This Is Just To Say

This is just to say . . . we had a leftover bottle of a Tuscan wine made from 55% Sangiovese, 25% Syrah and 20% Merlot (a 2011 Ruffino Il Ducale, which I’m pretty sure was brought over here by someone) that tasted great — great! — with our bastardized Zuni-style roasted chicken. I wouldn’t have expected it to work because, you know, it’s red and it’s chicken and it’s leftover and we — or at least one of us — doesn’t know shit about wine (really), but this was awesome. When you tasted it with high-heat chicken fatty roasted chicken, the wine’s flavors jumped out and sharpened into something beyond what what there. One of those revelatory pairings. It turns out that “Il Ducale Toscana is the perfect accompaniment to herb-roasted chicken . . .” And, indeed, if you Google something long enough, you’ll find some evidence to support that: “Pair Sangioveses with rare steaks, roasted game birds (or wild boar), rich chicken or mushroom dishes or anything with tomato sauce” — “rich chicken”; I’ll take it.