Another Visit to Vino

We planned on having a quick dinner at Vino but it ended up as a 4 hour visit. Chuck Furuya dug deep into Vino’s cellars and offered a 1995 Sottimano Curra Vigna Masui Barbaresco. Despite being 12 years old, this wine evolved during the 1st hour and went from primary sour cherry aromatics with a touch of licorice to tar and pebble with red fruit on the back end. The palate also blossomed during the 1st hour with good red fruit concentration, earth and pebble and moderately chewy tannins with a long finish. Delicious now but would improve with another 5 to 7 years.

We started with the Gnocchi with Mushroom and Snap Peas in Brown Butter (perfect with the Barbaresco)

Pizza with Chorizo and Pickled Peppers (a Rioja would have been a better pairing) and

Calamari with Balsamic Aioli (the Mrs 2004 Joseph Leitz Dragonstone Riesling was perfect with this dish). Vino does serve a full plate of calamari but I only remembered to snap a photo after we were half way through the dish.

I also sampled a 2001 Sandrone Dolcetto d’Alba which had a lot of jammy raspberry and a touch of thyme and sage and a 2004 La Mozza Morelini di Scansano – a Sangiovese based wine produced by Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. This Sangiovese had the body of a rich Cabernet or Syrah with a lot of ripe red fruit and a very long finish.
We then proceed to their Pan Roasted Rib Eye Steak with roasted potatoes and vegetables. There was a hint of white truffle oil on the steak and it paired nicely with both the Dolcetto and the Sangiovese.

We ordered dessert from Hiroshi Eurasian Tapas – their last serving of a Lemon Tiramisu. Layers of light ladyfingers interspersed with lemon, guava and lilikoi gellees. As in previous visits, we were served complimentary Australian Ruby Port and I ended the night with a perfect shaken Negroni.