24 MONTH AGED PARMESAN REGGIANO WHEEL CUTTING PARTY Thursday, April 13, 2023 - 06:00 PM
"I was in love with a beautiful blonde once. She drove me to drink; that's the one thing I'm indebted to her for." W. C. Fields in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
I have been touting the quality of a freshly opened wheel of Parmesan Reggiano ever since we opened the wine bar when we cracked the first wheel open. The experience is unlike any other with this cheese as soon as you open the wheel the cheese starts to oxidize and harden so the freshly opened wheel is so buttery and creamy it is unlike any Parmesan you have ever tasted.
We will be offering freshly cut 24-month aged Parmesan Reggiano for $25 per pound this evening and you know that the wheel was just cut today! If you make it to the tasting, you also get to sample the goods before you buy! Of course, we will be offering six wines to compliment the cheese and we will be serving a special menu prepared with the freshly cut cheese as well.
There are only 26 spaces available for this event and the fee for this tasting is $95 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.
You can place an order on-line or over the phone and have your cheese delivered locally with your wine order, but we will only be delivering to the tri county area on the days we are out delivering wine.
24 Month Aged Parmesan Reggiano Wheel Cutting Cheese Sale
Thursday, April 13th
6:00pm
1lb 24 Month Aged Parmesan Reggiano
Price: $25.00
Of course, we will be serving a few wines to accompany the cheese!
2013 SCHOLIUM PROJECT FARINA VINEYARDS DULCISSIMA CAMILLA SAUVIGNON BLANC
Price: $28.00 Sale Price: $14.00 Quantity in Stock: 68
This was another fantastic year for Farina, the rocky, east-facing Sauvignon Blanc vineyard high up on Sonoma Mountain. The vineyard produced a third more fruit than it normally does-- and we were offered more rows by Joe Votek, who farms it. This allowed us to make the most LSB that we have ever made-- and to make Camilla for the first time since 2007. For reasons that I can barely divine, this wine often takes a year to ferment; sometimes more. We bottled the dry barrels of the wine as LSB in March, and have let the remaining barrels finish fermentation gently. They are now gradually reaching completion; the additional months in barrel and on the lees changes the character of the wine substantially: this wine is darker and less fresh than LSB, more broad, less etched. I have studied the 2007 wines carefully; the bottles of Camilla age better than the fresher LSB; in some ways, they take longer to show themselves.
2020 JULES TAYLOR PINOT NOIR MARLBOROUGH
Price: $24.00 Your Price: $21.12 Quantity in Stock: 118
This Pinot Noir is very generous on the nose, showing vibrant aromas of dark cherry, raspberry and plum combined with spicy oak notes. It has an impressive concentration of flavor and a nice acid backbone. The finish is dry with a nice touch of dark chocolate and subtle French oak coming through.
2016 DONELAN SYRAH CUVEE CHRISTINE SONOMA COUNTY
Price: $69.00 Your Price: $60.72 Quantity in Stock: 64
This 100% Syrah blend is an intense assemblage of some of our favorite Syrah vineyards in Sonoma County. The usual suspect vineyards are present in this blend; Kobler, Lawer, Steiner… and the 2016 marks a new addition to the blend. We were fortunate enough to secure a little bit of fruit from our friends, The Mansfield’s, Cardiac Hill block of Syrah. Although only 2 barrels of the entire blend, it really ratcheted up the quality of the final product — and we’re not the only ones who think so. The 2016 vintage was awarded 97 points by Antonio Galloni. This wine has something for everyone, running the full gambit from fruit to spice and savory qualities. This wine’s quality to price ratio is unmatched.
