Thursday 7 August
Sharon kindly invited us to join a
party of family (Mieke) and friends for another wine tasting dinner at Mick and
Mack's on the UC campus.
This one was for sparklers, so we started
with an extra-dry prosecco,
Bortolotti, made of 100% Glera grapes from the Veneto. It was floral rather than sweet, and went
well with the appetizers, a pair of smoked trout crostini with capers, chive cream cheese, and yellow tomatoes,
which came on the same plate as the salad: asparagus, avocado, and roasted
tomatoes with champagne vinaigrette (the bubbles are everywhere).
They even turned up in the name
of the second wine: Secco "Italian Bubbles" a drier bianco brut made by Sorelle Casa, run by
a pair of sisters (and yes, their name is Casa, so they could have called
themselves the Casa di Casa) in the Piave valley.
We were then called to the buffet
for the main dishes, so we hurried to miss the scrum we got into last
time. We tried tastes of both fish and
meat: a champagne-poached salmon fillet with some roasted fennel (a bit dry,
but that's typical of chafing-dish cuisine), and roasted baby lamb chops in
white balsamic glaze with mango chutney; they too were a little overdone, but
still tender, and it helped that they had been cut thick, with two or even
three riblets per portion.
They came with sautéed fingerling
potatoes and roasted shallots on haricots
verts, all very forgiving vegetables.
And with the lamb, we had Biutiful (really, that's it's name) Cava brut
rosé from Requena, a 100% Garnacha cava.
Dessert was a Champagne sabayon
with strawberries and fresh mint, carrying through the theme to the end. It was served with an Albino Rocca Moscato
d'Asti: not many bubbles, but its complex fruit complimented the dessert so
well that we had to buy a bottle to take home.
So thanks, Sharon, for sharing the occasion with us!
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