Holiday_2001 --

Home

Event Schedule
Event Schedule
Event Registry

Membership
    Guidelines
    Hostess Checklist
    Member Info

Cencibel 2001 Holiday Event

Opera in South Philadelphia
Franco & Luigi's * 13th & Tasker * 215-755-8900)

Monday December 10, 2001

The place was ours for the evening and what an evening it was. Cencibel members and their guests were serenaded by stunning baritone, tenor & soprano voices while we enjoyed an authentic Italian and just-for-Cencibel menu paired with wonderful Italian wines and one very special dessert wine.

Cencibel sends many thanks to Franco for his creation of such delicious dishes, just for us. No one left hungry!! Master of Ceremonies, Bobby Kravitz (or Roberto Kravitzo as he is known in South Philly) managed the evening beautifully and Carla provided the perfect piano accompaniement for the singers and for us. The performances of our servers, PABLO VEGUILLA and MARCELLA CARRASCO, enraptured the group; watch the opera scene for these two. Rumor has it that Pablo leaves next week to begin performing on tour...

Notes on The Menu & Wines...

Welcome wine ~ Nino Franco Prosecco Primo NV
This wine made it, thanks to Joe Huber, just in time to quench our thirsts (after the hunt for on street parking) with a delightfully light, delicately sweet sparkler. THIS was a good choice to start our evening. The Prosecco grape is indigenous and vitally unique to the northern Veneto regions. It is the base for Italy's beloved sparkling wine, Prosecco. This Prosecco is very stylish, elegant sparkling wine with lovely ripe pear flavors from one of Italy's finest producers of Prosecco. (Parker 89)

We sat down for generous cold "Holiday" Antipasta of traditional vegetables, meats and cheeses along with a festive Bruschetta wreath, all of which had us digging in right away.

Two fuller-style Italian white wines were served with this and the hot antipasta of Calamari, fried in a traditional Italian preparation, (there were comments at our table on the impeccable freshness of this) and decadently rich mushrooms stuffed with crabmeat, spinach and Bechemel sauce

The wines were a 2000 Brunori Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico San Nicolo which was lighter in color with crisp acidity and very refreshing. Info on this one: The 6 hectares of the San Nicolò vineyard are located in the heart of the Verdicchio producing area, 200 meters above sea level. The varietal has been vinified in this area since the 15th century; having produced excellent Verdicchio for three generations, the Brunori family has achieved a perfect balance of tradition in the vineyard (no chemicals, hand-harvesting, respect of the sandy soils) and innovation in the cellar (soft-pressing and microfiltering). The result is a wine of structure and fleshiness, with beautiful aromatics and a lovely nutty finish.

And a 1999 Cantina del Castello Acini Soave which is more robust and impressively so for an Italian white, this Soave is made with 100% Garganega grapes grown in the Monte Pressoni vineyard, left overripe on the vines and late harvested. The wine spends one year in French barriques, where frequent batonnage is practiced. One more year of bottle-age completes the wine before release. Rich, structured wine. The favored white at our table.

This was followed by a Lemon Sorbet Intermezzo which I must comment on. Often sorbet intermezzos are a guaranteed palate killer rather than the cleanser they are intended to be. NOT the case here, however. This was a creamy sorbet with a perfect balance of lemon, sugar and richness. Big thumbs up on this one!

Then the Owner’s Choice: Osso Bucco and "from scratch" Risotto which looked like it came from a cookbook cover and tasted just as good. Beautiful, large cuts garnished with fresh rosemary all atop a rich, creamy risotto topped with fresh parmesan. Bravismo, Franco!

The Chianti's, chosen by Joyce Vecchioli & Joe Huber, were right-on with this dish:

The first, a Carpineto Chianti Riserva 1997, had richness and depth and was considered the more complex of the two. Information on this one: The first written reference to the estate dates back to 1088, when the Chapel Santa Maria A. Carpignone owned it. In 1967, Antonio Zaccheo, from a family of wine growers, purchased Carpineto from the Dioces of Florence. His partner, Giovanni Carlo Sacchet, joined him in the 1970’s. This combination proved and immediate success, quickly elevating Carpineto to a place among the elite of Tuscan wineries with an international reputation.

Carpineto Riserva is fermented under cool temperatures, and then stored in stainless steel tanks. After spending 10 months in large Slavonian oak barrels, the wine is transferred back to stainless steel for further aging. The wine is then bottled and held at the winery in the bottle for at least 10 months. Grapes: 90% Sangiovese, 8% Canaiolo, 2% Trebbiano and Malvasia.

Then the 1997 Nozzole Chianti Classico Riserva, D.O.C.G. Nozzole, Estate Bottled which showed some delicious fruit and appeared a bit more approachable or opened than the Carpinetta. The Nozzole estate is situated in the very heart of the Classico zone, halfway between Florence and Siena, just to the north of the village of Greve in Chianti. Of its 1,000 acres, approximately one third are planted in vines; these share the estate with olive groves and an extensive game preserve.
The predominant grape and the foundation of Chianti is Sangiovese. This wine is 95% Sangiovese; 5% Canaiolo from estate vines.

Dessert was to-die-for Tira Misu with what I call Cuvee Vecchioli, made by our own Joyce Vecchioli who inherited the recipe from her ancestors to make this very special, rich dessert wine. Joyce and her sister, Gerry, are the first women in Vecchioli Family history to know the “secret ingredients” to this recipe. Alla vostra buona salute! (I think that's Italian for 'girl power' ;-)

All agreed it was a great night for Cencibel and I suspect that some of us will be returning for more of the same on our own to this terrific South Philly BYOB!

Return to Top