Brunello

Because I have allowed 2 weeks to pass since the last post, I'm gonna break it up into 2 parts. Last weekend, a group of 9 of us rented cars and drove to Montalcino, a small wine town in southern Tuscany famous for its Brunello wine, considered by many to be the best wine in Italy. A preview event for the newly released vintage (2004) was held for 2 days. Only 2,000 tickets were avalable, mostly for professionals, but the school was able to procure some tickets for us for free. What? Endless Brunello for free? Yes, please! Unfortunatly we were only able to stay for only one night, but it was a fantastic trip! And even better, 2004 is considered to be the best vintage since '95. Lucky me!

Another newsworthy highlight was a school trip to Forlimpopoli, about 2 hours SW of Parma. The father of Italian cookery was born there (Pellegrino Artusi) and there is now a library, resturant, wine vault, and cooking school in his honor. Wendall Berry (a renowned American farmer-author) was giving a lecture, so we attended the lecture, and then enjoyed a lunch made from the 19th century recipes in Artusi's cookbook.