Today, I want to share a few recommendations from some red wines I’ve sipped recently and which I think you will enjoy too. They come from places as geographically diverse as California, Germany and Italy, but that’s one of the great aspects of wine appreciation: if you can’t find what you’re looking for, there’s always someplace else to look.

I have been a long time fan of Sebastiani Winery located in the town and county of Sonoma. In fact, Sebastiani was the first  winery I ever visited – way back before Al Gore invented the Internet. Over the years and through many Sebastiani family leadership changes two things have remained consistent: quality and value.

So I was concerned when I read that the family had sold the winery a few years back to the Foley Wine Group. My concerns, though, were unfounded as evidenced by the continuity of quality in the wines produced to this day. Recently, I tasted a couple of wines that reinforced this view.

California

Merlot has gotten a bad rap ever since the movie Sideways. As the price of merlot dropped, I happily benefited and stocked up on as much of the stuff as I could afford. Appreciation for Merlot (unfortunately for me) is ramping back up and the following effort from Sebastiani clearly demonstrates why.

2007 Sebastiani Sonoma County Merlot ($19) – This is a very focused wine with spicy plum and earthy flavors balanced by tannin and a nice touch of acid. Try it with grilled lamb chops basted with garlic, lemon and olive oil.

2009 Sebastiani Pinot Noir ($18) Wonderful balance in this elegant, value-priced pinot noir. Ripe cherries, some vanilla and bright acid characterize this wine from the cool Sonoma Coast. Grill a filet of salmon that you’ve dusted with cumin, brown sugar and a little chili powder, and then wash it down with this supple sipper.

It is not hard to say good things about Falcor Winery. This Napa Valley operation owned by two Charleston lawyers has produced exceptional wine for more than 15 years.

Jim Peterson, one of Falcor's owners

Their stable of products, which include a ripe and rich chardonnay and deep and full bodied reds such as zinfandel, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, sangiovese and syrah, are sourced from some of the best vineyards in Napa and other highly sought after California appellations.

I am particularly fond of their Bordeaux-like blend called Bijou.Recently, another blended wine from Falcor has caught my eye…er palate.

2006 Falcor Bilancia ($36) A blend of 57% Zinfandel, 33% Petit Sirah, 7% Charbono, 2% Carignan, and 1% Valdiguie, Bilancia is a textbook example of why vintners choose to blend. Round and rich flavors of dark fruits, mocha and spice are balanced by bright fruit and good acidity. With fall coming on, I would pair this wine with braised short ribs rubbed with garlic and black pepper and cooked in a bath of tomato sauce and red wine.

Italy
2008 Aia Vecchia Lagone ($19) What a find! This beauty from Bolgheri near the coast in Tuscany is Italy’s version of Bordeaux with a blend of merlot, cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, and sangiovese. Rich and velvety with ripe black cherry and cola flavors, the Lagone can be drunk now and will continue to benefit from aging for several years to come. I enjoyed this baby with eggplant stacked and layered on the grill with garden tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil.

Germany
2010 Noble House Sweet Red ($10) Some of us take wine seriously…too seriously. Noble House Sweet Red, made from dorfelder (a funny name, don’t you think?), will put a smile on your face! And it’s really not very sweet, but it is full of great cherry and red fruit flavors. It’s also a surprisingly good accompaniment to food. Serve it slightly chilled and enjoy it as an aperitif on the porch or at the picnic table with a burger or some pulled pork barbecue.

If you are a wine and food fanatic (and you wouldn’t be reading these words otherwise), you’ve got to love what Jim Justice has done in breathing new life into the Greenbrier Resort. Let’s face it, the grand old lady was slipping before he stepped up and rescued this venerable and historic resort.

By renovating the rooms and public places, constructing a very tasteful casino and developing a world-class golf tournament, Justice is working tirelessly to upgrade the resort with the goal of achieving five-star status.

With all due respect to the above-mentioned achievements, I am particularly impressed with the efforts to elevate the wine program and cuisine at the Greenbrier. In addition to the elegant Main Dining, Draper’s and Sam Snead’s at the Golf Club, the resort has added In-Fusion (a pan-Asian restaurant), The Forum (Italian) and Prime 44 West Steakhouse named after basketball great and state native Jerry West.

I’ve had the pleasure of dining at all of the establishments mentioned and I can tell you that particular attention is being paid to making sure that the wine lists are specifically tailored to the menus of the various restaurants. Why should that come as a surprise, you may ask?

