Brunello and my dad

My dad's favorite wine was Brunello di Montalcino. That's not a specific wine; rather it refers to dry red wines made from sangiovase grapes in the Montalcino region of Italy. My family is Italian, and dad liked a nice dry Italian red.

He and a friend of his made a pact: If my dad died first, he would leave his friend a case of the friend's favorite wine (Dom Perignon champagne). If my dad's friend died first, he would leave my dad a case of Brunello.

I was always curious about Brunello because it wasn't until after my dad passed away that I even began to develop a taste for dry reds. I do wish that he and I could discuss wines and enjoy them together; it's an interest that we both shared, but at different times in our lives.

I looked into buying a Brunello from time to time, just to try and see what my dad's fuss was about, but those baby's aren't cheap. Brunello tends to start around $80-90 a bottle and they go up from there.

This week, I received an email from my favorite wine shop, advertising a sale on a great Brunello. The description was:

The 1009 Brunello di Montalcino Caparzo is a pretty, impeccably balanced wine to drink over the next decade or so. Sweet red berries, mint, tobacco, licorice and rose petals are woven into the attractive, layered finish. 

It really was a bargain, at $35 a bottle. That was a price point I could stomach. I stopped by that shop today and - bonus- the Brunello was open for free tasting! I have not liked sangiovase in the past and so was not expecting to like this wine, but on the first sip I loved it. It's dry, but not too dry, and has the nice balance noted in the description. I quickly bought two bottles, one to open tonight and one to have for later.

While I was tasting it, I got to chatting with the wine guy. He asked what kinds of wine I usually drink, and I said I tend to gravitate toward reds, particularly red blends, plus dry rieslings, roses, and generally not chardonnays. He brightened up when I mentioned rose and asked if I wanted to try a really interesting one. Well, yeah!

He ran to the back and came back out with a rose of a different color. It turns out that most rose is made with red wine grapes and then the skins are left in for a short time (just enough to give the wine that rosy hue) and then removed. This rose was made with white grapes and the skins were left in longer, leaving a sort of orangey color. The flavor was really nice and refreshing, perfect for sipping on a summer's day. I snagged a bottle of that, too.

My conversation with the wine guy was interesting. We both agreed that the best thing about wine is the variety. There are always new wines to try, and it's not just the variety of wines themselves, but everything about enjoying wine changes. You change, your palate changes, the weather changes, which affects what you are in the mood the drink. The wine itself changes over time, or even day to day once you open the bottle.

The ornangey one is on the right.
The one on the left is made with
syrah. On the right, pinot gris.

I left the wine store happy, and thinking of my dad. I wonder if he would have liked today's purchases. I got home and found something unexpected in my mailbox.

I recently changed my name and knew it was only a matter of time before my new last name made it onto mailing lists for various direct mail. Today there was a free issue of my dad's favorite magazine, Cook's, in my mailbox, addressed to me with my new name. It's a complimentary issue along with a push to get me to subscribe. It was an easy sell; gourmet cooking was my dad's hobby, and he would rave about this magazine because the writers test each recipe and then the articles aren't just the recipes but also include all of the steps of trial and error so you can learn the techniques. That magazine showing up at my door the same day as my purchase of the Brunello was a sign, clear as day. I quickly wrote my check and mailed off the slip for my new subscription.

Thanks, dad.