A favorite time of the month - the wine tasting at Amici Miei! This month, Nick Materese of Siema Wines featured Italian wines made of grapes that are native to Italy, rather than international varietals. What a treat!

We started the journey with a bonus wine from Hungary - a 2013 ∃VOLÚCIÓ made from the Hungarian native grape, Furmint, in the Tokaj region. It was light, refreshing, and it definitely put everyone in good spirits. Lots of pear and tropical fruit tastes, and a great white flowery scent. And then another bonus wine - a Brunetti Sangiovese from Azienda Agricola Elisabetta. A very nice wine, very typical of a Sangiovese with a slightly rusty color and sour cherry flavors. And thus giving all the participants a chance to arrive, get settled, and ready their palates for the wine journey to come.

2013 ∃VOLÚCIÓ from Hungary — 2013 ∃VOLÚCIÓ from Hungary

The first wine was a dry Muscat from the Val d"Aosta region of Italy, a 2011 Chambave Muscat from La Crotta di Vegneron. These vineyards are on the Italian/Swiss border, and the winemakers store their wines in caves high in the mountains - some at 4000 meters! They had not made this wine for several years, as they wanted to ensure they had the best grapes available. 2011 brought weather that enabled the grapes to mature to perfection, so wine was produced. Great scents of flowers, herbs, and apricot. And the flavors to match - the wine makes its presence known, but it is refined with lots of the apricot and peach flavors, along with the herbs. Chef Davide paired the wine with a warm chickpea pureé and shrimp crostino. The flavors in the shrimp and the chickpea matched the fruit in the wine beautifully. Nick pointed out that this wine also goes great with cheese - which we will definitely have to try!

Next up was the 2012 Durin Ormeasco di Pornassio from the Liuguria region of Italy. Nick had a great story about the Ormeasco grape - back in the 1300's the Liguria region created a mandate to plant this grape, even though it was a grape from Piemonte (the Dolcetto grape). The benefit to Liguria is that the land is closer to the Mediterranean, so it stays warmer in the winter and a bit milder in the summer. A rivalry broke out between Liguria and Piemonte as to which region creates a better wine from the Dolcetto / Ormeasco. The Durin was delightful - ruby red and purple highlights that had a fabulous scent of berries and violets. The wine was medium-bodied with soft tannins. Chef paired the Ormeasco with a shell pasta filed with veal and beef ragout. The meat in the pasta made a great match for the violets in the wine. We were definitely on a roll!

Piemonte was the home of the next wine - a 2010 Grignolino di Monferrato Casalese grown in the San Bastiano vineyards on the estate of Castello di Uviglie. Grignolino is native to the Piemonte region, and it makes lighter reds or rosé wines. It tends to be somewhat tannic, so the winemakers take care in pressing the wines to avoid excess tannins. (The tannins come from the skins, seeds, and pulp, and the skins also create the red color of the wine, so it's quite a balance to get the color and flavors but not allow the wine to be overly tannic.) This wine was beautifully earthy, not too tannic, and lots of spices in both the scents and the flavors. Chef Davide paired this wine with turkey meatballs - a perfect match since the turkey meat did not overpower the somewhat lighter red wine. And the earthy flavor of the wine complimented the sauce accompanying the meatball. Yum!

All the participants were having a great time, conversation was flowing, and everyone anticipated the next wine. We stayed in the Piemonte region, this time with a 2011 Maestrale Barbera d'Alba, made by Salvano. According to Nick, the Salvano vintners wanted an atypical Barbera, so they did some experimenting with this wine. The result is fabulous - and it took a silver medal in Italy. This is a medium-bodied, very dark and rich wine with lots of complexity. It has lovely dark fruits, beautiful tannins, cinnamon, pepper - wow. Chef Davide paired this with a roasted pork sausage accompanied by a salsa verde. The slightly spicy salsa verde on the sausage went absolutely perfectly with the wine! Very enjoyable!

For the final wine, we headed to the region of Abruzzo for the San Lorenzo 2009 Oinos Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Colline Terramane. This is the winery's flagship wine - intensely red, aromas of fruit, chocolate, and coffee, wonderful dark fruit flavor with velvety tannins and so perfectly round. The pairing for this wine was a lamb stew with porcini mushroom sauce - how incredible a pairing is this?! The earthy mushrooms and the velvety wine - perfection. If the evening had to end, this was a great wine on which to end.

There are many nice things to enjoy about the wine tastings - the great stories that Nick tells about his travels, the vintners, and the wines; the incredible food pairings that Chef Davide creates; the camaraderie amongst the participants - we could go on and on. It is definitely a favorite event every month for Ernie and I. A big thank-you to Nick, and to Chef Davide, Roberto, Arturo, Ivan, and the great team at Amici Miei! We'll see you next month!

Nick Materese actually taking a moment to enjoy a sip of the Oinos wine.