Geografico Vernaccia di San Gimignano IGT `09 $9.99 (Not TJ's) ****

This historic Tuscan Vernaccia is a pale, subtle, crisp drink that perfectly complimented our dinner.  The first pour was delicious and deceptively light.  Not acidic but not sweet either.  It is nuanced when it comes to flavor - which is why it went so well with our subtly flavored food.  Neither overpowered, yet they we complimentary.  This Vernaccia is pretty much a perfect middle of the road, easy to drink, clean white wine with no oak, a hint of citrus (mostly in the scent) and a bottom note of blanched almond.  And, it  was easy on my stomach at 11.5% ETOH.

The more that I am exposed to historic, niche Italian white wines like: Vernaccia & Falanghina, I realize that Chardonnay made me lazy. Finding a good, economic everyday white wine can be difficult (and I will always have to get over the American over-use of oak) BUT tasting these unique, geography specific white wines is simply yummie, and a great reminder to try outside of the box/bottle/endcap at the wine shop.

I finished my first glass while I was cutting  potatoes to braise with artichokes.  I think that Marcella would have preferred that we buy whole artichokes and peel and cut them, but JPH is the best at "hacks" (Techie Translation: a cheat that bypasses any restriction codes) in cooking.  He picked up a can of quartered artichoke hearts - using canned artichoke hearts made her braised potato and artichoke recipe a very easy dish to make on a weekday after work night.  JPH then used some of the Vernaccia while he was coking our main course: Fricasseed Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon from Marcella's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. 


Geografico Vernaccia di San Gimignano IGT `09  was a great find at a great price (Well done JPH on a mad dash through Cove Discount!)  I'm giving them both four stars.
I'll close with a link that I stumbled across as I was researching this post.There is a group of friends who are cooking their way through Marcella's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking over at the blog Pomodori e Vino
I loved flipping through their posts, looking at their pictures and reading Marcella's comments!!!  It was good to see their version of the chicken we had tonight (The picture is a link to their blog):