Plenty of restaurants offer wine dinners. It usually works something like this: A restaurateur will bring in a noted winemaker who talks about his products. The chef then prepares a multi-course meal that matches the wines. You pay one price - sometimes the tip is included.
Quite often these dinners are very pleasant - you usually sit with people you don't know and the conversation can be fascinating. Or sometimes - like a wine dinner I once attended - you're seated with some real bozos. I once got seated with a very drunk college professor who insulted people at the table for their political views. He also kept dropping f-bombs.Two people got up and left, which a friend and I seriously considered doing, but I was working that night on a story. Afterward, we had a good laugh about the bozo, but it did taint the food and wine experience.
Last night, however, I attended a thoroughly enjoyable evening at Toscana Kitchen + Bar for Tuscan winemaker Paolo De Marchi, hosted by Moore Brothers. Chef Cliff Aycock did an outstanding job with the dishes - wow - I could eat the pan-seared diver scallop over toasted brioche with oven dried tomato concasse and Champagne cream gratinee anytime. And the pan-seared Muscovy duck break over caramelized root vegetables with black trumpet mushroom and duck glace de viande was pure perfection.
Lots of Italian wine lovers in attendance - I ran into Domaine Hudson owner Tom Hudson and Greg Moore, who now spends much of his time in the Moore Brothers Manhattan store, was also there.
Paolo De Marchi owns the Isole e Olena vineyards in Tuscany's Chianti region and his 29-year-old son operates the Proprieta Sperino estate in Piedmont.
Paolo, a very charming man, has been in the family wine business since 1976. He is interested in making wines of their origin and said he has been working to "take Chianti out of the medieval economy to the global economy." Indeed, more than 80 percent of his wines are now sent to 40 countries.
My hands down favorite wine was Isole e Olena Cepparello 2003, a wine made from 100 percent Sangiovese. (I just looked it up and its about $60 a bottle. Gulp. No wonder I liked it so much.) But a close second is the Isole e Olena Chianti Classico 2004. (It's a more pocket friendly $23 a bottle.)
I'm going to be in Tuscany this October and I already made plans to visit Paolo.
2 comments:
On your trip to Tuscany, do something that most tourists do not think to do. Visit a grocery store, if you've never been to one. Just read Customs' rules beforehand. They took my procciuto!!
Hi. Thanks for the comment. I've been to Tuscany several times and have indeed shopped the local grocery stores. We often stay in a little town south of Florence and shopping is usually an adventure since my Italian is very limited - and the majority of people there do not speak English. But everyone has been so nice and helpful it's never been a problem.
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