How can you not love Italian food and wine? After our Argentinean excursion Saturday night Pris and I decided to head east for our next selection. We planned out the week's menu and decided on an Italian themed steak dish for dinner Sunday. As it happened we also picked another Italian meal for later in the week, but decided to make it Monday night since we already had the wine to go with it. Dinner Sunday was sirloin and caprese salad served over rigatoni and drizzled with pesto. On Monday it was Italian sausage with tomatoes, garlic, mushrooms, and zucchini served over pre-made polenta. That was the recipe, but next time I'll make the polenta from scratch. Its a little more work, but its got a little more oomph. So to go with these simple, but fine dishes, Pris selected a 2009 Collezione de Paolo Chianti that came from the Wall Street Journal Wine Club.
The Chianti was very light and fruity with accents of raspberry and a touch of oak on the nose. On the palate this wine was still all light fruit. The Collezione de Paolo Chianti went fantastically with the steak and caprese salad. The lightness of the wine was a great counter-point to the richness of the steak and pesto. Even Monday night's meal worked with the fine light wine. The sausage polenta dish was considerably lighter than the steak, and the Chianti complimented the lightness of the meal. Taken together, it was a great comparison of a wine working in two different ways to augment a great (if I say so myself) dining experience.
The 2009 Collezione de Paolo Chianti sells for $16 a bottle on the Wall Street Journal Wine Club site. If you buy in bulk the price per bottle goes down. If you enjoy cooking a lot of Italian food, or want a good wine to compliment lighter food pairings and salads, this is a great choice. To order the wine, or learn more about it you can visit: http://www.wsjwine.com/jsp/product/productDetails.jsp?productId=prod50070
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