Pre Easter lunch at Pepato

I had just arrived from an 3 week trip in Europe (where I met up with Noel in Spain) and was craving for a wine lunch with the Usual Suspects. After a few text messages, we settled on a lunch on Wednesday of Holy week at Pepato. We were 4 only since mostly everybody was already on vacation.

I was the first to arrive and had a young wine, so I went there early to decant the wine. soon after, Aaron, Jay and Johnny arrived.

I brought 2 wines, purchased on one of trips: 2008 Bruno Giacosa Roero Arneis and 2007 Guidalberto Tenuta San Guido. Arneis is one of my favorite type of grape for Italian whites and Bruno Giacosa they say the best producer of Roero Arneis. This one was fresh, crisp and quite dry. It had some notes of lime and citrus. As for the Guidalberto, this is a Super Tuscan and the 2nd label of Sassicaia. Despite it's youth, I think it was drinking quite well after about 1.5 hours decanting.

To start, I had a order of Spaghetti Pepato, a simple pasta with Olive oil and Parmesan Cheese...such a simple pasta. I enjoyed this with my Roero Arneis.


For main, I had Steak, with Potato Wedges, Greens and Garlic. The meat was cooked just enough, leaving it rare on the inside. Wit the meat, the best pairing was Jay's bottle of Castello Banfi Brunello di Montalcino Poggio Alle Mura 2001. It was a good match with our steak,and improved as it spent more time in my glass.

We also had an order of Squash Flower Tempura and a Cheese Platter, since we still had wines left. The last bottle we opened was Aaron's 2004 Laurona Montsant . A winemaker that I have tried before. I was expecting Typical Priorat/Montsant full heavy wines but this was light, medium bodied and very good.

We stayed a while longer lingering, then decided to walk to Bacchus, since Johhny had to have his watch fixed and Aaron buy some wines. When we walked back to Pepato, we still had time to open the last bottle. The ever reliable Piper Heidsieck Brut NV of Jay.

What a great afternoon...