For a wine blogger, organising a wine-themed wedding is a dream. They say that brides get excited when they wear the right dress... well I got excited when I chose the right wines, or rather when they chose me! I started the preparations with 3 solid certainties: the groom would be Francesco, the ceremony would be civil and the location would be Castello Oldofredi in Monte Isola. The rest would come by itself... and indeed it did, so much so that in less than a month I had everything ready!
Ah well, I had another solid certainty: that my wedding dress would be short! The idea of going to the bathroom in 3 with 2 having to hold up my dress gave me goosebumps. Worse was only the dirtiness of the train with a garden ceremony, especially if it had rained until just before!😅
Simona Agnesi was my very good event planner who co-ordinated with all the staff at Castello Oldofredi and they managed to satisfy my every need. The first was the possibility of bringing wines and not using those from their cellar. The second was to create a menu tailored to these wines with the fish of our beloved Lake Iseo as the focus. There are many misconceptions about lake fish, from the earthy taste to the stodgy texture. Living here I have become accustomed to eating it very often and it has nothing to envy the fish of the sea... well apart from prawns and oysters! 😅
Wine-themed wedding: our menu
Here on the side you can see the menu I had on the blue glass plate for each guest. The only thing 'out of tune' was the first part of the aperitif, with the focaccia with salami and fried vegetables in show cooking, but as I had two guests who did not eat fish I made it especially for them, then they continued with the vegetarian menu at dinner.
Although it is not a menu of a hundred thousand courses - which I cannot stand - I must say that I arrived at the eel that did not even fit on a pin. To the delight of our Pomeranian fox Paco, who ate at least half of it. I just tasted the beautiful wedding cake and couldn't get near the buffet of single-portion cakes, but my cousin Marco who ate several of them told me they were delicious!
On the other hand, I found the place for wine from start to finish! 😂😂😂
Wine-themed wedding: aperitif in the garden
First half: Focaccia with Monte Isola salami, sardine with polenta and a selection of fried food in show cooking
Albis 2017 disgorgement 2020 by Cobue
The first wine I said yes to was a very fresh and very drinkable sparkling wine, perfect for degreasing fried food in show cooking and enhancing the dried Monte Isola sardine with polenta and Monte Isola salami. It is Albis Dosaggio Zero from the Cobue winery a vintage classic method made from Groppello grapes, a red grape variety indigenous to Lake Garda. After spending at least 24 months on the lees it is refined in the bottle for a further 6 months and put on the market.
It is a beautiful bright straw yellow with a fine and very numerous perlage that forms an evanescent froth. The nose is complex with notes of white flowers that are enriched with pink pepper and wild strawberries before fading into a pleasant hint of hazelnut. In the mouth it is crisp, very fresh, vertical and pleasantly savoury.
Cobue's Albis is endowed with good structure and splendid drinkability, making it perfect to accompany a dinner of shellfish or white meat from starter to main course.
Second half: Red prawn from Mazara del Vallo, Belon oysters and tuna tataki
Gewürztraminer Alsace Grand Cru Kirchber de Bar Clos Gaensbroennel 2014 by Willm
Wine-themed wedding: dinner on the lounge terrace
Citrus-flavoured lake crudités: char, whitefish, trout
Riesling Pfaffenberg Reserve 2017 by Salomon
It is a beautiful bright straw yellow. The nose is very elegant with notes of pink grapefruit, apricot and hydrocarbon. In the mouth it is consistent, fresh, very savoury and with a good structure. Endowed with great persistence, it is perfect drunk today but I am sure it would be exciting in a decade or so. It goes wonderfully with raw lake fish marinated in citrus fruits, which enhance its citrus scents on the one hand and balance its unbridled savouriness with their sweet tendency on the other.
Whitefish risotto with lemon jam and bigoli with Monte Isola sardine, sultanas and pine nuts
.G Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore 2010 sboccatura 2012 di Le vigne di Alice
Gentlemen, I love Cinzia. You know a perfect woman? Stylish, intelligent, of sound values, great taste and with uncommon entrepreneurial talent? There she is. 😍 Cinzia ha un solo difetto: se scopri i suoi vini poi ti tocca bere solo o i suoi o quelli di suo marito e mandare a pedalare tutto il resto del prosecco che c’è in circolazione. O quasi mi dicono, peccato che io l’altro quasi non l’ho ancora assaggiato. Correva l’anno 2016 e io credevo che la zona del Prosecco – superiore, inferiore o laterale che fosse – sfornasse solo bolle da fare i gargarismi prima di dormire. Poi per caso At Vinitaly 2016 I came across a beautiful stand, I fell in love with the integral method P.S. e For the first time I taste this .G 2010. I die, rise again and dispel a ton of prejudices about glera serenely instilled in me by mass speculation. That's why the .G 2010 disgorgement 2012 was that yes I screamed in the throes of a mad oenological orgasm. In other words, Cinzia found my .G before my husband did.
Ho degustato migliaia di bollicine nella mia vita, tra cui anche una fila di Champagne da centinaia se non migliaia di euro che devo dire mi hanno emozionata particolarmente. Ma questo Prosecco Superiore resta la mia bolla preferita del mondo, il mio podio assoluto. Sono felice che l’altro vino che è piaciuto di più ai miei ospiti insieme all’Alsace Willm sia stato proprio questo.
It is a bright, intense golden yellow with a very fine, numerous and persistent perlage. The nose is incredible to say the least. Elegant, broad and full of wonderful evolved notes. One recognises dried fruit, pastries, saffron, toffee, nuts, amaretto, sweet liquorice and mint honey. In the mouth it is creamy, consistent, balanced and very long.
I am sorry it is finished and I thank Cinzia infinitely for having given me the last 6 bottles as a wedding gift. When in doubt, I took the last bottle with me on my honeymoon to Matera and drank it with my husband in the jacuzzi of our suite paired with an exquisite amberjack tartare. I recommend, however, that you also try the later vintages of .G and favour the old disgorging: you'll see, never was the name more apt!
Herb marinated eel grilled on potato fricassée
Talento Rosé 2007 disgorgement 2016 Bellenda
Hai presente quando ti ho scritto poco fa che se scopri Cinzia poi ti tocca bere solo il suo prosecco o quello del marito? Ecco, appunto, Bellenda è la cantina di suo marito, il caro e geniale Umberto Cosmo. Vi ho parlato del suo Rural Method and its Radical to the point of exhaustion, but the wine I said yes to for our wine wedding is a recent discovery I made, a rosé from pinot noir grapes capable of making even the most snobbish sommelier fall in love.
Made from pure pinot noir grapes from the Moro vineyard, it spent a good nine years on the lees and was disgorged four years ago. Pure perfection at an outrageous price.
Wine-themed wedding: toasts in the arena
Wedding cake
Champagne Brut Réserve à Reims S.A. disgorgement 2019 by Palmer & Co
This Jeroboam bottle of Champagne - which I also used as a dedication book by having my guests write a small thought with chalk marker - had a reckless experience in the middle of the lake. Basically that jerk of a courier instead of delivering it to the boatmen literally abandoned it on a pallet next to the barge. There was a freak storm that afternoon and the box fell into the middle of the lake and luckily floated. Was it due to the huge bottle? The wooden box? Of the neat packaging? Of the star? Anyway, those barge boys managed to fish it out the next day, ferried it to the island and warned me... and so I went to pick it up. She was soaked, but intact! And perhaps after being rocked by the lake even better!
I know, I know... it's certainly not the perfect wine for the wedding cake if we want to reason about pairings. However, I was perfectly aware that we were very full and there would be nothing else, so making a final Champagne toast with my guests seemed obligatory! If you remember I had been to the fabulous Modena Champagne Experience 2019 (Find my favourite tastings here) and I tasted some amazing stuff... and among the various wineries was a winery I didn't know, presented by a professional with the most stylish glasses I'd ever seen, Alessandro De Salvia, called Palmer & Co.
It is a beautiful intense and brilliant straw yellow with a fine, numerous and very persistent perlage. The nose is broad and elegant with notes of lime honey, hazelnuts and jasmine flowers that fade into a delicious hint of butter biscuits. In the mouth it is consistent, very elegant, fresh and persistent. It has such a pleasantness to drink that even a Jeroboam was just enough for our enjoyment glasses.
Thank you all so much for making our wedding special!💝
Cheers 🥂
Chiara
Book 'Sommelier: the Illustrated Manual' Special Edition 2022
All my notes on wine and food in one book.
€ 32,00 VAT included!
Available on back-order
EN 
IT