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Archive for Oliverio

Sage at Oliverio

Dec08

Restaurant: Oliverio [1, 2, 3]

Location: 9400 W Olympic Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90212. (310) 407-7791

Date: December 4, 2014

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Awesome Food & Wine

_

Sage Society is a fabulous wine sales business operated by my friend Liz, who has one of the best palettes for food and wine of anyone I know. We also have very similar taste in both and she is a huge lover of Burgundy and interesting and geeky Italians. She periodically organizes dinners for her clients which always combine fabulous wines, great food, and an extremely high level of polish and integration. She really produces (in the film sense of the term) a menu and experience.

Tonight is the annual Sage Society Holiday Dinner.

The atmosphere at Oliverio is tres LA. They have sexy poolside dining, but this being a “wintery” December evening, we at inside.


These first two champagnes are great drinking reasonable ones Liz brought to get started “before” the serious drinking.


agavin: apparently this one has old Meursault in it, which lent it some added complexity.


Our hostess Liz on the left and master chef Mirko Paderno. Paderno is a born and bred Italian chef. Raised in Milan, his love of cooking was originally inspired by his parents and grandmother, who taught him how to prepare traditional dishes from both the Northern and Southern parts of Italy.

After graduating from the Cesare Ritz School in Merano, Chef Paderno worked at the Four Seasons Hotel in Milan under Chef Sergio Mei. Utilizing fresh ingredients and simple accents in his dishes, he developed a style that focused on the flavor of the food above all else.  In 1999, Chef Paderno took his osteria-style cuisine to Los Angeles, working at top Italian restaurants such as Primi, Dolce and All’Angelo. After opening the acclaimed Cecconi’s in West Hollywood in 2009, Paderno was appointed Executive Chef at Oliverio inside the Avalon Hotel and tasked with relaunching the concept and menu as an upscale, alfresco Italian restaurant.

In the fall of 2013, Chef Paderno was named Area Executive Chef for Viceroy Hotel Group, adding LIVELLO at L’Ermitage Beverly Hills to his kitchen roster. At both Oliverio and LIVELLO, he showcases what he calls “modern Italian food with regional touches” and fuses Italian flavors with local ingredients.

Liz brought this Oenothèque (renamed P2) which comes in a crazy elaborate display box.

1998 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon P2. AG 95. The 1998 Dom Pérignon P-2 (formerly Oenothèque) is quite reticent today. What else is new? These second -plenitude wines are often very tight when they are first released, which is very much the case here. Still, it is quite evident the 1998 is a bit more tender and pliant than the 1996. Today, the 1998 still hasn’t turned the corner, but it is quite pretty and expressive. This is a terrific offering.


Grilled Mediterranean seppia, roasted squash pate.


Butternut squash soup with cheese an sage.


Bread.


1983 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. JK 93. Nose was so honeyed and full of crème brulee that it gave a sinful impression. There was a touch of seltzer and minerals, but the 1983 was definitely living in plateau city. To me, this vintage signified crossing that bridge that Bernard alluded to earlier. Bernard was impressed with the freshness of the 1983. The palate had a woodsy edge but was still very smooth and caressing, with good seltzer vim to the finish. I concluded, .In a great spot right now.


Sunchokes soufflé, parmigiano sauce, fresh black truffle. A fabulous cheesy, truffle dish.


The next three courses involved an unusual blind “contest.” We each brought several wines designed to go with specific courses. They were served blind in flights and we attempted to choose not the best wine, but the best “pairing.”


The winner of the best pairing was to receive this awesome 1990 Tattinger Collection Champagne.

