Wines of Lazio: Frascati Superiore

Wines of Lazio: Frascati Superiore

Casale Mattia

Frascati Superiore

Terre del Casale

DOC

2008

     Frascati is the white wine most often consumed by the Romans, and most of its production makes its way down the hills of the Castelli Romani to be consumed in the trattoria and osteria of Rome.  Typically in Lazio winemakers make wines for quantity over quality, so there are many mediocre Frascati bottles out there, but there is hope.  There are a number of producers that are making great Frascati wines that evoke both the fertility of the land and the aromas of the grapes used.  Frascati does not need to be a boring and tasteless wine at all.  Casale Mattia is making great wines from organic grapes and a combination of modern and traditional winemaking.  They use all natural methods in their wine making process including natural yeasts instead of GMO yeasts.  

     I tasted a 2008 Casale Mattia Frascati Superiore called “Terre Del Casale.”  I quite enjoyed it, thug I feel that most Frascati are best when consumed in their first year.  Visually, I could tell it had a bit if age(for a Frascati), as it was darkening.  It was a very crystalline hay yellow with moderate consistency with average arches.  The hay color had a bit of golden hue in it as well.  It had very intense aromas that were clean and crisp which were suggestive of citrus such as grapefruit, lemons, and limoncello.  Underneath all that was the aroma I most associate with a Frascati, apricot.  It also had undertones of citrus flowers, fresh cut grass, shell like minerals, and fragrant bread.  On the palate it was medium bodied, dry to off dry, very fresh, silky, and with a long mineral finish which came directly from the volcanic soil the vines are planted in.  I enjoyed every sip, and think it is a perfect white wine for the spring and summer, but even in the cooler months when we start to make soups.  The aromatic qualities would pair perfectly with a warm minestrone or vegetable risotto.  

Urgent Adoption after 14 year in a Shelter...Alberto deserves a family!!

 UPDATE:  ALBERT HAS FOUND A HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 He is Alberto, a small and invisible dog who has spent his entire life in a small box. Alberto unfortunately did not have anything in life as he was locked up in the kennel when  still young and with great desire to live, but his exuberance , his vivacity, year after year have faded due to a prison term that has been for too long.  He has known only a life with gravel and loneliness, no cuddling, no walks, no grass .... Now, at age 14 Alberto year is pretty wary of people, but is he wrong? Who would not be against a hand that he long ago considered friends forever, for life, and instead was just locked up forever in a prison? Perhaps Albert has lost hope of finally finding a bit of love, but not us, we would like for him a true adoption of the heart that can make him understand that not all hands are bad, some can give a lot of pampering, we would like for him to find a real home with a nice soft and warm bed and a bit of serenity .... now he is very old and time is running out !!!!!! He should get along with both male and female dogs.  14 years is a long time but Alberto deserves his ransom !!!!!!  Daniela 348 1013553  Rossella rosresto@libero.it  339 1233445

  in English Ettore 349 719 7590

Lui è Alberto, un cagnolino piccolo e invisibile che ha praticamente passato la sua vita chiuso in un box.Alberto purtroppo dalla vita non ha avuto proprio niente visto che è stato rinchiuso in canile ancora giovane e con tanta voglia di vivere, ma la sua esuberanza, la sua vivacità, anno dopo anno sono sfiorite a causa di una prigionia durata troppo a lungo, che gli ha permesso di conoscere solo ghiaia e solitudine, niente coccole, niente passeggiate, niente erba....Ora, all'età di 14 anni Alberto è piuttosto diffidente nei confronti delle persone, ma come dargli torto? Chi non lo sarebbe nei confronti di una mano che lui, tanto tempo fa considerava amica per sempre, amica per la vita, e invece proprio per sempre lo ha rinchiuso in una prigione? Forse Alberto ha perso la speranza di trovare finalmente un pò di Amore, ma noi no, noi vorremmo per lui una vera adozione del cuore che gli possa far capire che non tutte le mani sono cattive, alcune sanno dare tante coccole; vorremmo per lui una vera casa con una bella cuccia morbida e calda e un pò di serenità.... ormai è molto anziano e il tempo stringe davvero tanto!!!!!!Va tranquillamente d'accordo sia con maschi che femmine.14 anni sono tanti ma Alberto merita il suo riscatto!!!!!!  Parma, info e adozioni Daniela 348 1013553  Rossella rosresto@libero.it  339 1233445

