An Evening on Mount Nebbiolo
D'Amico Cucina
Tasted Monday, January 8, 2007 by Dave Dalluge with 1,060 views
Introduction
Eight of us met for an evening of wines from Piedmont at one of the Twin Cities' best Italian restaurants. Attendees included all the regulars (Brad England, Steve Sigmond, Jeff Samuelson, Craig Vanderah, and Chris Larson) and two special guests (Scott Manlin and Chris Palm). Chris goes back to the early days of what Brad calls the Kitchen Tasting Group. Jeff Samuelson had arranged the evening and ensured that his favorite server Alex took care of our table. Both the food and service proved to be very good. Alex is very knowledgeable with Italian wines, and benefited from our exuberance in bringing three wines per person (I confirmed he wasn't driving).
The restaurant put together a six course menu to pair with our wine. Before we even got started we asked to add two additional courses. The food was very good, but the wine pairing proved very difficult given the wines that were poured. Notes on the food and the wine are as follows:
Flight 1 - Gathering and Preparing (1 Note)
Served while organizing and decanting the red wines. Scott was a little late arriving, so we also took advantage of this opportunity to prepare some discussion topics other than wine (although there was no hiding the fact that we are all boring wine geeks).
Flight 2 - Brad Can't Wait To Pour Monfortino (2 Notes)
Brad made the decision to pour the Monfortino first. The proved to be a brilliant decision. It gave a high benchmark for all subsequent wines to aspire to, and ensured that these got tasted before our palates were pelted by the barrage of great wine. This was served with an excellent dish -- Carpaccio of Beef Tenderloin, Arugula, Truffled Pecorino, and Quail Egg. I thought this was a great match for the wine.
Flight 3 - Warm Up (3 Notes)
Served with Foie Gras and a fruit compote. This was an added course, and was very good. Others around the table benefited from Scott's resolve in passing on this course (the restaurant quickly whipped up a salad for Scott since he looked hungry). A decent pairing, although this probably would have gone better with wine with some age on it.
Flight 4 - Moving Things Up A Notch (3 Notes)
Served with slow roasted Alaskan sablefish and fennel three ways -- roasted fennel puree, fennel crauti, and fennel pollen aioli. This dish was my favorite of the night. Tons of flavor and an interesting mix of textures. However, I wouldn't call this an inspired pairing with the young wines.
Flight 5 - Monster Flight -- Duel of the 1997 Titans (3 Notes)
These were served with saffron capellini, rock shrimp, caper, preserved tomato, and kalamata olive. This dish had plenty of flavor, but was pretty straightforward. The saffron, capers, and olives provided a nice flavor complement for the wines, but the shrimp and capellini couldn't really hold their own texturally against the big, burly wines.
Flight 6 - Comparison of two great 1996s (2 Notes)
Served with our second added course -- a gnocchi with a butter sauce and lobster (a claw and half a tail). This was an extremely rich and simple dish that was tasty enough but really too rich for the big burly wines. I will also add that the gnocchi was slightly undercooked and was slightly chalky. Too bad we didn't add a course with some beef in it.
Flight 7 - Gaja-Rama (3 Notes)
Served with grilled Iowa lamp chop and polpetto, roasted eggplant, and marinated mozzaralla. This was a good course and a great pairing. At this point I was doing my best to stay focused on the tremendous wines. It's a long climb to the top of Mount Nebbiolo!
Flight 8 - Nice Comparison of 1989s (2 Notes)
Served with rogue creamery special reserve blue sered with cocoa nibs. I held on just long enough to enjoy these two wines. The Einaudi was a very interesting wine. The prunotto tasted pretty ordinairy. I give up -- Mount Nebbiolo got the better of me on this night. I tasted the subsequent wines, but was not in condition to render any judgement.
Flight 9 - Nice Comparison of 1970/1971 (2 Notes)
Served with pistachio and vanilla panna cotta terrine, blood orange supremes, and chocolate phyllo.
Flight 10 - POD (Post Orgasmic Depression) (1 Note)
Rico named this flight after seeing the list put forth by Brad. He nailed it. The Madeira was a nice way to finish the tasting, but I have little recall of this. I remember paying my portion of the bill and staggering out into the street for a cab ride back to my hotel.
Closing
This was a great night. We discussed wine extensively, but also hit many other topics (Scott was there after all). I should have dumped some of the wine to make sure that I survived to the last flight. I regret not being able to evaluate the last flight. Next time I'll pace myself better.
My WOTN was clearly the 1958 Monfortino. All of the wines were of very high quality, but this had a refinement and elegance that put it ahead of every other wine poured.
1990 Charles Heidsieck Champagne Blanc des Millénaires
France, Champagne
A great way to start the evening -- very festive with a gentle mousse and tons of tiny bubbles. An expressive nose gives musty apricot, honey, and toast. Smooth and silky in the mouth. Well balanced with just enough acidity keeps the finish fresh and lively. I need to buy more vintage champagne.
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