Flight 1


From my cellar: 2000 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage Blanc. IWC 91-95. Honey, hay and herbs on the nose. Dense but bright, and quite spicy in the mouth. Not especially sweet, but chewy and vibrant, finishing with good grip. From Rocoules: Spice, apricot and orange zest on the nose. Silky and spicy, with lovely fat texture, but still with racy grip. This could make a complete Hermitage blanc on its own. Rocoules again: Complex aromas of lemon, spice and blond tobacco. Less sweet than the first Rocoules sample, but also tighter and more obviously structured. Finishes with considerable power. The Chaves had already moved these first components from barrel to tank in order to avoid fatiguing the wine. Rocoules from a barrel (14.8% alcohol): Extraordinarily spicy nose, with malic notes of apple and spearmint. Still showing traces of the fermentation. Lush and deep on the palate, with almost exotic ripeness and a flavor of honeysuckle. As fat as this is, it still has sound acidity and terrific verve, with enlivening notes of orange zest and spice. Very long and fresh on the aftertaste. The ultimate blend should make a terrific bottle.


1996 Domaine Touchais Coteaux du Layon Réserve de nos Vignobles. I middling sweet Chenin.


2002 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Butteaux. Burghound 92. Extremely subtle oak frames expressive and layered aromas of oyster shell, iodine and a lovely mineral component that leads to even more complex flavors that display superb intensity and stunning length. The finish is racy yet completely buffered by the copious sap. A knockout that has reached its peak though it should be capable of holding at this level for up to another decade.

agavin: best wine of the flight (although it still didn’t pair).


Spaghetti bottarga with clams and a TON of caviar. A very salty briny dish. Really quite lovely, but a difficult pairing. The caviar and clams were a last minute addition and we had tried to pair with just the bottarga. Really, the 1983 Dom worked best (not an official pairing) and even it fought with the brine.


This wine was a bonus “palette cleanser.”

2000 Domaine Huet Vouvray Sec Le Mont. A nearly dry Vouvray.


White truffle and porcini gnocchi.


1990 Georges Noellat Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts. 93 points. Brick color, with a nose of game and leather. Decent fruit, with a tannic backbone still showing, similar to other ’90s. This is a very good wine, and will hold for a while.


2002 Alain Hudelot-Noellat Romanée St. Vivant. IWC 93. Dark red. Youthful raspberry and blackberry aromas accented by gingerbread, along with deeper mocha, smoked meat and candied rose accents. Lush, suave and deep, with a bright, zesty mineral quality adding impressive lift and precision to the deep, sweet red and dark berry flavors. Finishes with a liqueur-like raspberry quality and excellent depth and persistence. More alluring today than the 2001 and I suspect that this will drink well earlier, if for no other reason than for its sweetness and supple texture.

agavin: best wine of the flight, although slightly weak in the fruit department — nose was all RSV.


From my cellar: 1970 Bodegas Olarra Rioja Cerro Anon Gran Reserva. 92 points. Surprisingly young. Gorgeous and interesting nose with a slightly weak mid palette and a long pretty sour cherry finish. Most people thought it was some odd pinot noir and had no idea it was so old.


Liz through this beautiful white in because we all tried red pairings.

1990 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 93. This is one of those whites from the ’90 vintage that is trapped in a time capsule as it remains unusually youthful for a 20 year old wine even if no longer young as the nose displays the first hints of sous bois along with dried flower and citrus aromas. The delicious and highly mineral-infused middle weight flavors are racy, intense and beautifully delineated before culminating in a lingering and pure finish. This is in extraordinary condition if well-stored and should continue to drink well for years to come. In a word, impressive.

agavin: really nice Charlie, incredibly fresh, younger than some 2005s I’ve tasted!


Egg yolk ravioli, white truffle sauce, fresh white truffle. A magnificent dish with an intense yolky factor that emphasized the earthy quality of the truffles.

But it was also a difficult pairing. None of us (except maybe Liz) properly anticipated the yolk effect, and all the reds, good as they might have been with straight truffles, were just consumed by the yolk. Not unpleasantly mind you, but not exactly harmoniously either. The Corton was the best of the lot (pairing wise), but even it was fairly overwhelmed by the egg.


1994 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia Masseto Toscana IGT. AG 95. The 1994 Masseto is another super-impressive wine in this tasting. The warmth of the year comes through in the super-ripe, dense fruit. There is plenty of underlying structure to ensure another decade of very fine drinking here. This is a stunning Masseto from a long forgotten year.


