Summer food and wine pairing: Shrimp Orzo Salad and Trebbiano d'Abruzzo

So last month David from Cooking Chat hosted our first Wine Pairing Weekend (#winepw) where a group of us shared our wine and food pairings with BBQ. Such a great way to get our minds flowing with the start of the summer and to keep our bellies and our palates happy. I had shared a Montepulcianod'Abruzzo with seasoned chicken and grilled vegetables.  There were many other great articles from the rest of the group including: Curious Cuisiniere, Meal Diva, Pull That Cork, Grape Experiences, Cooking Chat, Culinary Adventures with Camilla, and Tasting Pour.

This month we are sharing our recommendations on refreshing summer wines with food. I love at the end of the day as the sun is starting to set sitting out on the deck, overlooking the lake and nibbling on a little snack while dinner is grilling or being cooked. I recently did a second wine tasting for my new wine job and knew when I tasted one of the wines that it would be a perfect wine to share with you in this blog. Not only because of the taste, but because it's a grape that not many will typically run to the store and purchase due to the lack of familiarity. Those are the kinds of wines that I love. I love to get people to think outside the box and try something new.

Wine Pairing - I Lauri Trebbiano d'Abruzzo
I recently discussed wines from the Abruzzo  region of Italy. The most popular white of that region is trebbiano and this is the wine that I chose for the tasting today to share with you. I tried the 2012 I Lauri Lume Trebbiano d'Abruzzo. I Lauri is located in Loreto Aprutino in the province of Pescara, which is located in central Italy right on the Adriatic Sea. The name of the winery stems from the laurel trees that once covered the area. Their winery is located on the foothills of the Gran Sasso from the Apennine mountain range. This wine is fermented in temperature controlled tanks and rests in stainless steel a couple months before bottling. On the nose this trebbiano had lots of citrus and minerality to it with a hint of petroleum. It was dry with some grassy notes on the palate. Throughout it had refreshing acidity creating a nice crisp wine.

Food Pairing - Orzo salad
I kept my food pairing simple on this one as sometimes on those hot days you need something like that. I paired it with an orzo salad consisting of some peppers, olives, celery, carrots with an Italian based dressing including one of my favorite cheeses from Pienza Tuscany, pecorino. I also sauteed some shrimp in garlic, butter and sea salt over a small portion of jasmine rice. With this wine you want to keep it simple whether you are pairing it with some chicken or fish and it's great with apertifs. The winery itself also recommends it with a vegetable tempura.

So for your next beautiful summer day grab some company, some simple appetizers and relax with some trebbiano d'abruzzo. Cin cin!

Wine Pairing Weekend #2 Bloggers: Be sure to check out the great pairings my fellow bloggers have come up with for the July Wine Pairing Weekend! 

Culinary Adventures with Camilla posted "Green Fig Ice Cream + Cambiata Albariño"
Vino Travels -- An Italian Wine Blog shared "Orzo salad and Trebbiano d'Abruzzo"
Curious Cuisiniere posted "Grilled Trout paired with a Tropical Fruit Viognier"
ENOFYLZ Wine Blog paired "Ceviche and Tablas Creek Picpoul Blanc"
Take a Bite Out of Boca shared "Grilled Mango-Sriracha Shrimp, Pineapple and Peppers paired with Burg Layer Schlosskapelle Spatlese Kerner"
foodwineclick shared "Steamers and Cava on the Porch"
Confessions of a Culinary Diva blogged about "Aperol Spritz"
Cooking Chat paired "Grilled Salmon with Mango Salsa and a White Burgundy"

Join the #winePW conversation: Follow the #winePW conversation on Twitter throughout the weekend and beyond. If you're reading this early enough, you can join us for a live Twitter chat on our theme "Refreshing Summer Wine Pairings" on Saturday, July 12, from 11 a.m. to noon Eastern Time. You can also visit our group Pinterest board to pin some great pairing ideas for later! Stay tuned for the August Wine Pairing Weekend, which will focus on "Wine for Summer's Bounty" on Saturday, August 9.

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The potential of the foglia tonda grape

Giovanni Sordi, part of the League of Chianti and also winemaker at Fattoria Le Bocce, has been sharing with me information on some of the lesser known grapes of Tuscany so that I may share it with you all. If you haven't heard of the grape, foglia tonda, it is being reintroduced into the world of grapes in Italy, specifically Tuscany. This grape fell into oblivion for almost a century. The true origins of foglia tonda were lost. The Rovasenda (1877) mentions it as being present in the historic Brolio vineyards of Baron Bettino Ricasoli, whom I discussed in an earlier article. It was rediscovered at the University of Florence a few years ago and has characteristics rather surprising.