B.Alive in Rome

     Two nights ago in Rome, on the rooftop terrace of my friends Sienna and Yves, I was fortunate enough to be a guest at a raw gourmet meal prepared by Boris Lauser of B.Alive.  Boris Lauser is a Gourmet raw food chef from Berlin, who prepared a Balinese themed gourmet meal for 22 guests.  The theme was, "Tropical Inspirations from Bali."  It truly was inspired.  The food was delicious, the presentation beyond anything I expected, and the love and attention to detail absolutely superb.  It was a splendid evening full of love, life and epiphany on my behalf.  

     I brought Ettore, who was a rather reluctant participant, expecting celery and carrots, and the need for food afterwards.  To be fair, his only experience in the world of raw food has been through me and my obsession with green super food smoothies.  Not exactly the epitome of flavors and diversity!  He was blown away by the explosion of flavors we tasted, as was I. 

     My experience was rather, a spiritual one.  I loved all the food and luckily a much better and talented writer than I has written a glowing review of the food and the evening which you can readHERE. 

     My experience reaffirmed for me the philosophy that, “You are what you eat.”  I made a decision in my adult life that I no longer what to be a part of the cycle of violence and sorrow in the food chain.  There is nothing natural about slaughter and animal agriculture, and the inspired evening reiterated for me what I hold close to my heart.  I do not want to consume pain.  When we eat animals and their bodily secretions we consume their energy of pain and sorrow.  One thing I am certain of is that energy never dies, the world is a cycle of energy, and we are stardust.  When I eat live food I feel clearer, level headed, and my solar plexus feels aligned.  I feel balanced.  If we are what we eat, then eating a gourmet raw food meal made with integrity and love means we are a part of this energy cycle.  We become alive, hence, B.Alive.   Boris Lauser radiates life and positive energy.  Everything we need to live is in the plant world, and we can do it with variety, flavors, and creativity. 

     So I thank Boris for this evening of love, creativity, and color.  I thank Sienna and Yves for providing such a suitable terrace for everyone to enjoy, and most of all I thank Mother Nature for providing such an explosion of color and flavors.  It was beyond a doubt an inspired evening.  

Ettore enjoying a glass of local and organic Bellone before the dinner started

Cucumber with balinese flavor infused cashew cheese

Chinese Style Dumplings with sweet and sour dipping sauce

Guests enjoying their delicious dumplings

Preparing the Gado-Gado, a rainbow of raw food

Gado-Gado

Such amazing colors...full of life and love

The purple beans were to DIE for.   So good!

Cardamom Coconut Halva




THANK YOU BORIS!!!
B.Alive Blog



WATCH THE FILM FOOD MATTERS!!

Burton Anderson: Mi fa depressa

I am reading the 1980 edition of this book:  Vino:  The Wines and Winemakers of Italy and I feel I have been cheated.  Born in the wrong era!  This book is one of the most beautifully and poetically written books on wine I have ever read, and there are many stories about wine legends, now departed and the sensual, unforgetable but also not replicable wine they made.  This is a time before the phrase Super Tuscan, a time when there were no terms like biodynamic, sustainable, or natural wines.  Those catch phrases now used more as a marketing tool rather than an adjective describing the passion of a wine maker.    The men and women who made their wine in the traditional way, with organic and natural procecsses did it out of love, not for marketing.  This was right on the cusp, the time of the greats was peaking and Coca Cola just spent $36 million investing in Montalcino to produce more industrial crap. I am on the hunt for one of the last great bottles ever made by a Prince who spent his time tending his vineyard like it was his special, and who, to prevent his vineyard being molested by the wrong people, tore out all the vines and never looked back.  This all happened before I got out of high school.

