- See more at: http://blogtimenow.com/blogging/automatically-redirect-blogger-blog-another-blog-website/#sthash.K9MvqDyX.dpuf Adventuring Goddess: The Italian Job: Laughing, learning, and enjoying Italian food and wines

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

The Italian Job: Laughing, learning, and enjoying Italian food and wines


Apparently, if you want to have an outstanding evening, all you need to do is fill a room with ladies and add some imported wine! At least, that’s what how easy the Savvy Sisters’ Wine Club made it seem at their Italian Job event.

Our outstanding hostesses, Debi and Kirstin
The evening was hosted by Kirstin, the Savviest Sister of them all, in the Wanderers Cigar Lounge (although the only cigars to be found were in the characters of some of the wines we tasted). Would you believe that I got lost trying to find it? (Me? Never!) Luckily, though, the friendly staff directed me to the correct venue after I somehow found myself at the bar!

There I found Kristin, with her perfectly-painted Ferrari-red toenails, waiting very patiently for everyone to arrive. Well, everyone except me! Turns out that I had somehow RSVPed to the wrong person, and so I wasn’t actually on the guest list. She was so accommodating, though, adding a seat for me right next to her. I felt so very VIP that night.

As a pleasant surprise, I discovered that I’d already met our second hostess, Debi, at an event I’d attended a week earlier (which you can read about here). She very generously poured me a welcoming glass of Howard Booysen Pegasus Cinsault 2011 to calm my nerves.

It was the only local wine we would be tasting that evening, and what a wine it was! I’d never even heard of Cinsault before that moment, but its fresh, fruity, and approachable character really hit the spot! “The question you want to ask Howard Booysen, when you meet him, is ‘can I feel your abs?’” Debi insisted. “You’ve never seen fitness like that, and this coming from someone who has been to events with Ryk Neethling!”

Intriguing and tempting…

Lovely ladies everywhere...
Also tempting was the line-up of wines we could be enjoying that evening, (which you can read about in more detail here). However, before we could move on to the Italian section of our evening, Debi had to hush the excited girly chatter and give us a brief overview of what made the wines she’d selected so special.

“The world of wine is not dominated by women in any respect,” Debi observed. “It seems that the only role women play is to wear pretty little short skirts and sell wine!” Although all the wine we tasted that evening was for sale, courtesy of Wine Cellar, who Debi represented, it seemed she was intending to rely on her wit and charm to win us over. No “pretty little short skirts” there!

Italy, though, is seeing a reversal in this male dominance. According to Debi, there are more Italian female winemakers than anywhere else in the world (Woo!). In a country with 3 000 varieties of grapes, it is the 3rd largest producer of wine worldwide, with South Africa trailing at eighth (Less woo). Such statistics demonstrate the diversity in Italian wines. “As you travel from the North to the South, the wines differ tremendously,” she revealed.

Every wine has its story, and imported wines come with exciting, foreign ones! An excellent example of this was the beautifully bronzed Terre Nere Etna Rosato 2010 from Sicily that tasted of marzipan and had me wishing my skin could be of the same hue. Grown in volcanic soil, Debi explained that “these wines are centuries old, and come from the ugliest damn vineyards you have ever seen.”

I want skin this colour! How beautiful is that?
And, yet, from such origins comes a wine that is nothing short of stunning! “This rosé has been made the traditional way,” Debi informed us, “with very little skin contact at very low temperatures.” It is unlike anything I’ve ever tried in South Africa.

As we sipped it, Debi revealed her ‘shaky shaky’ method for intensifying the aroma of a wine, which is very funny to watch, but surprisingly effective! It essentially involves covering the glass with one hand, shaking the wine around, and then removing your hand right before you put your nose into the glass. “You wouldn’t want to do this in a restaurant,” she cautioned, “but it’s acceptable in a tasting like this.”

What followed was the vegetal Corino Barbera d’Alba 2010 and the Nardi Turan Sant Antimo DOC 2010 – the wine in which we found the cigars! Each wine had a very distinct character, and it was hard to decide on a favourite. A quick show of hands indicated that the room was almost evenly split between the three we’d tried in the first flight.

