Category: Food

Comparing two red wines from Tuscany

“Montepulciano of every wine is king,” said the founder of modern experimental biology, Francesco Redi, in 1685, after tasting 500 types of wines. You may remember from high school biology that Redi, the Italian physician, demonstrated that maggots resulted not from spontaneous generation but from eggs laid by flies. Perhaps as important to Redi’s celebrity as a scientist is his judgment of wine. A native of Tuscany, and later residing in Florence, where his most notable scientific achievements were made, Redi had access to the same great wines from Tuscany that we enjoy today.

The sangiovese grape is the varietal that goes into the making of fine classic Chiantis, brunello di Montalcino, and vino nobile di Montepulciano. (Brunello is the alias given to the sangiovese grape.) The sangiovese grape is grown throughout much of Italy, with an estimated 250,000 acres and more planted to it. However, when planted in the southern region of Tuscany, the grape shines to produce a wine that is ready to drink early but becomes full-bodied after cellar aging.

Our first wine, Cantina Del Redi 2015 Toscana Sangiovese Pleos (originally priced at the New Hampshire State Liquor & Wine Outlets at $42.99, reduced to $20.99), is from a winery in the town of Montepulciano, 25 miles southeast of Sienna. As the label states, the wine is made from 100 percent sangiovese grapes. The alcohol content is 14 percent. The Pleos, as described on the website, “is born of the need to bring to your tables all the taste of the purest and most fresh sangiovese of our lands. It wants to be a fun wine, with scents of purple and crispy black cherry. Light but rich in history.” This vintage was awarded a score of 91 points by James Suckling, former Senior Editor and European Bureau Chief of Wine Spectator and regarded as one of the most influential wine critics. The color is intense with a slight burnt sienna red, in the depth of the glass thinning to an orange rim. It holds up to the website’s suggestion of rich dark cherry, both to the nose and to the tongue with some added spice, along with a little chewiness, ending in a long, dry, slightly acidic finish. This wine is not a sipping wine but needs to be paired to food. It can be enjoyed with white- or red-sauced pasta, marinated beef, or Mexican dishes. As the label states, this is a rosso from Montepulciano, and as such has an aging requirement of only six months in oak (as compared to the minimum of two years for our next wine); however, this wine is a great bargain and can be enjoyed for another five years, if cellared.

Our second wine, Lunadoro 2015 Vino Nobile Di Montepulciano (originally priced at the New Hampshire State Liquor & Wine Outlets at $44.99, reduced to $18.99), is sometimes called the big brother to the rosso. Also made from sangiovese grapes, it is aged for a minimum of 24 months in oak barrels, not so much to add flavor as for the slow maturation the barrels provide. The barrels are larger than traditional barrique and thus have less surface area in relation to volume, to avoid the vanilla or toast notes found in wine. While not enjoying the same cache as the Brunello noted above, it does carry the moniker of “nobile,” as the wine was once the wine of popes and nobles. After a short decline of quality in the mid-20th century, it has rebounded as the lesser grapes of this region are now slated for the rosso, sampled above, improving the quality and status of the vino nobile.

The color is maroon red, and will take on a subtle brick orange tint as it ages. To the nose it also has cherry notes with some plum, generated by the aging. To the tongue, the cherry stays on with a light tannic leather finish. Because of the aging, and its acidity, it is a wine suitable for cellaring, as it can improve with a decade or even two in your wine cellar. This “big brother of the two” can be sipped, or thoroughly enjoyed with a grilled steak.

It was extremely interesting and informative to taste and compare these two wines, coming from the same hilltop town in the same region noted for its exceptional quality of red wine. It is well worth conducting your own test and comparing the two. Take the test!

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

All flowers supposedly carry symbolic meanings, but some are more emotionally fraught than others.

When I was a child, my mother told me that our elderly neighbor was sick and that we should probably send her some flowers.

Me: “How about lilies? Those are pretty.”

Mom: “Honey, those represent Death.”

Me: “So, no?”

Even if you don’t buy into the whole symbolism of flowers thing, it still permeates our culture. If you showed up for a blind date and they brought you a dozen long-stemmed red roses, you’d start looking for escape routes.

My dad is a carnation man. Growing up, anybody, any occasion, I could pretty much expect him to give a bunch of red and white carnations. They lasted forever, smelled good and didn’t carry too many expectations. Me — I’m an alstroemeria guy. They are pretty, don’t make anybody nervous and are pretty much bullet-proof; stick them in some water, and they’ll outlast the sour cream in your refrigerator. The downside is that they don’t have much of a smell.

Why flowers smell so good is a bit of a mystery. I mean, we know why they smell good — to attract bees, hummingbirds and chorus girls — but nobody has ever been able to figure out how to breed reliably fragrant roses, for instance. The intersection of botany and human chemoreceptors is a complicated and mysterious dance.

Nowhere more so than in a cocktail.

Scientists estimate that somewhere around 80 percent of everything we eat is actually based on what it smells like. If you’re holding a shmancy party and want to serve a cheese board, experts will tell you to take the cheese out of the fridge an hour or so before you actually want to serve it, so that the volatile chemicals in the cheese loosen up and become easier to smell, and thus, taste. This is one of the reasons why so many cocktail recipes call for you to chill a cocktail so thoroughly — as your drink warms up, the flavor will evolve as the esters float up into the back of your palate.

That gets tricky, though, when you are basing your cocktail on floral smells. Rose water or lavender pull you into a dangerous standoff — too little, and your drink won’t taste like much of anything. One drop too much, and you’re dealing with the little decorative soaps in your grandmother’s bathroom.

This drink depends on that. Your first sip or two should be extremely cold. The taste should be crisp and a little gin-forward. As it warms up — and, not for nothin’ that’s why glasses have stems; to slow down the warming process — it will start to smell more perfumy and floral. The taste will match the color; it will start to taste pink.

Rose N. Hibiscus

2 ounces gin (For this, I used Collective Arts Rhubarb and Hibiscus Gin, which a friend who distributes gin in New Hampshire gave me, because it is gently hibiscus-y, but pretty much any gin will work, though it will add its own stamp onto the finished drink.)
1 ounce hibiscus syrup (see below)
1 ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/3 oz. amaretto
5 drops rose water

Combine all ingredients over ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake until very cold.
Strain into a martini glass.

Why this strange combination works so well:

The botanical backnotes in the gin play well with the rose water. Roses play well with almonds — in this case, the amaretto. Almonds and lemons go together extremely well. Lemon, in its turn, is a classic pairing with gin. The hibiscus makes it pink. If you like your drink a little crisper, pour small amounts of it into your glass at a time, and drink it extremely cold. If you want a little more of the flowers, pour it all in one go and let the perfume develop as you drink it.

Much like carnations and alstroemeria, this is delicious to share with somebody without making anything weird between you. All it says is, “I like spending time with you.”

Hibiscus Syrup

5 ounces water
5 ounces sugar
1/3 ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/3 ounce dried hibiscus blossoms

Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring often.
Let the simple syrup boil for 10 to 15 seconds to make certain the sugar is completely dissolved.
Remove from heat. Add lemon juice and hibiscus blossoms.
Cover and steep for 30 minutes.
Strain and bottle. Keep indefinitely in your refrigerator.

A Market in Manchester carries dried hibiscus and they can also be found online. Rose water is available in most supermarkets and can usually be found in the international foods aisle.

Featured photo: Rose N. Hibiscus. Photo by John Fladd.