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Italian Wine
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| Italian Winemaker's Dinner |
Wednesday June 19, 2002
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One of New York's best kept culinary secrets, the Italian Culinary Center provided an excellent meal and a cooking demonstration for 36 members of Tasters Guild. Chef Edwyn Ferrari, who is the executive chef at Nobu, prepared a delicious dinner and entertained the attendees with cooking tips and ideas. Palm Bay Imports provided wines to match the meal. No votes were taken for favorite wines as all were equally enjoyed. Notes were compiled by Lena Brattsten, wine instructor at Rutgers University.
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| Wine |
Full Retail $ |
NV Aneri Prosecco di Valdobbiadene
A sparkling wine made from the Prosecco grape in the Veneto. The wine is bright and clear with a pale greenish straw color and very small persistent bubbles. The nose is delicately fruity with flavors of Golden Delicious apple and with hints of apple blossoms. The wine is completely dry and very light-bodied with delicate fresh fruity flavors. The components are well balanced and the finish is fresh, clean, and lingering with a refreshing crisp acidity. At $14.50 it is an excellent alternative to more expensive sparkling wines. This wine went very well with most of the appetizers including the cucumber/tuna-mousse, the zucchini/crustini/mint, the frittato/roasted-cauliflower. The potato pancake with spiced apple and onion was too sweet for the wine. The polenta with olive tapenade neatly brought out the slightly bitter finish typical of Prosecco wines. |
$14.50 |
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Sella & Mosca 2000 Le Arenarie Sauvignon Blanc
This was a very interesting and unusual Sauvignon Blanc. The wine was a clear, bright lemon yellow and had a restrained, almost earthy nose, nothing like the exuberantly fruity and/or vegetal nose usually characteristic of this variety. The nose was discreetly identifiable as a Sauvignon Blanc. The wine was bone dry but gave a sweetish impression due to high alcohol content, which also made the wine uncharacteristically smooth for a Sauvignon Blanc. The acidity was very low in this wine, contributing to its smoothness. There were nutty, earthy flavors rather than the normal Sauvignon's bright fruit. The finish was smooth, hot, and short as if cut off by the high alcohol content. This rather heavy wine overpowered the light and
fluffy and delicately pesto-seasoned Ricotta gnocchi. |
$12.99 |
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Marchesi di Barolo's 2000 Madonna di Como Dolcetto d'Alba
This wine is a very dark ruby with purple hues and a purple rim indicative of a fresh, youthful wine. It was clear but totally dense promising a good concentration and extract. The wine had a high-intensity flavorful nose. It was very fruity with strong flavors of dark berries, black cherries, blueberries, black berries and even black currants. It was a genuinely fruity nose without oak. The wine was full-bodied and bone dry but tasted sweet from all the sweet fruit. The tannin and acid concentrations were high and well balanced and balanced with the medium alcohol concentration. The finish was fresh, fruity, and lively. The wine is youthful and in perfect condition to drink now. Dolcetto wines are best drunk within a year or two of the vintage. This wine is excellent quality, just what a Dolcetto should be like. The enjoyment it offers is well worth $12.50. The match of this wine and the flavorful, tomato/rosemary-dominated striped bass was excellent. |
$12.50 |
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1992 Ca'vit Vino Santo Trentino
This wine is made with dried grapes in northern Trentino. It was a pale amber, clear and bright with a watery rim. The nose could be characterized as hot and clean, with high-intensity, deliberately oxidized with nutty, earthy, spicy and raisin flavors of high complexity. The wine tasted hot and sweet. It was full-bodied with soaring acidity balanced by the high alcohol (14%) content and the sweetness. It had mouth flavors matching the nose flavors of nuttiness, almonds, raisins and an overall spicy earthiness. The finish was long and sweet and smooth and had a slightly bitter tang at the end. This was a fully mature wine, ready to drink. It could be cellared for several more years, at least 10, being well preserved by the residual sugar and alcohol.
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$42.00 |
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