Rocca Massima: Locanda dell'Arcangelo

Narrow streets of Rocca Massima

     Yesterday I barely moved from the sofa because it was so hot and humid here.  Poor Ettore had to work under the hot Roman sun, and when he came home it was much cooler than what the Romans feel in the summer, but still deathly hot for me.   We live in the hills outside Rome, the Castelli Romani.  The air is cleaner, fresher, and cooler during the summer, which is why on weekends, loads of Romans come up here to eat, cool off, and take a swim at the Lake near Castel Gandolfo.   We Castelli residents need to cool off as well, and we need to escape the loads of nasty porchetta eaters in Ariccia.  Last night,  Ettore and I headed up to the hills to a small little town called Rocca Massima.  It was a lovely evening.  We could see the Castelli from a bird’s eye view, and gaze from the top of the town that overlooks the sea.  Rocca Massima is very close to Cori, and has pre-roman roots.  Like many towns in Lazio, it is a small medieval hilltop town built on the foundations of a previous culture.  Rocca Massima belonged to the Volsci, which is also the same people of the town of Velletri, and many argue that the greatest emperors of Rome had Volsci roots, as they came from these towns. 

Tuscany's new rival?

     We hoped into our car and drove through fields that could easily compete with anything I have seen in Tuscany.  I went a bit wild with my new camera’s panorama setting! 

     We escaped the heat of Genzano, and of course ran into a bunch of Genzanese people with the same idea.    The difference for us and a Roman meeting another Roman in the Castelli is that we all actually know each other.    There was a local food and wine festival going on which had an itinerary that led visitors all around the town.  We didn’t come for the festival, though.  We came to have a relaxing dinner with a nice view.  

Locanda dell’Arcangelo

     We decided on a cute little B&B at the very top of the town called Locanda dell’Arcangelo.  They had a wonderfully descriptive menu filled with local treats and a wine menu that had a fantastic selection of wines from Lazio.  Everything was very inexpensive.   Ettore and I love going to these old towns outside the Castelli and outside Rome.  Latina is a province in Lazio that I think is the place to watch.  We eat fresh and seasonal vegetables, we try new wines by winemakers that have a passion for the history of their land, and we learn about cultures of the region.  What I love about Lazio, besides the food and wine, is the fact that for us, a drive of about 20 minutes took us to a completely different place.  Homogeny doesn’t seem to exist between towns once you escape the province of Rome.

View from our table

     Another delightful point:  Lazio is one of the easiest regions to be a vegan.  The kitchen is loaded with incredible vegetables.  They are also extraordinarily diverse.   We always order an antipasto of vegetables, and every place we go outside the province of Rome  has their own selection of locally available goodies.  

In Rome and the provinces of Rome it is always the same plate of boring grilled vegetables.  Outside the province of Rome t

hey are sometimes what the family has growing in their garden, what was available at the market that day, and sometimes what they find in the field. 

Antipasto

     

    Locanda dell’Arcangelo  had an enticing antipasto di verdure which included grilled eggplant, stuffed eggplant, lightly roasted carrots with thyme, cipolline in agrodolce(sweet and sour pearl onions),  Gaeta olives, insalata d’orzo(Barley salad) , bruschetta, and zucchini.  The bruschette were inedible.  The bread was at least a week old and they didn’t add any salt.  Everything else was fine.  The pearl onions were especially delicious.  We ordered a bottle of Marco Carpineti  Capolemole Bianco 2009.  Carpineti is the winery I want so much to succeed, and I wrote about in an earlier blog.  The wine had a lovely hay yellow color, lovely floral and fruity aromas, with a hint of bread, but it was someone flat and lacked acidity.  