In the conference, “Chianti Classico: History, Wines and Unique Grapes”, held by the League of Chianti, League of Chianti, in Greve in Chianti, Doctor Storchi spoke much about the grape and illustrated the peculiar characteristics that enologically are very interesting.

The wine has an important color due to the phenolic composition of the skins that are characterized from the presence of many anthocyanins, pigments found in the plant. The anthocyanins tie easily with the other phenolic elements that are important to the wine including the tannins that contribute to the phenolic structure and durability of the wine. The aromatics have many similiarities with the sangiovese grape. Doctor Storchi specified the direct relationship of these varieties therefore proclaiming that foglia tonda is “the cousin of sangiovese”. Foglia tonda, meaning round leaf, takes the name from the characteristics of the leaves to which the lobes give a particular roundness to this organ of the plant.

The fact that producers are still not very engaged to produce wines of the foglia tonda vine is very surprising. Giovanni Sordi personally tried some of the foglia tondo vinified as a single vine that had encouraging results. He feels that foglia tonda would be the ideal partner of sangiovese producing a noble and elegant wine with quality. It would complement and provide the best structure as a blend without modifying some of the aromatic aspects.

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Award winning wines of Fabrizio Dionisio in Cortona

Cortona is located in the southeastern part of Tuscany. I was excited to taste the wines of Fabrizio Dionisio because Cortona is one of my top favorite towns in Tuscany. I also loved that he features wines made from Syrah since I wasn't aware of this grape being grown here, but after tasting these wines and learning about the success of this grape in this terroir I was very pleased!

Santa Maria del Calcinaio of  Cortona Tuscany

The two vineyard sites they own are Il Castagno and Poggio del Sole. The winery is now run by Fabrizio Dionisio, but his father Sergio Dionisio founded the estate in the early 1970's with originally about 17 acres (7 hectacres). Years later in 1992 he purchased another estate that now brings their total acreage to about 37 acres (15 hectacres) with about a 30,000 bottle production. The estate and vineyards are set in the hills of Cortona surrounded by the splendid sunflower fields and olive groves and perched up on the hill is the fabulous town of Cortona. The vineyards were completely replanted in the early 2000's with the syrah grape and small amounts of merlot and cabernet sauvignon after the trebbiano and sangiovese grapes that had been growing there were overgrown.

Barrels of Fabrizio Dionisio

The labels of the estate are fun as the daughter of Fabrizio drew them. I tasted the 2011 Castagnino and Il Castagno. The Castagnino is the little brother to their signature wine, Il Castagno. The difference between this wine and that one is that the Castagnino is not aged in oak and is instead aged in stainless steel and cement vats. The nose is very appealing on this wine because the aromas of the fruit are very rich. It's a very fruit driven wine dominated by plums and blackberries. It is full bodied with nice concentration and soft tannins. Probably a great match with a steak in a red wine glaze.

The signature wine, Il Castagno D.O.C., was first produced in 2003 and is made of 100% syrah. It is produced in low yields as the Castagnino also is. Fermentation and maceration both take place for 3 weeks a piece and the malolactic fermentation is off of the free-run juice as the winery never presses their grapes. Its on the lees for about 15 months and aged in french oak barrels. On the nose is enjoyable vanilla from the oak. This wine is very structured and well balanced with rich black berries aromas and spice, but also has a velvety and silkiness throughout.

Both of these wines have received multiple awards from Antonio Galloni, Wine Spectator, James Suckling and the Wine Enthusiast.

The goal of Fabrizio and his team is to create wine “with soul” using current technologies and practices, but manually taking part in every step of the process. I wanted to share a great quote that Fabrizio expresses to exemplify the purpose of the estate and their quality of production:

“It is our conviction that such a method of operation is the best way to respect, and to please, not only nature and its fruits, but those as well who will be enjoying our wines.
We believe that restricting ourselves to very small quantities and exercising painstaking care both in the vineyard and in the winemaking, and of course, using only our own estate grapes, constitute the only path to absolute quality. Our winery, then, is wholly artisanal, a kind of workshop, or even workbench, a boutique. Where we work in a simple, ethical way. And we firmly intend to remain just this way forever, since we do not live, nor would we ever want to live, for high numbers and quantity, but only for quality.” - Fabrizio Dionisio

Picking up my wedding sunflower bouquet from Cortona

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