TNs--Italian Night in Toronto

Six of us got together to taste through some Italian wines, something I don’t get to do too often. Our destination this time was Giulietta. Service was excellent and the food varied from decent (the mains) to superb (pasta dishes and desserts).

The wines:

I missed the name of the Vermouth which Tran brought and which he will supply, but it was dazzling and unmixable—so good on its own!

2011 Marco Felluga Collio Russiz Superiore Bianoc Col Disore

A blend of fruilano, SB, Ribolla and Pinot Bianco, this has a nice hay element to the nose, along with a trace of unripe banana. The palate is quiet and composed with some cream and light lactic notes. Good starter.

1996 Dante Rivetti Bricco del Neueis Barbaresco

Didn’t get a chance to decant this so we settled for following its evolution–such as there was—in the glass over 4 hours or so. Opens with quite pretty flowers, tar and berry aromatics. In the mouth, a squalling child. Still-rugged tannins with raspberry, currant, chickoree and some anise. Great vibrant acidity behind all that, it barely budges over the evening but gives me the kind of elegance I’d look for from this house. A typical 96? i.e. wait 30 years?

2013 Paolo Scavino Barolo

The normale from half-bottle, I just wanted to check on the vintage. Textbook roses and strawberry to sniff at. Plenty of grip, jump and acidity in this youthful presentation, but I see why people are excited about the vintage. Loads of black fruit and already has an element of bliss with plenty more to come in the ensuing years.

2007 Biondi-Santi Brunello

Some of the table hadn’t tried a B-S before. Each of the next 3 wines had about a 1.5 hour decant. Classic (for me) cocoa, leather and berries scents. On the tongue, very smooth and delicious, with bright red fruit, some leather and a tick of balsam. Good length. This is very good…but without an extra gear the special Biondis have.

2007 Il Carbonaione Poggio Scallette

Bits of char and wild mushroom lurking in the glass, a quick black licorice slash for me and lots and lots of dark fruit. This is really lovely when I taste it. I don’t think much of “terroir” when I drink Italians, but this felt so much like it had its sense of place. High-toned sweet raspberry, a lot of sunshine on this and great length and balancing acidity, I think this is my WOTN.

2007 Valdicava Madonna del Piano Brunello

We all agree that very unfortunately there is something amiss with this bottle. It certainly has none of the harmonious joy that a good bottle should convey. Peter gets medicinal or rubbing alcohol. We waver between very slightly corked and VA, and it could have been a combo of both. There’s good red fruit flavor inside, but the palate is also somewhat disjointed, and the more I taste during the night, the less I get. A true shame. Not down-the-sink bad by any means, just way underperforming.

2011 Cusumano Moscato Della Zucco

I had fun bringing this, my last of 2 bottles, for the group. As soon as I put my nose to it…oohhh…cuddles. Exactly as I remember it from 3 years ago, blood orange, orange peel and cardamom. In the mouth, the flavor is replayed and matches my memory almost exactly, but the difference now is that it has creamed up a great deal. Truly delightful and my #2

Franco Conterno Barolo Chinato

Much thanks to Ross for bringing this for us to try. Hit of maraschino cherry and also spearmint and maybe some inkling of absinthe. It’s tingly dans la bouche, with very accented bitter end-palate and finish. I can recognize that it is very well made, but for sure not my thing. I am nevertheless very grateful to have tried.

Fun evening with lots of discourse and discussion and plenty of laughs.

Mike

As per the now standard norm, I must intervene in this thread to explain to everyone what really happened and give real wine notes along with the usual forensic visual evidence of the on going adventures of the Toronto Wine Elitist Cabal ™. The anonymous six of us that Mike refers to were TWEC ™ members myself, himself and Jay Shampur along with recent new inductees Dylan Provencher and Ross Morrison, and newest member (as well as an old acquaintance of Mike’s) Peter Papay. The latter three, of course, met our extremely stringent vetting requirements for membership of being alive and showing up with a good bottle of wine and opening it. You can all see why our little wine club is so small. It’s the exclusivity.

