September 20, 2012

Ciao Bella!

It helps to have an elder brother who shares your enthusiasm for wine. Mine took me to an incredible wine tasting hosted by bio-dynamic winemakers Querciabella last month at The Imperial in Delhi. Founded in 1974, Querciabella is an Italian winery with vineyards throughout the Chianti Classico and Maremma areas of Tuscany. It's famous for its completely natural, bio-dynamic wines and we drank three of the most acclaimed: the 2008 Batar, the 2008 Chianti Classico, and the 2007 Camartina.
The Imperial is always a pleasure to visit, I for one can spend my time just looking at their gorgeous marble floors. Luckily for me, this evening there was more fun to be had.
As we walked into 1911 where the tasting was, we were greeted with chilled flutes of champagne. Our host for the evening, Giorgio Fragiacomo, went around meeting the 20 of us present, telling us a little bit about the wines we were to try. When it was finally time to stop the chit chat and sit down for the tasting, we were led to our tables. Who wouldn't be happy to see this?
Present, sir.
The butter was calling out to me.
So I answered with the help of the bread basket.
The 2008 Batar - this blew my mind. Definitely my favourite of the evening - a chewy, crisp blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc. So good. I may have had 2 glasses.
The antipasto - a hot cheese galette with honey, mint and melon pearls. 
A good match with the Batar.
The Chianti Classico - did not enjoy this. Too robust and tannic for me.
We paired the Chianti with minestrone ticinese.
Giorgio introduced each wine, and then hopped from table to table asking us what we thought (it was so nice to describe wine and not have someone roll their eyes at you). He then sat down with us - I guess he thought we really needed his guidance. 
A fennel palette cleanser.
Wild mushroom crespelli with asparagus. Mushroom heaven.
The Super Tuscan and star of the Querciabella winery: the Camartina. This is only produced in the best vintages. All I can say is, it lived up to the hype. And look at that ruby hue! I think this would pair well with a lot of Indian food as well. Kebabs and Camartina.
Giorgio got extremely excited when the Camartina came out. He made us smell and taste and spit a whole lot before we could drink the wine. 
The last wine of the evening. This though, was a rather boring Riesling from a different winery. 
In all, a really great night - my brother even stopped to explain to two tourists the history of the ambassador cab in great detail. Take me drunk I'm home.

4 comments:

  1. nice! it was a good evening. need to get a couple of bottles of the stuff.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We need to get our hands on the Batar. Any vintage will do ;)

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  2. My my, who would've thought my dumpling was so fancy! Save a spot for me the next time.

    ReplyDelete

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