Wine Review: Barbera del Monferrato

OK, a quick break from vacation photos for some wine I drank last night! I am trying to remember where I bought this wine. I think I paid more than two Euros for it... It's an interesting wine, and this variety of Barbera is meant to be drunk young. The first things you notice about it are that it's lightly sparkling, and that the color is powerfully bloody ruby red. The flavor is pretty strong, but not rough. A little fruit, definite acid and bitterness. I would actually buy it again, but it's not a wine I could drink all the time... too bold for that!



Second, unrelated taste test: Chocorooms! Vio impulse-bought these at the airport on her way to Italy. Based strictly on the packaging I think...



They taste just like you would expect from the package. Plain, but not too soft or milky, chocolate, crispy slightly sweet cracker. They are cute and hilarious, and actually taste pretty good. Thanks, sister!

Praskovia's B-Day Party

On Friday night, I went to Ciu's Bar near Corso Buenos Aires. I've been a few times with Christopher, he loves it there! And rightly so, they do a great aperitivo. They have the largest selection I've seen at an all-you-care-to-eat aperitivo, and it changes over the course of the evening.



Anyway, the recent occasion was Praskovia's birthday! Besides our aperitivo drinks, we ended up getting a bucket of champagne, too. That's the birthday girl in the middle, with Christopher on the right...

Pfeddersheim

Esther and I went to Pfeddersheim to meet with the extended Finger clan, in the middle of the town's wine festival! Tom's mom grew up in Pfeddersheim, and her dad still lives there. He's retired from the wine business now, but he still lives in the winery building in town! Wilfried took this picture of me and Esther, he's such a charmer. He loves gardening, everything looks great.



The first night we were there was Friday. We all went to a local weingut, Hinter der Kirche, which I think means "behind the church", to have snacks and drink some of the local products! The garden atmosphere was great, and while it was crowded we had a reserved bench, since Opa knows the guy who runs the winery. I think in a town like this you know all the other vintners...



Here's a couple of the bottles I got to sample!

Glicine

It's been a while since I wrote about wine... But I haven't been drinking enough of it to mention! This was my wine earlier this week. Glicine...



I didn't know much about this wine going in, and I don't have too much to say about it, to be honest. It was white, neither sweet nor tart, without too much fruitiness. It was light and pleasant. I would certainly drink it again, but it didn't make a big impression!

So Many Photos, So Little Time!

Wow, I have a lot of photos to deal with from the last two weeks! There's no way you will be seeing them all here, by any means. You can always look for more on my flickr, of course... Clicking on any of the photos you see here will get you there, too!

Anyway, a quick note on life here... It seems like a lot of my friends and colleagues are starting in on organizational schemes to improve productivity, or we've just been talking about it a lot recently. One of my colleagues got a day planner for the first time. He really needs it. One of the students started doing a task list at my suggestion. (He also quit facebook of his own accord.) He is already pleased with the results. I just had a talk with one of my friends about his organizational scheme. His seems the hardest by far. He schedules his time for two weeks at a time, giving allotments for the different projects he is working on. His advisor (who is the super-organized big boss here) is apparently giving him tips on it all...

Anyway, how about some pictures from my birthday party? It was pretty rocking party! I invited people to stop by after work around 7, which means that people didn't arrive until close to 8! Thus, Ross and I had plenty of time to get ready. Most of the food below was for the party...



I bought really good tangerines from the fruit seller in Piazza Bausan.



This is the spread at the start of the party:



We put a lot more out! I made deviled eggs, since I figured that it was the easiest thing that I could make that was "American". I got to use the really yummy spicy mustard that I bought in Paris! Italians do have a version of deviled eggs, called roughly "eggs of the inferno", which use garlic as the flavoring in the yolk mix. I also put out the crystallized kumquats that I bought in Paris... They were delicious!

My landlord and his sons brought this amazing apricot torta. Wow, it was good! I had to cut it into tiny wedges, but everyone got a piece! He was a hit with my friends, and his sons are really sweet.



And this is the morning after in wine bottles. Everyone brought wine, and even with some people passing, eight bottles were consumed. (Some of those are liter bottles!) I still have a couple bottles of sparkling wine in my fridge... I may have to have another party.



Anyway, it was a really fun evening!

Foods

I thought I'd share some of the foods I've been having this week. I bought a bunch of clementines from the local fancy fruit seller. They give them to you in a paper bag that's printed with the grocer's label, I should really take a picture of that.



Citrus fruit here are really good, and really cheap.

I haven't been drinking as much wine as I should. My latest purchase was this bottle of vino frizzante, sparkling red wine. Carbonated red wines are not as bubbly as sparkling whites. This one is fruity but not too sweet.



The grocery store by my house, Penny Market, is open on Sundays now! Siamo aperti tutte le domeniche! It's great. Only for four hours, but I will take it. And it's not too popular yet.



The weirdest thing I bought is walnut pesto. I need to think about what I am going to have it with. I can't imagine it with my usual vegetables...

Red Red Wine

When in Italy, drink Italian wine. It works, the wine here is cheap. The hard part is that I don't know what the different varietals here are all about. I mean, in California we have a lot of French grapes and we're used to those French names. So picking Italian wines is tough!

One Italian wine I knew I liked is Nero D'avola. It's a Sicilian wine. I would liken it to shiraz. Fruity and spicy. Both of these bottles were less than two Euros, and both were very drinkable. The D'alleramo was a little fruitier (black cherry, to me), and the Rocche had more spice.



Now these next two Zagalia wines I picked blindly. The primitivo is from Puglia. That was not my favorite. It had a touch of bitterness. Perhaps it would be better a few years on, it might mellow out!



The negroamaro from Salento I did like. It was fruity, but not as spicy as the others. It was quite drinkable.

More wine adventures will follow, I hope!