La dolce vita revisited

We came together eleven weeks after our many weeks in Italy:  the colonel and the angry pony hosted. Scriba brought along her delightful husband, Dave, who unfortunately did not make the Italian vacance and had to suffer through our many 'you had to be there' stories of our time together in Cortona and other oases of Italian nirvana.  He held up well. The Bawl Baby, Minkie and Ed from Fla rounded out the festa and a festa it was: the center piece being the distribution of our italian wine purchases and a chance to worship the almighty pig.

The antipasti plate of cheeses, salami, marcona almonds, olives and assorted crackers provided an elegant accompaniment to the Walla Walla champagne, compliments of Minkie.  Dinner followed shortly: perfectly pan-roasted potatoes and cruciferous vegetables, day-long languidly stewed white beans and the centerpiece, the anglo-fied porchetta roast tinged with maple smoke from the Traeger.  The table groaned under the weight of such largess and the gutteral utterances of happy eaters.  Yeah, we had some wine too: a 2003 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano from Boscarelli, a 2007 Villa Antinori Toscana, a 2007 Vino N di M from Poliziano (that we purchased in Italy) and a non-vintage Sauvignon Blanc from Wally World's Va Piano.

You Had to Be There

 A spontaneous change, for us:  instead of a trip to ERS, we went to Vinopolis to pick up a few things, including a remarkable wine from the ever remarkable Marcel Deiss.  Then on to Andina for a bit of food and drink.  Well now, little did I know that another entry into the top 60 would appear....perhaps the entrants are as much about the "where" and "with what" as they are the wine proper; as if you could separate the two!

So, a meal laden with quinoa was taken to new heights by a 2010 rioja blanco (viura) from a producer that I don't recall but it started with an "I".  The wine was just spot on with the entire meal.  The pequillo peppers, the avocado/crab salad, the quinoa timbale all were impeccably interwoven with this crisp, floral, acidic white wine.  One of my "to die for" wines is the LdH Vina Tondonia, which is an aged, oxidized viura.  But this fresh version makes me committed to finding more viura, in whatever stage of age, to reconnect with the food marriage like few others.  Is it only with Spanish or Latin flavored dishes? I have to find out.