From my cellar: 1985 Joseph Drouhin Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Les Cazetiers. 88 points. This bottle had a serious barnyard funk on the nose (horse butt as we nicknamed it), but after about an hour it mostly faded. The palette and finish were quite nice though (if you ignored the nose). Quite a bit of fruit still going.


2002 Domaine Dujac Echezeaux. Burghound 90-93. Intense, extremely expressive spicy red fruit aromas lead to wonderfully sappy, mouth coatingly rich flavors blessed with outstanding density and unusually silky tannins plus a certain seductive quality to the subtly complex and persistent finish. This is more refined than it normally is at this early stage of its development and is extremely promising.

agavin: my favorite wine of the flight.


2002 Domaine du Château de Chorey (Germain) Beaune 1er Cru Cuvée Tante Berthe. Burghound 93. This is a massive wine with an incredibly concentrated yet remarkably elegant nose of cassis and plum followed by powerful, robust and firmly structured flavors oozing with sap that completely buffers the big but very ripe tannins. Despite the size, this is astonishingly well balanced and the length just doesn’t quit; I could taste this wine hours later and if you can find any, don’t pass it up as Beaune 1ers of this caliber rarely come along and it will last at least 30 years, perhaps longer.

agavin: this wine caused much consternation blind as it was so purple and powerful that we wondered if it might be a New World Pinot Noir. It had a killer long finish.


Roasted quail, porcini mushroom, black garlic reduction. A gorgeous qual that required some bone chomping, which was totally worth it.

These were the most closely paired wines. The Massetto, although lovely, was a total pair fail, but all the Burgundies worked decently. Still, not of them worked so well that we were willing to declare them a “winning pairing.” So we didn’t actually award the Champagne.


Pumpkin ravioli with a cheese sauce.


1993 Camille Giroud Chassagne-Montrachet Rouge. Not something you see every day — but it was gorgeous. One of my favorite wines of the night.


Selection of Italian cheese: soft gorgonzola (cow), carboncino (3 milk), rocchetta (sheep).


Panna cotta with blueberries.


Overall, this was another knock out meal. The food was fantastic. Each dish was really fabulous and very generous with the truffles, caviar and the like. Mirko Paderno is a top top Italian chef, one of the best in town (and LA has very good Italian). The wines were also wonderful, some mixed, but the format was a lot of fun and resulted in an enormous amount of wine talk and debate — woe be those few who weren’t serious wine geeks.

Happy holidays from Sage Society!

LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Sauvages at Oliverio
  2. Amarone at Oliverio
  3. Burgundy at Providence
  4. Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the Sun
  5. Factory Kitchen – Fabulous
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Burgundy, Oliverio, Sage Society, Wine

Sauvages at Oliverio

Aug01

Restaurant: Oliverio [1, 2, 3]

Location: 9400 W Olympic Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90212. (310) 407-7791

Date: July 25, 2014

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Awesome Food & Wine

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The Sauvages are a group of serious Friday afternoon wine drinkers. Today’s event brings us to the Avalon Hotel’s poolside Italian: Oliverio for a special custom Barolo lunch.


The atmosphere is tres LA and top notch.


Opening up with a couple whites. This Italian was tasty, but I didn’t know it.


Marcassin Chardonnay Marcassin Vineyard. I didn’t catch the vintage, but it was a 100 point Parker wine. This is a pretty decent new world Chard, still, I don’t understand the ratings. It’s flabby, lacking the acidic backbone that makes a great white Burgundy so delicious. Instead you are just hit by straightforward richness.


1988 Fiorano (Boncompagni Ludovisi) Sémillon Vino da Tavola. A totally unusual, delicious, ancient bottle of Semillon from Italy.


Our custom Barolo menu.


Bread.

1997 Azienda Bricco Rocche (Ceretto) Barolo Prapò. IWC 90. Medium red-orange. Spicy aromas of redcurrant, clove, dried flowers and tobacco. Juicy, bright and delineated, with noteworthy shape and structure. Quite spicy at the core. Substantial firm tannins are very nicely buffered. Finishes with excellent persistence.


