Osteria Pantagruel dedicates its first wine festival of the year 2009 to the wines of Piedmont. We will show a number of bottles from popular producer Ceretto: white Blange’ (from Arneis grape), Barbaresco Asij, two Barolo - Zonchera and Brunate and, finally, a very particular dessert wine Barolo Chinato.

The new specials from Costantino Passalacqua will provide necessary support with such delicatessen as guazzetto with squids, onion soup au gratin, spaghetti with clams, tagliatelle with sea brim and arugula, risotto with asparagus and black pepper beef fillet with whiskey sauce.

It’s good to hear something nice amid the ongoing financial turmoil, isn’t it? Here we go – the wines of Ruffino, one of the greatest Tuscan producer, has arrived in Ukraine and it’s a real pleasure for us to show some of them during the new wine festival. There will be two Chardonnays, including a delicate and vibrant Libaio as well as seriously structured La Solatia, then a very professional blend of Sangiovese, Merlot and Syrah called Il Ducale, plus a monumental Chianti Classico Riserva Ducale Oro and finally a unique super-Tuscan based on autochthonous Colorino grape – Romitorio di Santedame. We hope this small collection of tastes will adequately demonstrate all the power of Tuscan winemaking by Ruffino.

The new specials from Costantino Passalacqua should provide if not strictly Tuscan but anyway very sound support to our wine festival. Among the hearty dishes are: sauteed veal brain in brandy sauce; spinach gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce; ravioli with ricotta and new walnuts; risotto with red radicchio and spek; stew of rabbit with olives and herbs etc. More details on our website.

Sergei Gusovsky

Congratulations! We have finally cancelled the tradition of having Beaujolais Nouveau delivered and served in osteria Pantagruel. Why? Because it’s a sorry product. One thing is having it drunk there, in France, where it is fresh and cheap and hilarious. Another thing is to drink a young wine which was drastically filtered and severely stabilized in order to be delivered thousands kilometers away and be served pretty much immediately. And sold not cheap at all. Basta! We will respond with our own festival of young wine. But not with vino novello, not by any chance. With superb Sicilian Nero d’Avola (vintage 2007) by Fattoria Dievole. Very fresh and fruity (lots of mulberry notes in particular), with nice piquant bitterness which will work really fine if support it by oxtail tomato stew Roman style from the new special menu by our genius Costantino Passalacqua.

Sergei Gusovsky

Ok, we can’t do much about crisis, but we can probably avoid dedicating all our time and thoughts to the damn crisis. That is exactly why we are not going to cancel a new festival (wines from Volpe Pasini and Viviani), new special menu (from our chef Costantino Passalacqua) and opening of the new boutiquebar Biancoro.

A bit more details about wines: the whites are by Volpe Pasini from Friuli including rather sophisticated Sauvignon and Chardonnay while reds are by Viviani from Veneto with inevitable Valpolicella, Ripasso, Amarone and Recioto. And if you really need to meditate about the bloody crisis it is definitely less painful when done with the glass of Amarone.

A bit more details about boutiquebar Biancoro: located on the 3rd floor of Mandarin Plaza, it can be your place for a cup of espresso, or dozen of oysters with the glass of Champagne, or classic cocktails as a part of aperitivo, or whatever else you might want to do while exploring what the boutiquebar can be good for.

About a year ago we were making the following announcement of the new wine festival:
“So, the autumn is here. Don’t you feel like going to Piedmont? Truffles, Barolo and Barbaresco, Toma’ and Robiola (these are cheeses), Tajarin (that’s pasta)… In fact, not that difficult to arrange – just fly to Milan, from there go to Alba and after checking for a week into on of the local hotels – start making a day-trips around. If for any reason though you have to stay in Kiev though, there is a way to mitigate the Piedmontese syndrome: participate in our wine festival.”

All the above sounds perfectly correct today as well. During the whole week we will be serving by the glass two types of Gavi (from Castellari Bergaglio) as well as three reds (Dolcetto, Barbera d’Alba, Barbaresco) from Pelissero.

Please learn more about the new specials of our chef Costantino Passalacqua.

To many of us the province of Alto Adige is known for its mountain ski resorts. So if you had a chance to try the pistes of Val Gardena or Arraba, or made a tour of Sella Ronda or at least made a bit of shopping in Cortina d”Ampezzo, sure the wines of Alto Adige should be known to you. Particularly the wines from famous co-operative of Colterenzio.

