This has been quite the experience! What can I say? Where do I start?!? I took the just-opened bottle over to my Swedish blond neighbor that likes dry red wine that was making a Swedish vodka version of their mulled wine with herbs and spices and her youngest daughter opens the door and has an orange in her hands that she's already pushed some cloves into for mulling the wine and vodka that has to sit for quite some time before consumption. She was just helping her mother prepare this Swedish concoction.
She had been out earlier as the sun had finally broken through the thick clouds above and the skies were blue and there were very few clouds as I raked the leaves from our lawn and we spoke. Lights had been just restrung on our azaleas out front and they were " ON " and working, with " new : ones having been just strung by my wife.
I told our Swedish neighbor that I would bring her over some dry red wine to enjoy. I asked her if she would be home or if she had a game as she was a coach at our local high school. " Yes " she would be home so I opened a bottle of the Andre Fossi D & N Primitivo Puglian Italian dry red 2010, $10.99 a bottle, and walked it over to he house ready to pour her a glass.
Her daughter opened their front door, saw me and shouted : " Mom! " and she appeared and I cam in with the bottle and asked her if she wanted me to pour her a glass? She said sure , that my timing was great, that she was drinking some whisky and that she would save the glass and enjoy it with her pasta meal that was almost ready now. She told me to disregard the two magnums of TURNING LEAF red I spied ( I shuddered seeing them - not a good reaction on my part - sorry! ) that she was going to use to mull her Swedish version of glog. That was reassuring.
She sipped Andrea's wine and immediately announced that it was : " Good. "
I left and returned home, our son returned from work and I got the cheeses - goats' and milk blended together as one, goat's cheese as another, with some smoked salmon and crackers, too - Stone Wheat Thins I believe? It was all good. I poured my wife a glass a after she worked some more at our X'mas decorations with the fir cones, etcetera she sat down. I already had Jim Stutsman's " Winter Sampler " c.d. that we love playing and so everything was set to start our evening with a Australian lamb dinner, some AMABIALE 2005 Vintage French champagne with our D& N 2010 Italian Primitivo, too : avocado salad, white rice ... what a treat to start our 2013 holidays together as we were all now reunited as our son was just back from his sophomore semester in Florence, Tuscany, Italy! What an opportunity, we were all jealous, really jealous. Oh well, we were all happy for him.
The D& N Primitivo showed well from the very first couple of sips, it was still formulating, still coming into focus, but even the first sips were very pleasant if not quite focused, firm and truly expressive. I was remembering the last time I had sipped it at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits in Northwest, Washington D.C., 20008 and how impressed I was then?!? I was impressed.
I was busy with dinner and the hors d'ouevres and so it was only when I sat down finally that I could focus on the D & N Primitivo. Oh, I also had to snap some pictures of the bottle and the wine on our table with the cheeses, the smoked salmon and also with our Christmas tree!
The D & N Primitivo was slowly " crystalizing " and coming more and more into focus : it was growing and blossoming, and with the Australian lamb it was pretty amazing. I was enjoying sipping it with the bites of juicy and flavorful lamb that had that incredible grease flavor that shouts out around the edges of my plate so beautifully, so distinctly!
Funny, as I type this now an hour or so later after our meal I can still taste the very last lovely vestiges of the wine and it's long, lingering flavor mingling still with those of the roasted Australian leg-of-lamb! Nice.
I liked the wine the whole way through our meal. It worked majestically and never failed, always managed to fill in any spaces left open by the lamb, the ripe avocado and wine vinaigrette salad dressing and the white rice. It was a great match, and when I remember that this 2010 D & N Primitivo from Pulgia southern Italy only cost $10.99 a bottle, I was amazed and impressed! Wow, what an incredible deal!
No wonder our customer Franceen likes it so much and continued to drink it in magnums when we sold out of the 750ml bottle size, 14% alcohol - and you do not taste it - a completely " value " inexpensive dry red! She was right, it really is impressive, so appealing, so rich, so round and full and flavorful, and balanced and " fleshy : through-and-through! Thanks, grazie Andrea : you have done good Andrea, really GOOD!
So, I think I have said it all. I enjoyed drinking the last of it while listening to my Apple i-pod with Peter, Paul and Mary's " The Wedding Song ", and then to Joni Mitchell's songs : " For Free " and then " The Circle Game ".
A perfect evening that is still giving. Cheers, happy holidays 2013 everyone , have agood one, have a great one, share it, and come to our store Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits at 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C., 20008 Tel : 202-363-4265 anthony.quinn@clevelandparkwines.com and buy some fifths and some magnums.
Supprt Andrea Fossi and his family, DRINK LOTS OF FOSSI Chianti and Vino Nobile and also D & N Primitivo, too! Cheers, Anthony ( TONY ) Quinn Sunday night in northern Virginia on December 15th, 2013. Cheers, sante, grazie , caio .... TONY