Our dinner was at the newly opened Giulietta, a beautiful new Italian restaurant focused on family style shared dining. The stars are fresh-made pasta, wood-fired pizza, fresh veggie sides and classic Italian protein mains. The idea is to traditional classic Italian but on the lighter side with fresh and local ingredients. At this they wildly succeeded as you’ll see later in the thread. The restaurant is from Chef Rob Rossi and David Minicucci and is managed by somm extraordinaire Toni Weber. She along with Chloe attended to us this night.

Giuiletta intriguingly places as much emphasis on their aperitivos and digestivos as they do their wine and cocktail list, something I’ve never seen at any other restaurant before. They proudly display their digestivo after dinner cart as well as the stunning aperitivo cabinet in full view of all patrons to entice you. It makes for both a beautiful as well as appetizing sight:

The theme of our dinner was Italian wines with Italian food. You’d think this would be an absolute no-brainer of a successful food and wine match… but we had plenty of surprises along the way this evening. Let’s get to the food and wines.

CONTRATTO VERMOUTH BIANCO My contrib. Shockingly, I was actually beaten to the sweet wines this time around which forced me to think outside of the box for my wine contribution. This craft Vermouth from Italy is unusual in that it uses the approach normally associated with Spain of macerating the wine with the botanicals directly as opposed to macerating a spirit which is then added later to the wine along with sugar. It is then slightly fortified afterwards. The base wine is sweet Moscato Bianco.

This was gorgeous and wowed everyone at the table. Bright golden yellow color, a refreshing light body despite its 16.5% ABV, fresh lemon drop and pear flavors, and sweet but balanced baking spices. It’s sweet but not overwhelmingly so and is very bright on the palate. As Mike said, beautiful all on its own and should not be wasted in a cocktail under any circumstance. There were several second helpings across the table. It is possible I may have even had thirds. (BURP)

MARCO FELLUGA 2011 RUSSIZ SUPERIORE BIANCO COL DISORE Jay’s contrib. A blend of Pinot Bianco, Friulano, Sauvignon Blanc, and Ribolla. This warm climate white has a nose of rubber and chalk. A white Rhonish phenolic bitterness stands out from the medium-full body flavors of ripe kumquat and kiri and white corn. Sharp acidity and flintiness is there too. Ross noted its complexity. I found the contrast of the complex delicate flavors and large body to actually work against the wine a little. I respect the wine but am not in love with it.

DANTE RIVETTI 1996 BARBARESCO BRICCO DE NEUEIS RISERVA Peter’s contrib. Yowsa. This absolute powerhouse has a classic turpentine and black cherry nose but I can actually smell the tannin in the nose as well. Sharp sour cherry flavor, high acidity and a light body are supported by an extremely rigid tannic structure. This actually overwhelmed a lot of our food except for our grilled octopus which was a great match. Dylan put aside a glass that didn’t budge a millimeter after several hours. Wow. I thought Barbaresco was supposed to be much more approachable than Barolo. And people complain Port takes too long to get ready. This could easily age decades more and was likely opened far too early. Superb quality wine.

PAOLO SCAVINO 2013 BAROLO Mike’s first half bottle contrib. Despite being much younger, this Barolo was much more approachable than the Barbaresco. Light bodied with much less tannic structure, good cherry fruit flavor, a little bit of bitterness on the finish to go with the tannin. Perfume and turpentine on the nose there too. Decent acidity. Very good quality, but boy did it live in the shadow of the Barbaresco. There was just no comparison. On the other hand, I can enjoy this in its prime while I am still alive.

