Italian Food, Wine & Travel features Le Marche region in Italy

This month on ItalianFWT (Italian food, wine & travel) we venture off to the coastal region of the Le Marche region in Italy located more central Italy on the eastern coastline of the Adriatic Sea. Pronounced “lay mark-ay”, the Le Marche region borders Emilia Romagna to the north, Umbria to the west and Abruzzo to the south and barely touching the regions of Tuscany and Lazio.

Marche wine map ~ Copyright of Federdoc

This isn't a highly sought after region as many of the other well known regions are, but if you are like me those are the ones that are so wonderful to seek out. The hidden treasures they contain and the less tourists the better. You really get a true sense of the area and the people when there is less chaos and you are more at one with your surroundings.

The Food & Wine of Le Marche
When it comes to food and wine of Le Marche it's more of a meat based region with seafood along the coastlines. Probably not one of the most sought after cuisines, but it's special to the people of Le Marche, marchigiani, and that's all that matters. The wines are the region are offerings of both white and red with some of the top grapes including verdicchio and vernaccia for whites and sangiovese and montepulciano for reds.

The landscape of Le Marche
 Geography wise Le Marche has much to offer with its coastline offering sand, sun and beaches and inland the Appenines providing more of that natural beauty and moutaineous countryside living. Best of both worlds!

Beaches of Le Marche by VinceTraveller

We'll explore all of what makes up Le Marche this Saturday May 2^nd in our group. If you'd like to join us please email me direct at vinotravels at hotmail dot com or join us live on twitter Saturday and throughout the weekend at #italianFWT. We can't wait to hear from you and share our joys of Le Marche.

Vino Travels - Vernaccia di Serrapetrona: A 3 fermentation wine
Cooking Chat - Orechiette and Sausage with a Marche White Wine
Rockin Red Blog - Marche revisited for #ItalianFWT
Christy's Palate - Le Marche: Verdicchio with Spaghetti & Clams
Enofylz Wine Blog - A Taste of March: Mussels with Lemon and Sartarelli Verdicchio
Food Wine Click - Hidden Treasures from Le Marche from FoodWineClick

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Stemmari's Dalila: A Sicilian Wine with a Love Story

As some may know that have been following me my 6 months of studying for the IWS (Italian Wine Specialist Certification) culminated this past Sunday and I felt good coming out of it.  I can’t wait to share with you all the wonderful knowledge I have gained throughout this process and if I can get my hands on some of these unique wines throughout Italy we have lots of fun grapes and wines to explore.

The group that I run, ItalianFWT standing for Italian food, wine and travel, covers month by month all regions within Italy relating to these 3 areas of concentration.  At the beginning of the month we featured the largest island in Italy, Sicily.  I had received some samples from Prestige Wine Imports on the wines of Stemmari, but unfortunately had come down with the flu that week.  I recently sampled one Sunday night, 2012 Stemmari Dalila.  It’s a wine made of 80% grillo and 20 % viognier that is aged in French oak for 8 months.

The winery’s name, Stemmari, originates from the root “stemma”, which correlates to the coat of arms that is displayed at the winery that was once used by nobility during the 17^th Century, according to Prestige Wine Imports.  The Stemmari winery is located in the town of Acate in the Ragusa province of Sicily located in south eastern Sicily. The Stemmari brand and Feudo Arancio are one in the same if you have heard of both names.  Owned by one of the wine giants in Italy, Mezzacorona, the Stemmari brand is a large exporter to the US.  Their portfolio of wines include single varietals like nero d’avola, chardonnay, pinot grigio, moscato, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon and even a sparkling grillo.  Yes, I said sparkling grillo.  Can’t wait to try that one!  They even have some blends as well as the Dalila wine I’m sharing with you today.

The 2012 Stemmari Dalila bottle as you can tell from the picture is beautiful.  Having played classical piano for 10 years I was a big fan of the music notes on the label with the classic gold trim.  Yellow in color with a hint of green this wine was a medium bodied wine and rich on the palate with intense tropical fruit combined with nice acidity.  It had similar expressions to a chardonnay with a hint of oak.  Definitely a meatier white wine with good body.  With Sicily’s intense heat and sunny days it’s no surprise the ripeness of this wine.  This bottle retails for about $12 average (www.wine-searcher.com).

Where does the name Dalila come from?
There is great story or rather a “romantic idea”behind the name of this wine, Dalila, and the label that Stemmari shared with me. The music notes on the label actually go to a song that describe the love story between the daughter of the owner who had owned the winery, Dalila, and one of the workers, Cantadoro. One of the other wines from their portfolio is named Cantadoro as well with the similar label. I know many people buy bottles based on the label and this is one of those bottles that's eye catching and to have a story follow it like that, how can it not intrigue you?

