Parmigiano Reggiano Wheel Cutting Party and Cheese Sale!

"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. 

Our first cheese cutting ceremony SOLD OUT in record time and the cheese also sold out at the event.  When we have this kind of success, we plan another event ASAP to see if it was just a fluke or if the cheese was really that good and my bet is one the cheese!

This time we have added a bunch of wines and made it into a dinner in terms of the amount of food that will be served so you don’t want to wait to respond to this offering as both the cheese and the event sold out in a few days last time!!

We will be offering freshly cut 24 month aged Parmesan Reggiano for $20 per pound this evening which is $10 per pound cheaper than you can get this amazing product at your local whole foods and you have no idea how long it was cut from the wheel from them.  You also get to sample the goods!  Of course, we will be offering eight wines to compliment the cheese and we will be serving a special menu prepared with the freshly cut cheese as well.

There are only 16 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
Wednesday, February 3rd
6:00pm

1lb 24 Month Aged Parmesan Reggiano
Price: $20.00

Of course, we will be serving a few wines to accompany the cheese!

2019 La Spinetta Piccolo Derthona Colli Tortonesi Timorasso

Price: $25.25           Sale $22.212

Notes of cedar and Acaia flowers, enriched by slight notes of petroleum Taste: a taste reveals inviting acidity, supported by extraordinary structure. Hints of grapefruit and white flowers are in perfect harmony with marked acidity. It has a long and clean finish.

2018 Selvapiana Chianti Rufina 
Price: $19.50           Sale $17.16

(92 Points) Selvapiana's 2018 Chianti Rufina is exquisitely beautiful. A wine of translucence and character, the 2018 captures the essence of the vintage in spades. Dark cherry, blood orange, cinnamon, rose petal and mint are all laced together in the glass. The 2018 is effortless and silky, with striking aromatic presence and exceptional balance. This is so impressive.  Vinous

2016 Selvapiana Chianti Rufina Riserva Bucerchiale 
Price: $38.25           Sale $33.66

Bucerchiale is Selvapiana's flagship wine, a Riserva-level Chianti Rùfina crafted from the grapes of the estate's best vineyard, Bucerchiale. Francesco Giuntini, working with young winemaker Franco Bernabei on his second vintage at Selvapiana, created this special wine to be a long-aging benchmark of the best of Rùfina's and Selvapiana's Sangiovese. The wine is not a blend, as is normal with Chianti, but rather is pure Sangiovese to show that variety without any adornment by other blending components. First produced in 1979, Bucerchiale is made in only the best vintages, seven or eight times per decade.

2015 Selvapiana Pomino Villa Petrognano Toscana IGT
Price: $22.50           Sale $19.80

In the hills above the Sieve River valley, where Selvapiana and the rest of Chianti Rùfina are located, is a serene pine forest that holds the secret vineyards of Pomino DOC, owned by just two estates. Thanks to the friendship of Francesco Giuntini with the owner of Villa Petrognano, Cecilia Galeotti Ottieri, Selvapiana has had the opportunity to farm the villa’s 13-acre plot for many years. The cool, higher ground here on the border between Tuscany and Emilia Romagna produces cool-climate fruit and delightfully crisp red wines. The Villa Petrognano vineyards are planted with Sangiovese, along with a significant amount of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, which are blended into this modern yet tradition-respecting wine.

2017 La Spinetta Barbera Di Pian 
Price: $26.50           Sale $23.32

100% Barbera
Malolactic fermentation in oak

Aging: partly in new, partly in used medium toasted French oak for 12 months.
Bottling: transfer to stainless steal vats for 6 months before bottling, aging in bottles for another 2 months.  Ruby red with purple reflections, Beautiful and complex aromas of blueberry, dried plums and sandal wood. Complex, vibrant, focused wine with refreshing acidity and ripe fruit

2017 La Spinetta Nebbiolo Langhe 
Price: $34.50           Sale $30.36

The La Spinetta Nebbiolo Langhe comes from the youngest part of the Starderi vineyard in Neive. The vines are between 5-7 years old and grown at an altitude of 270 meters on in the same vineyard that produces the Starderi Barbaresco. Harvest usually happens in the middle of October, after which time, the grapes are fermented in rotofermentors for 7-8 days. The wine is then aged in part new, part neutral, medium toast, French barrique. It is then aged for another 2 months in bottle.

2015 Damilano Barolo Lecinquevigne
Price: $40.50           Sale $35.64
Barolo Lecinquevigne is a blend of Nebbiolo from five vineyards located in the areas most adept for the cultivation of this varietal. Thegrapes used for this prestigious blend are grown in the calcareous-clay soils of Barolo, Grinzane Cavour, Monforte and Novello. The wine has a very distinct look, and it's difficult to guess its age. The Nebbiolo vines range in age from 30 to 50 years old. The resulting wine has a ruby-red color with orange highlights and leaves behind an intense fragrance of rose, leather, tobacco, and subtle hints of violet and tar. The taste is broad and encompassing, leaving a compelling sensation of softness in the mouth, with a long and persistent finish. This Barolo can be enjoyed right away, but also has the capacity to age very well. This wine is best served at 61°F -63°F. Barolo Lecinquevigne, while not conceived as a single vineyard cru, is still considered a very important wine in Damilano's portfolio. www.cantinedamilano.it

 
2016 Castello Di Neive Barbaresco Albesani Santo Stefano
Price: $70.50           Sale $62.04

(92 Points) The 2016 Barbaresco Albesani Santo Stefano is powerful, ample and inviting, all while retaining a super-classic sense of mid-weight structure. Macerated cherry, kirsch, anise, pine, mint and dried rose petal nuances fill out nicely. The 2016 had enough juiciness to be approachable with minimal cellaring, but readers who prefer more nuance and complexity will surely want to cellar it for at least a few years.  Vinous

Menu

Fresh Cut 24 Month Parmesan Reggiano, Prosciutto De Parma

Parmesan Flan

Taglialini Carbonara

Tiramisu

This is a seated tasting and is limited to 16 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.