Special 2009 Release Brunello Wine Dinner in Cortona!
Sometimes I just feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be surrounded by so many great wine regions here in Italy. Add that to being friends with local winemakers and wine shops and the result is invites to some pretty spectacular wine tasting events!
Tonight would be a wine paired dinner like no other. We would be tasting 16 different Rosso di Montalcinos and Brunellos that had just been released, paired with amazing dishes at Ristorante Il Loggiato in Cortona.
Even though it was cold outside, we started off the evening under the loggiato overlooking Cortona’s beautiful town hall.
As everyone slowly arrived we were served a welcome aperitivo of prosecco and an array of small fried finger foods.
For some of us it was the first time we had seen each other since before the holidays! It was exciting to finally have an event during the downtime of winter and over a prosecco was the perfect chance to catch up!
They encouraged us to leave our glasses outside as there was little room on the table for anything else!
We had quite the line-up of wines to get through tonight and these weren’t just any average Brunellos. These were some of the very best selected by Marco Molesini and many were not going to be at the Benvenuto Brunello event. Yeah baby!
Marco explained to us that four wines would be poured with each course, to be sure to taste each one, taking note of the ones we prefer, and to be ready for the next pouring because we had a lot of wines to taste through!
All of the wines were referenced on a sheet of paper at each place setting listing the winery, wine, year and price.
First up, four different Rosso di Montalcinos paired with smoked meat with thinly sliced artichokes and fresh raspberries.
Because really, one antipasto is never enough, the second appetizer plate was equally delicious, rabbit served over polenta with a purée of leeks.
An absolutely perfect pairing and my favorite Rosso was the Altesino Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2012 which was fruit forward, spicy with notes of clove, vanilla and deep berry flavors.
Brunello time. We had two pasta courses, each paired with a tasting of 4 Brunellos. Yes, that equals 8 and we are only on the second course. My life does NOT suck!
The pasta course was delicious. They served half-moon pasta stuffed with pecorino cheese as well as tagliatelle with a hearty meat sauce. Which all went amazingly with the Brunello.
I was introduced to my favorite Brunello of the evening, the San Filippo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2009. Very, very nice, well-rounded, some deep berries and just my overall favorite.
My visiting friends were taking meticulous notes, many people were as many who were attending would be ordering quite a few of these wines!
But wait! We still have the last 4 Brunellos to try with sliced steak with green peppercorns and rosemary served with a mixed salad.
The Tuscans really know how to do their steaks and this was cooked (in my humble opinion) to perfection and seasoned just right. And how amazing is Brunello with steak?!
With the last 8 Brunellos my stand out favorite is the Casanova di Neri Tenuta Nuovo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2009. At 65 a bottle this isn’t a wine I’ll drink everyday (Even though I’d like to) but I certainly would have it with special dinners shared with good friends.
And as expected, this was about the time that things started getting silly. Ridiculous, one could say. Because ridiculous is when one pours numerous amazing Brunellos together into a “dump bucket” to throw out!
I’m just going to say OF COURSE the thought crossed our minds! Thank goodness there was still wine left in some of the bottles we had tasted or else we would be hitting that.
Dessert was the very traditional Italian tiramisu served with a late harvest sweet wine.
Wow, what an amazing tasting dinner, I feel truly spoiled! Thank you Marco and Paolo for putting together such a great event with fabulous wines!
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