Well, the range of complex dishes prepared at the various dining venues is stunning, and it would be so much more manageable to keep just one  well-rounded list and use it for each different restaurant.

But not at the Greenbrier. Through coordination and consultation among food and beverage president Jeremy Critchfield, executive Chef Richard Rosendale and director of wine Heath Porter, the resort is able to tailor each restaurant’s menu with wines that match and enhance the culinary focus. And, since the menus are regularly evolving, the wines are constantly changing.

So if you have not visited the resort recently, you should treat yourself and that special other person in your life to a little R&R at the Greenbrier. In fact, the resort is offering a few wine-oriented events this fall that should tickle your palate.

Trefethen Vineyards

Janet Trefethen, of the Napa Valley winery of the same name, will be at the Greenbrier on September 9 & 10. Trefethen Vineyards has been winning international acclaim since the 1970’s and features some of the most elegant cabernet sauvignon made in Napa. In fact, the winery provides the cabernet for Prime 44, the Jerry West signature label.

Jerry West and "Prime 44"

Ms. Trefethen is the matriarch of this family winery and will lead guests in a tasting on Friday, Sept. 9th from 5 to 6 p.m. ($50 per person). On Saturday at 6:30 p.m., Ms. Trefethen will join Jerry West and other guests in a special wine dinner at Prime 44 ($250 per person).

Talley Vineyards

Brian Talley of Talley Vineyards will be at the resort on Oct. 6th and 7th for a tasting and grand wine dinner. Talley Vineyards is located in the Arroyo Grande Valley
just south of San Luis Obispo in the heart of California’s Central Coast wine region. The winery focuses on chardonnay and pinot noir.

On Friday, Oct. 7, at 4:30 p.m., Brian Talley will lead a tasting featuring 6 wines including many single vineyard wines and older vintages ($40 per person). On Saturday at 6:30 p.m., join Talley and other guests for a special five-course dinner with six matching wines ($150 per person).

Qupe Vineyards

Bob Lindquist, winemaker of Qupe Vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley (just north of Santa Barbara) will showcase his wines on Friday, October 28 at 5 p.m.($50). Lindquist and Qupe focus on Rhone Valley varietals such as marsanne, viognier, grenache and syrah. Qupe is considered among the finest syrah producers in the US.

For further information on these tastings and other Greenbrier events, you may call 800-453-4858.

As a general rule, I avoid cooking indoors this time of year. It doesn’t make much sense to heat up the house by using the kitchen stove – let alone the oven – but that’s what I did last weekend to prepare one of my favorite seasonal go-to dishes.

The Italian side of my family calls the dish “Teala” (pronounced tee-A-luh). This superb casserole uses some of the freshest vegetables available from our gardens or the local farmer’s market, and combines them with herbs, cheese and spices to make a delicious all-in-one meal.

Teala was a summertime staple for many of us growing up in our Italian neighborhood of North View (in Clarksburg). In those days long ago, Howdy Doody ruled the airwaves, Sponge Bob was traveling salesman and Julia Child was a former spy who liked to cook.

Anyway, Teala was about the only way my mother could get me to eat veggies such as eggplant, zucchini or squash. And those are the primary constituents of the dish, along with potatoes, which are optional. As a matter of fact, Italians not only allow options, they encourage menu latitude which in turn precipitates heated arguments over who’s Teala is best. And, of course, that’s the idea.

So, today I am going to share my version of the dish my mother, grandmother and aunts prepared (each one differently). Most used potatoes (I don’t), some refused to use tomatoes and others disdained the use of hot peppers, onions or bread crumbs. This then allowed them to debate the merits of each Teala iteration endlessly.

Wherever they are at this moment, I know they’re all ready to pounce, but here’s my take on Teala which, by the way, can be paired wonderfully well with sauvignon blanc such as St. Supery from Napa. The dish would also marry nicely with a medium-bodied, spicy red like Marques de Caceres Rioja.

