Things of Beauty

With risotto ai carciofi, vitello tonnato, cheese (yes cheese – passim) and cake! we spent Saturday evening in. Lest they be forgotten there were also four friends.

It was all white on the night:

2016 Greywacke – Sauvignon Blanc

2015 Bianco Secco – Giuseppe Quintarelli

2007 Vina Gravonia – Lopez de Heredia

Now the Sauvignon went well with the artichokes, and the Quintarelli ws a fine foil for the Vitello Tonnato (and I dare not tell Elodie just how vintage that tin of anchovies under salt is – sale! an amazing preserver!). But that white Rioja is just fantastico – perfect with…er, anything. A citrussy, orangey attack with, oak and not a little oxidative flavour, lanolin and beeswax and an amazing zippy acidity that just keeps it brimming along full pace.

I was less allegro than I might have been next morning after a second grappa di vino santo, but hey, no one waas driving. Nobody died.

Neck ’em while you can. In all great cellars near you!