on March 9th, 2008 by mark
I tried rather hard to post last night but it was nigh impossible. Neigh, not nigh. But indeed, impossible. Tiredness oozed from each and every pore of my poor and wretched body and even some pain, some ache. The night was good enough…
We were at James and Manuela’s they of the fine and wonderful Ventura Limoncello Company. The beverage is astounding, you need some–badly. We didn’t even drink any last night, come to think of it. James–that’s a deduction of points if you read this. You’ll need to have us again so we can quaff the citrus. Alright, personal messages aside–we had a great time with the Carling’s and our mutual friends the Sheaffer’s. Tom and MB introduced us to the Carling’s and so it was nice to all be together. Truly, it was a great time. Besides, they have a beagle named Gimli who is absolutely great–top notch. When he barked, it sent a shutter through your veins all the from head to toe. I miss that bark. When I was a kid we had a beagle named Skipper and Gimli was just like him. He would put his front paws on my leg, stretching as tall as he could while I sat at the dinner table last night and wag his tail.
Manuela served a meal fit for a king consisting of a safron risotto dish with Italian sausage. That was the starter and before that were appetizers of cheeses with crackers and truffle honey. The savory and sweet blended together for a satisfying mouth-feel and whetted our appetites for the coming grandiose designs.
There was chicken with red-peppers in a light and slightly tangy tomato sauce. There were rosemary potatoes and there was grilled shrimp–which most of you know I avoid so as to avoid, you know…dying.
Dessert at the very least deserves its own paragraph but I’d be hard pressed to tell you its name let alone spell it. Manuela apparently ate it at a place in Italy and dissected the tastes one by one and then recreated it. Its translation is something like “1000 leaves” and the leaves are a delicate and flaky pastry crumbled up over chantilly cream, light and fluffy. It’s topped with thick bittersweet chocolate. I don’t think I need to say anymore. I had a cut in my lip and the pain was exquisite.
There was also a new liqueur that Manuela made. This was a creamy apperitif made with fresh local strawberries. The result was….well, smooth, creamy, fresh strawberry-licious goodness. Phenomenal.
All that took place after a full day of racking, barreling and bottling our wines. About 22 gallons of Tempranillo went to bottle yesterday. We left off a bit in a stainless steel tank to use as a top-off for the other barrels. We wound up with 10 cases of truly top notch Temp. The flavors are smoky and rich, well rounded with hints of cherry and some dark berries. The Hungarian oak really imparted a special quality to this wine and Brian and I are pleased with the results. We had some tonight with simple spaghetti and meatballs, bread and salad. The wine lent a smoky sweetness to the flavors and was just delightful. Great stuff.
Racking is the process of moving the wine out of the barrel and housing it temporarily, in this case in plastic barrels, while the wooden barrels are hosed out, cleaned up a bit to remove sediment and allow the wood to continue to impart character. Some wines will go up to two or three rackings. We’ll probably do just this one–at least with the last 60 gallons of Tempranillo. We’ll bottle that this summer. The Barbera will be in barrel at least another 6 months and we may rack one more time, depending on how it goes. Some photos below, taken with my new camera which, admittedly, I am still learning to use. Long weekend–but a good weekend.
Most of the day was given over to cleaning implements and barrels. Water, SO2, some environmentally friendly barrel cleaners and a lot of scrubbing.
In the wine room, topping off the racked barrels with a bottle of our Tempranillo.
The vacuum pump with one nozzle, one bottle at a time. Still, we filled 10 cases plus two bottles in about 2 hours. It goes pretty quickly.
Peanut helped out quite a bit. Her job was to take the bottles that I corked and place them in cases. Occasionally, she even corked some bottles. Strong muscles, that one…
Posted in Food and Wine
Hi Mark,
Points off for NOT providing Limoncello? I wanted your palate clean for the Strawberry Cream Liqueur. Guess we’ll just have to do it again…
However, that is not the reason I comment this evening. The real comment is about your Tempranillo. What a tasty wine you created! Even one as young as this complemented our evening’s fare. We had one glass left in the bottle that I shared with Pietro, my father in law, at lunch today. He was a home wine maker, when still lived in Italy. He absolutely loved it. “Where can we get more?”, he asked? I told him I would let him know. So in the words of Oliver Twist: “Please, sir, can I have some more, sir?”
Thanks again for the fun evening and I can’t wait to taste the Barbera.
–James
Mark…thanks again for joining us last night we really enjoyed having you over. I was delighted to see all the wonderful comments you wrote in your blog about me…thank you thank you! By the way…what do you do with the “must” from the grapes…because we can make a killer cake with it! It resembles a fruit cake, but with espresso and chocolate…so if you have any let me know….
Manuela