love, we assure you is equivalent when it comes to adding to your celebration.🍾 (Prosecco has half of the atmospheric pressure vs Champagne and it's a slightly different wine making method of converting still wine to sparkling. For Champagne it is entirely in the bottle for Prosecco it is outside in large tanks). Proseccos are often misunderstood as drinks meant just for brunches. While it is true they do make your brunches leisurely and worthwhile, they can actually do wonders to most lunch & dinners (read wine evenings). You can use it as an apertif or you can combine it with your main food. The dry and extra dry ones would also jazz up your after dessert superbly. The ideology behind pairing Prosecco, as Wine Folly puts it "is to use it as a palate cleanser alongside medium-intensity foods (chicken, tofu, shrimp, or pork dishes). Because of its sweet aromatics and bubbles, Prosecco matches well with spicy curries and Southeast Asian fare such as Thai, Vietnamese, Hong Kong, and Singaporean cuisine." Order your Prosecco fills from our award winning producer Andrea Biasiotto (rated as Best Prosecco by Luca Maroni a few times over) at only $26 each for a box of 12 or $29 each when you order six and above. 📸 @iwoodwoodu For the love of food pairing
When food loves the wine and wine loves the food. 💕🍷🥘
Perfect pairing, thanks to the perfect pair Andy (@andy33wong & Liqin (@liqinong82 ) Italian wines are an easy couple on the dinner table (mostly 💕😅 unless you really push their buttons). Some can be pretty demanding on their own. But when you call in the right partner, like magic they transform. If the food is too loud, they sit down and listen, if the food is quieter, they gently step up and play the romantic cord. Just remember, interesting pairings 💃🕺can be exciting (once in a while), outrageous ones may cause a mini revolt on your dinner 🥣🍴 table 📸 from our customers @andy33wong& @liqinong82 Many thanks for sharing the moment  Sassicaia 1980-when you are looking for the perfect birth year gift Want to gift the perfect 40th birthday gift? Sassicaia 1980 may be what you are looking forHow to impress a loved one who is celebrating a personal milestone of 40th in 2020?
The perfect gift for someone's 40th is the spectacularly brilliant and yet respectfully and unassumingly, carrying its charm and all that praise casually, Sassicaia 1980. Sassicaia obviously is not new to the fame but back in 1980 it wasn't in every collector's wine cellar, where it should have been. (If it was in yours, you are a star ⭐ 🍷🙏) Although it had started gaining the just recognition a few years ago in 1978 when, as we mentioned in a prior post it triumphed over a field of "great clarets" of 33 wines from 11 countries to earn that international reputation. So, by the time the 1980 came, Sassicaia was already well known to a great extent. . We started first looking for 1980 bottles at the end of last year for a customer and chanced upon this one. . What excited me most personally was how this bottle, which came from a seemingly ordinary vintage has developed and flourished over its long tenure. Aside of the critical reviews from famous critics📝 (and even more important in some way), is how it has caught the attention of the wine lovers the world over. Some are those who were lucky to buy in the days when wine wasn't an investment but more a love affair. Others are those who were willing to dig deeper (in pockets 😃). But the virtual world is awash with ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reviews and reviewers who can't seem to get enough of this wine. A customer opened it recently to mark such a moment and another one is holding onto it for their special moment later this year. Four more left each @ $650 for you to have a similar opportunity to make that great day even more memorable. |
AuthorWine Scholar, seller of quality wines that reflect the terroir and the passion of the winemaker. Love to share a glass of great wine. Archives
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