Excellent choice with Teala

Teala

2 medium sized zucchinis, peeled and cut into 1/8 inch thick rounds
2 medium sized yellow squash cut into 1/8 inch thick rounds
2 medium eggplants, peeled and cut into 1/8 inch thick rounds
1 medium sized onion cut into thin vertical slices
1 hot (or mild) banana pepper cut into vertical slices
1 sweet red pepper cut into vertical slices
1 small bunch of parsley and one handful of basil chopped together
4 cloves of minced garlic
1 third cup of unseasoned bread crumbs
1 half cup of grated pecorino-romano cheese
4 ounces extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon each of salt and freshly ground black pepper

DRIZZLE a bit of the olive oil on the bottom of a casserole dish and rub all over
LAYER the eggplant to cover the bottom of the dish
TOP with salt, pepper, herbs, onions, garlic, peppers, bread crumbs, cheese and oil
LAYER zucchini and repeat the step above
LAYER yellow squash and repeat toppings
REPEAT above until the casserole is full
TOP layer should be drizzled only with olive oil, salt, pepper and cheese
COVER with aluminum foil and place in a 375F oven
BAKE for 1 hour 15 minutes covered and last 15 minutes uncovered
ALLOW Teala to rest for 20 minutes before serving

WineBoy is dead….long live WineBoy ! Well, he’s not actually dead, but he is in transition as this Gazette Community Blog has been renamed Vines & Vittles.

Why, you ask? For those of you who have followed WineBoy from its inception in January 2007, you will remember that it was first and foremost a webcast that allowed me (in the guise of WineBoy) to create several characters who had their own unique views about wine appreciation.

The WineBoy webcasts were produced by the Gazette and shown on this site for a little more than a year before they became too time-consuming for the newspaper to continue in light of the increasing demand for hard news video.

Since the demise of the webcast, this blog has continued to provide you with written information on wine and food, but without the weirdly insightful, sometimes outrageous and always wacky opinions of my alter-egos: Wine Astrologist Marcrazi Umberto Lupini, the Right Reverend Red N. White, English nobleman and wine critic Sir Reginald Winesot Clydesdale, Frenchman Pierre N’Cest Pas (wine cynic) and Cowboy Oenophile Spud Dumplin.

I am in the process of developing a website where I hope to reprise the WineBoy characters and archive many of the older webcasts. In addition, I will move my blogs to that site after they appear here first. I’ll let you know when my new website is up and running and hopefully you’ll be able to view some of my WineBoy webcasts as well as some new ones I’ll be creating.

Vines & Vittles (I know… the proper spelling is “victuals”) more accurately describes where my emphasis is with this blog, and I’ll continue to provide you with my take on wine and how food makes the beverage we all love so much better. Nothing here will change except the name of the blog.

So today, I’ll lift a glass to WineBoy and those intrepid characters who made telling you about wine so much more fun than it should have been.

*****
Wine and Roses Fundraiser

The Roark-Sullivan Lifeways Center (RSLC) is a very special organization with a great group of dedicated employees and volunteers. The center assists individuals experiencing homelessness with services that help them become self-reliant.

For the past several years, RSLC has been hosting a fund raising event at Capitol Market called “Wine and Roses.” Wouldn’t it be great to help programs like Roark-Sullivan and enjoy good wine and gourmet food, too?

Well, you can! Join me and other wine lovers at the Roark-Sullivan Lifeways Center Wine and Roses event. Wine and Roses will be held indoors at the Capitol Market from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 4.

Area wine distributors and locally owned Napa Valley winery, Falcor, are donating the wines. And believe me, there will be exceptional wines available for your sipping pleasure from all over the world. In addition, there will be an assortment of gourmet appetizers you can pair with the wines.

I’ll be there to answer your wine questions and chat about the tasty treats we’re sipping. And, hey, if you find a wine you like, you can stroll right over and purchase it immediately from the nice folks at the Wine Shop.
Tickets are $35 and you can get them at the door or by call RSLC at 304-414-0109 . You may use your credit card or send a check to: RSLC, P.O. Box 1707, Charleston, WV, 25326.

I hope to see you there.

I have been on an Italian wine kick recently, sipping my way through all manner of vino and loving every second. It started with an Italian family wedding where the food was matched with fiascos of wine, including many hailing from that boot-shaped peninsula.

It kept on going when my brother, who thinks he is innately blessed with a sommelier’s palate, paid us an extended visit and proceeded to drink his way through my now depleted cellar. To be fair, he did share a few of his vinous treasures – most of them older Barlos and Brunellos – so I shouldn’t complain too much (but I am).

Don’t get the impression, however, that we focused only on reds. No siree, we sipped everything from pinot grigio and arneis in the north to verdicchio and grillo down south. In addition, we tasted a whole lot of other whites and reds in between to accompany the prodigious quantities of food we prepared and consumed.

