WTN: :-) Refosco, anon fizz, Vietti Barbera
Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 6:30 pm
I celebrated my 24th birthday today with my lovely girlfriend Suvi. We met up after my work was finished and went first to a nice enough Italian restaurant for a glass of wine. Terra di Ger Refosco 2003 is a genuinely nice 03 - or then the lovely company just made it seem so. Dark toned, earthy, wet rock scent is perhaps a touch atypical for Refosco in its joyous fruitiness but lovely and savoury and very, very enjoyable indeed. The palate was very sweetly fruity, but had the typical high acidity of the grape intact despite the year. Very savory despite the abundant fruit. Quite lovely.
Then we went to another Italian restaurant, Gastone, for dinner as the first was full - only the bar had space.
We started off with a glass of fizz, (Cinzano?), which was nice enough but a little inelegant. It paired well with my starter of tuna left pink in the middle served with a pesto-like sauce. The dish itself was made to perfection and I'm sorry I can't describe it better. The price of the whole dinner was worth that one dish!
Then we continued with the main courses of veal and lamb which we paired with a guilty pleasure of mine: Vietti Barbera d'Asti La Crena 2001 It is much too full on for most of this crowd, with very ripe fruit and 14,5% abv but for some reason I still love it. It is savory, though fruity, very earthy despite some small hints of spoof. The palate is big, abundantly fruity, yet very savoury, very acidic and very earthy. I like this very much, despite its slight raisiny scents.
We were too full to even have dessert. Besides, to bed now, as tomorrow is a long day at the Turku book fair and Turku Castle (we like castles....)
Cheers,
Otto
Then we went to another Italian restaurant, Gastone, for dinner as the first was full - only the bar had space.
We started off with a glass of fizz, (Cinzano?), which was nice enough but a little inelegant. It paired well with my starter of tuna left pink in the middle served with a pesto-like sauce. The dish itself was made to perfection and I'm sorry I can't describe it better. The price of the whole dinner was worth that one dish!
Then we continued with the main courses of veal and lamb which we paired with a guilty pleasure of mine: Vietti Barbera d'Asti La Crena 2001 It is much too full on for most of this crowd, with very ripe fruit and 14,5% abv but for some reason I still love it. It is savory, though fruity, very earthy despite some small hints of spoof. The palate is big, abundantly fruity, yet very savoury, very acidic and very earthy. I like this very much, despite its slight raisiny scents.
We were too full to even have dessert. Besides, to bed now, as tomorrow is a long day at the Turku book fair and Turku Castle (we like castles....)
Cheers,
Otto