My First Wine Pairing Lunch

Word of the Day:  1993

My first wine pairing lunch was at Vignamaggio Vineyard, a magical place.  It is not only a vineyard where quite possibly Chianti wine was first made, but it has with beautiful vistas, tons of history and great wine.

 

 

Before our wine pairing lunch, we went our a tour of Vignamaggio with Sandro.  Sandro doesn't' give tours anymore, but he knew my aunt and uncle were coming and he did the tour and lunch for the  day, as the three of them have become friends over the years - which definitely worked to my benefit, which you will understand in a few minutes.  I learned a great deal about the wine making at Vignamaggio. They study the small plots of land all over their 100 acres so they grow the grapes that best fit with the soil and sun.  They don't water the grapes, they want the vines to struggle to become stronger.  They hand pick all of the grapes and they use gravity instead of machines so the grapes don't become bruised.

Vignmaggio, literally means "hill with water".  Vignmaggio villa/estate was built around this well to protect the water from being poisoned or tampered with, as the original Gheradini family who built Vignmaggio, were not the most popular people.  However, they did have a daughter who became famous long after she died, Mona Lisa.  Mona Lisa Geradini was born at Vignmaggio in 1479.

 

The villa is beautiful - so beautiful that "Much Ado About Nothing" movie was filmed here.  After our tour, we sat down to a wine pairing lunch.  Now, being under 21 in the USA - I know NOTHING about wine - I don't have any idea what it taste like ;-) So, I was very surprised to see mother's giving their children as young as 4 at our lunch tastes of wine.  I learned that they start babies drinking "baby wine" - 1/2 water 1/2 wine as early as 6 months old - just a dropper full a day.  There isn't drinking age over here, they grow up with it at many meals, so it isn't a big deal.  In fact, people don't really go out "to drink", they drink their wine with food.

 

We tasted 4 wines, each with a different course.  This was our first, which was my favorite - even beating out the flour-less chocolate cake with homemade cream and sugared raspberries.  The course pictured above was hard to describe, it was tomatoes, red and yellow peppers and ricotta cheese - served over a cream sauce and olive oil.  I could have eaten these as my entire meal.

 

1993 - my "word" of the day - my birth year...and the year this very special bottle of wine was corked.  As you can see from this picture, I was very happy AND surprised when Sandro presented this bottle of wine to me.  I saw him talking to Uncle Patrick; he wanted to know my birth year.  Aunt Wende had already told him this was my first wine tasting and that I was VERY new to wine - so he wanted to give me something special to remember the day and to remember that wine should be enjoyed with good friends and family around a table.

 

I'll remember Sandro...and I hope I will get the chance to visit Vignmaggio again one day.

PS- NO to all my friends who want me to open this bottle when I get home - this bottle is going to be under tight security for many years.