TENUTA GREPPO 2007 BIONDI SANTI BRUNELLO DI MONTACINO RISERVA Dylan’s contrib. This wine had the most powerful nose of all three Brunellos. High heat but balanced by powerful cranberry, plum tomato, cherry and plum flavors. Now with those flavors you’d think this would be a great match with our pasta dishes, especially the tomato and hen of the woods Scarpino pasta… and you’d be very wrong as I was. Both the pasta and the wine were made more astringent and bitter by the match. Surprising.

PODER POGGI SCALETTE 2007 CARBONAIONE ALTA VALLE DELLA GREVE A very strong saline note added intrigue to this Sangiovese wine which had much more balanced cherry, tomato and cranberry flavors. Unlike the Biondi Santi, this was a far better match with the food to my palate. When the guys voted for their favorite, they unanimously placed this as their second and the Biondi Santi as the reverse. I gave the exact opposite vote as I felt this was a far better food match but also said the Biondi Santi would be my first if we were drinking without food. Peter gave me props for making this distinction.

It has been five or six years since I have had one of these. My last bottle was hard as nails. I wondered if it had enough fruit or if it would dry out with more time. I loved the wine ten years ago when there seemed to be more fruit. I have one left, and it sounds like I should keep holding. Thanks for the note.

VALDICAVA 2007 BRUNELLO DI MONTALCINO RISERVA MADONNA DEL PIANO Ross’ contrib. Ever look at your lottery ticket numbers and see that they all came up and you’re an instant millionaire… only to become completely deflated when you realize that it’s actually last week’s ticket you’re looking at and not this week’s? That’s what it was like to drink this wine.

While there was some balance and lightness, the flavors and aromas were completely muted and in fact completely disappeared with the food. Peter’s disappointed description was that it was a fascinatingly indifferent wine. I’ve never heard a wine ever described that way before but he was exactly right. The guys talked up this wine as if it were aptly named and was the madonna itself and they were severely disappointed. I am certainly no Brunello expert but from the initial talkup and their later reaction, I could see something was definitely wrong. The guys were thinking it was corked or tainted but we honestly couldn’t smell or taste any tell-tale wet cork so we had Toni come over to give her expert opinion. She agreed with Peter that it must be slightly tainted or corked to be so wound down. Peter’s later research informed us that this wine has in fact proved problematically susceptible to taint. It was still drinkable by all means but when you consider it’s supposed to be a 90+ point nectar of the gods and it had the least flavor and aroma of all three Sangiovese wines we had, it essentially is a completely ruined wine. Bummer.

A short discussion ensued at this point in our drinking as to whether we wanted to open up an 05 Brunello, 08 Amarone or Champagne backup bottle. We went back and forth on this until the restaurant itself settled the issue by bringing our desserts right away. So off we were to the dessert wine bottles:

CUSUMANO 2010 MOSCATO DELLO ZUCCO Mike’s second contrib. This beautiful Moscato based passito sweet wine is redolent with flowers, lavender, orange peel, vanilla and honey flavors. A little spritz in the full body made it even more fun as well as tasty. Ross described it as Vin Santo meets fizzy orange. Good description. Went beautifully with all the desserts, particulary the fruit and lemon curd filled Pavlova meringue.

FRANCO CONTERNO BAROLO CHINATO Ross’ second contrib brought specifically for me as we both learned we were huge Barolo Chinato fans at our last dinner together at Montecito. We started with an aromatized spiced wine and ended with one as well which was great. Deep ruby purple, walnut and nutmeg aromas, sweet and sour black cherry and coffee bean flavors with lots of tannin and baking spices and a touch of heat in the long finish. I loved this but Mike said it wasn’t to his tastes. His loss. This was great.

Chloe offered us up the tasting menu as we were perusing the menu and we all jumped at it. We were started with a trio of Spuntini and Verdure. The first was a Finnochio e Arancia salad of fennel, Cara Cara blood orange slices, a generous amount of formaggio di fossa and mint.

Second was the Fritto Misto of fried shrimp, calamari and smelts. Mike identified the smelts after I mistakenly guessed they were either anchovies or sardines. This was served with a lemon wedge and a tasty saffron aioli.