All the wines that will be presented on the festival are of the Cru level. Meaning they are produced from the selected bunches, that are harvested from a very particular vineyards. Namely there will be Pino Bianco, Chardonnay, two versions of indigenous Lagrein and a blend of Merlot - Cabernet. To give a proper finale to this wine journey we would suggest you indulge yourself with the aria of Gewürztraminer Passito.

A quick quote from Costantino Passalacqua’s the new specials: fried pumpkin flowers, polenta with pesto, risotto with squids, grilled beef tournedos, peaches “macerate”. You can find a full list on the osteria’s web-site.

There are aplenty of words about Sicily on our web-site but yet nothing about a very important producer called Donnafugata. Surely to drink the wines of Donnafugata is better than to read about them. So during our new festival there will be quite a few wines represented: two whites, three reds (including beautiful Tancredi and famous Mille e Una Notte) and a fine dessert one - Ben Rye (this year Gambero Rosso named it the best dessert wine of Italy).

The derivation of the name Donnafugata is rather interesting if not intrigue. It literally means “woman in flight”. About which woman are we talking? About Maria Carolina, the daughter of the great Austrian empress Maria Theresa. Who was Maria Carolina? The consort of Ferdinand IV of Bourbon. To the point, in the end of XVIII – beginning of XIX it was Maria Carolina who actually ruled Naples and Sicily. From whom was she escaping? From Napoleon who upon the victory at Austerlitz dispatched his army to southern Italy. Where did Maria Carolina find refuge? Right there, where our festival wines are produced nowadays.

The new specials  from chef Costantino Passalacqua provided the space for fennel, gazpacho, nettle, octopus, shrimps, sea-bass, salsiccia sausage, cèps. In which combination and composition? In a very delicious one.

Toscana, Toscana and one more time Toscana! The new festival is dedicated to Chardonnay (from two very authoritative producers – Fattoria Felsina and Avignonesi) and to Brancaia, a sound representative of modern Italian winemaking.

As for Chardonnay, all is rather evident: for sure little oak barrels, for sure impressive aromas of exotic fruits and spices. Both wines are from the south of Tuscany, Felsina’s I Sistri – from outskirts of Siena, Avignonesi’s Il Marzocco – from Montelpulciano. Yes, they have many things in common but finding distinguishes and comparing impressions upon tasting them is as enthralling as it is tricky.

Considering Brancaia, we could easily call its wines immodest. There will three of them introduced during the festival: two super-Tuscans (Tre and Il Blu), both are blend of Sangiovese, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, and also Chianti Classico - dark, rich, imposing, thus very non-classical Chianti Classico.

The new specials from Costantino Passalacqua abound in the seefood: octopus, grouper, clams, sea-bass, shrimps. Lasagne with porcini and pork escalope alla romana should balance menu.

We dedicate our new wine festival to the very special producer of Verdicchio – Villa Bucci and two recognized producers from Piedmont: Moccagatta (you will be able to try its Barbaresco of the vintage 1999 from the Bric Balin vineyard) and Azelia (two Barolo ’98 by the glass, including Cru Bricco Fiasco).

Here you could familiarize yourself with the new special menu from Costantino Passalacqua.

Our first wine festival of 2008 could be easily referred to as the festival of the modern Italian wine. All wines are big and powerful, even white ones. For instance, Poggio Argentato from Le Pupille which is a blend of Traminer and Sauvignon is pleasantly sweet and fruity on the nose with a properly luscious body, while in Sharjs from Livio Felluga the cream of Chardonnay is nicely balanced by the raciness and vivacity of Ribolla Gialla. With the reds the story becomes even more intricate. First of all it is hard (if possible) to decide which wine to start the tasting from. The price tags don’t help here, since Chianti Classico Riserva from Villa Cafaggio is not less impressive than neither Morellino di Scansano from Fattoria Le Pupille nor Brunello di Montalcino from Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona. All wines are young but nevertheless ready to be drunk, thus confirming on of the most important features of the modern winemaking.

Besides the first wine festival of 2008 we a proud to present a first special menu of 2008. Obviously the author is our beloved chef Costantino Passalacqua. Just think of the ravioli with goose meat and of polenta with porcini…