Lunch with Enrico

Enrico Fantasia is one of the more interesting and engaging characters in the wine trade. Born on the island of Venice, he played French horn in the Gran Teatro La Fenice opera house in the city. Tiring of this, he ran a wine bar, and by a series of chance encounters ended up working for Sheridan’s cheesemongers in Galway, importing wine from Italy. He still supplies Sheridan’s with wine, but now runs his own wine company, Grapecircus, mainly supplying restaurants around Dublin. He is very knowledgeable about both food and wine, and even spent a few months working for Dario Cecchini, the world-famous butcher in Panzano in Chianti.

Italy is full of interesting wines that we rarely if ever see in this country. The current economic situation has made things even worse. Enrico laments the fact that the only white Italian wines that seem to sell here are Pinot Grigio and Gavi. I see most Gavi as little more than rich man’s (or woman’s) Pinot Grigio, so that says it all. Even Soave is seen as a little bit too esoteric. Why is it that we Irish don’t respect good Italian wine? It is often said that we don’t understand the food either – what Dublin really needs is one genuine high-quality Italian restaurant (London is full of them) and maybe everything would change. Enrico, however, is persevering, and with the help of Séan Gargano, one of the best sommeliers in Dublin, imports a range of really interesting, well-chosen wines. Most of them are available in Sheridan’s cheese shop in Dublin, possibly elsewhere too.

We had lunch in Dax Café on Pembroke Street, my first visit there. The place was buzzing. Over a strangely sweet salad of ham hock and other bits, followed by a plate of good cheese, we drank a bottle of Rosso di Montalcino.(Canalicchio di Sopra, €22.00 from Sheridan’s). It epitomised everything that is good about Italian and Tuscan wine; nicely concentrated with savoury dark almost bitter cherries, good acidity and a lightly tannic finish. A subtle rather than showy wine, but very enjoyable with food, one of those wines that opens out and improves as you work your way down the bottle.

Easter Alternatives

When tasting at home, I usually taste blind (and then ