Kelly the Culinarian: A Tour of Veneto Wines at Eataly

Sunday, December 7, 2014

A Tour of Veneto Wines at Eataly

What a cool day! I was lucky enough to score an invite to #UWV, a private wine tasting at Eataly featuring the united wines of Veneto. It was an interesting event blending an educational tasting with a geography and politics lesson, along with a decent dose of food, too.

We arrived to find our places already set, complete with bread, water and red wine already breathing. At the start of the session, we learned more about the Italian region of Veneto, it's importance in the wine making community and the various rules and regulations governing production in this region. In my opinion, we started on a high note with the Villa Sandi Prosecco. It was so light and refreshing that I could have easily stopped right there. Plus, it was $14, which is my kind of price point.

All of the three prosecco varieties we tried were paired with a salmon tartar on top of a Parmesan crisp finished with greek yogurt and chives. I thought the first prosecco paired well with the dill topping of the salmon nicely.
We then moved on to white wines, which were paired with a delicious radicchio risotto. I wanted so much more of this dish - it was surprisingly filling thanks to the pancetta inside. I enjoyed it the most with the custoza DOC, a white wine comprised of four grape varietals that mature at different times, then are fermented together for 15 days. It was fruity and had a floral aroma, which I really enjoyed with the creaminess of the risotto.
 

The final dish was my least favorite, which was a Venetian-style meatball containing mashed potatoes. The texture is what got me, so I enjoyed the final red wines of the afternoon solo. The bardolino classico DOC "vigna morlongo" was another combination of grapes that was a dry red that was slightly spicy to my palate. It was light enough, however, that I could have enjoyed more than one glass. But just more than one, let's not get crazy.


It was such a great tasting at one of my favorite food emporiums in the city, so I had to stop for a little post-tasting snack. The focaccia here is insane - so fluffy and chewy and filling. I tried the cinnamon sugar (not too sweet, just right) and the proscuitto, which was fine but not nearly as awesome as I thought. Next time, I'm going with the mozzarella, tomato and basil combo. Can't go wrong there.

1 comment:

Losing Lindy said...

I miss downtown sometimes...not the commute though ;)