From Italy, here’s the affordable and fun couple you want to see this summer! She’s a sassy sweet-tart sweetheart Pinot Grigio who grew up in on the island of Sicily and he’s more of a lighthearted sweetheart fruit tart, a Sangiovese from Toscana in central Italy. Take her to the pool and him on a picnic! No need to #maskup to enjoy their company!

Simple wines, simple pleasures for complex times.

Renzo Masi, a family-run company, has made wine for three generations. By focusing on long -term contracts and relationships with growers which include consulting on vineyard management, they can release wines such as these with an excellent quality for the price.

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While our menu is homemade, you can make this an easy week night or weekend meal by purchasing ready made bread, pesto, salad kit, and frozen or fresh lasagna! With wines as inexpensive as these two, you can buy one of each and pair them with the foods they work with best– salad and pesto with the pinot grigio, lasagna with the red. We were surprised to find, however, that you could do either of these wines with this menu!

• Home made herbed sourdough bread
• Homemade nasturtium pesto
• Italian cheeses
• Cesar salad with homemade anchovy dressing and nasturtium flowers
• Homemade Lasagna (with sausage on one side and vegetarian on the other)

La Bastarda Pinot Grigio 

Pale, svelte, glamorous, Blanca, the young lady from Sicily, has no clue about her father. While a “little uncomfortable with her “La Bastarda” nickname. She does, however, love her Sicilian mother’s cooking – fish and shellfish, eggplant caponata, Sicilian rice balls and Trapani-style couscous,” says the press release.

• 100% Pinot Grigio from Sicily
• Harvested to be ripe and fruity, but with plenty of natural acidity
• Pressed then transferred to stainless steel
• Tanks are temperature-controlled to below 55°F to safeguard freshness and aroma
• Available in 750ml. bottles (except in NY, where 1.5-L bottles are also now available)
• Typically 12.5% alcohol by volume

Color: Pale lemon

Nose: Butterscotch, lemon curd, citrus flowers.

Palate: Lemony, tart, honey lemon drop.

Pairing: So fabulous with the Cesar salad, as well as the nasturshim pesto. This wine would go well with any seafood dish. “I made linguine with clam sauce the other night and this wine would be perfect with it,” says Sue. While you don’t usually think of having white wine with red sauce, this wine did not fight with the lasagne dinner at all.

2017 Il Bastardo Rosso di Toscana – 

Out for the day on his Vespa, “Young Rubio, like the Sangiovese he represents, is fruity, a tad fleshy and full of fun, as you’ll see from his picture on the label. Rubio enjoys a steady diet of pizza, his mom’s divine pasta dishes and an occasional burger (just don’t tell mom). The identity of Rubio’s father is a mystery, but let it be known that he’s a very happy bastard,” says the press release. His stomping grounds and primary source of grapes for Il Bastardo Sangiovese is the vineyards of his native Rufina.

Il Bastardo Sangiovese di Toscana

• 100% Sangiovese, chiefly from Tuscany’s Rufina district, but also including grapes from vineyards nearby
• Grapes macerated for 10 days in stainless steel for a bring, lively, fruit-forward Sangiovese (“more red than orange,” according to Paolo Masi)
• Medium-bodied; typically 13% alcohol by volume
• Drink now or cellar 2-3 years
• Label design inspired by importer’s fondness for Colombian sculptor Fernando Botero

Color: Ruby, brick rim.

Nose: Sweet fruit, fruity fruit. Cherry, plum, violets, baking spice.

Palate: Smells sweeter than it tastes! Eucalyptus, menthol, tart cherry, tannins.

Pairing: We were surprised that this did not go well with the pecorino, romano, or the parmesean cheeses; it did however like the smoked mozzarella. Sue wanted a roasted garlic flat bread topped with the smoked mozzarella and this wine. Very nice with anise seed cookies topped with fig and olive tapenade. The wine also went well with the Cesar Salad, it made the wine very fruity, it played so well with the salty anchovies. So fantastic with the herbed bread, bringing out a nice sweetness in the bread and an herbasousness in the wine. It also really loves the nutmeg in the lasagne.

Cheers!