As I waddle around here now in self-imposed detox, I’d like to share with you some Italian wine suggestions, particularly bottles that pair well with the lighter-styled foods of summer. The versatility of these wines insures that, while they certainly do well with Italian dishes, you can match them with just about any cuisine.

All the wines recommended below are available in selected wine shops around the state. Oh, and be sure to pop the reds in the fridge for about half an hour before serving them. So here you go.

2010 Falesco Vitiano Bianco ($13)– This Umbrian lovely is made from equal parts of verdicchio and vermetino (a grape mostly grown in Sardinia). It is chock full of ripe green apple flavors with tones of minerality. Nicely balanced and refreshing, the wine would be an exceptional match to Salad Nicoise.

2010 Zenato Pinot Grigio ($14) – This is an atypical version of pinot grigio that, while delicate, exhibits a fruit forward richness and roundness in the mouth with an almost viognier-like aroma. This wine would be great to sip alongside a portobello mushroom, scallion, chevre and ham omelet.

2009 Mastroberardino Sannio Falanghina ($18) – I know the name is a mouthful, but so is the wine with a nose of anise and stones along with ripe pear flavors. This is a spicy white from southern Italy that you could very successfully match with steamed clams.

2008 Zenato Valpolicella Superiore ($18) – One look at this deeply colored wine and you think it has to be a ripasso (check out my last post) but it’s not. Still, this valpolicella is richly textured and at the same time refreshingly balanced with loads of black cherry and cola flavors. It would be great with grilled chicken basted with garlic, olive oil, rosemary, lemon and coarsely ground black pepper.

2007 Prunotto Dolcetto d’Alba ($19) – This is a wonderfully refreshing lighter-textured red from Piedmont in northern Italy that constantly flies under the radar with consumers. With flavors of raspberries and cherries and excellent balancing acidity, this is a wine to accompany brats, Italian sausage or burgers on the grill.

2009 Prunotto Barbera D’Asti (($17) I’m a big fan of barbera and this one is full of plums and blackberries with great balance and a long finish. It also has some tannin that would allow it to continue to age with grace for a couple more years. Try it now with cappellini in a sauce of fresh tomatoes, basil, garlic and pecorino romano.

Enjoy!

'07 Allegrini Pallazzo Della Torre

With summertime upon us, it is logical for most of us to sip lighter  whites such as pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc, riesling or a whole host of other refreshing wines. It’s also common for us to drink lighter-styled reds and even chill them a little before consuming them.

One of the best lighter-textured reds is Valpolicella. Produced from the relatively obscure corvina, rondinalla and molinara grapes, this red wine can be a very pleasant sipper and an excellent accompaniment to barbecue and other warm weather foods.

Today, however, in keeping with my annoying practice of taking a literary detour, I am not going to expound on the virtues of this lighter style wine. But I am going to discuss Valpolicella, and what happens to this timid quaff when a process called ripasso is employed during  wine making.  And, I’m also going to recommend the best wine I’ve ever tasted that uses the ripasso method.

To make a ripasso, new Valpolicella wine is refermented by combining it with the pressings or pomace from Amarone (which is essentially Valpolicella on steroids), and sometimes with the addition of dried raisined grapes.

The resulting ripasso wine is considerably darker and fuller bodied than Valpolicella, but not as powerful as Amarone. The ripasso process was invented in the early 1960’s by the well-respected Valpolicella producer Masi.

Recently, I had the pleasure of renewing my acquaintance with Allegrini Pallazo Della Torre. The 2007 version of this wine could be the best ripasso-style Valpolicella ($25) I have ever tasted.

Bursting with ripe, dark plum and blackberry flavors, a nose of cola and cherries and with bracing acidity, this wine is tour de force (that means good in Cajun’). I paired the wine with grilled rack of lamb that had been marinated in olive oil, Dijon mustard, garlic, coarsely ground black pepper and lemons. Yummy!

In addition to Allegrini and Masi, other ripasso producers to look for are Zenato, Bertani, Tommasi, Farina, Righetti and Mazzi.
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Excellent Food and Wine App

I’m always looking for new food and wine pairings to spice up my usually mundane existence and to give me something to look forward to at the end of busy work day. And, while there are literally millions of combinations from which to choose, there are literally millions of combinations from which to choose!

