2001 Illuminati, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, Riparosso

[Drew]

Went furniture shopping with Eileen yesterday and as 4:30 rolled around and we both hadn't eaten anything for the day we decided on an early meal. Slipped into a Carrabbas Grill and ordered the above wine, pairing it with Grilled pork chop marsala for me and veal marsala for her...perfect match. 100% Montepulciano, Medium plum/garnet colour. Fruit forward nose with plum, cherry and meaty aromas. Very round and velvety on the palate with plum, dried cherry, chocolate and gamy flavours. Very good balance with soft tannins on the suprisingly long finish. This is a large production wine with moderate complexity and a good value me thinks. Restaurant price was $27 and a search on Google for retail showed an average of $14. BTW the veal and pork were amazing for the price ($14 & $16). 13.5%Alc/vol.

Drew

[tandkvd]

Carrabas is our favorite Italian Restaurant. And they are opening one close buy. I will take note on the wine suggestion Drew. We love their pork chops.

We usualy order one plate of pork chops with an extra salad and potatos. The only wine I have had there is Rothchilds Merlot. The pork chops are huge. Then we have room for desert and coffee, mine with Bailey's Irish Cream.

Now if I didn't have to spend the evening with a bunch ot Teachers at my wifes Christmas party for work, I would sugest Carrabas. Just kidding all you teachers out there. [img]http://38.118.142.245/ubb2/wink.gif[/img]

[Georgie]

Hey! Watch it!

[tandkvd]

Well tomorrow my wife and I will be celebrating our 19th aniversary. One of our daughters has giving us a gift certificate to Carrabas. We will be blowing the diet with this meal.

I have wrote down your sugestion Drew. I hope they have that wine.

[winoweenie]

Happy almost 20 there Tankvd. Have a ball. WW

[Innkeeper]

While we are on the subject remember that the Cerasuolos from Illuminati or Cataldi Madonna are just about the best rose's in the whole wide world.

[tandkvd]

Thanks for the sugestion Drew. I had the Veal Marsala and garlic mashed taters. WOW!!! That was the best meal I have had in awile. The wine was perfect with the food.
My wife had the grilled Mahi Mahi, thats the first time I have seen that there, with asperagus. So she did prety good with her diet, except for the popcorn at the movie and the Frapachino from Starbucks afterwards.

So thats our aniversery celebration, we are goin to have to calm down our partying some day. This living on the edge is gettin rough. I was starting to get a buzz from the Frapachino. [img]http://wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img]

[This message has been edited by tandkvd (edited 03-20-2004).]

[Drew]

I was holding my breath.....glad you enjoyed the meal. Happy Anniversary.

Drew

[Botafogo]

Dino Illuminati is my vinous Godfather and the very first bottle of Italian wine I ever sold wa the Riserva Zanna. Last Sunday we had lunch with Dino, Stefano and Ana at their booth in VinItaly and went through the whole line and they are better than ever. Be on the lookout for a new top of the line offering made from super mature grapes for next year: Dino said he wanted to make the "best wine in Italy" but that was to hard so he made the "Best wine in the WORLD!!!!" and, damn, he may have pulled it off....

Roberto

[hotwine]

Had the '02 last night with lasagna. Drew's TN on the '01 above is right on for this one, too, wouldn't change a word. Stumbled across it on close-out at the supermarket and grabbed the only two bottles they had at $12.57 per.