Tasting Wine with Pino

Tuesday night 9 of us attended a wine tasting hosted by the owner of our neighborhood panini shop, Pino. Pino the panini maker holds these wine tastings in an 800 year old wine cellar only a few blocks from our apartment. You start by sampling and learning about cheese, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.



The first wine we sampled was a Chardonnay from Tuscany. Pino was very passionate about the fact that the Tuscan climate is "perfect for chardonnay," making ones made in Italy "much better" than those made in France. I ended up purchasing a bottle of this chardonnay to take back home with me because of how delicious it was. Pino taught us how to smell the wine and detect hints of pear, peach, and daisies. We also learned that you should be able to tell the time on your watch through a glass of white wine.







With the white wine we were given proscuitto, dried and salted ham, in order to clear our palette for tasting in between sips.



Next came the Chianti, a red wine from a small region in Tuscany. For a wine to be considered "Chianti Classico" it must be from the region and be approved by a board in charge of checking the wines produced. When a wine is given the "Chianti Classico" title, a little sticker with a black rooster is placed on the bottle's label.



Pino told us the reason they use a black rooster is due to the legend of the race between the roosters of Florence and Sienna. A long time ago Florence and Sienna were fighting over land, and to solve the issue they came up with a way to determine who would own what. Each city would put a rooster out at night, and in the morning whoever's rooster crowed first was allowed to set out on horseback and travel as far as they could before meeting the other city's horsemen somewhere along the way. However much land they had ridden through would become theirs.

It is said that Florence cheated, in a sense, by not feeding their rooster and not giving him a "hen to play with" while Sienna made their rooster comfortable and happy. Naturally, the hungry Florentine rooster crowed first thing in the morning, allowing the Florentine horsemen to set off. They say this is why Florence is so much bigger than Sienna!



We were then given an Italian blend of red wines and were taught how to compare wines. I still liked the Chianti the best.



I learned so much in a few short hours thanks to Pino. My Wine Appreciation class starts Monday, and I can't wait to learn even more. Off to Venice tomorrow! Ciao!