What a treat! Anthony and Lyn had a bottle of Argiano, Brunello di Montalcino, 2004 and decided to share it with us. I cooked a nice rustic chicken stew–browned the chicken pieces, added carrots, celery, onions, peppers, mushrooms and a fresh bay leaf, to the pan to brown up for a few minutes, then added some wine and canned tomatoes and put the chicken back in to braise, low and slow, for a couple of hours. Maybe someone would call it chicken cacciatore. Anthony and Lyn also had a package of bucatini they brought home from Italy so,after removing the cooked chicken, I tossed that into the pan with the sauce. Peppers from Anthony’s garden were a great contorno. And, of course, we had a salad.
We started with a bottle of prosecco and some cheese, olives and prosciutto.
But the wine! This is the real thing. It was full of fruit but not a juicy mess in the mouth with great softness going down. Totally perfect and memorable.
I made the zucchini cake from Dolce Italiano which was fine with some nice strong coffee. I love how you can see the little green flecks of zucchini in the photo.

Thanks to Lyn and Anthony for sharing!