Gorgeous Pasta

     
     For my first dish I ordered an absolutely scrumptious pasta con zucchini, radicchio con olio, aglio e menta(pasta with zucchini, radicchio, oil, garlic and mint). It was a well balanced plate of heaven.  The radicchio and zucchini were perfectly cooked, the pasta wasn’t loaded with oil, the aromatic flavors from the garlic and mint were utter perfection in my mouth.  And despite the wine’s lack of freshness, the aromas and fruitiness paired well with my aromatic dish.  I was very happy.  And full. 

Super greasy radicchio ;(

    

Of course we ordered everything at the beginning of the evening when our stomachs were empty from not eating lunch earlier(too hot to cook) and we both had a case of eyes are bigger than the stomach, but we did not cancel our contorni of vegetables we ordered.  We ordered grilled radicchio, cicoria, and French fries (say what you want, they were delicious).  The radicchio was grilled and swimming in oil and Aceto Balsamico  that tasted artificially sweet.  We only took a few bites.  The cicoria was nothing special, but at least it was cooked well and not dripping in oil like I tend to see in Rome.  The French fries were homemade and perfect.  Almost as good as the perfect plate of fries I once had at the Madonna Inn many years ago. 

     

     

          Cost for two people with starter, first, sides, a bottle of wine and a fantastic view? 

€50

I love Latina.

Zucchini: What to Do With All Those Extra Summer Zucchini

     Some of my gardening friends may be wondering what the heck they are going to do with all those zucchini they grew this summer.  Many of you are practically swimming in zucchini!  You’ve steamed them,  fried them, made soups, breaded them, and eaten them raw with hummus.  All of which are noble endings for the simple zucchini.   I have also had to get a little creative this summer with the zucchini.  Alas, unlike my mother, I do not have a green thumb, everything dies, including weeds!  However, when I go to the local markets, what is in season?  Zucchini, of course.  So I have been eating them all summer, just like the rest of you.  With a little bit of creativity, zucchini can be delicious and fun.  I made up the following recipe while I was trying to eat up everything in the fridge and cupboards before I went stateside.  It turned out fantastic, and I have since made it many times.  This blog is dedicated to Jenny, Thomas, and my favorite baby in the world, Max.

    

INGREDIENTS:

For four people

4 tablespoon of olive oil

4 tablespoons of pine nuts

4 tablespoons of sultanas or golden raisons

4 cloves of garlic

15 cherry tomatoes

2 medium zucchini

1/2 tablespoon of dried calabrian red pepper

dry white wine

500g of whole grain fusilli

course sea salt

Directions:

Prepare everything in advance.  you will want to cut up the tomatoes and zucchini into small quarter sized pieces, or dice them, whichever you prefer is fine.  First, you are going to start with toasting the pine nuts.  To do this, take a small pan, drizzle a small amount of olive oil in it and put on full heat.  Throw in the pine nuts and flip them every 30 seconds until  they brown.  Put to the side.  In a large deep pan, use the rest of the olive oil and a splash of dry white wine and crush the cloves of garlic and red peppers and sauté with a medium heat.  Add the tomatoes and zucchini and sautè with the garlic.   Add the toasted pine nut and sultanas.  In a large pot, bring water to boil and add salt to taste.  Since I do not use salt in the veggies, I add a bit more in the water.   Add the dry fusilli and cook until al dente.  While the pasta is boiling simmer the veggies on a low heat setting.  I like to use a whole grain pasta for this dish, my favorite is pasta made from farro, or, spelt.  I think it brings out the nutty flavor of the pine nuts.    I use a whole box for four people.   Serve in large pasta bowls.  This pairs well with a dry rosato, or a lovely Vermentino di Gallura.    Enjoy outdoors if possible.

Voilà

 Buon Appetito!!

