Donna Laura Ali, the sangiovese of angels

I'm picky when it comes to entry level, inexpensive chiantis. Sometimes you just dont want to spend a lot of money, but you want a decent quality Chianti. I recently discovered the Donna Laura Ali Sangiovese di Toscana I.G.T. wine at a local wine shops wine tasting and retailing for $11.99 was a value for this chianti..

The Donna Laura winery is located in the Castelnuovo Berardenga town within the Chianti Classico region in Tuscany. This is one of the top towns in this region for Chianti Classico production along with Radda, Gaiole, Greve, Castellina in Chianti and Panzano. It's located in the southeastern part of the Chianti Classico zone. This winery produces about half a million bottles a year and is owned by Lia Tolaini-Banville. Some of the grapes that they use in producing wines for the Donna Laura brand originate from the grapes produced on the Tolaini estate.

Map of Tuscany ~ Property of Donna Laura wines

Where does the name come from?
 Lia Tolaini-Banville's appreciation of wine drew from her first introduction to Italy and her Aunt Laura on a visit with her father when she was 6 to Lucca in Tuscany. Over the years Lia fell in love with Italy, as many of us do, and returned for summers enjoying the time and culture and spending time with her relatives. After graduating from college she traveled to Florence, Italy to further study art and spend more time with them. As Lia grew older and had a family of her own their connection remained strong until unfortunately the aunt passed away. In 2004 Lia started the brand Donna Laura wines named after her aunt her drew about her passion for Italy and where her family was from.

One of the three wines produced under the Donna Laura brand that I tasted includes the wine, Ali, meaning “wings” and named after Lia's daughter. It's produced with 100% sangiovese. Ruby in color, it was a smooth, medium bodied wine with juicy ripe cherry and raspberry with soft tannins. 

What value Chiantis have you found that you'd like to share?  

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Food & Wine Pairing: Mexican Fish Tacos with Stemmari Sparkling Grillo

Believe it or not I have yet to ever have a fish taco.  I’ve always thought about ordering them, but always drag myself into the usual chicken fajita that I enjoy.  Today for our wine pairing weekend #winepw we are featuring foods with a Mexican flare and better yet I’m pairing it with an Italian wine, but of course.  With Italy having a coastline of about 4700 miles (7600 km) there is no wonder that they are best prepared for pairing fish with wine.   The idea now is WHICH wine with fish tacos.

It’s best to use a flaky fish for preparing fish tacos that could include tilapia, cod (which is what I chose), mahi-mahi, halibut, etc.  They’re very easy to prepare as you’ll see and I used a recipe by Bobby Flay and played around with the ingredients to my own liking.

Ingredients

·         White flaky fish 

·         Flour tortillas

·         Fresh lime juice

·         ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Toppings for fish tacos

·         Sour cream

·         Guacamole (recipe below)

·         Mix of chopped red onions with tomatoes, garlic and oil

Guacamole recipe

·         2 avocados

·         2 plum tomatoes diced

·         2 cloves of garlic

·         Fresh lemon juice

·         Salt and pepper

Fish preparation

• Marinate fish for up to 30 minutes with extra virgin olive oil, garlic and fresh lime juice. 
• While fish is marinating prepare the guacamole di.
• Preheat grill on a low to medium high heat and place marinated fish carefully.  Grill fish for about 2-3 minutes on each side and remove from heat.  Add tortillas to grill if to your liking.
• Once fish has cooled, break up into pieces and combine in bowl while prepping your fish tacos.

Depending on your preference you can toast your tortilla on the grill briefly or eat as is.  Once they are completed and ready to be prepared gather your toppings and assemble your tacos to your liking.

Left to Right: Red onion/tomato mixture, guacamole, sour cream, grilled cod

One of the best parts of tacos are the toppings.  Everyone obviously has their own preferences and feel free to play around with this.  I’m not one for hots or anything spicy so I omitted anything of that nature.  I started by preparing the tortillas with a smothering of my homemade guacamole .  Then I added the fish flakes and topped those with my choice of toppings which included a combination of  chopped red onions, garlic, diced tomatoes, sour cream, salt and pepper that I previously had marinating in an oil and lime juice marinade.

