Team Dinner at Italian Village Chicago features Galatrona Toscana, Caprili Brunello di Montalcino and a Chianti Classico Gran Selezione
Being what is becoming a regular outing, as somewhat regulars there, tonight we had fun presenting to Gina Capitanini, third generation owner of the historic restaurant, a 'team picture' of this part of our group with wine director Jared Gelband and Garardo, one of the floor managers. Look for it/us on the walls of pictures of celebrities, notables, and some of us regulars.
Wine Director Jared Gelband, recently returned from his wine tour to Italy, pulled from the cellar a couple wines for our dinner, a Sangiovese and a extraordinary Tuscan Chianti Classico Merlot Bordeaux varietal, and a blend of the two.
Prior to dinner we met to plan a special event dinner for an upcoming global team gathering and we had a glass of this classic unique premium label.
Vignamaggio Monna Lisa Gran Selezione Chianti Classico DOCG 2016
This producer estate, Vignamaggio, has been in operation since 1404. The estate sprawls over more than 400 hectares, with vineyards, vegetable and ornamental gardens and a historic winery. The state-of-the-art working farm has Chianti Classico vineyards, olive groves, thriving vegetable gardens and fruit trees, forests, and also raises animals.
This label is named in tribute to the daughter of the original owners of the estate, who became eternally famous after Leonardo da Vinci painted her portrait.
The Gran Selezione designation, established less than a decade ago, was created to allow Chianti producers to compete with Brunello Riservas and the best of Montalcino, with longer aging requirements and a high quality standard, showcasing and representing the best of Chianti.
The 2016 vintage release was one of the best ever with both Vinous and Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate scoring it as their favorite vintage ever, such that this is considered the best version of Monna Lisa yet.
Only five pallets of this superlative Gran Selezione made their way to the US, a tiny amount for a wine with such a reputation as a can’t-miss for Tuscan lovers and collectors. Its not surprising that Italian Village with their extensive deep and broad cellar offer this on their winelist.
Dark, bright ruby purple colored, somewhat translucent yet full-bodied, this is complex and concentrated, combining Sangiovese’s savory, red-fruit richness with the velvety softness of Merlot and powerful structure from a bit of Cabernet Sauvignon, concentrated yet elegant with black and red cherry fruits, wine, allspice, notes of tobacco and leather turning to gripping but polished tannins on the long long finish.
RM 92 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3602213
Reading the Italian Village menu, I was drawn to the "House Specialty" designation of the Lasagna, with meat sauce, white cream sauce, Parmesan cheese, baked in Mozzarella cheese (shown right). Selecting this for my dinner this was the best Lasagna I have ever tasted, and was perfectly matched with the exceptional Galatrona Toscana.
A couple of the fellas had what is becoming another regular favorite, the Pheasant Agnolottini - pillow shaped pheasant-filled pasta in a butter sage sauce, sprinkled with Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Of course, our dinners there are all about the pairing of the food with extraordinary, spectacular wines - taking advantage of the extraordinary Italian Village cellar and winelist selection!
Galatrona Petrolo Toscana 2001
Petrolo produces estate bottled terroir driven wines from vines of Sangiovese, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, focusing on careful selection of grapes from low yields and artful winemaking.
A century later, in 1834, agronomist Giorgio Perrin, owner of Petrolo and member of the Accademia dei Gergofili of Florence, noted Sangiovese from this area, especially that spot called Campo Asciutto (now Bòggina), was commonly planted and blended with “French grapes” in Chianti to combine with Sangiovese.
The Estate was acquired in the 40’s by the family Bazzocchi that followed up the tradition of carefully producing high quality wines. Petrolo’s vineyards extend across 75 acres in the DOC Val d’ Arno di Sopra appellation, bordering the south eastern area of Chianti Classico. The vineyards are found at an altitude between 250 and 450 meters elevation consisting of loose-packed soil with different mixture of rocks like marl, sandstone and shale typical of the Chianti area.
The Galatrona vineyard consists of 7 1/2 acres, planted in 1990, the first Merlot vineyard that Petrolo planted. This label, Galatrona has been produced from this vineyard since it’s very first bottling in 1994, composed of 100% Merlot.
The Feriale vineyard, added another 12 acres to the Galatrona vineyard, when it was planted in the 90’s, almost entirely of Merlot plants, with a few vines planted to Bordeaux varietals Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, intended for the production of Galatrona. The peculiar soil, rich in clay in combination with schist, marl and sandstones, allows the concentration of all the noble components of the grapes, fundamental for the great structure, elegance, balance and persistence wanted for this wine.
Petrolo’s wines are crafted to achieve the greatest quality that also best represent the terroir of the historic Estate. Galatrona wines were ranked among the ten best merlot in the world according to Wine-Searcher.com in November 2018.
This label was awarded 96 points and a Collectible by Wine Spectator, and 92 points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate who said: "The 2001 Galatrona confirms its status as one of Tuscany’s better Merlot bottlings." Production has grown from 850 cases in the early years to 2500 cases in recent year.
At twenty years, this is likely at the apex of its drinking window, showing no signs of diminution whatsoever, with perfect cork, but not likely to improve any further from aging. Look at the difference in the color of the residue on the corks between the two bottles of our flight - the Sangiovese (ruby) and the Merlot (dark garnet).
Opened and decanted for an hour, dark garnet colored, medium-full bodied, a symphony of elegant flavors, soft, silky, polished, dense blackberry and notes of black cherry and plum fruits with tones of mineral, spice, tobacco and leather with smooth polished fine grained tannins on a long seductive finish.
RM 94 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=97792
Caprili Brunello di Montalcina 2016
The estate was founded by Alfo Bartolommei in 1965. The Bartolommei family settled in the Municipality of Montalcino at the beginning of the last century. The family originated from Podere Marzolo in the Municipality of Cinigiano (Province of Grosseto).
In 1911, the family moved to Podere Poggi, moving several times from one country home to another on the Villa Santa Restituta estate until they finally arrived at the Caprili farm home in 1952 which they took over and continued to work the land by sharecropping.
In 1965, the Bartolommei family decided to buy the property from the Castelli-Martinozzi family, owners of Villa Santa Restituta estate. In the same year, 1965, they planted the first vineyard, still called “Madre” to this day, where the clones for the new vineyards planted on the estate are selected.
The first bottle of Brunello di Montalcino was the 1978 harvest and was put on the market in 1983.
