This Thursday the winemakers of Beaujolais will celebrate an overwhelming success of smart marketing campaign supported by millions of naïve drinkers of the Nouveau plonk. The words may seem harsh, but we believe they reflect the essence of the situation (more on that here). So in order to provide a reliable substitution we are starting with the Contro – Beaujolais Nouveau wine festival! Four wines from four indigenous grapes from for producers from four regions of Italy. Namely: Nero d’Avola (Firriato, Sicily), Sangiovese (Aia Vecchia, Tuscany), Barbera (Montaribaldi, Piedmont) and Corvina Veronese (Zeni, Veneto). The comfortable prices and nice impressions are guaranteed!

This Friday our chef signor Passalacqua will support the wine festival with the new specials with seafood and fish in abundance (including oysters, octopus, mussels, clams, squids, shrimps, cuttlefish, turbot etc.) in all kinds of preparations and presentations! Just in case you can’t manage without the meat dish we will have tournedo steak with whiskey sauce for you.

P.S. For those desperate to have their bottle of fresh Beaujolais we arrange an ambulance station at boutiquebar Biancoro with Beaujolais-Villages Primeur от Louis Jadot. As you see, it is not just Beaujolais, but Beaujolais-Villages as well as it is not just Nouveau, but Primeur. And it’s Louis Jadot, you know… so, we tried our best :)

Sergei Gusovsky

Hopefully you are not influenced by all the flu-related paranoia and so will be willing to entertain yourself with our new wine festival dedicated to a couple of very popular indigenous Italian grapes – Vermentino and Sangiovese. You may know that Vermentino is a white grape that shows his best in Sardinia, particularly in the area called Gallura. During the forthcoming week we are going to serve by the glass both Vermentino di Sardegna and Vermentino di Gallura. Both wines will represent a well-established and respected producer - Sella & Mosca. In case of Sangiovese, our repertoire is slightly bigger and thus you could meet three styles of this quintessentially Tuscan grape, all of them from Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona winery and all of them – a pure 100% Sangiovese. Please start tasting with the mild and comfortable super-Tuscan called Ciacci Piccolomini, then try a nicely arranged, very modern and convincing Sangiovese from the Montecucco zone of Tuscany and, finally, have a deserved sip of the noble (and extremely pro-drinking priced) Brunello di Montalcino.

Sergei Gusovsky

To finish off our wine marathon (3 festivals within 5 weeks) we will serve by the glass four Aldo Conterno wines: Chardonnay Bussiador, Barbera Conca Tre Pile, Barolo and Barolo Granbussia!!! Needless to say the wines are not cheap. But the producer is a “contemporary legend in Barolo” (Burton Anderson) and if you are willing to learn what does it mean to be a moderate traditionalist – familiarizing yourself with Aldo Conterno wines is a must. His Barolo could show “about every nuance of which great Barolo is capable” (Nicolas Belfrage). My English is definitely not good enough to protect this announcement (and the festival) from being called snobbish so please accept another quote. Here’s how Mrs. Jancis Robinson quotes Mr. Aldo Conterno: “they (Barolo and Barbaresco, - SG) are not easy to understand and, since they are made in small quantity, that matters little”.

Sergei Gusovsky

If you like wines of Piedmont you should not miss Pantagruel’s forthcoming festival of Vietti. There will be an astonishing compendium presented, including Roero Arneis, Barbera d’Asti, Barbaresco, Barolo and Moscato d’Asti. With such a “flight” (as American wine bars say) you can get a very good idea of diversity of both the wines of Piedmont and those of Vietti. The latter is one of the most respected producers of the conservative side of the modern bloc among the barolisti. Beautiful, very carefully made, delicate contemporary wines – we think that’s the style of Vietti.

Sergei Gusovsky

Just in case you have started missing our wine festivals, here is good news: we will have three of them within next five weeks and it all starts from the wines of Veneto from Inama. Their wines are decisively contemporary and thus very well dressed. It would be hard to find more convincing modern Soave then the single cru Vigneto du Lot and you are going to be surprised with what a Sauvignon Blanc can do in case of Vulcaia Fume'. An interesting red called Carmenere Piu' will show how the particular, almost Australian red soil of its vineyard influences a traditionally bordelaise red grape. And finally, while tasting a grand cuvee of Cabernet, Carmenere and Merlot called Bradisismo, please check if you will feel the Earth breathe, just as the name proposes (more or less).

Properly in-time for the festival is the inauguration of our new specials from well-rested chef Costantino Passalacqua.

Sergei Gusovsky

As you may know, Italians don’t work in August (more or less). Anyway, a lot of good/fine/reliable restaurants are definitely closed in August. Bad for tourists but good for those who work in all those restaurants. The reason for such a foreword is very simple – to underline the fact that the osteria is working at normal pace, chef Passalacqua is here as well and on top of all that, there is a new wine festival dedicated to Pinot Grigio! Isn’t it good to stay in Kiev in August, ah?!!