1998 Angelo Gaja Costa Russi. Parker 92. The dark ruby/purple-colored, supple-texture 1998 Costa Russi possesses sweet, jammy raspberry and cherry fruit, medium to full body, gorgeous glycerin, low acidity, and a lightly tannic finish. Although large-sized, it has good finesse as well as beautifully pure fruit.


1997 Roberto Voerzio Barolo Cerequio. Parker 92. The paradoxical 1997 Barolo Cerequio possesses exquisite purity as well as an open-knit bouquet, but restrained, tannic, forceful, backward flavors. Dense and rich, with the vintage’s thickness well-displayed.


1997 Cordero di Montezemolo Barolo Monfalletto. Parker 90-96. A well-respected La Morra producer, Codero’s 1997 Barolo Monfalletto is a soft, structured offering with muscular, earthy, licorice, and black cherry aromas as well as flavors. With airing, notes of chocolate, truffles, meat, and pepper emerge. Muscular and rustic, but substantial and rich on the palate, it requires several years of cellaring.


Mediterranean Seppia. Carmelized onion, fresh liver, black figs. An interesting combo that totally worked. The sweetness of the fig worked with the liver (probably actually foie gras) and the Seppia had a wonderful chew.


1996 Luciano Sandrone Barolo Cannubi Boschis. Parker 96. The 1996, one of the estate’s best, takes things to another level.  It shows an outrageous, well-delineated nose of fresh roses, minerals and menthol followed waves of dark fruit and licorice flavors that are just beginning to show the signs of early maturity, with exceptional freshness, length, and harmony.  This opens beautifully in the glass, taking on an almost Burgundian elegance.  A wine to marvel over.  It is hard to resist this now, but it will be even better in another 3-5 years, and age gracefully for another decade, and probably more.  96+ points/drink after 2008.


1997 Luciano Sandrone Barolo Cannubi Boschis. Parker 96. The 1997 is rich and alcoholic on the nose, displaying aromas of very sweet fruit with a slightly evolved character.  It is super-rich and concentrated on the palate, offering intense sweet fruit and mineral flavors, but with notable balance for the vintage, closing with a final lingering note of sweetness.  This is drinking well now and should last at least another ten years.


1996 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Falletto. Parker 94-96. The saturated ruby/purple-colored 1996 Barolo Falletto exhibits an extraordinary nose of smoke, earth, white truffles, black fruits, licorice, and floral scents. Extremely massive, with layers of concentration, high tannin, a muscular personality, and a 40+ second finish, this classic, young Barolo will require patience. Why can’t I turn my body clock back twenty years?


1997 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Falletto. Parker 93. Giacosa’s 1997 Barolo Falletto de Serralunga is an exquisite Barolo offering superb notes of tar, earth, truffles, licorice, minerals, and cherry/raspberry fruit. There is plenty of acidity as well as high tannin, but concentrated, chewy flavors. The wine is tight, dense, impressive, and surprisingly structured for a 1997.


Roasted Quail. Venetian style chicken liver, oyster mushrooms. The quail was delightful, as were the mushrooms. This liver was a bit stronger, more like my mom’s traditional liver and onions.


1998 Domenico Clerico Barolo Ciabot Mentin Ginestra. Parker 93. Domenico Clerico’s 1998 Barolo Ciabot Mentin Ginestra is one of the most full-throttle wines of the vintage. Still deeply-colored, this authoritative wine possesses tons of mineral-infused dark fruit intermingled with French oak and menthol. This remains one of the most tannic and firm wines of the vintage. My impression is that the fruit will fade before the tannins melt away. Still, this is a beautiful wine Barolo to enjoy over the next few years, although it is not a wine for the timid.


1997 Massolino Barolo Vigna Rionda. Parker 90. The sexy, layered, evolved 1997 Barolo Vigna Rionda was obviously produced from extremely ripe fruit as evidenced by the dark garnet/amber color, and sweet perfume of smoke, caramel, toffee, and espresso infused with black cherries, plums, and prunes. This multilayered, full-bodied offering exhibits a seamless personality with no hard edges.


