An Italian, a Frenchman and a Kiwi?

I went to the town of Bra in Italy last weekend for the Slow Food Cheese Festival. This event was brilliant. In any case, the reason I bring it up is because Bra is based in Piedmont in the North Western corner of Italy (just south of Turin) and is home to some of Italy’s best wines including Barolo and Barbaresco. Still buoyed by the trip on Wednesday night, I thought it’d be good to start with one of these wines...... alas, the Pavillion’s wine list wasn’t to be obliging. Not to worry, we stuck with Italy and tried a bottle from the Puglia region (the heel to Italy’s boot). Lovely, smooth and a little spicy – a bold-ish start. We also had our theme for the night… where have you been and what’s the wine like.

Next, Marty, who’d recently ventured to France for some canal boating along with a few wines, tempered things a little with a Beaujolais. The name derives from this historical province and wine-producing region in France located north of Lyon. It is a red wine made of the purple-coloured Gamay grape. The one we drank on the night was from producer Dominique Morel (Domaine de Gry-Sablon) from Fleurie. (There are ten specific Beujolais ‘Crus’, and Fleurie is one of them. My reading tells me that “Cru is a term which in Beaujolais can be loosely translated as ‘not crap’!”). Chilled slightly, light, nicely bodied, fresh, fruity and delightful – great choice.

To finish, Karl, one of our resident Kiwis on the night, took us to the New World. As we’re on the reds, it wasn’t going to be one of New Zealand’s cliché albeit outstanding Marlborough Sauv Blancs. Instead, it was a lovely Pinot Noir from that area by Kim Crawford. Beautiful. A good note to end the evening on.

As for it being the last of summer on Wednesday night, it certainly was the first day of autumn. A lovely night beside the bowling green nonetheless.

See you in a couple of weeks.