Vietti Wine Pairing Dinner

[Michael Centanni]

While in Piemonte last May, we visited Vietti Cantina in the town of Castiglione Faletto. We spent a good 3 hours there touring the cantina, sampling the wines and having a great time.

A local restaurant here at the Jersey Shore is having a wine dinner this Monday with Vietti wines (there is a tasting only with Luca Currado next month!) We are looking forward to the dinner and hoping it includes Vitello Tonnato or Carne Cruda! Will post back with the pairings after the dinner!

[Michael Horne]

Sounds great, I’m a big fan of Vietti wines.  Their  Barolo Rocche 2008 and Barbera Asti La Crena 2009 got the Gambero Rosso 3 Bicchieri awards for 2013. Haven’t tried them yet. but I’d love to — maybe at Vinitaly this April.

Carne Cruda with shaved white truffles would be good! Have a great time, and let us know how it goes.

Cheers
Michael

Michael Horne, CS
Los Gatos, CA USA

[Clare Centanni]

Michael & I went to the tasting last night! Although no carne cruda, we did partake in white truffles!

The wine line up:

2011 Roero Arneis
2010 Barbara D’Asti Tre Vigne
2009 Barbara D’Alba Scarrone
2008 Barolo Castiglione
2003 Barolo Lazzarito
2011 Moscato D’Asti

The menu:
Crostini Duo – Cremini mushrooms with Robiola & fire roasted pepper & ceci
Risotto Tartufo – Carnaroli rice with shaved Alba white truffles
Stinco di Maiale – slow roasted pork shank

Bigne – puff pastry with pastry cream & chocolate gelato

Thoughts:
We sampled the Arneis and the Barbara D’Asti with the Crostini. I thought the Arneis was fabulous with the mushroom and Robiola Crostini. I am a big fan of unoaked whites and Arneis delivers on all counts. The Barbara D’Asti was one of our favorites while at Vietti, so no surprise we greatly enjoyed it again last evening.

We tasted the Barbara D’asti also with the risotto – very nice combination. The Barbara D’Alba was more robust… I was getting more of a cherry nose than with the Barbara D’Asti – but again, went very well with the Risotto.

The Barolos… Castiglione is one of my favorites. And it was superb with the Stinco! Now the Lazzarito was a 2003 – they said was a hot year, not a great vintage (I forgot to check our vintage poster when we got home last night..) but supposedly this was was spectacular, limited supply, at $100 per bottle. Now this is my opinion and mine only, but I was very impressed. It was too tannic for my tastes and greatly preferred the Castiglione. Michael can chime in on this one 🙂

Lastly was the Moscato D’Asti. Love love love the Vietti Moscato – its not too sweet, its not to fizzy and goes great with pastry cream. Enough said.

We didnt buy any wines last night – there is another tasting of Vietti wines with their sister restuarant in February. At that one they will have the Nebbiolo Perbacco (one of my favorites) so we’ll make our purchases then!

[Clare Centanni]

OK, proofreading this (I shouldnt be posting at work!) – with regards to the Lazzarito – I was NOT impressed with this wine. I’d rather buy 2 bottles of the Castiglione given the choice!

[Michael Centanni]

I agree with Clare on all the wines. But the 2 Barolos we tasted were very different. The 2008 Castiglione was very good, we had it before and its very well balanced! As far as the 2003 Lazzarito was bolder and had more structure, also seemed to me to have more texture. I do agree with Clare though we could had bought 2 Castglione for the price of 1 Lazzarito.

We both are relativity new to the Nebbiolo grape. As we discovered last May on our trip to the Langhe! They just go so well with food. We had a different Barolo every night and each was from different parts of the Langhe and its just so fascinating how different they can be!

Back to the Vietti wine pairing dinner. It was well run and the food was excellent with the wines. We look forward to the next one,the Wines of Casanova di Neri with Owner and Winemaker, Giacomo Neri

[Michael Horne]

Ciao Clare & Michael — sounds like you two had a great time.  What was the name of the restaurant?

I’m a fan of Vietti, they make some wonderful wines.  I just had their Perbacco nebbiolo last night at Fratelli in Portland paired with some wild boar terrine & a nice hanger steak.

We sampled the Arneis and the Barbara D’Asti with the Crostini. I thought the Arneis was fabulous with the mushroom and Robiola Crostini. I am a big fan of unoaked whites and Arneis delivers on all counts.

They make a very nice Roero Arneis (though the label is a bit creepy;-), its refreshing and I agree that unoaked whites can be nice.  Their Moscato is always a big hit.  I haven’t tried the Lazzarito, it sounds like it needs more time.

As an FYI, Vietti has a nice English website for those who want to learn more.  You’ll find them at http://www.vietti.com/en/

Ciao!

Michael Horne, CS
Los Gatos, CA USA

[Clare Centanni]

The restaurant is Undici in Rumson, NJ. They do these dinners pretty regularly. Many times they have the producer there to talk about the wines and the estates. All the wines are for sale too at pretty decent prices. I do love the Roero Arneis, the label is creepy but in a cool kind of way! The Tasting [IMG]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y11/njdivegirl/7DBD90BC-2DB6-4516-B0B3-324416295F3B-9989-000008B58778FA77.jpg[/IMG] The Menu [IMG]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y11/njdivegirl/C4CD3507-A527-4789-8960-54DE7FDEB848-9989-000008B57C1EBCB6.jpg[/IMG]

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