Tag: pairing

Toasting May 2022 with Our House Sparkler Nino Franco Rustico Prosecco

The one sparkling wine that is almost always in our wine rack is Nino Franco Rustico prosecco. Thanks to a friend who ran some errands for us, we have our house wines on hand again.

For us, house wine is a wine we love to drink and share with friends. It's a good value wine that we can keep on hand in quantity. Nino Franco Rustico has had "special friend wine" and "house wine" status for many years. We discovered it long ago at a restaurant that had the talented Cat Silirie as the sommelier. We thank her for the introduction!

The Nino Franco Team Says:

“Coming from the middle elevation hills of the classic area of prosecco, Rustico is how we make ourselves known. It is one of Nino Franco's historic wines, produced since the 1970s, and was initially a prosecco «aged on its lees» before becoming a Charmat method sparkling wine in 1979. Its freshness and drinkability combine with an excellent floral bouquet. An outstanding aperitif and an ideal pairing to delicate appetizers.”

We Say!

Give this food-friendly sparkler a try. It is not the easiest wine to find, but the search is worth it. And, we have linked to Gordon's Wine and Spirits as a source of our house wines.

If you like to celebrate or have friends over on short notice, pick a couple of wines as your own house wines. We have the Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir as our red offering. By the way, in the restaurant business, a "house wine" may be an inexpensive (and often uninteresting wine) they always have on hand. They may buy it in large quantities often at a discounted price.

If a restaurant serves an interesting and appealing house wine, well-matched with the food they serve, you have found a place that cares about the quality and value of the wine they serve.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

We purchase our bottle at Gordon's Fine Wine and Spirits for $23.99.

Related Posts:

Our Sparkling Resolution is covered in this post : Join Us as We Toast…

A Few of Our Favorite Gifts for Wine Lovers

Here are all the wines we've covered. Since this is a category, this post may appear at the top. Just scroll down for more.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List?

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2018 – 2022 Penny & Ed Cherubino

May 1, 2022
Pecorino Caggiano From Formaggio Kitchen South End

On Fridays we link our readers to a resource that deserves applause. Today we are using the Pecorino Caggiano we bought this week at Formaggio Kitchen South End as an example of how and why you should use the Formaggio cheese shops as a resource.

Often our approach to buying cheese at Formaggio is to ask the cheesemonger, "What is great today?" In the right hands, cheese is a living organism that evolves from day-to-day. At any given moment, the Formaggio staff knows of something in that case that is extraordinary.

This time Penny had a few moments to read some of the descriptions before she chatted with the staff. The sign for Pecorino Caggiano intrigued her and she asked for a taste.

At first it seemed like a good but rather ordinary pecorino. But, as we have learned over the years, you have to let it warm in your mouth or hold a slice on a wrapper in your hand until it warms to get the full flavor. In this case, if you give it a moment, you experience an explosion of sheepy tang.

We had it for supper with a bit of fennel salami and a Clear Flour baguette.

Formaggio Kitchen, as a resource, is more than a store, they are also food educators. Above you see their page on this cheese. It tells you the story behind the product and suggests pairings. If you are in the shop, your cheesemonger will do the same.

Formaggio also has classes you can attend and an education section on their major product lines on their website.

We are very fortunate to have this resource in the Boston area.

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list?

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2017 Penny & Ed Cherubino

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May 12, 2017
The Food Lover’s Guide to Wine: Book Review
With our sparkler of the month on March 1st, we mentioned that we had put The Food Lover's Guide to Wine on our book wish list. That afternoon, we received an email from the authors Karen Page & Andrew Dornenburg saying they would love to send us a review copy.

It arrived a few days later and hasn't made it to a bookshelf yet. It has spent a few nights beside the bed as Penny's relaxation reading, we've used it explore a couple of new wines, and we're planning to feature some recommended producers as our Sparkler of the Month.

Learn in various ways from a collection of great wine lovers.
- If you were hanging outside our door, you might have heard us reading quotes from the book to one another. It has the greatest collection of quotes from wine lovers and wine experts you can imagine. Boston's own Cat Silirie is often cited.
- Ed loves the pronunciation guide in the core listing of wines, grapes, and wine topics.
- The system used to emphasize the importance of wine grapes, characteristics, and producers (by using bold and all caps in lists) is brillant and intuitive to use.
- The end chapters on matching wines with foods, cuisines, and courses will have us exploring new options.
- We love the gold boxes with great asides on topics. A few are already marked with page tabs.
- Since these writers believe that the wine you like is the right wine for you, they've prepared a series of recommendations based on your own taste. If you like a flavor, for example almonds, they give you a list of wines to try. If you like a particular wine, they give you others with similar flavor profiles.
A Great Interview Grabbed Our Attention

We first hear about The Food Lover's Guide to Wine on the Heritage Radio Network show, A Taste of the Past. Penny listens to podcasts of food shows while she cooks, and this one was good enough for a shared listen during an afternoon of crab-cracking and conversation.

Host Linda Pelaccio began by covering the history of American Wine (the book contains a timeline) and then a discussion of the book that really gave us an insight to the authors' points of view and how this book would fit into our collection. Here's a link to that show.

Meet the authors and hear what some experts say about this book.

We are not only recommending this book to our readers, we'll be buying copies as gifts for wine-loving friends. It is a treasure and we expect it to look a bit worn and well-used pretty quickly. It may even suffer a few wine stains but we doubt that Karen and Andrew will mind.

Here are more books from this team:

The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs

What to Drink with What You Eat: The Definitive Guide to Pairing Food with Wine, Beer, Spirits, Coffee, Tea – Even Water – Based on Expert Advice from America's Best Sommeliers

Becoming a Chef

and of course

The Food Lover's Guide to Wine

Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

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April 10, 2012
Remembering Pol Roger– New Year’s Eve Tasting Update!

Though I hardly knew him, I feel like I’ve lost an old friend. Our bottle of Pol Roger Extra Cuvée de Réserve Brut Champagne Vintage 2000 was that good.

As promised, here’s an update to our Toasting a New Year with Pol Roger! post.

Opening the bottle and carefully splashing our glasses half full, it was the aroma that commanded our attention. I thought, toasty. Penny said it reminded her of almonds.

The first sip had us using words like: mellow, lush, citrus notes, smooth with a dry finish, and just enough fruit for balance.

While outstanding on its own, this champagne was equally impressive with food. Trying a perfectly ripe piece of Truffle Tremor from Cypress Grove Chevre and long-time favorite Ascutney Mountain we found each enhanced the taste of the other. Bites were improved by sips, sips were improved by bites!

Truffled pâté with Penny’s own spicy cranberry chutney, plus a Dijon and sweeter bourbon molasses mustard did not intimidate our Pol Roger. It all worked!

As with all high-end champagnes we’ve tried, this one drinks well as it warms– actually revealing more of its character. You’re quite a complex guy, Pol Roger. What a memorable way to begin 2012.

Here's how this story began: Toasting a New Year with Pol Roger!

For more about our wine adventures, check out:

Our Sparkling Resolution

Our Sparkling Resolution Winner’s List

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers’ comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those comments add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

January 9, 2012