Last weekend was pretty great for a sommelier! It all started out last Saturday with the Anteprima of Chianti 2015 in Florence, continued with one of the yearly sommelier lunches with Fisar Firenze at Villa Castiglione, and ended on Monday with a wine tasting at Mercato Centrale in Florence, organized by Heres. My focus here was at the stand of Marco De Bartoli, after input from Maria Elena Leta. 🙂
At the Anteprima for Chiantilovers
Luckily, me and Giovanna arrived early, before the crowd showing up for the aperitivo. We tasted several different producers; all wines with their own personalities. We especially liked the fruity and full-bodied wines of Azienda Agricola Campochiarenti, Anteprima Chianti Colli Senesi 2014 and Chianti Colli Senesi Riserva 2007…
…and the fruity and fresh wine Salcheto Chianti Colli Senesi. Salco in the old Tuscan dialect (or language ;-), to honour the cradle of the Italian language) means willow tree.
Convivio with Fisar at Villa Castiglione
The Sunday started with the annual meeting of Fisar Firenze, elections, and the distribution of diplomas. The following lunch turned into one of the best and most animated “convivio” lunches we have attended so far. At our table, we even managed to get our “shy” opera singer-friend Giovanna to sing some notes… However, we had secretly kept her glass pretty full with Gradis’ Ciutta Ribolla Gialla DOC Collio 2013, one of her favourites, to accomplish our goal. 😉
The most interesting wine of the day was the well structured Sylvaner Alte Reben Valle Isarco DOC 2013 from Pacherhof Winery. This fruity and fresh wine, with a taste of gooseberry, was perfect with the Risotto asparagina selvatica e taleggio su croccante di parmigiano. The second course Rolle di maialetto porchettato e patatine sabbiose al rosmarino was paired with Della Villa Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2007 from Il Campaccio. For dessert, the interesting Lumine Moscato d’Asti DOCG 2014 from the winery Ca’ d’ Gal was nicely paired with the Sfogliatella con crema al limone brunoise di fragole.
At Mercato Centrale with Marco De Bartoli
Monday evening, me and Nadia headed off to Mercato Centrale in Florence to taste some wine at the Wine Italy Heres Tour. We started out with the Villa Sparina Brut VSQ Metodo Classico, noticing its elegant aromas, and their Villa Sparina Gavi D.O.C.G., with its mix of fruity and flowery aromas.
The last and most interesting stop before dinner was at the Marco De Bartoli stand, where we also found many of our fellow Fisar sommeliers. As I had been in contact with Maria Elena Leta and, via her, Marco De Bartoli on Twitter in the afternoon about stopping by, we of course tasted all their wines. 🙂 Their flagship products are the fortified dry wine Vecchio Samperi Ventennale (Grillo 100%) and the sweet wine Passito di Pantelleria Bukkuram “Padre della Vigna”. Vecchio Samperi is described on the website of Berry Bros & Rudd, as “the purest expression of Marsala”. And we all could agree on that. Furthermore, one of the owners was there himself, being very kind and patient in explaining all the different wines to us.
After three very intense wine tasting days, I then had only water to drink for several days… Overall, it was worth it as we had great fun!
Thanks, Gina…it was a great lunch…and a delicious dessert!!! 🙂
I wish I was there…. 😀
So next time you need to come over… 🙂
Would love that! Sharing this blogpost on my Facebook Page… FoodieWineLover 😀
:-= 🙂
I suppose the days of only water made the memory of the wines even better… (But i would have been crying for the wine! 😀 )
True…:D And I actually only made it with water until Thursday…As the there was tey another aperitivo going on…;-)
Sorry, bad writing… should of course be “As then there was another aperitivo going on…”
I would like to experience that sometime. Thanks for sharing!