Italian Wine Dinner at Franco's

Wednesday. June 20, 2018

Big turnout tonight for the first wine dinner that Franco's in Cypress has hosted in about two years. Hopefully they will have  more soon.  www.francositalianrestaurant.com. Good to see Alex, Elizabeth (mama) and Franco (papa) again.

We started out with baskets of french bread and focacia bread. House made. You just pig out on the focacia it is so good.  Along with healthy pours of a 2015 Guadalmare Vermentio. Light, mineraly, well balanced, not too mush acidity. Nice wine.  Served with a bowl of Vichyssoise, chilled leek and potato soup infused with fresh cream. Excellent soup, smooth and creamy.

Second course is a Beet and Pear Carpaccio. Paper thin sliced pear and beet sprinkled with sharp Gorgonzola and mint.  Interesting concept.  Pears and beets are spiraled on the plate making a very pretty presentation and flavor was spot on.  Paired with a 2015 Rose Ceppaiano. Blend of Sangiovese and Syrah.  I really liked this wine (bought some) It had some depth to it. Not a light Rose, a bit on the dry side. I think this would be a perfect wine with salmon. 

Entree is a Seabass , pan seared and topped with slow braised organic cherry tomatoes. Fish was cooked perfectly. I even ate some of the tomatoes because they were cooked and not acidic.  A 2013 Santa Lucia Toscana (Ciligielo, Sangiovese blend)  was poured. Surprisingly it went well with the fish. Probably because of the tomatoes. 

Dessert is a Limoncello and Marscapone Blueberry parfait with soaked lady fingers. Nice, light dessert, A perfect ending to a very nice dinner. They served a Parolvini Moscato with the dessert. Not too sweet

Ciro the wine importer did a great job on the pairing with the food. But he usually does. Susan the rep added a bottle of Mudita cabernet for us to try. It is from the Atlas Peak area. I was not overly impressed with this wine. Did nothing for me.

At the end of the dinner I asked Ciro to sing for us. He has a beautiful voice and songs in Italian always have an extra charm to them.  Then Alex sang his song, they did a duet and finally a guest got up and joined them . It was a rocking ending to a nice dinner. Looking forward to the "Summer" Series of wine dinners.