1999 Massolino Barolo Riserva Vigna Rionda. Parker 93. The 1999 Barolo Vigna Rionda has always been somewhat of an enigma. It is a big, structured Vigna Rionda with vibrant fruit, great length and powerful tannins. One of the casks was new in this vintage and the wine has always has a gloss of new oak, but over the years the oak has begun integrate and the wine has developed beautifully. I may have initially underestimated this wine.


From my cellar: 1996 Aldo Conterno Barolo Colonnello. Parker 90-93. The 1996 Barolo Colonnello is aromatic, offering scents of melted asphalt, cedar, tobacco, spice box, and assorted red and black fruits. Following a soft entry, the immense richness, fleshy, full-bodied power of this wine became apparent. The finish offers considerable tannic clout and power.

agavin: Sadly, this bottle was kinda turned, and particularly odd as I bought it from Aldo Conterno personally in 2000 and had it well cellared. It wasn’t totally gone, and the nose was fabulous, but the color was mostly brick and the fruit faded. We didn’t serve it.


Conchiglioni al forno. Stuffed with veal trippe, white bean sauce, pecorino cheese. A fabulous pasta. Nicely al dente, with a wonderful cheesy tomato sauce inside. I guess the trippe just added a touch of richness, as I didn’t detect the noxious texture.


2000 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino. Parker 97. Conterno’s 2000 Barolo Riserva Monfortino gives an impression of accessibility only because it is so open relative to some of the surrounding vintages of this great, legendary Barolo. The 2000 has tons of fruit backed up with considerable tannic heft. With time in the glass sweet, balsamic notes make an appearance, but this is one of the few 2000s that needs considerable cellaring to show all of its cards.


2000 Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo Cannubi (San Lorenzo) / Ravera. Parker 89-91. 2000 Barolo Cannubi (San Lorenzo)/ Ravera (from barrel)—A blend of 60% Cannubi (San Lorenzo sub-plot) and 40% Ravera fruit. Dark ruby in color, the Cannubi (San Lorenzo) /Ravera is delicate, perfumed and aromatic, with lots of cherry and spice flavors, although still very closed on the palate. The Brunate/LeCoste is the masculine wine, the Cannubi (SanLorezo)/Ravera the feminine wine.


2000 Angelo Gaja Sperss. Parker 94. From Magnum. Gaja’s 2000 Sperss is wonderfully open and radiant. Layers of dark fruit, grilled herbs, cassis and smoke saturate the palate in this powerful, stunningly beautiful Sperss. Gorgeous inner perfume and a long, intense finish round things out in style.


Australian Wagyu Tagliata. Parmigiano fondue, caviar, chanterelle mushrooms. A fabulous little bite of beef!


Dolce. Raspberry & apple crepes. This had an intense berry character, almost cherry like. Really ripe and tasty.



Overall, this was another knock out meal. The food was fantastic, even if we had no pasta! and was well paired with the might Baroli. Oliverio, its staff, and chef, took fantastic care of us.

LA dining reviews click here.


After we snuck down the street to a member’s house, where he generously opened a number of great bottles.


1996 Pride Mountain Vineyards Reserve Claret. Parker 95. The 1996 Reserve Claret is a blend of 63% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 5% Petite Verdot (230 cases), it is a gorgeously balanced, super-concentrated yet hauntingly symmetrical wine with copious quantities of black fruits, spicy new oak, minerals, licorice, and roasted herbs. Full-bodied, with a cherry liqueur-like richness to its fruit, this wine has loads of glycerin, fabulous extract, and no hard edges. The velvety finish lasts for 40+ seconds. This is a spectacular wine that must be tasted to be believed.


1995 Clinet. Parker 96. Another extraordinary wine made in a backward vin de garde style, the 1995 Clinet represents the essence of Pomerol. The blackberry, cassis liqueur-like fruit of this wine is awesome. The color is saturated black/purple, and the wine extremely full-bodied and powerful with layers of glycerin-imbued fruit, massive richness, plenty of licorice, blackberry, and cassis flavors, full body, and a thick, unctuous texture. This is a dense, impressive offering from administrator Jean-Michel Arcaute.


