Salute Fellow Wine Drinkers,
Monday was our last day in Florence. Siobhan felt the obvious need to add to her ever increasing european wardrobe and then we headed to the wonderful Enoteca to go through some samplings of sparkling wines and reds by Zeno the part owner and sommelier.
Before partaking of the red wines, some food in the tummy was required. A clever cold stack of deep fried thin pasta circles, with wafer thin eggplant, tomato and cheese, compiled into a small tower and drizzles with passato and oil - delicious
We tried three sparkling made of 100 % Chardonnay in the Loire method champagnoire - molto bene !!!!!
Then onto the reds. The area of Toscana (Tuscany) of which Florence is part, is particularly famous for their chianti - and not the chianti we often get at home. This is 100% Sangiovese grapes and it is Delish !! Like we export our crap wine like Jacobs Creek to the world market, the bulk chianti makers export there many millions of cheap chianti also onto the same market. In those situations, chianti can be made up of some Sangiovese grapes but also what will be added will be merlot, and cabernet sauvignon grapes, whatever is available to bulk out the wine.
We tried a number of examples of seriously good gear made by small local producers often making no more than 2000 to 7000 bottles per year. All produced manually , handpicked and possibly foot stomped, but let's not go there shall we, as I would hate to have to describe a wine as being one of strong tannins, long on the palate with an after taste of tinnea !!!!
We spent a wonderful couple of hours with Zeno and early on in the piece a couple of WA gents blew in and raucously introduced themselves to everyone. "G'day Love- are youse from Orstraylya?" in the flattest vowels sounds you would hear this side of Nullabor! These guys made Paul Hogan sound like Prince Charles ! They had just been to "Chinka Terror" and thought it was ace! A cultural cringe moment to say the least.
In addition to ourselves inside this lovely establishment were two Bostonians with whom we started to chat over ggod wine, the reason for our respective holidays and how lovely Florence was. Mike and Lynne were celebrating their wedding anniversary in style and had just hit Florence after having been to Venice and Bologna. I suspect that Mike and Lynne were rather taken with this chianti gear as a couple of orders were placed and this was even before they were to set off for a day in the actual Chianti region!! Siobhan and I showed our usual restraint when it comes to holiday and wine and brought only two cases! Viv, Denise, Craig and Rob we would love to share a precious bottle of this stuff with you when we get home.
We were having such a great time that we decided to meet for dinner at a restaurant that Zeno recommended. Mike and Lynne are not your sterero typical Americans- for a start they totally understood our reservations about the attitudes of Americans from the "flyover states" and showed an interest in what happens beyond their country's own borders which is not something you find often with most Americans. I realize I could be accused of stereotyping here but that has always been my experience.
We headed to a restaurant called Olyervera's and folks it was simply stunning. Set in a tiny side street called via Dell Terme, it is a low ground floor restaurant with the most beautiful vaulted ceilings. Done out in white washed walls and the beautiful refind use of polished dark timber framing the archway doors and picture railings, the floor was beautiful parquetry. The seats were a soft buff leather and dark wood trim, the tablecloths crisp and white. The food was simple but exquisite ( a lightly breadcrumbed & deep fried whole poached egg - soft and goohey inside served with crisp asparagus and a deconstructed hollandaise sauce with a slight aniseed tinge- bellisimo) That was entree and then a homemade spaghettini with garlic, roasted cherry tomatoes and fresh basil for main. Superb. The wine were two bottles recommended to Mike by our collective new best friend , Zeno which were sublime. To finish ( though two at the table also had dessert and it wasn't Mike or me) We had Limoncello though Lynne valiantly drank a free grappa from our persuasive maitre de who insisted that perhaps her previous forays into grappa were not successful because she had not had a good one- we don't think she was convinced.
Then in an act of overwhelming generosity, Mike insisted on paying for our meal . We were both flabbergasted as it was an act of such kindness and so unexpected. We hope that they make the trip to Australia some time so that we may repay the kindness. Mike is an avid sports nut and goes to all the football games ( college and professional) and guess what, footy crew, he pays $90 for his car park at the footy!!!!!! They call it tailgating and they set up and have bbq's in the car park before the game. $90 and that's even before you pay for the tickets to see the damn game!! Anyhow, I am going to put him onto AFL and get him to watch the coming grand final as he will be back in Boston by then so he will be able to watch it on cable. He hasn't seen the game so he may find it interesting.
We finished what was a lovely day and evening in what is a most beautiful city. Venice and Rome will have to pick up their game if they want to win the title of most favored City!!!
A call out to Margaret, stay well and think positive thoughts!!
Go Team and All Pray for a Colingwood defeat. I intend to light a candle at the Milan Duomo to call on some help for a strategic injury to Daisy or Swan.........
Kelly & Siobhan xx
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