What to pair with Fish Tacos?
Now, what wine to pair with this.  I didn't question about selecting a white wine for this pairing.  Recently I received some samples from Stemmari and one of the bottles was named Stemmari Baci Vivaci meaning "lively kisses".  This white wine is a sparkling grillo, which is a grape indigenous to Sicily.  It was a great selection for the pairing with these fish tacos as it was light bodied, dry, lemon citrus with a slight delicate sparkle and some minerality that went well with all the elements of the dish.  For more about Stemmari and the wines of Sicily read the article I recently wrote with a different grillo viognier blend.  

Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Cam has prepared "Dry-Rubbed Tri Tip Roast with Halter Ranch 's 2011 Cotes de Paso"

Cindy from Grape Experiences "Wine and Dine for #winePW: Matanegra Vendimia Seleccionada 2010 and Queso Fundido"

David from Cooking Chat is pairing "Spanish Wine for Pork Tacos"

Lori from Dracaena Wines "Mexican Musings on #WinePW"

Martin from Enofylz Wine Blog "Chicken Pipian Verde, Mexican Quinoa and the Devil's Collection White"

Michelle from Rockin Red Blog "Celebrating Cinco de Mayo with #WinePW"

Nancy from Pull That Cork "Spicy Chicken Salad with Guacamole and a South African Rose for #winePW"

Sarah from Curious Cuisiniere presents "Carnitas and the Basics of Mexican Food & Wine Pairing"

Wendy from A Day in the Life on a Farm is bring us Veggie Quesadillas with and old vine Nisia from Spain

Confessions of a Culinary Diva is pairing wines from Baja California

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Vernaccia di Serrapetrona: A 3 fermentation wine

Welcome to our 7^th Italian Food, Wine & Travel event as we make our way around Italy visiting each region month by month. This month we feature the region of Le Marche in Italy. The Marche is a region in central Italy.  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 touches the regions of Tuscany and Lazio.  The Marche has a long coastline is located on the eastern side of Italy along the Adriatic Sea, but inland you will find the Apennine mountain chain running through it.  Best of both worlds, but also the region why there is so much variety within the country and each region themselves.  

Copyright of Federdoc

I recently wrote about Verdicchio, one of the most popular white grapes from this region. Today I wanted to share with you an interesting wine from this region made from Vernaccia. No, it's not the vernaccia white grape like the Vernaccia di San Gimignano from Tuscany. This is a wine that is made from Vernaccia Nera called Vernaccia di Serrapetrona that comes from the Macerata province located more inland. This is one of the 5 DOCG wines from the Marche wine region. 

The process of creating Vernaccia di Serrapetrona
The most interesting aspect about this wine is that it goes through 3 fermentations. During harvest time about 60% of the grapes harvested are processed and 40% of the grapes are dried out, which is known as appassimento. Lastly after the grapes have been dried out for a few months until about January they are then crushed and fermented. Finally, the wines are blended together and the final fermentation takes place and undergoes a third fermentation in stainless tanks via the Charmat method.

Appassimento, grape drying process

What is Vernaccia di Serrapetrona?
Vernaccia di Serrapetrona is a red sparkling semi-sweet to sweet wine, but can also be a dry, secco style. At least 85% of this wine must be made with vernaccia nera.   The flavor profile is reminiscent of ripe red fruits including cranberries and strawberries with some spice and tannin combined with good acidity. I'd like to say I got my hands on a Vernaccia di Serrapetrona for this tasting, but unfortunately not.  Vino Travels is all about education of Italian grapes and if I just opened your eyes to a special wine of the Marche wine region then I'm happy ; )

Vineyards of Le Marche by Roy Luck

Join us live on Twitter today at 10am EST and throughout the weekend at #ItalianFWT and share your experiences of the Marche region in Italy.  More Marche blogs coming right up......

Cooking Chat - Orecchiette and Grilled Sausage with a Verdicchio 
Rockin Red Blog - Marche revisted for #ItalianFWT 
Christy's Palate - Le Marche: Verdicchio with Spaghetti & Clams 
Enofylz Wine Blog - A Taste of Marche: Chicken in Potacchio with Sararelli Verdicchio 
Food Wine Click - Hidden Treasures from Le Marche 

Join us next month Saturday June 6th as we explore the Campania region in Italy.  If you would like to join our group email Vino Travels directly at vinotravels at hotmail dot com.  Ciao ciao for now!

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