So, wouldn’t it be great if there was some quick “go-to” way to make your wine buying decisions easier? And, it sure would be nice to find a complimentary dish to accompany that wine selection too.

Well, a new free mobile application can do just that!

I have pointed you in the past to the website of wine writer Natalie MacLean  (www.nataliemaclean.com) who devotes her life to helping us make wine selection decisions a lot easier. Her new mobile app will also help you pair that wine with a complimentary food too.

With the “Wine Picks & Pairings app” you can use your Smartphone camera to snap a picture of any bottle label bar code in the wine shop and get tasting notes, scores, and food pairings too. Pretty cool!

Natalie is a certified sommelier and an accomplished wine writer who knows how to provide concise and easy to understand information on the sometimes arcane world of wine and food. Check out her app.

When I first started getting serious about wine, Chablis was the generic term for any white, particularly those mass produced vinous products that were bottled in half or full gallon jugs. No one knew anything about varietal labeling or even that there were different types of grapes that produced different types of wine.

If it was white it was Chablis and if it was red it was Burgundy. Anything that sparkled was simply Champagne.

That’s all you needed to know. And if you drank wine in public places, people sipping martinis or chugging cold ones looked down their noses at you as if to suggest you join others of your ilk under the Southside Bridge.

But when wine began to become somewhat acceptable, those same cocktail snobs became wine snobs and the game was on.

It became “tres avant-garde” to squeeze in next to someone at the local beer garden and proclaim for all the world to hear: “I’ll just have a glass of Chablis.” So what if the bartender had to reach with both hands under the bar for the humongous jug, and then struggle to get some of the stuff into the glass.

We were so cosmopolitan!

Of course, none of us knew the composition of the wine back then, (nor did we care) and most of us were just happy not to gag on the swill that passed for wine. When I recall those days, my embarrassment is only somewhat tempered by the realization that our casual misuse of the terms Chablis, Burgundy and Champagne made the French completely insane.

Where am I going with this? Well, in the past month I have had the pleasure of sipping some excellent “real” Chablis. Of course, Chablis is an appellation and a region within Burgundy where the primary wine-producing grape is Chardonnay.

Wines produced in Chablis are generally more austere than chardonnay made in the more famous areas of Burgundy (i.e. Puligny-Montrachet, Corton Charlemagne, etc.), but they are considerably more reasonably priced.

The wines are steely textured with exceptional minerality and usually have a big dollop of acidity to balance out the richness of chardonnay. In good vintages such as 2008, Chablis can continue to improve in bottle for a decade or more.

The two wines I tasted were both very closed in at first and required about 30 minutes to open up. They also had bracing acidity and were not wines you could easily sit down and sip as an aperitif. Both wines definitely require food, but once paired with an appropriate dish (in this instance pan sautéed cod), they showed their complexity and ability to marry seamlessly to the meal.

These Chablis should be readily available and priced under $30 a bottle. The 2008 Gilbert Picq Chablis is more lean and austere than the 2008 Joseph Drouhin Vaudon Chablis Premier Cru. I would advise cellaring both since I am convinced they will develop over a period of years into fuller, richer versions of what they are right now.

Good golly! I spent a good part of last week in our nation’s capitol where the temperature was a sizzling 98 degrees. And while I perspired my way through a few business meetings, I knew, at the end of the day I would be sipping some lovely beverages. I did just that and then enjoyed an anniversary dinner at my favorite DC restaurant .

Washington is a very underrated food town, and that’s a shame because the city just brims with a bevy of eateries that rival establishments in some of the more recognized culinary burgs such as New York City, Chicago and San Francisco.

My absolute favorite dining address is the Obelisk Restaurant on P Street in northwest Washington. There is no sign on the unimposing building housing the small one room Tuscan restaurant, but once you’ve experienced the food, you’ll always find your way back for more.

The four-course prix fixe menu is $70 a person, but it is worth every cent and more. The wine list is very small, but well selected with an excellent sampling from Tuscany. Before the meal began, we were treated to four appetizers that were so good it was hard to imagine that the courses to come could be any better. They weren’t…but they were just as good!

How about these little ditties for starters: imported Italian Burrata  (a fresh cheese made from mozzarella and cream) with extra virgin olive oil, thinly sliced smoked duck breast with black cherries, fried, stuffed baby artichokes and cheese-stuffed zucchini flowers.