I can’t wait to share with you some of the other wines from this winery.  Have you visited Stemmari or what are some of your favorite winery visits in Sicily?

You can find more about the Italian wine regions including Sicily using this beautiful and detailed map.

Most pictures property of Feudo Arancio at www.feudoarancio.it.
 

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Leap into Spring with Pasta Primavera & Montenidoli Vernaccia di San Gimignano

Time flies when you're drinking wine! I started my Italian wine blog 2 years ago this month in order to push myself to study Italian wine deeper. Since then I have become enrolled in an Italian Wine Specialist certification program (exam a week away), written well over a hundred blogs, started writing for some magazines, attended a number of wine events I've been invited to including my recent trip earlier this year to Italy for the Anteprima Amarone. I have met bloggers all around the world including face-to-face gatherings in Italy and have learned so much about social media and blogging it's mind blowing. One of the great surprises during this time was meeting a local food blogger to me, David of Cooking Chat, who invited me over one night to join in on a wine/food event online about wines from the Languedoc. 

Since then I've joined his Wine Pairing Weekend event of a fantastic group of food and wine bloggers. I love cooking when I have the time and I'm not one that always knows exactly what to pair when it comes to food and wine, but that is one of the greatest parts of this group. We learn from one another and it has forced me to think outside the box every month, experiment with a variety of different recipes and share with you what I would like to prepare, pair and share with you. That's a lot of rhyming for one sentence.

This month we are featuring spring pairings as we get ready for the nice weather to come. Although depending on where you are maybe it never really left you, but in the Boston area we literally just got some more snow this week and we're coming into 60 degree weather this weekend. Crazy New England weather.

My food pairing selection this month was easy when I actually had the time to sit and think about it. When I thought of spring immediately I thought of getting my garden ready for the summer and thought of all the wonderful fresh vegetables I grow. Although, after last year and my battle with my non-friend the gopher, I need to devise my plan to keep those critters from eating all my feed. So today I'm sharing with you a Pasta Primavera that's so easy to put together. Feel free to substitute whatever vegetables you like, but I chose green and red peppers, mushrooms, zucchini and summer squash. A simple recipe I put together with plenty of flavor.

Pasta Primavera Recipe

1) Boil and prepare water for your choice of pasta selection and add pasta once boiling
2) Saute minced garlic, olive or coconut oil and kosher salt
3) Cut vegetables of your selection.  I chose mushrooms, 1 red pepper, 1 green pepper, 1 summer squash and 1 zucchini.
4) Add chopped vegetables to saute pan and cook low to medium heat until softened.
5) Add chicken broth to vegetables and simmer on low heat
6) Season vegetables with salt, pepper, parsley and oregano.  I also added a dab of mint.
7) Once pasta is cooked to desired time and drained, add to saute pan and mix with vegetables
8) Top with grated cheese of your choice.  I chose asiago cheese.

For my wine pairing I chose a Vernaccia di San Gimignano
from Montenidoli. I've previously written about Montenidoli when I had an opportunity to meet the owner, Elisabetta Fagiuoli, at a local wine shop here one night. I purchased her 2011 Montenidoli Tradizionale Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG. You can read all about her winery and the wine itself on my blog “MeetingElisabetta Fagiuoli from Montenidoli in San Gimignano.” What I loved about this pairing is the fresh, crispness of the Vernaccia paired with the light, simple sauce of the pasta primavera and vegetables. It was a light hearted meal where the simplicity of the food and wine balanced well. 

 

Here come more spring wine and food pairings coming your way........

Spring Pea Risotto with Picpoul de Pinet by Curious Cuisiniere 

Spring-Kissed Seafood Chowder with Pelerin 2011 Les Tournesols by Cooking Adventures with Camilla
Wine and Dine: Las Lilas Vinho Verde 2013 and Chilled Cucumber with Mint Soup by Grape Experiences.
Creamy Mushroom Pasta with Spring Peas and Westrey Pinot Noir by Pull That Cork
Red Wine with Asparagus and Mushrooms by Cooking Chat
Spring Hopes: Asparagus and Rosé by Food Wine Click
Spring Fling with Greek Pizza and Wine by Confessions of a Culinary Diva
Spring Flavors with Hungarian Pinot Grigio by A Day in the Life on the Farm
Welcoming Spring with #WinePW by Rockin Red Blog
Winter's Hill Pinot Blanc and Warm Arugula, Bacon and Asparagus Salad by Tasting Pour
Roasted Halibut with Potatoes and Lemon and a Tablas Creek Cotes de Tablas by Enofylz Wine Blog
Beets and Wine Pairing by Girls Gotta Drink

 

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