Dinner with friends: NV Il Conte D'Alba Moscato d"Asti, 2008 A to Z Oregon Pinot Noir, 2004 Brunello di Montecino

Hello everyone!! We had dinner with some friends on Saturday night. I made this really intense mushroom lasagna with homemade pasta. We also had salad and bread, and brownies for dessert. We had a great time! Forgive me if the notes are a little brief, but we went through several bottles and I made notes after our guests left.

We started the evening with the Moscato d'Asti. This was given to me by a friend from our little food and wine group. I thought it was delicious! It was sweet, but refreshing with a nice bit of fizz. Interestingly, it had a regular cork, not a screw top and not a champagne cork. It was pleasantly floral on the nose. The flavor profile was of apple and pear with a bit of minerality. This made a nice apertif, and would also be great as a dessert wine.

We opened the A to Z pinot noir as we started on dinner. It was very nice. It a little heavy for a Burgundian pinot and a little too light for a typical New World pinot. This hits a sweet spot for many people, which is probably why it's so popular. It had the aromas and flavor of strawberry and blueberry with a bit of spice. It started out a little "rough", but mellowed out nicely after 15 or 20 minutes in the glass. I got this at McScrooge's for about $20. It was very nice, especially after opening.

Then we opened the 2004 Brunello from Casisano-Colomboio. This was an excellent, delicious, silky smooth wine. It had a similarity to the A to Z pinot noir, but with an elegance and sophistication lacking in the Oregon pinot. It had aromas of vanilla (oak, but well under control) There was raspberry and cherry with horehound and a little spice on the finish, which was beautiful and lengthy. It was balanced and smooth, but very real and a little rustic. The elegance of this wine made me think of the Testa Rossa with its amazing silkiness. That was such a beautiful wine! But I come back again and again to the Italian wines. I think it's because they ARE more rustic. They have a richness of character, a complexity that is unique to these wines. Oh well, I guess my personal bias is showing, but I LOVED this wine! It sells for about $40 at Total Wines in Atlanta.

Finally we opened a Fonseca 10 year tawny port to have with the brownies. It was yummy with the dried cherry and raisin flavors. I still have half the bottle in the fridge, and I'll make more complete notes later. My first impression is that we liked the Graham's better, but it may be that because we had it after the delicious Brunello, it affected my opinion of this wine.

2009 Villa Lanata Moscato D'Asti Single Estate

This was our big New Year's Eve wine! I made baked goat's cheese rolled in sundried tomato seasonings. It was yummy with the wine. The alcohol content of this wine was only 5.5%, making it a great sipping wine for after dinner. It had a lovely golden dandelion color. The nose was of pear, apple and honey. The flavor profile was true to the nose with a little almond on the finish. Overall, a pleasant little bubbly. (Sorry, but I'm not much of a champagne person)

Suavia 2008 soave classico

Hello all!!

I had this truly delicious wine a few days ago with Spaghetti and clams (just a light olive oil and wine sauce) . It was a very nice pairing as the brightness of the wine cut through the richness of the sauce. The Suavia was a nice clear dandelion yellow. The aroma was lemon zest , apricot and melon. The taste was similar to the nose. It started out with honeydew, apricot, and a little citrus. On the mid-palate there was a pleasant minerality (limestone), and on the back end, almond. It had a wonderful lingering finish with fresh acidity. Overall, a very nice, well balanced medium bodied wine.

I picked this up at Bob's for a little over $15 because I was planning on spaghetti with clams and didn't think I had anything at home that would quite fit the bill. I was wishing I could find another bottle of the Pio Cesare gavi that I liked so much. I saw this wine at 91 points (Wine Spectator, I believe) and decided to give it a try. Al and I used to drink a lot of soave 25 years ago, but then it kind of disappeared. And I can understand why. Frankly, it just wasn't that good. We'd try a bottle every now and then, but it would be very unremarkable. So, we quit drinking it. This wine is what soave is all about (or should be). I hope to see more soave of this quality. Anyway, I went back to Bob's and bought three more bottles. I also found this at Total Wine in Atlanta for $19 a bottle (and well worth it in my opinion).

2007 Pio Cesare Cortese di Gavi

Hi!! I'm very excited about this new wine. I've been sipping it now for about an hour and it just keeps getting better and better. I was really excited about trying this wine because the producer has such a good reputation. We had salmon with Romesco sauce, a salad, and a little bit of chibatta. The wine has a great lemon-gold color. The nose is pleasant with light citrus, melon, and apple. The palate was much the same with a nice minerality, bright, juicy acid, good body and a silky, lingering finish. I love this wine! It's crisp but with good body. It was great with dinner and even better for after dinner sipping. I was just sorry when we got to the end of the bottle. This wine is regularly priced at $24 and is now at Ashes for $10!!! I bought 3 bottles and I should get some more! It was good with the salmon, but I think would be even better with shellfish. There are some great recipes for pasta with shellfish and calamari. This wine would be really good with it!