Sunday Lunch with Friends

Sharing a meal and good wine with friends is always a pleasure.  A recent Sunday lunch went like this.  To begin, we had bites of mortadella, crunchy taralli with cheese and black pepper, and good olives to accompany a glass or two of white wine.

Trebbiano d’Abruzzo 2010 Emidio Pepe made from 100% Trebbiano d’Abruzzo. In the vineyard only sulfur and copper water are used along with biodynamic preparations. Only natural yeast is used. Feet crush the grapes and no sulfites are added to the wine. The juice is placed into glass lined cement tanks of 20/25 liters. The wine remains there for one year and then is transferred to bottle by hand. The wine was showing some signs of oxidation with hints of citrus fruit and a touch of almonds in the aftertaste.

Michele made Ricotta Gnocchi with a simple tomato sauce from her book, The Italian Vegetable Cookbook.

This was just my first portion. 

Baked Polenta with Parmigiano Reggiano accompanied the main course chicken.

Sauteed Broccoli with Garlic

Chicken with Red Wine, Olives and Herbs ready to be served

On the plate

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2001  Emidio Pepe 100% Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. The winery is organic and Bio-Dynamic. They belong to the Triple “A” Agriculture Artisans Artists. Both the tendone method and the cordon spur method are used for training the vines. In vintages when the weather is very hot the tendone method is better because the leaves form a canopy to protect the grapes from the sun.  When the weather is not too hot, the cordon spur is better because it allows more sun and air to reach the grapes. One hectare of tendone has 900 vines and produces 90 quintals of grapes.  That means that each vine produces from 6 to 9 kilos of grapes. In one hectare of cordon spur trained grapes, there are 3,300 vines and each vine produces 5 to 6 kilos of grapes. The grapes are crushed by hand and the juice placed in glass-lined cement tanks of 20/25 liters. Only natural yeasts are used, there is no filtration or fining. The wine is transferred to the bottle by hand and the corks are placed in the bottles by hand. The wine has deep red fruit aromas and flavors with hints of cherry, spice and leather.  I had the 1982 a few weeks ago and the 2001 has the same profile but needs more time.

Dessert was the Buttery Apple Cake from Michele’s book, Savoring Italy.