1996 Dunn Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain. Parker 96. The 1996 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain possesses a black/blue/purple color, and a texture of unctuosity and thickness. Greatness is suggested by a wonderfully sweet mid-section, gorgeous purity, and this humongous wine’s overall symmetry. It also possesses sumptuous layers of concentration, remarkably sweet tannin, low acidity, and a 40+ second finish.

Related posts:

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  2. Sauvages – East Borough
  3. Gusto Italiano
  4. Tony Terroni
  5. Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the Sun
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Avalon Hotel, Barolo, Beverly Hills California, Italian wine, Oliverio, Sauvages

Amarone at Oliverio

May14

Restaurant: Oliverio [1, 2, 3]

Location: 9400 W Olympic Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90212. (310) 407-7791

Date: May 8, 2013

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Awesome Amarone

_

The summer Hedonist season is heating up and brings us to the Avalon Hotel’s poolside Italian, Oliverio for a special Amarone dinner.


The atmosphere is tres LA and top notch.


Sharon holds down are giant table before the festivities begin.


This is our custom menu, but as you’ll see below we nearly doubled the number of courses!


2010 Giovanni Almondo Roero Arneis Vigne Sparse. The nose showed white flowers, almond skins and a spritz of lemon. On the palate, I found sweet apple, floral notes and hints of peach. The finish was clean, fresh and highly enjoyable.


Antipasto. Crudo di Pesce. Santa Barbara Uni, amachi, santa barbara prawns, yellowfin tuna. Nice fresh fish in the (new) Italian tradition.


2000 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 91. Explosive notes of green apple and obvious minerality plus a touch of wood toast lead to elegant, intense and long medium weight, beautifully textured flavors. This stains the palate and though this is not an especially powerful wine, it packs plenty of flavor authority.

Our bottle was fairly oxidized with strong creme brule flavors.


Roasted Bone Marrow. Fava beans, fresh radish, salsa verde. Really a knock out.


Cauliflower flan with black truffles.


1980 Bertani Amarone della Valpolicella. Brick red. Nose of dried flowers, tea leaves, camomile, licuorice. Full bodied, ripe. Finish of plum peel. Still a lot of spice.

1981 Bertani Amarone della Valpolicella. Deep ruby color with browning edges. Potent nose of tar, black licorice and sweet prunes. Deep and creamy with spicy black prune and raisiny fruit. Still loaded with acidity that is almost overwhelming. Finishes with an earthy complexity and a hint of alcohol. Much younger tasting than the 1980 (even though that wasn’t tired).

2004 Bertani Amarone della Valpolicella. Parker 94. The 2004 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico is flat-out gorgeous. Why can’t all the Bertani wines be this good? The 2004 is a superb, elegant Amarone graced with expressive dark red fruit, flowers, tobacco and spices, all supported by finessed, silky tannins. Sweet roses, tar and licorice are woven into the layered, sublime finish. Deceptively medium in body, the 2004 has the stuffing to age well for decades. This is a terrific showing from Bertani.


Bread.


Primo. Risotto. Pioppini mushroom, braised Sonoma lamb neck. Tasted just like a great Osso Bucco. Awesome!


Tommaso Bussola Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Tb Vigneto Alto. Deep ruby. Opulent, sexy aromas off red cherry syrup, strawberry jelly, marzipan, cardamom and cinnamon. Dense, sweet and seamless, offering a lovely multilayered mouthful of red fruits, jam and spices. Finishes extremely long, with powerful grip and building tannins that stay silky-smooth. This clocks in at 47.8 g/l total dry extract, 11.1 g/l residual sugar and 6.45 g/l total acidity.


A vegetarian risotto with mushrooms and saffron.


2005 Tommasi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico. Nose: Dark berries, sage, mint, maybe some tomato. A hint of vinegar. Taste: It has a tomato and liqueur-y kind of note. The slightest hint of sweetness with some brandy notes on the back. My friend who enjoys Amarone gives this an 89… I’m not enjoying the style but lets go with her thoughts.


Secondi. Porchetta. Roasted korobuta pork belly, frigitelli pepper, porcini mushroom.