We can firmly state that Pinot Grigio is a sure killer of any wine festival it participates in, at least it kills the demand for the other white wines. As soon as one hears “yes, we do have Pinot Grigio by the glass”, the choice seems to become too obvious. Well, how about FIVE Pinot Grigio competing each other? Five styles, five producers, five apellacions… same grape. Here is the list of wines (producer, cru, apellacion, vintage):
 
Pravis, Polin, Vigneti delle Dolomiti IGT, 2008
Valentino Butussi, Colli Orientali del Friuli DOC, 2008
Russiz Superiore, Collio DOC, 2005
Elena Walch, Castel Ringberg, Alto Adige DOC, 2007
Ronco del Gelso, Sot Lis Rivis, Isonzo del Friuli DOC, 2007

We sincerely hope that the festival brings a nice opportunity to appreciate the real diversity of such a ubiquitous wine as Pinot Grigio. We also hope that some stereotypes about Pinot Grigio can be shaken as well :)

Nota bene: This Friday, 7 p.m. there will be Double cocktail party held at boutiquebar Biancoro. Why “double”? Because our chef-bartender Irina Mashihina will make a show for two properly summertime cocktails – authentic Chile Pisco Sour and berry variations on the Collins cocktail theme.

Sergei Gusovsky

Sicilian wines from Firriato are simply wonderful. They are both easy to enjoy and quite sophisticated if you try deciphering them. Here we’ll try to give some tips in order to make the job smoother. So, the whites are Chiaramonte (from indigenous Ansonica grape) and Quater (from four local grapes – Grillo, Catarratto, Carricante and Zibibbo). The former is fresh, pleasant, citrusy wine while the latter is multifaceted concoction that may require a few sips before you finish painting its portrait. With reds we have a lovely combination of autochthonous grapes and aliens. In fact, more than that, with Etna Rosso you could familiarize yourself with very particular Nerello Cappuccio and Nerello Mascalese grapes that are grown on the slopes of Etna while Quater Rosso represents a whole Sicilian diversity with equal parts of Nero d’Avola, Perricone, Frappato and Nerello Cappuccio being in the blend. The competition between the wines becomes international thanks to a mighty Camelot (Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot) from the 2004 vintage. You may just guess how impressive the beast is… Rounding the tasting will prove easy with passito called Ecrù. Based on Zibibbo and Malmsey, half of the grapes are sun dried and other half - surmatured on the vine. What a beautiful nectar that dessert wine is!

Just in-time we have the new specials from dear Costantino, including properly Sicilian sword-fish, risotto with chanterelle, gnocchi with Gorgonzola and pine nuts, carpaccio of Bresaola and Asiago cheese and other fine dishes.

Sergei Gusovsky

Although our new wine festival is dedicated to the wines of Friuli and Calabria it’s the winemakers of Friuli that we should praise and applaud to, namely, Venica and Dorigo families.

In case with Venica, the decision of Gianni Venica to work with the terra of Calabria made it possible for us to present at the festival a delightfully balanced collection of two Friulean whites (Crus of Pinot Grigio and Ribolla Gialla) and two very powerful Calabrian reds (Balbium and SerraMonte, both based on autochthonous Magliocco grape).

Speaking of Dorigo, it was Girolamo Dorigo’s wish to terminate the lousy practice of neighboring winemakers to use precious Picolit grape for production of mass market type of sweet wine. That was the case about 20 years ago. Nowadays Picolit is treasured the way it deserves and the result is so beautiful that some say it is Italian respond to Sauternes. See if you may agree…

In the new special menu from Costantino Passalacqua: pink tomatoes with arugula and fresh goat cheese; warm ciabatta toasts with Mozzarella and prosciutto di San Daniele; nettle dough tagliatelle with roasted sea bass; spaghetti with curry sauce, squids and king prawn; risotto with new green haricots and spek; ostrich escalopes in white wine; warm vanilla cream with berries and home-made pine nuts biscuits.

Even if you think you know what the wine called Orvieto is all about, you may want to try the two Orvietos from Palazzone. Both cru wines (Terre Vineate and Campo del Guardiano) show a lot of sophistication and power while not at a cost of jeopardy to the innate harmony of the wines. They say that normally we should not expect much from Orvieto and that the lightly fragrant wine without much color is Ok for the Orvieto. Well, the Orvietos from Palazzone are aliens then…

On the red part of the wine festival we propose a line of Super-Tuscans from Castello del Terriccio: a Sangiovese thoroughbred Capannino and two vintages (2003 и 2004) of the Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese blend called Tassinaia.

There are some nice surprises in the new special menu from Costantino Passalacqua, namely, couscous with cuttlefish and its ink; Valencia style risotto; white asparagus with Grana Padano cheese; strudel with exotic fruits etc.

P.S. Please note that we just opened a summer terrace of boutiquebar Biancoro. The terrace gives a nice opportunity to have a glass of refreshing prosecco even after midnight since Biancoro is working at least till 1 a.m. and if you would be willing to get something besides few sips of spumante the new menu may be as comforting as it gets.

Sergei Gusovsky

The new wine festival is dedicated to the wines of Northern Italian region of Alto Adige produced by famous J. Hofstatter. There will be three whites, including Riesling, de Vite (a blend of Pinot Bianco, Muller Thurgau and Sauvignon Blanc) and legendary Gewurztraminer Kolbenhof and three reds: Lagrein Steinraffler, Yngram (a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Syrah) and yet another legendary wine - Pinot Nero Barthenau Vigna S. Urbano.

The new specials from chef Costantino Passalacqua gives aplenty of opportunities to experiment with food matching wines, here are just a few ideas: what about Gewurztraminer Kolbenhof paired with banana and Gorgonzola tart? Or wouldn’t you want to check a combination of risotto alla parmigiana and Pinot Nero Barthenau Vigna S. Urbano?!!

Sergei Gusovsky