Our January 2014 wine dinner was a very small, intimate group; four to be exact. But as always the wine was delicious. I don’t even remember the food but the wines were great.
One of the wines we opened was a wine we picked up while we were in France. I was particularly happy to be in the Burgundy region and I tasted several wines that were far better than the French wines we have at home. Maybe it was because we were in France or maybe what the French say is true. They keep the best wine for themselves and they send us the rest. The Fixin Burgundy was an especially good Pinot Noir. It was well balanced with wonderful red fruit flavors. Fixin is a village at the northern end of the Cote de Nuits sub-region of Burgundy. The style of wine produced in Fixin is similar to its neighbor region Gevrey Chambertin, being full flavored and well structured.
Our guests are particularly fond of Italian wines so they brought a Brunello di Montalcino, a red wine produced in the wineyards surrounding the town of Montalcino, in the Tuscany wine region. In Montalcino the name Brunello evolved into the designation of the wine produced with 100% Sangiovese. In 1980, Brunello di Montalcino was awarded the first Donominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita designation and today is one of Italy’s best know and most expensive wines. We enjoyed this wine with a variety of imported cheeses.
We needed a white wine so we opened a Chamisal Chardonnay from the cooler climate of California’s Central Coast. The flavors are a mix of apple, pineapple and peach with a clean lingering acidity.