Not actually that fatty (considering) but with a really nice rich flavor and a bit of heat from the pepper.


2006 Monti Coroni Amarone della Valpolicella Classico.


Seabass with tomatoes and olives.


2003 Bolla Amarone della Valpolicella Classico. Surprised by this wine. Still very young, and quite tannic, with nice deep red fruit characteristics, with no raisin component at all. Nice, interesting wine that was very enjoyable. Give it time.


Salmon with fennel and potatoes.


1996 Romano Dal Forno Valpolicella Superiore Vigneto Monte Lodoletta. Deep, rich red wine, erupting with pure, and intense aromas of cedar, black currants, dried cherries, basil, earth, spices, and hints of leather and tobacco on the back-end. The palate is pure, focused, concentrated, ad extremely elegant with mirroring brightness of fruit and a savoriness that leads into an unbelievably deep and rich 60 second finish with the kind of finesse that most winemakers only dream of. This is only the second time I have had the pleasure of trying this incredible wine, and I relished every moment of it. This is easily the best Valpolicela in the market. Anyone, If you come across this wine anywhere, buy it and drink it, because you need to try what a truly great valpolicela holds beneath its cork.

This isn’t technically an Amarone, but a wine made in the same region with the same grapes without the ripasso method (drying into raisons).


Quail in wine reduction sauce with polenta. Really nice.


1997 Masi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Mazzano. This beautiful mouth filling wine had a port-like nose and guess what….the first sip exhibited a lovely, mature, extracted port-like taste. The wine had Valpo flavors at just the right intensity, not as large as Port, but the correct stature for the grapes that make up the blend. The bottle was consumed over three days and each day I thought that the intensity, ripeness and mouth feel would decrease but it maintained a wonderful flavor to the end of the bottle. A real treat.


Polenta with gorgonzola.


2001 Masi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Campolongo di Torbe. Parker 91. The palate is very soft, graceful, matured, powerful and really broad. Overall the wine seems really dry, although there is a hint of sweetness at the tip of the tongue. Soft yet brawny tannic structure. Dried cherries, figs, earthiness, leather, dark-roasted coffee and raisins in an impeccable balance; none of these flavors dominate the complex palate, everything is in its right place. Lengthy finish with round, sweet taste of figs, moccha and wooden oak. A spectacular wine, this is. It is so powerful its high alc. (16,6%) doesn’t show at all, bar a slight touch of heat in the throat. One of the best wines I have ever tasted, probably even the best. Impressive now, but has a powerful body that’ll hold easily for another decade.


La Casola. Traditional duck and sausage stew with cabbage.

Almost like a French Cassolette. Rich meat, rich sausage, and rich sauce!


1999 Allegrini Amarone Classico (in 3L!). Parker 91-95. The impressive 1999 Amarone della Valpolicella is from a vintage which was anything but easy, but apparently created few problems here. Rich, jammy, and spicy aromas are followed by full and voluminous flavors, broad and warmly alcoholic with abundant super-ripe fruit and notes of chocolate, solid but voluptuous and extremely long on the finish.


Tomato, basil, and burrata pizza. Somehow the crust is made from potato? Anywhichway, it was a great pizza, very chewy.


1980 Castello di Cacchiano Vin Santo del Chianti Classico. A mid sweet Vin Santo, very pleasant.


Chocolate cake with creme fraiche and passionfruit sauce.

Overall, this was another knock out knight. The food was fantastic, even if we had no pasta! and was well paired with the rich heavy Amarones. That atmosphere outside by the pool really added as well and Oliverio, its staff, and chef, took fantastic care of us.

More crazy Hedonist adventures or

LA dining reviews click here.

Big Mark opens his big bottle!

Related posts:

  1. Quick Eats: Pizzeria Mozza
  2. Food as Art: Chanukah in Style
  3. Eating Cervia – Locanda dei Salinari
  4. Tasty Duck Lives up to its Name
  5. Fraiche Santa Monica
By: agavin
Comments (14)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Amarone, Bertani, Bone Marrow, hedonists, Italian cuisine, Italian wine, Oliverio, Valpolicella, Veneto
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