Wine tasting Thursday 15 April

An evening with wines from Piemonte. The producers got stranded in their home country thanks to the ash from Iceland. We started with two white wines made by Giovanni Almondo;
- Roero Arneis 2009 by served quail and foie gras, dry crispy & sitrus not matching the foie gras very well
- Roero Arneis 2008 "Bricco delle Cillegie" served with lobster, scallops and raw prawns, the white wine had more depth with better acidity and matched the food perfectly

Then the red show started
- Dolcetto and Barbera d'Alba by Renato Ratti served with turbot, both of them a good match but the Dolcetto was "singing" with the fish..Personally I found the Barbera slightly disappointing and somewhat atypical Barbera.
- Barbera d'Alba "Valbianchera" 2005 by Giovanni Almondo served with breast of veal, very good match with a wine full of firm acidity crying out for food. Great wine.
- Barbaresco 2005 "Montestefano" and "Ovello" by Produttori del Barbaresco, ab fab with the deer with the "Ovello" having the upper hand due to more body and complexity. Both great with deer, watch out for these Barbaresco's from the Produttori.
- Barolo 2005 "Marcenasco" by Ratti, very firm acidity and long big taste, needs time and not sure about the cheese served with it.
For the dessert we had two natural "sparkling" dessert wines:
- the red Brochetta 2008 by Almondo and the white Moscato d'Asti by Saracco both lovely as an aperitif on a hot summer day.

A long evening, passionate food and wine!

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