The meal that followed included porcini ravioli with a sage butter sauce, black bass with peppers and fennel, and lamb chops with sweet onions and rapini. A cheese course and dessert capped off the meal. A bottle of 1999 Podere Brizio Brunello Di Montalcino was liquid silk and a perfect match for the ravioli, lamb, appetizers and cheese course.

Next time you’re in DC, I really hope your give the Oblelisk a try, but you’ll need to call for reservations ((202 872-1180).
…

Warm weather does cause me to alter my usual reliance on red wine as the go-to meal accompaniment. Instead of my usual practice of sipping a glass of white as an aperitif, I am using these cooling beverages with the lighter-styled foods gracing the table at Chez Brown.

I am particularly fond of Soave, the Italian white from the Veneto. If you are one of the many out there who view Soave as an unworthy alternative to the more famous white varietals such as pinot grigio, you might wish to try these two wines.

Anselmi San Vincenzo Soave

2009 Anselmi San Vincenzo ($16) – This Soave is comprised of about 80 percent garganega, 15 percent chardonnay and 5 percent trebbiano. Fuller-bodied than most Soave’s, the San Vincenzo is full of ripe apple and vanilla custard flavors with a crisp, balanced finish. I sipped this baby recently with a smoked chicken Cesar salad.

2009 Re Midas Soave ($12) – This bottling is a more traditional lighter-styled Soave with a slightly grassy aroma followed by melon, lemon and almond flavors. It finishes with a little zing of acidity making it a great match with pasta salad sauced with basil

Adding my voice to the overwhelming chorus of satisfied visitors to Café Cimino might seem a bit trite, but a recent meal at this venerable West Virginia Bed and Breakfast is among the best I have ever experienced and I want to share it with you.

I am no stranger to over-the-top, multi-course, belly-expanding meals accompanied by flagons of wine where mile walks between courses are necessary for diners to safely consume the prodigious quantities of food and drink presented.

So when Café Cimino proprietors Tim and Melody Urbanic asked me to discuss the attributes of the wines selected for a nine-course meal they were planning, I immediately flashed back to several very unpleasant experiences I have had trying to eat and drink everything put in front of me at such bacchanalian extravaganzas over the years.

Tim and Melody Urbanic

These days, I am trying to transition from gourmand to gourmet (even though I know I’m kidding myself) so the thought of testing my will power to exercise restraint when offered a multi-course Italian food and wine feast was- at the very least -daunting. But hey, sometimes you just have to suck it up and do what you do best.

I have had the pleasure of dining at Café Cimino on several occasions so I knew going in that Chef Tim and sous chef (and son ) Eli are masters at extracting maximum flavor from their culinary creations with just the right size portions. Still, this was to be a marathon meal with accompanying wines from Barolo in the region of Piedmont of northwest Italy.

The Wines
Nestled in the northwest corner of Italy in the shadow of the Alps, Piedmont is home to perhaps the most revered of all Italian wines – Barolo.  The grape from which Barolo (a town and region) is made is nebbiolo. For a wine to be labeled Barolo, it must be made in the geographical confines of the government-designated appellation. In addition, Barolo must be aged for two years in oak barrels and one year in the bottle before it can be released for sale. Barolo can range in price from about $40 to several hundred dollars a bottle, and can continue to improve in the bottle for decades.

The Barolo of Viberti Buon Padre

For our dinner, we were treated to a six-bottle vertical tasting (1993-1998) of wines from the Buon Padre Vineyard of Giovanni Viberti. Established in the 1920’s, the Barolo of Giovanni Viberti is produced in a very traditional manner with a focus on the vineyard site and farming the grapes to achieve the Viberti style. The wines were provided by one of Tim and Melody’s friends who asked them to put a special Piedmont-inspired dinner together that would accompany the Viberti Barolo.

Five lucky couples began the culinary odyssey at 3 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon with an aperitif of Carneros chardonnay to warm up our palates. I had arrived a couple hours before and decanted the six Buon Padre Barolos into crystal decanters. I’ve discovered over the years that Barolo, particularly wines less than 20 years old, truly benefit from the aeration that decanting provides, allowing the wines to open up and demonstrate their complex layers of aroma and flavor. In addition to the Barolo vertical, some diners contributed a 2009 nebbiolo, a 1978 Barbaresco (both wines from Piedmont) and a 2005 Barolo to the meal.

