2004 Italian Barolo
As you can see by the little blurb at the top, I am also an amateur winemaker. I was introduced to winemaking by a friend of mine, and was immediately hooked on it. Not only is it extremely fun and interesting, it can also be fairly inexpensive. After very reasonable set-up costs, you can make a batch of decent to great wine for under $100 per batch. (A batch yields about 27-30 bottles for me.)



This is one of my favorites. It's an Italian Barolo, and we bottled it in mid-2004.
If you've never tried an Italian Barolo, I highly recommend it. I first discovered Barolo on a trip to see a very good friend of mine in Italy. The picture that graces the front of my handmade label is actually a picture I took on that trip in one of the many piazzas in Rome

This Barolo is wonderfully tasty, with a lovely dense black cherry flavor. It's fairly medium-bodied, however, it's packing a pretty full structure. The fresh acidity of the wine is accompanied by a lovely good fruit taste. Overall, on the official Monkeybrew rating system, it gets an 8.5 out of 10.

It also proved to be a worthy companion to my dinner this evening. After watching the Food Network Pizza Cooking Challenge, I was struck with the urge for a white pizza.



Simply take your favorite pizza crust recipe, spread out a nice layer of good olive oil, a few minced cloves of garlic, sprinkle with some herbs, and top with a nice layer of cheese. I used a blend of romano, asiago, and mozzarella, and topped it off with some sliced scallions.

Hope your Saturday has been as fabulous as mine!