As a winelover it was necessary that I visit a vineyard and winery during my trip to Italy! Luckily I have a friend Matteo who lives here and he could recommend somewhere we’d be able to go for a tasting.
We were excited to find a handful of Italian wines to try in February. This rosé was purchased as part of that collection. We already told you about the Wine Folly Wine and Cheese List and on there was a Sangiovese Rosé with Mozzarella. After purchasing the rosé we found a cheese that was made in the part of Costa Rica where we were staying, Jaco. What a great chance to do her suggested pairing. I didn’t know which grapes were used to make the rosé but I figured it was a pretty close match. Let’s find out how the pairing went!
We’ve dubbed February as Italian Wine Month here on WineAndCheeseFriday.com. Why? Why not. I’ve been getting a little bored with my pandemic wine selection here in Costa Rica so I’ve been creating themes to revisit and learn a little more about each topic. Today’s pairing was suggested by WineFolly on a huge list that I found a while back, https://winefolly.com/wine-pairing/12-classic-wine-and-cheese-pairings-you-have-to-try/. I was excited to find both a Montepulciano and a Parmegiano Reggiano to do this entry, so without further ado, here we go!
Each year around the holidays Neil and I look forward to making cookies but this year we didn’t have an oven where we were staying. We had to get creative with what else we could make and have it be comparable to our tasty peanut butter Hershey Kiss cookies. We found this recipe for chocolate wine truffles on Pinterest and it seemed like just the treat. We had the correct cooking set up as well as access to the ingredients here in Costa Rica. Also it would be just the thing to bring to our holiday get together with chocolate and wine lovers!
This was our second time visiting the specialty grocery store, L'épicerie, in Ojochal. We had such good luck with wine and cheese we purchased from there a few months back that we had to plan another trip! (https://wineandcheesefriday.com/best-of-wines-and-cheeses-in-costa-rica/) As we entered we had wine and cheese on the mind. What would we find this time around? Would there be more wines from other countries that our local distributors don’t carry? And what kind of cheese would we find?
During our time in Costa Rica (much longer than we expected) we’ve been finding some really nice wines and cheeses. This trip we’ve had more purchasing options since we’ve been traveling around the country more. This has allowed us to find brands and shops that we never visited before. We’re also aware that it isn’t crucial to refrigerate cheese immediately so we’ve been fine taking the chance of driving home with it for a couple hours without thinking twice.