Then the feast began…. and continued for five glorious hours. We enjoyed our final (cheese course) on the lovely porch of Café Cimino. For those of you who have never experienced a multi-course meal with accompanying wines, I’m sure you’re wondering how we all felt at the conclusion of this epic journey. Actually, quite well thank you. And anyway, we all spent the night in the delightfully comfortable digs of Cafe Cimino.

The Menu

1st Course
Bagna Cauda~ Warm Herbed Olive Oil & Garlic Dip With Grissini~ Breadsticks
Tocco Prosecco

2nd Course
Cream of Asparagus Soup
2009 Elio Grasso Nebbiolo

3rd Course
Old World Gnocchi~ with Gorgonzola Sauce infused with Chamomile Grappa
1994 Buon Padre Barolo

4th Course
Intermezzo~ Chilled Sliced Cucumber with Mascarpone & Strawberry

5th Course
Rabbit Cacciatore
1995 Buon Padre Barolo

Veal main course with the '93 and'97 Buon Padre

6th Course
Veal Stuffed with Salami Rustico, Polenta with Truffles & Asparagus finished with Roasted Garlic and Grana Pandana
1993 and 1997 Buon Padre Barolo

7th Course
Baby Lettuces w/ dried Fruits, Toasted Pine Nuts & 18 year old Balsamic
1996 Buon Padre Barolo

8th Course
House-made Chocolate Tartufo with Bing Cherry center, Hazelnuts & Cream
1999 Guerrieri Rizzardi Vin Santo

9th Course
Assorted Cheeses from the Piedmont Region of Italy
1998 Buon Padre Barolo and 1978 Borgono Barbaresco

The Verdict
Guilty on all counts – of succumbing to the culinary artistry of Tim and Eli, the gracious hospitality of Melody and the wine making virtuosity of the Viberti family.

I’m easily bored. Whether that’s a sign of a sterile imagination or an attention deficit disorder, I will admit that I am always searching for new experiences to stimulate me. Heck, maybe I need a curiosity transplant.

Anyway, that’s probably why I’m obsessed with wine and food where there are endless opportunities to feed my insatiable appetite for variety. It’s hard to be bored with a subject that can never be fully explored.

So when I’m tired of a particular wine or dish and the blahs are about to take hold, I simply close my eyes, imagine a map of the civilized world and select a place where I know the eatin’ and drinkin’ will be (as we say here in the Kanawha Valley) Spay-shull !

How about Provence in southern France?

While Provence is not as well known for its wines as say Bordeaux, Burgundy or Champagne, you may be assured that vines grown in this beautiful and topographically diverse landscape produce some excellent bottles.

Several years ago, I visited the area and actually spent a week in a small village, Menerbes, which was made famous by a PBS Television series entitled: “A Year In Provence.” The series was a film adaptation of a book by the same name written by Peter Mayle.

Anyway, my daily sojourns into the Provencal countryside yielded not only excellent wines, but also delicious regional foods, including a plethora of wonderful cheeses, fruits, and vegetables along with excellent lamb as well as seafood fresh from the Mediterranean.

The most prestigious wine of Provence, and also the most expensive, is Chateuauneuf Du Pape, a full-bodied red that has excellent aging potential. But you don’t have to spend more than $10 to $20 a bottle to get a truly excellent wine. Red wines from Provence are characterized by peppery, spicy, dark fruit flavors and they pair especially well with roasted meats and grilled vegetables.

There have been an incredible string of good to superlative vintages in Provence and the Rhone region over the past decade, particularly from 1998 through 2009. In fact, the excellent wines of 2007 are now being eclipsed by the spectacular 2009 vintage.

The ubiquitous red grape of the region is grenache which is blended with the more famous syrah, along with other lesser known varieties, to produce Chateauneuf Du Pape and the other reds of Provence.

After the producer’s name on the label, the wines are also identified by the villages near where the vines are grown. The most famous of these are Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Beaumes-de-Venise (famous for white dessert wine) and Tavel.

In fact, some the world’s best rose is produced in Tavel.  Wines from Provence called Cotes Du Rhone,  made from both white and red grapes, are readily available and worth seeking out since they represent value and quality.

Some wines of Chateauneuf Du Pape

While red is still king in Provence and the Rhone, the whites can be very good too. Some of the more famous whites grown in Provence are viognier, marsanne and roussanne. These whites can be medium to full-flavored and match up well to the area’s excellent seafood and dishes such as Bouillabaisse.

Visit your local wine shop and have them point you to the wines of Provence. They’re guaranteed to cure the blahs!