Wines of California: Graeser Winery Cabernet Sauvignon

  I have finally escaped the heat of Rome and am relaxing in sunny California.  Everyone keeps complaining about the heat, which makes me laugh to myself if I think about the absolute inferno that Rome became in the days before I left.  Can a Southern Californian ever really complain about the heat or cold?  I do not think they can or should.  I was sweltering under the Lazio sun while working at the Forum in the middle of Rome.  The only thing that kept me sane was the idea of an upcoming vacation to my homeland, California.  I envisioned potato tacos, California Burritos, leopard sharks in La Jolla, laying out on the beach and actually being able to cool off in the sea rather than just get warmed like one does in the Med, and lastly, all the California wines I would try to taste.  Unfortunately, I do not have any friends or even family members who are as passionate about wine as I am, so it looks like I will be doing this solo. 

     What is more ubiquitous to California than Cabernet Sauvignon?  Ok, maybe Zinfandel.  Though I make a lot of fuss about traditional and natural wine making and native grapes and so forth, California Cabernet Sauvignon is here to stay, and far be it from me to make a blanket judement based on the industrial wines that one finds in Vons or Albertsons.  There are excellent Cabernet Sauvignons to be had.  The last one I had from Pointer Run Vineyards is a great example of a wine that has a great potential to evolve.  I first had this wine in the winter of 2007, when my friend Harmony, a fellow wine lover and sommelier, was still living in Southern California, so I had a great time trying lots of wines and trying out a few of San Diego's wine bars in Hillcrest and downtown.  One of my favorites is the Wine Lover and 6th ave in Hillcrest.  I think they have a great wine buyer and it is in a perfect location. 

     Harmony moved to Portland,  I went back to Italy, and I took a bottle of 1997 Graeser Cabernet Sauvignon from Pointer Run Vineyards.  As I mentioned above, I tasted it at the Wine Lover in 2007, when it was 10 years old, and even then, the tannins were holding up, it still had an excellent backbone, and had a lot of potential to evolve and soften up.  This was not an oak bomb surprise.  Overly oaked wines never lose their vanilla, and sometimes the oak hides the richness of the actual wine.  I drank this wine and enjoyed it.  Ettore decided to try this this year, and I wished I had a large enough budget to allow me to buy cases of wines I like rather than having to make due with one bottle.  This is because it is very interesting to open these bottles every few years and see how they are holding up, and then to taste them when they are peaking.  Nothing is better for a wine lover. 

     Move forward to 2010 and the this wine is lovely.  It had a lovely color that was garnet with brickish reflections.  It had a very nice separation in the nails, which really showed off it's color development.  It was consistent and there was no sediment at all.   On the nose it was floral, spicy, vegetal and had subtle fruits.  The flowers were reminiscent of violets and dried roses, but they were very soft, not sweet at all.  There were black pepper notes, soft rosemary, raspberry and blackberry jam, tobacco, roasting coffee, green peppers, sage, and a slight hint of wet autumn leaves.  It was, indeed, a nice complex nose, though no minerality at all.  On the palate it was a very well balanced, dry and full bodied Cabernet Sauvignon.  The tannins were still quite strong but obviously softening from the last time I tasted this wine.  It was round and big on the palate, with a smooth somewhat velvety texture, as well as the nice sapidity and acids. It also had a very long finish, and the herbal qualities were the most persistent.   I would describe it as a slightly fresh wine.  It could handle a few more years in my opinion.  The tannins and acids were very well balanced,   It was not fruity on the palate, but rich and herbal.  I think this is a wine that is somewhat ready to drink, but could also handle a couple of years. 

     I made chickpea cutlets with a red wine roux that I made with another California Cabernet Sauvignon.    I thought it was a pleasant pairing.  I wish I had more of this wine.  Who knows, maybe it will still be available at the Wine Lover in Hillcrest.  I also read this online about this winery: Graeser Winery is also a dog friendly destination. What does that mean? Richard's two large and very friendly dogs wander freely and you can bring your dog into the tasting room (air conditioned in summer)! Love of dogs runs so deep that one of the Graeser wine clubs is called Fo Paws and raises money for the Humane Society. Dogs are also featured prominently on many of the wine labels at Graeser.  I think my dog Chardonnay deserves a trip to California.

Graeser Winery

1997 Cabernet Sauvignon, 

Pointer Run