Italian wine lunch at Pepato

Lunch last Monday was at Pepato., I had been craving for the steak and had some wine I had brought back from my last trip to Italy, so decided to ask the usual suspects to join me for an Italian lunch at Pepato. We were 5 in total: Jojo, Jay, Aaron, Greg and myself. Noel was supposed to join but begged off, although he joined us for some coffee and after lunch drinks.

I was craving for Bistecca alla Fiorentina with a good potent Piedmont wine, so I brought a bottle of 1998 Giacomo Conterno Barolo, a young Roero Arneis and a Passito dessert wine. Many had the same thing in mind, so we had a Brunello from Jay, a Barbaresco from Jojo, another Barbaresco from Greg and a Bordeaux from Aaron, which we had with cheese after our meal.





I will not go into details of the wine notes, but if you are interested, you can read Noel's blog, with the detailed wine notes. As for the whites, we had a 2008 Roero Arneis, a regional wine from the Piedmont area, and a special wine from Jojo: 2004 Vare, from Napa Valley. This is a special wine specially done for Thomas Keller of French Laundry and Per Se restaurants. It is made of 5 different varietals of grape. My first impression of the wine at the first pour is that it was very dark colored, dense and viscous. My first impression on the smell was oxidized, sweet , molasses, so I thought that the wine would be sweet. It was not sweet at all and I enjoyed this wine, since it was interesting and something new.

As for food, we ordered the usual that is normally ordered the times I have been there. For appetizers, Squash Flower Tempura, Roasted Bone Marrow, and Spaghetti. For Main, we had the "Bistecca alla Fiorentina", to go with our Barolos and Barbarescos.

The food is always consistent and good in Pepato, at least the times I have been there. Quality is always top notch and service is always good. The 'Bistecca' is really the reason why I wanted to eat there, and paired with the wines, fantastic. My Barolo was a classic one, typical of Barolos and I thought would be a perfect match for the steak. Despite being almost 10 years old, it was still pretty closed after decanting it for almost 2 hours. This could definitely keep in the bottle for at least 5-10 years more. All wines matched very well with the steak, but for me I liked as pairing the Barolo and Jay's Brunello.

We also had a mystery wine from Jojo, a wine that was sent to him by a friend. He asked us to guess what the wine was. I thought it was a California wine, but it turned out to be a Hungarian wine. First time fro me to try a wine from Hungary, so I thank Jojo for educating us on other wine regions.

We had loads of fun and laughter during the lunch. Having Greg and Jojo in the same table is like having a stereo headphones...it's just so contagious and loud that you will end up laughing with them. We had the restaurant pretty much all to ourselves, so we could make all the noise we wanted..

At first it was serious talk about wines...
Then came the bursts of very loud laughter...

We continued the afternoon with more fun and Noel Joined us shortly after our meal, just in time to try the wines. We opened Aaron's 89 Lagrange to go with our Cheese platter. I've had this wine before with Noel and it was excellent. Perfect match for our cheese.

We continued drinking until about 4 pm and we all left Greg and Jay, who were finishing up their drinks. A great lunch..thanks to everyone for sharing their wines and hope we can do this again soon!



And another group shot with Noel in it..

A Presto...Arrivederci!!