A wine-pairing dinner featuring wines from the extensive Masi Agricolo portfolio was held at Vini e Capricci – Wines & Whims, at the Gozitano Agricultural Village in Xewkija. Masi Agricola export manager Carina Kurttila attended the event.

Chef George Borg was tasked with designing a menu to match five Masi wines. This leading Italian Amarone producer is based in Verona, yet its grapes are grown not only in the Venetian regions but in other vineyards around Italy and as far afield as Argentina.

A versatile rosé wine made with Refosco grapes, the Rosa dei Masi, was served as an aperitif. For the mise en bouche, a white wine, the Passo Blanco from Masi’s vineyards in Argentina, was chosen to go with a prawn and honey dew melon salad, marinated with an Asian infusion of ginger, soy sauce, chilli and lime, set on grilled vegetables. The Passo Blanco is a blend of 40 per cent Pinot Grigio that is semi-dried and 60 per cent Torontés. This is a fresh, modern, New World wine with tastes of green apple and more complex aromas.

Another white wine, the Masianco Pinot Grigio, which is blended with 25 per cent Verduzzo, a local Venetian variety, and matured in wooden casquets, was served with the second course. Its buttery taste with apricot and tropical fruit aromas in mouth went well with grilled chicken and baby vegetables, with candied lemon peel and honey dressing.

Red wine with pasta? Brolo Campofiorin Oro, a red wine made of 80 per cent Corvina, 10 per cent Rondinella and 10 per cent Oseleta grapes, accompanied deer ravioli, set on marinated mushrooms, accompanied with onion tart tatin and shaved aged pecorino. This Brolo has hints of dry fruit and aromas of dark cherries, red berries and blackberries.

To pair the dish of stuffed quail with black olives, capers, apricots and walnuts, accompanied with rosemary and thyme sauce, another red wine was served, the Riserva di Costasera. This is a blend of 70 per cent Corvina, 15 per cent Rondinella, 10 per cent Oseleta and five per cent Molinara, that can age for up to 40 years. This has a long appassimento of 120 days and is a majestic, complex and elegant wine.

The appassimento is a production method dating back to the Romans and that involves storing the grapes in bamboo trays in lofts to allow them to concentrate colour and aroma.

This memorable meal ended with a dessert wine, Angelorum, a Recioto from the Valpolicella Classica region. It is again a blend of Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara grapes, and was served alongside an apple tart in a hazelnut crust set on roasted fruit and drizzled with gorgonzola sauce.

For more information, visit http://abrahams.com.mt.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.