Report: Italy's Greatest Hits Wine Dinner November 15, 2007
at The Globe, Topsham

Tasting great wines is serious work! Liz and James keep a careful eye on proceedings.

Our "Italy's Greatest Hits" wine tasting and dinner was an opportunity for a small group to enjoy some of Italy's greatest wines alongside a tasting menu of small dishes carefully created by Liz Hodges and her head chef James Clark, chosen to match the wines. Twelve of us sat down around a spacious and beautifully laid table. With this small number, it was almost more like a private dinner party than a group wine tasting, and the conversation and sometimes hilarious laughter flowed as easily as the wines. And what wines! Tignanello 2003 was the highlight of the tasting, remarkable for its combination of concentration, power and elegance, but all the other wines showed very well, too. Here's the tasting menu with food and wine notes:

Monkfish and king prawn medallion with pesto dressing
Ceretto Arneis Blangé 2005

"A good start to the tasting menu: lovely plate of juicy monkfish and a grilled king prawn, dressed with a garlicky basil pesto - Bruno Ceretto's Arneis Blangé is a very stylish wine with a luscious, creamy pear fruit and a persistent, long finish."

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Pan-fried scallops on lentils
Montenidoli Vernaccia di San Gimignano Tradizionale 2004

"Very sweet, pan-seared scallops served on a bed of lentils finished with citrus - the deeper almost bitter orange marmalade flavours of the Vernaccia made this an inspired food and wine match."

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Carpaccio with walnut and rocket salad
Donatella Cinelli Colombini Rosso di Montalcino 2002

"Beautiful South Devon fillet, pan seared only briefly, chilled, then very thinly sliced and served with a salad of rocket and walnuts. Another inspired match. Dontatella's 2002 Rosso was from a so-called poor vintage, which meant that all her Brunello grapes went into this 'second' wine. Beautifully perfumed and vivid fruit complemented the raw beef and peppery salad perfectly."

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Pork and pistachio terrine with tomato jus
Cascina Fontana Barolo 2002

"A fairly lightly textured terrine made with fresh pork, apricots and pistachio notes, and served on a slice of brioche. We partnered this with Mario's Barolo 2002, again an example from a so-called lesser year. The wine is lighter and fruiter than usual, and is drinking very well now. As such, this 'easy' Barolo was a good match with the charcuterie, though perhaps the apricots and brioche made this dish just a tad too sweet for the wine."

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Mini lamb hot pot
Tignanello 2003

"A truly inspired dish - individual little ramekins of slow braised local Devon lamb topped with potato slices - richly warming, deeply meaty, a real comfort food and the perfect and simple foil to Tignanello 2003. For with wine this great, food should not be a distraction. Tignanello 2003 is an example of a great wine from an extraordinary vintage (the heatwave summer). The result is massively concentrated fruit (80% Sangiovese, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc), sweet, well knit tannins, the elegance and polish that comes from ageing in new French barrique, and a finish that is beautifully long and persistent. This wine is still ridiculously young and will improve for decades - yet the heat of the summer of 2003 has yielded a ripe wine that is even enjoyable in its full flush of youth. A stunner."

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Cheese duo: Harbourne Blue and Trelawney
Serego Alighieri Vaio Armaron Amarone della Valpolicella 2001

"Two very different local cheeses to partner this iconic passito wine. Harbourne Blue is a rare blue cheese made from goat's milk, rather crumbly in texture, assertive in scent and flavour, yet with a creamy finish that is not too acidic or aggressive. Trelawney is a rind-ripened cheese that though pungent on the nose has a clean, full flavour and a richly smooth and creamy aftertaste. Surprisingly both these cheeses, though very different, went well with the Serego Alighieri Vaio Armaron. The wine has deep flavours of dried fruits such as prunes and raisins, and a rich, powerful, almost port-like finish that made it a superb partner to the cheeses. The blue was a particularly successful match."

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Chocolate pot and brulée taster
Maculan Dindarello Moscato Giallo passito 2005

"James' chocolate tart is legendary around here, richly dark, bitter and luxurious. Here he created a pair of desserts, a classic mini crème brulée and a chocolate pot using the tart filling. Beautifully stylish, delicious puddings well matched by a concentrated, richly fragrant passito wine, Dindarello, made by the Italian master Fausto Maculan. The lightly dried Moscato Fior d'Arancio grapes resulted in a wine with intriguing bitter orange scents and flavours and it was concentrated enough to stand up to the richly sweet desserts. An absolutely gorgeous finish to the evening."

Well done, James and Liz! Well done to all our winemaker friends for crafting such magnificent wines!

If you are interested in joining us for our next Club Vino wine dinner, please contact Marc and Kim