Tag: wine

After the wine comes the "late harvest" coffee – Italian Cuisine

Nespresso launches Colombia Master Origin, the coffee left to mature for a long time on the plant: sweeter, with notes of red fruits and candied fruit. The starred chef Tommaso Arrigoni tried it for us with a recipe

In wine the late harvest is used to produce wines that are sweeter, less acidic and have a more intense flavor. The same thing is done today with coffee, a new tradition that Nespresso has developed together with a few select farmers and agronomists of the Colombian Federation of Farmers. The result is a sweet and lively coffee, with hints of red, fresh and dried fruit, red raisins, apple, candied fruit and biscuits.

What means late collection

Instead of harvesting the ripe Arabica Colombiana cherries, the growers leave them on the plants longer to allow the coffee cherries to develop a unique taste. This coffee is produced in the northern Andean regions of Santander and Tolima, areas known for sweet and delicate coffees due to particularly high altitudes, and is made with Arabica Castillo, one of the rare varieties of Arabica coffee that can ripen remaining attached to the branch, receiving maximum nutrients from the plant and allowing the aromas to develop better. There late collection it is a very unusual practice in the coffee world, difficult and laborious, as well as risky: if the cherries are harvested too late, the coffee takes on a fermented taste and the entire crop is lost. Plant control requires aabsolute attention, practically every 48 hours each plant is inspected in search of the cherries at the right point of ripeness. When the set maturation rate is reached, the cherry becomes darker (red-violet) and develops vinous and red berry aroma: only at that point, the manual berry harvest takes place.

Colombia Master Origin

The difference with a normal crop is only a few days and that is why a few selected coffee farmers, in collaboration with Nespresso and the agronomists of the Colombian Farmers Federation, have developed a protocol that defines exactly the steps to follow for late harvesting. . The result is unprecedented in the coffee industry: the new Colombia Master Origin of Nespresso, a coffee with notes of fresh and dried or candied red fruits (blackcurrant and cranberries), dried red currants and red apples.

The pairing? The chef tells us

The Michelin-starred chef Tommaso Arrigoni of the Innocenti Evasioni restaurant in Milan, tried it for us and combined it with a special recipe: Iberian pork pin, celeriac with rosemary, fennel confit and lemon zest.

The wine of the week: Primitivo di Manduria sweet natural 2017 Varvaglione 1921 – Italian Cuisine

In Puglia, old vineyards in alberello, the sea and the sirocco wind give a sweet red wine of great charm

A glass of wine tells many stories. It speaks of a territory, of a vine, of a specific productive culture. And then he speaks, so much, also of those who produce it. Chicca, for example, tells of Francesca, a young woman who is completing her studies in enology in Udine, the youngest of the Varvaglione boys and the last one who still has to graduate. The other two, Marzia is Angel, already working in the company, alongside his father Cosimo and mother's Maria Teresa, and represent the fourth generation of a family that produces wine for almost a century.

«My husband wanted to dedicate a wine to each member of our family, says Maria Teresa (her is Primadonna, a chardonnay aged in wood with ample and generous aromas). «Il Chicca, the only Varvaglione company label to be protected by Docg, is a Primitivo di Manduria … Sweet and natural like you.

We are at Leporano, a handful of kilometers from Taranto, in the heart of the production area of this dark berry vine, which is the most famous of Puglia and which also appeals to Americans and Chinese. Here the vineyards grow again to sapling, an ancient system of breeding that resists in some areas of Southern Italy. The plants are low, twisted and very, very old. The sea is very close and the sirocco wind, which blows to the ground, brings so much salinity to the land. Just this salt, this scent of sea, is found in the wines produced by Varvaglione and gives the Chicca a burst of flavor. The sweet part is instead entrusted to the long maturation of the grapes, which are left on the plant until they begin to dry, so the water evaporates and the sugars are concentrated. The result is an almost chewing red, which smells of cherry, ripe plum and black currant; the short aging in wood enriches it with a light spicy note, which adds a little complexity to a glass that you drink with ease and pleasure, at the end of dinner or in combination with a blue cheese platter.

Why now: It's perfect for after dinner in front of the fireplace.

As did: after the harvest, which takes place between the beginning and mid-October, the vinification takes place with a long maceration of the grapes at a controlled temperature, which stops spontaneously at 15 degrees alcohol. The wine then ages in 10 hectolitre barrels for about 8 months.

To combine with: sweets made with almonds, chocolate, blue cheeses.

Serve it to: 12-14 ° C

Price: 15 euros

varvaglione.com

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The wine of the week: Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classic Superior 2017 La Staffa – Italian Cuisine

Borrowing the title of Ben Stiller's film, "Young, Cute and Unemployed," we must say that instead Riccardo Baldi he is young, cute and very busy. Just 28 years ago, in fact, part of that nouvelle vague district of the Castles of Jesi that he is doing all he can to bring back the Verdicchio at the levels of excellence and fame it deserves. A commitment born in 2009, when he abandoned his university studies in Economics and Commerce and chose to take care of the small estate acquired by his father, in 2004. Curious, stubborn and sensitive, he immediately produced wines that liked and collected prizes, until arriving in 2018 on the pages of "The New York Times", reported as the producer of one of the best 20 wines in the world under 20 dollars.
Most of the vineyards are located around the winery, in the district of Castellaretta, in the municipality of Staffolo, about 400 meters above sea level. The processing goes far beyond the organic certification and is based on a careful study of soil and plants, aimed at understanding how to minimize the use of copper. Riccardo's attentions continue in the cellar, where grapes are processed with respect, naturalness and with a maniacal research that, since 2016, has led him, for example, to use only indigenous yeasts for vinification. The Staffa includes 12 hectares of vineyard for a production of about 50,000 bottles a year. Today Verdicchio products are three, two reserves and this "base" wine that, as also underlined by "The New York Times", is one of the best Italian white wines for quality / price ratio. It is an elegant and savory wine, with a measured body and delicate aromas of broom and hay flowers, which make it a great companion to the table. You can drink immediately, but the advice is to make a good stock, because after a few years in the bottle is even more amazing.

Why now: the bottles produced are just under 40,000, but now that it has been discovered by the Americans it could become untraceable.
As did: fermentation in steel and cement tanks, refining on the lees in cement tanks for about three months; it is a cuvée of several vineyards, planted between 1972 and 2010 on clayey-calcareous soils, with an important component of calcium carbonate, which gives the unmistakable saline footprint to the wines of La Staffa.
To combine with: fish appetizers, first courses of land, second courses of fish, fresh cheeses.

Serve it at: 8-10 ° C.
Price: 10 euros.
vinilastaffa.it

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