Clearly, we needed time to mull it over, so Kirstin arranged some delicious Italian-style pizzas to nibble on, while enjoying the wine and chatting to girlfriends. During that time, I got to know our hostess better. She loved wine and was married to a German, so we were bound to have loads in common. My husband is Swiss-German, so, like her, I’ve had my fair share of mother-in-law-made-sauerkraut!

As we enjoyed our pizza, Debi insisted that “wine should be enjoyed by everyone, and it is not meant to be sipped alone but to be enjoyed with food.” She promised that enjoying wines with food would give them “a totally different perspective,” which turned out to be right on the money. The wines selected paired well with the rich, cheesy pizzas. Who says wine can’t be paired with fast food?

The waiter's Italian Job was to keep those pizzas coming!
As we moved on to the wines that Debi described as being for “the more serious wine drinkers,” she revealed a few more unconventional tips to help us along our journey of discovering wine. As we sipped the fruity Ca’Marcanda Promis Toscana IGT 2010, she revealed to us that not all wines are ideal for ageing, with this one needing to be drunk now. “Wine in a clear bottle, such as that of the Rosato we had earlier, generally mean: drink me now!” she told us.

Her next kernel of wisdom is one that I am going to start putting into place immediately. “If you intend to age your wines, place little post it notes on them with the year that you intend to drink them so that you don’t lose track – and then try to hold out until that date!” She also advised on never keeping reds in the fridge, but rather somewhere that is cool. Considering that I live in something that feels like a greenhouse, I am now considering investing in a wine cooler.

The Tuscan Nardi Rosso di Montalcino 2010 we tried next reminded me a lot of cigarettes. I suppose the correct terminology is ‘cigar box’ or some such, but Debi encouraged us to use our own words to describe what we were smelling and tasting. “Don’t let anyone dictate to you,” she ordered. “For me, a tasting is not about me standing here and telling you what to smell and what to taste because I don’t have your nose, and I don’t have your mouth.

We ended off with the tannic Corino Barolo 2006, arguably the best (and most expensive) wine of the evening.  At this point, someone asked Debi to describe the difference between tannins and acidity, which she managed to do most amusingly.

In order to test the acidity of a wine, Debi demonstrated the “spit test” where she swirls and sips the wine normally before spitting it out. Then, once the flavour returns to her mouth, she spits again, counting how long it takes between spits. “The sooner it happens, the more acidic the wine,” she explained, “but don’t do this in public! Please, ladies, this is a private moment!”
Three of the six Italian wines we were treated to

Tannins, on the other hand, Debi felt could be best experienced by brewing stronger and stronger cups of tea, allowing the strongest one to steep for as much as an hour. “Tannins represent the structure of a wine,” she revealed, “and there are also tannins in tea. Taste the tea as you would taste wine, and you will get a sense of the mouth-feel. It’s a textural thing.”

To end off the evening, Debi offered us a real treat: an opportunity to taste a faulty wine. You really don’t get many chances to try this, so I was quite excited about it. “You always have the right to send a wine back in a restaurant,” Debi advised, “but speak to the manager rather than the waiter, and don’t make a production out of it.”

For a faulty wine bought at a liquor store, she advises that you contact the farm directly and describe how the wine is faulty, letting the winemaker know where you bought it. “Most winemakers in South Africa will honour their wines,” she reveals, “but Europeans are very unlikely to replace a bottle, unless you can absolutely prove that there is a fault.”

Well, there was nothing faulty about her presentation, and she hoped us ladies would be encouraged to expand our palates and try new wines. “South African wine consumption has dropped since 1994, but alcohol consumption has remained the same,” she laments. “The inclusion of alcho-pops, such as Brutal Fruit, has diluted the market.”

Well, she doesn’t need to worry about me! I will take one of those outstanding Italian wines over an “alcho-pop” any day because, thanks to Debi and Kirstin, I am now a savvier wine sister than I was when the night began.

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