Third was the Pulpo e Fagioli, grilled baby octopus tentacles sitting on a bed of white cannellini beans and samoriglio.

Our Primi consisted of two pastas and a wood-fired oven thin crust pizza. The first pasta was the Tonarrelli Cacio e Pepe, a long pasta in a creamy pepper and Pecorino sauce.

The second pasta was the previously mentioned Scarpino with mushrooms, black pepper and Taleggio cheese in a tomato based sauce.

The La Regina ‘1889’ pizza was topped with crushed tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, buffalo mozzarella and olive oil. Classic caprese pizza.

Our Secondi and Contorni came next and included one of my favorite dishes of the evening, the Saltimbocca made with Quebec capon and prosciutto.

Our other main was the Halibut in Padella, a bone in fillet of Halibut fish with peas, asparagus, lemon and guanciale.

The first side dish was the Broccoli di Cicco, grilled rapini dressed with roasted garlic, lemon and olive oil.

Our second side to complete the savory portion of the meal was a plate of Snap Peas dressed in red onion, mint, lemon and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. We also had a bowl of Tratto Potatoes (not pictured).

Our final course was a quartet of their Dolce, starting with the Torta della Nonna, a pine nut and honey tart.

Next was an intriguing Red Fife Tiramisu. This was by far Jay’s favorite dessert and he actually refused to share with me, necessitating Dylan to literally stab a piece off of Jay’s plate and give it to me. Well worth his effort. Yum.

My two favorite desserts of the evening followed, starting with the delectable Gianduja Torta, a dark chocolate hazelnut torte:

Followed by the Pavlova meringue filled with lemon curd and topped with fresh blackberries and strawberries and mint syrup.

Before I close off here, a final note on the food and wine matching. I was honestly shocked at how difficult the food and wine pairing was. This was certainly no fault of the restaurant, they offered us the tasting menu to show off their best food and they certainly accomplished that goal. At no point did they ever indicate nor did we express any desire to match it accordingly with the wine. Their cuisine, as mentioned, is classic but lighter fare and having full access to the menu via the Internet we should have adjusted our powerhouse wine selections accordingly. Interestingly, the Contratto vermouth was a far better match for a lot of the food despite the sweetness. As I noted to Mike and Jay on the way home, Burgundy wine would have ironically been a far superior match for the food. The wines were powerhouses and would have done better with heartier Italian fare like charcuterie, rich cheeses and roasts. I also personally would not have more than one bottle of a Barolo and a Brunello again at a lighter fared meal like this.

Once again, TWEC ™ would like to thank the kitchen and floor staff, particularly Chloe and Toni, for a fantastic introductory first meal. The house was full on a Wednesday night which speaks very well to how the resto is doing given that they literally have not even been reviewed yet. Their success is entirely through social media and word of mouth. Our congratulations to everyone involve and of course we shall return.

Yes, Jeff, hang on to it by all means. There was no lack of fruit whatsoever. It’s just that Father Time will be a grandpa before you can drink it

I enjoy reading the wine notes. I do love looking at the delicious pictures.

#MikeOnTour??

Well, California is coming up in a month, Dan. 17 days and I’d better be tasting wine somewhere every single day! The OL threads are probably going up next week

A bientot,

Mike

Looks like it was a great tasting. Thanks for the notes and pictures.

Great notes Tran.

I as well left a glass of the Rivetti over two hours side lined and did not observe the slightest change in its performance. I doubt it will ever be any more then hard as a nail. A nice nail though.

With all the delicious food and wine we almost missed Geddy Lee from Rush coming through the front door. Both of our groups where competing for available decanters that night. Needless to say, but we did outnumber his entourage and won!

I’m not surprised that the Carbonaione was at or near the top of the WOTN list. I opened a 2007 last week and it’s a delicious wine that’s drinking beautifully right now.

Well done, gents. Sounds like a fab night.