2017 REYNVAAN IN THE HILLS SYRAH WALLA WALLA
Price: $90.00 Your Price: $79.20 Quantity in Stock: 59
(94 Points) Incorporating a whopping 10% Viognier, the 2017 In The Hills comes from the Foothills in the Sun Vineyard (the same vineyard as the Foothills Reserve) and was aged 11 months in 25% new oak. It offers a more rounded, opulent, softer style (no doubt due to the high Viognier) as well as lots of meaty dark fruits, toasted spice, leather, and chocolate aromas and flavors. It's another beautiful, fleshy, classy Syrah to enjoy over the coming 7-8 years, if not longer. (Drink between 2020-2029) Jeb Dunnuck
2007 CASTELLO ROMITORIO RISERVA BRUNELLO DI MONTALCINO
Price: $150.00 Your Price: $132.00 Quantity in Stock: 59
(93+ Points) ~~The estate’s 2007 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva is striking. Dark plums, cherries, mocha, licorice, cloves and sweet French oak notes blossom in the glass. Rich, voluptuous and beautifully balanced, the 2007 impresses for its layered personality, volume and depth. In 2007, the Riserva is all about harmony. Ideally, the wine is best cellared for another year or two, and it should have no problem aging nicely for at least a handful of years after that. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2022. ~~eRobertParker.com #207, Jun 2013
1997 TERRENO CHIANTI CLASSICO RISERVA
Price: $59.75 Your Price: $52.58 Quantity in Stock: 43
A blend of 90% Sangiovese, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Canaiolo, made by the same consulting enologist that works with Fontodi and Felsina, Franco Bernabei. This wine is fully mature with notes of red cherry fruit, dried tobacco spice and fresh earth, truffle mushroom like notes with dried meat and herbs, nice complexity and development on the nose. Smooth as silk on the tongue with light red berry fruit and silky smooth tannins this is a real crowd pleaser with fully resolve3d tannins and wonderful freshness and balanced acidity. Still Drinking Beautifully! Finish 35+ Excellent
Menu
Prosciutto De Parma
Fresh Cut 24 Month Parmesan Reggiano
Parmesan Flan
Tagliolini Carbonara
Tiramisu
This is a seated tasting and is limited to 26 tasters and the fee for this event is $95 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com
A bit about Parmigiano Reggiano
Parmigiano Reggiano is produced exclusively in the provinces of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna to the left of the Reno river, and Mantua to the right of the Po river: this is the area hosting the farms where the cattle are fed on locally grown forage. The feeding of cattle complies with the norms of a strict specification that bans the use of silage, fermented feeds and animal flour.
The milk from the morning and the previous evening is poured into the traditional upturned bell-shaped copper vats. It takes about 550 litres of milk to produce each wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano. The milk slowly and naturally coagulates with the addition of rennet and a whey starter, rich in starter cultures, from the previous day’s processing.
The curd which forms is then broken down by the master cheese-maker into minuscule granules using a traditional tool called “spino”.
This is where fire comes into the picture, in a cooking process which reaches 55 degrees centigrade, after which the cheesy granules sink to the bottom of the cauldron forming a single mass.
After about fifty minutes the cheese-maker removes the cheese mass which will give rise to two twin wheels.
Cut into two parts and wrapped in the typical linen cloth, the cheese is then placed in a mould which will give it its final shape.
A casein plate with a unique and sequential alphanumeric code is applied to each wheel: it is its identity card which makes it possible to trace its entire production back to its origins, anytime and anywhere.
After a few hours, a special marking band engraves the month and year of production onto the cheese, as well as its cheese factory registration number and the unmistakable dotted inscriptions around the complete circumference of the cheese wheel.
After a few days, the wheels are immersed in a saturated solution of water and salt: it is a process of salting by osmosis. This last passage closes the production cycle of Parmigiano Reggiano and starts its maturation period.
The story of Parmigiano-Reggiano is a long one, and also a slow one, following the natural rhythm of the seasons.
In fact, the minimum maturation time is 12 months, the longest among all the PDO cheeses, and only at this point can it be decided if each individual wheel is worthy of the name it was given at its birth, and therefore continue the maturation up to 24, 36, 40 months and more.
After 12 months, the Consortium experts carry out a test called “quality inspection” on all the wheels: each wheel is tapped with a hammer and the trained ear of the quality inspector recognises any defects inside the cheese that may compromise quality.
The conforming wheels are marked with the hot-iron brand thus becoming Parmigiano Reggiano. All identifying marks and signs are removed from any wheels which do not meet the PDO requirements.
The quality control identifies three cheese categories:
“first-grade” Parmigiano Reggiano: the cheese that fully complies with the production specifications. It is marked with the hot-iron brand.
“medium-grade” Parmigiano Reggiano: the cheese that shows minor or moderate defects in the structure of its paste and/or on the rind, yet that do not alter the typical organoleptic characteristics of the product. These wheels are marked with the hot-iron brand, but they can be recognised through the parallel grooves engraved all around the cheese rind.
“de-rinded” cheese: the cheese that shows major defects is downgraded by eliminating the marks of origin through the removal of the rind (a few millimetres). Therefore, this cheese cannot be called Parmigiano Reggiano and refer to the PDO in any way.
Starting from the 18th month of maturation, dairies may request the Consortium to affix an additional mark on first-grade Parmigiano Reggiano:
PREMIUM or EXPORT mark: it gives trading companies and consumers a further indication of the quality of Parmigiano Reggiano.
These marks can be affixed also on the packaging of the cheese selected in this way.
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