Well, since Trish was on travel, I (Ernie) am the guest blogger for this event. (Hopefully this won’t happen too often - the pressure to produce a record of the event worthy of my wife’s knowledge is killing me! Oops, I let slip who the guest blogger is...)

Saturdays are for cooking class at Amici Miei, and as Trish and I can attest, they are always filled with great meals from Chef Davide and educational information on cooking techniques. You leave the restaurant with recipes in hand and a content stomach filled with the day’s efforts. But that’s on Saturdays.

About once a month, Amici Miei hosts a wine tasting with Nick from Siema Wines. These events are held during the week, usually on a Wednesday after work, and they provide many of the “usual Amici Miei cooking class folk” along with 15 or so “new or casual attendees” a lovely night out in the middle of a standard hectic and fast-paced work week. Chef Davide, Roberto, and Nick take each of the chosen wine’s origin and characteristics seriously during their selection and lovingly plan the food pairings for the wines. The evening’s discussions and samplings usually run as follows: the Amici Miei staff serve one wine at a time, you get to sip the sample, and then Nick regales you with a tale of the winemaker, the vineyard, Nick’s envious travels from when he’s gone to the winery, and then always a verbal image of the wine’s character. And typically, his stories enable you to remember an old memory or pull you into a new dream. While Nick’s stories transport you to a faraway memory or place, the waiters are passing out the paired tasting sample. It is then you recognize the beauty of wine, the ability of a liquid and a tidbit of food to awaken all your senses.

At this tasting, Nick had one white wine (Frascati), two rosés (one from Umbria, and a Moscato), one sparkling, and two reds (Primitivo and Chianti Classico Riserva). The Volpetti Frascati was from the region of Lazio, and it was served with friselle (an Italian biscuit) flavored with either pepper or an olive oil and chili pepper combination. The sparkling wine was called Refrain from the Val D’Aosta region, and it is made from five grapes. It is created by one of the smallest producers in the region. Nick told a fantastic story about how the wine is aged at great heights in caves near the Matterhorn. The producer has another sparkling wine called “4478”, which is the height in meters of where the wine is stored, according to Nick. The Refrain was paired with creamy robiola cheese and asparagus crostini, which was a lovely combination.

The Macchiarello Rosé Barbi is from Umbria, and it was paired with puff pastry mini pizzas. The wine had a white cherry taste and was dry - very nice. Next was a Le Giuse Primitivo del Salento from Puglia, which was paired with a roasted eggplant roll stuffed with pork sausage. Primitivo is, of course, the Italian version of the U.S. Zinfandel. A nice big wine with somewhat jammy flavors, less fruit-forward than its California cousins.

Next up was the Chianti Classico Riserva from Tuscany, produced by Castello di Lucignano. This was paired with aged Pecorino Toscano cheese. A good, basic Chianti, very familiar to my tastebuds. Definitely brought back memories of being in Tuscany. And then the final wine, a Moscato Rosa from Trentino Alto Adige produced by Kaltern Caldaro. This was actually not a “dessert wine”, even though it was paired with white chocolate raspberry mousse. However, the rosé wine had enough sweetness to work very well with the mousse and not go bitter as a dry red wine might. Once again, great pairings from Chef Davide!

Nick many times polls the group to see which offerings are the favorites of the evening. This time it was the Chianti Classico Riserva and the Primitivo. But my favorite was the Frascati because Nick’s description of and reason for drinking the wine was spot-on with Trish’s and my first exposure to the lovely white. Nick wove a story of how the character of the wine lulls you into drinking one glass after another, noshing on appetizers and discussing and talking for hours before you realize how much time had passed. This is exactly our first experience with Frascati; we talked for hours and ate more than we had originally thought we were going to and stayed out far longer than intended just enjoying the wine and each other’s company.

The bottom line for me is this: yes, wines have characters, personalities, preferred partners and other basic attributes that one should learn or at least be aware of. However, wine is as much a memory-maker as a memory-stimulator to remind you of previous times. You don’t have to be a world renowned expert on wine to get an enormous amount of enjoyment out of this luscious grape nectar. You just have to keep your eyes open, your heart open, and your mind open to experience what life has to offer.