Aleš über alles

Movia's master was back in NYC on Monday, capping his latest U.S. tour with another dinner at Italian Wine Merchants. Aleš was in fine form, sharing his various wine-making philosophies, both the obvious ("Wine is not like Swiss watches") and the less so ("Only the chicken that knows the rooster can make the good eggs.") To start with, the 2000 Puro - nice to know what this is supposed to taste like after our recent misadventures with this wine. I'm thinking there might have been a storage issue with my bottles.

Anyways... first up was a pair of Lunar - the 2007 Ribolla (R) and the 2008 Chardonnay - not yet for sale, not yet released, actually only bottled a couple of weeks ago. So, a bit hard to say where this is at the moment, but despite the cloudiness and the, well, not off-putting dirtiness, I think there's there there, especially considering how much the Ribolla had cleaned up.

The first course was Cobia in Octopus and Cucumber Guazzetto - never had cobia before, but it was nicely textured if not particularly flavourful in and of itself. The octopus was amazingly tender though.

The second flight of wine was three of the Veliko Bianco, the 2005, the 2002, and the 1990. Just as last year, I found the young wines lagging far behind the 1990. In a relative sense, the 2005 seemed dominated by oak, though with a pleasant cumin note, while the 2002 was shedding oak, but otherwise discombobulated. Dunno, maybe this is a wine that simply requires time in bottle. All those folks out there doing late releases must be on to something.

To pair with this flight, there was Pancetta Wrapped Rabbit, with Fresh Fava, Tomato and Pecorino - this was yummy, though I don't think I've ever had rabbit that tasted more like chicken. The fresh fava beans were very tasty, made me wonder why I've not had fresh fava before? I'm crying foul.

The third flight was all Veliko Rosso: the 2003, the 2001, and the 1983, another repeat from last year. Once again, I by far preferred the '83, it just seemed the most interesting and the most balanced. Balanced in that Musarian sort of way, but without so much of the funk. Of course, here is where I was presented with steak and forgot to take a photo. Grilled Skirt Steak with Braised Snails and Anchovy, yummy.

In the end, we returned from whence we came, sort of... formaggi with the 2002 Puro Rose. I do so prefer the Rose. Of course the night didn't quite end there, the customary nightcap followed, and so on, and so forth. It was good.