Parmesan Wheel Cutting Ceremony Tuesday, August 18th - The Most Popular Event Ever Hosted at WW!!
"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 $29 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 complement the cheese, and we will be serving a special menu prepared with the freshly cut cheese as well.
There are only 36 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
Tuesday, August 18th
6:00pm
1lb 24 Month Aged Parmesan Reggiano
Price: $29.00
Of course, we will be serving a few wines to accompany the cheese!
2019 Chateau Marjosse Anthologie de Marjosse Cuvee Palombe Blanc Bordeaux
Price: $36.00 Your Price: $28.80
(89+ Points) The 2019 Cuvée Palombe offers up a complex, delicately oaky bouquet with aromas of ripe pear, fresh herbs, lemon oil, honeycomb and a touch of exotic fruits, followed by a medium to full-bodied, round and broad palate with a long, penetrating finish. There is no reason to wait. This is a blend of one-third Sauvignon Blanc, one-third Sauvignon Gris and one-third Sémillon derived from 40- to 75-year-old grapes planted on clay-limestone soils. Published: Nov 30, 2023, Drink Date: 2023 – 2028, The Wine Advocate
2014 Gary Farrell Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay Russian River Valley
Price: $60.00 Sale Price: $49.00
(96 Points) Dark gold in color, this is a memorably luxurious and vivacious wine, tangy in grapefruit, burnt orange and cardamom. Layered and complex, it evolves as it opens to a lingering tease of butterscotch topped in nutmeg. It is an outstanding vision of an outstanding site, a wine for the ages. — Virginie Boone Issue Date 6-1-2017 Wine Enthusiast
2022 Isole E Olena Chianti Classico DOCG Tuscany
Price: $36.00 Your Price: $32.40
(93 Points) One of Chianti Classico’s most illustrious properties, Isole e Olena was established in 1956. After more than 45 years at the helm, Paolo de Marchi sold the estate last year to luxury company EPI, which also acquired Biondi Santi in 2016. This 2020 takes some time to reveal its tempting fragrance. Wafting flint, cardamom and pepper make way for early spring blossoms and red berries. It has a graceful flow along with a sumptuousness and succulence of raspberry and red plum. Fine powdery tannins frame it. A juicy follow up to the excellent 2019. Decanter
2020 Marqués de Griñón, Dominio de Valdepusa Caliza
Price: $25.00 Sale Price: $19.00
A blend of Syrah, Petit Verdot and Graciano. This light and playful wine has pretty floral notes along with wild berries, peppermint and caramel highlights. The name refers to the soils that are unique and what make this property unique in that they are one of the only wineries in the world that has its own appellation.
Nose: Attractive and intensely fruity aroma of ripe black cherries and wild berries, with fine mineral tones, peppermint and caramel notes.
Palate: Strong, very good body, round and fresh with a silky structure and a delicate, long-lasting finish
2018 Chateau Ste. Michelle Canoe Ridge Estate Limited Release Red Blend Horse Heaven Hills
Price: $55.00 Sale Price: $25.00
Only 397 cases of this Horse Heaven Hills blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Malbec and 10% Syrah from the famous Canoe Ridge Vineyard was produced by winemaker Brian Mackey. A deep and intense bouquet of currant, dark cherry and blackberry fruit on the nose with a full complement of cedar, graphite and dark mocha nuance more and more coming out as the wine opens up. Big and chewy on the tongue with an abundance of rich ripe fruit, a good amount of ripe tannins and a long layered finish echoing all that nuance from the nose through the finish. Wow, a blockbuster and this wine will only get better with 3-5 years in the cellar. Most Excellent
2017 Reynvaan Syrah The Contender
Price: $90.00 Your Price: $72.00
(94 points) Bright ruby-red. Reticent aromas of dark raspberry and prosciutto are lifted by topnotes of nectarine and flowers (from the Viognier component?). Thick and concentrated but also juicy on the palate, offering terrific intensity and a touch of sweetness to its flavors of red and black fruits and minerals. Most impressive today on the savory, building finish, which features suave tannins and palate-staining persistence. (this was aged in about 30% new oak, including a puncheon) Tim Fish, Wine Spectator (Aug 2020)
2020 Bodegas Teso La Monja Romanico Toro
Price: $22.50 Your Price: $18.00
(92 Points) The entry-level red 2020 Románico was produced with Tinta de Toro grapes from younger vines (10 to 35 years old, most of them grafted because it's forbidden to plant ungrafted...) in the villages of Valdefinjas and Toro. It fermented in a traditional way, foot trodden and with soft pump-overs, with indigenous yeasts selected from their own vineyards and matured in used French oak barrels for six months but not for 100% of the volume, as they keep part of the wine unoaked and in stainless steel. Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Menu
Prosciutto De Parma
Fresh Cut 24 Month Parmesan Reggiano
Parmesan Flan
Parmesan Risotto with Crispy Prosciutto
Tiramisu
This is a seated tasting and is limited to 36 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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