We’ll head back to Little Rock today after a cozy, snowy week in the country. The snow interfered with some of our plans (e.g. some family ended-up in NYC instead of here, due to bad weather), but as it turned out, we all practiced enjoying what we had instead of complaining about what we didn’t. We stayed in touch via cell phone and texting, sending pictures and sharing our activities.
One of the things we always do when we are here is make at least one trip to a market that will likely not come to Arkansas in our lifetime: Trader Joe’s. Not to put too fine a point on it, but we LOVE Trader Joe’s. We always chat with the staff back in the wine section and since this is the end of the year and we’ve pretty much shot our wad (as our parents would say) we wanted something ”inexpensive” but definitely tasty. The recommendation was a wine from Sicily. Our spouse is from the north of Italy and family tradition makes a significant distinction between the north and the south (hummm…where have we heard that before?). Anyway, on principle we chose not to honor prejudice and took the recommendation, taking home a couple of bottles of Archeo Sicilia Nero d’Avola, 2007.
As the name says, the grapes are 100% Nero d’Avola, and the winemaker, Ruggero di Tasso uses these grapes to great advantage. Don’t mistake this for “fine wine.” This is an everyday wine that we will enjoy again and again (OK, so we did buy more than two). The color is ruby/garnet, and the nose gave forth aromas of spice, dark red berries, and maybe a bit of leather. On the palate, the red berries continued with the addition of some strawberry and pepper. It was jammy without being cloying. We thought the mouthfeel was nicely rounded, and the tannins were soft.
Not wanting to leave food (other than staples) in the fridge, we opted for a couple of small steaks which we seasoned with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic. We browned them to a nice crust in a cast iron skillet and after about 4 minutes per side, we took them out to rest, and added half a cup of the Archeo Nero d’Avola to the pan, making a quick sauce. Potatoes had been baking and we took some asparagus from the microwave. Supper was simple, delicious, and no leftovers.
With any luck our local wine merchants may get some of this inexpensive and delicious beverage and we won’t have to make the long drive to the nearest Trader Joe’s. If not, we’ll be bringing more back next trip.
