With Monday pretty much behind us and facing the dilemma of watching yet another episode of “Storage Wars”, a new episode of “The Voice” or Monday Night Football with Peyton Manning – we had a tough decision to make when it came to the evening’s entertainment.  We had given “the girls” (aka, The Dogs) the night off, so really did have to fend for ourselves – oh whoa is us.

Fortunately, when it came to tonight’s wine selection our choice was much simpler.  Jean’s Dad, Bill, who you met on Day One, had given us a bottle of a favorite wine of his and Jean’s Mom, Margaret that they had discovered on their trip across the pond back in 1984.  They were on what Bill called the “American Express Capitals of Europe Tour” (not sure if the name came from an  American Express actual tour or that was how it was funded).  Irregardless, this wine came from a vineyard where they stopped for lunch about halfway between Rome and Florence and held wonderful memories.

Now, we must admit that although we’ve never been there – we have lived, and toured, Italy through others.  Between Bill and Margaret, Partick and Liz and yes, even our own eldest daughter (still choosing to remain anonymous), and of course Diane Lane (movie reference – guess which one?).  We have walked down the cobblestone streets, toured the historical landmarks, sat in a vineyard in Tuscany on a beautiful Fall day and even dipped our toes in a virtual fountain or two.  So when Bill placed this bottle tenderly in our hands and told us to check it out ,we had no choice, or desire to say “no”.  Ironically, another friend shot us a Facebook post just last night encouraging us to move past the red, put on our big girl / boy pants and sample a white, specifically this one. (Ouch, that hurt, but we took it the right way – thank you Kathryn).

So, needless to say we Bondy’s don’t back down from a challenge (or put Baby in a corner – another movie reference), so we opened, smelled, tasted and LOVED!  The cork popped out almost as if it were champagne – even noticed a few bubbles.  In our interpretation, the wine’s nose was very fruity but with floral undertones.  And, according to wine.com, the wine’s color is “brilliant straw yellow. The bouquet is very pleasant and fragrant, characterized by neat sensations of citrus fruits and golden apples, on a flowery background that reminds (us) of fresh hints of meadow flowers and a persistent vegetal note of sage.  At the palate,  firstly stands out an excellent freshness, well balanced by a pleasant roundness, featured by notes of meadow flowers and golden apples. The aftertaste is long and fragrant, with hits of fresh almond.”  The meadow flowers were noticeable, but not overpowering at all – no worries you won’t feel like you are drinking daisies or pansies.  We really could taste the apple – just like a golden delicious one that you buy at the store.  The almond made the finish worth the wait and provided a nice clean end to a sip.

While that description is probably more than you wanted to know, we’ll tell you that this wine was delicious with a nice, pecan-crusted tilapia (available at H-E-B or as Carol, our dear friend from Missouri, would say HEB) together with roasted potatoes, onions and red peppers – roasted in our new, Pampered Chef stoneware that we recently bought when Liz had a show at her house!  After the main course, we were “required” to give the wine the ‘chocolate test’.  Yes, we know it’s a white wine, but in our world, if a wine is worth it’s weight, it’ll stand up with chocolate . . . which this wine did!  It was like diving into a chocolate covered cherry!  Seriously, the mix was amazing!  We even repeated the process numerous times just to make sure we weren’t fooling ourselves- – we weren’t!

For the great price of $10 a bottle, you get a really nice white wine that works really well with food and could easily be enjoyed by itself on a lazy afternoon.  Either way, you owe it to yourself to try the 2010 Ruffino Orvieto Classico and prepare to be wowed!  Thank you to Bill for the Recommendation and to Kathryn for the Request – keep ’em coming.

Speaking of wowed, our good friend, Liz has provided some delicious recipes on our blog and we understand that some of them have already been tried by our readers – thanks for the feedback!  We’ll continue writing about wines we love and food that goes with the wines we love and we hope that you’ll try them both and pass on our blogs to your friends.  We’ve got a long way to go before we hit 365 days, so we’re going to need all the help we can get!

Until tomorrow, “Ciao Bella!”

Please remember to enjoy responsibly and recycle whenever possible.