I'm a bit late with the final post for April's wine club, April was busy at Bluebird. If you've been in and seen the changes hopefully the delay in the newsletter will make sense. This Thursday marks 7 years for us at the Bluebird and as intense as April was with a lot of changes, I couldn't be more positive and excited for things to come. I will have May's wine club stocked in your bins- tomorrow (tuesday) morning. Before I get ahead of myself - April's Peacock wine selection...
We are staying in the PIedmont region for the 2017 Villadoria 'del comune di Seralunga d'Alba' Barolo. Daniele Lanzavecchia was born in 1887 and worked the land his whole life. He is/was descibed as a determined and intelligent young man and he had a dream of making wine. Pietro Lanzavecchia, Daniele's son, was born in 1920 after the Great War left its "painful mark." Pietro shared his fathers passion for wine-he studied Agriculture at university and understood the land that is the Langa. The Villadoria wine estate-located on the Serralunga hills- was set up in 1959. Pietro's son Daniele and his daughter Paola currently manage the company.
Doing research for this wine I appreciate (again) what it takes to put some grape juice in a bottle and make it amazing. Part of the cool factor is the story behind the wine. This family understands that Nebbiolo grows really great there and the wine maker tames the "vegetative vigour and production potential". The grapes are harvested by hand, destemmed and crushed gently. It spends 25 to 28 days on the skins. It is aged for a minimum of 18 months in Slavonian oak barrels and finished in tanks for a total of 38 months. The website recommends this wine is best after 4 years from harvest......but "will unwind in the cellar for at 25 years.
The color of this wine is a lovely garnet color, and it's not often I notice the color of a wine. After swirling it in my glass the nose was very expressive; cherries, slight rosy flavors, opening up to a rustic earthiness. Dark cherries are persistent throughtout this wine. The tannis are firm but the wine is creamy and luscious on the pallet.
Some #foodporn to give you inspiration for what to drink with this wine club selection next time you come. Chef brought back the Tomahawk steak we ran as a special in February for valentines month. This baby is about 32 ounces of prime rib #getinmybelly goodness. It is served with Chef Snacks - Roasted, smashed fingerling potatoes, veal demi-glace and frizzed shallots, and roasted carrots with miso butter.
This wine would go great with the reimagined Spinach Dip. Same ingredients as before-just served up a lil' bit "fresher'?
Better late than never keep rolling around in my head with this last April wine club selection. In retrospect April was a blur and there were a lot of big changes here at The Bird. I'm signing off and will literally be stocking the bins with your May wine club selections. All the while, thinking and starting to plan for June wine club and thinking about the great food pairings for your May wine club selections. May is Oregon wine month and I'm really excited for you all to try the unique and delicious selections I found from Oregon. I'll get the selections out in my next post and I will roll out some more information sooner than later.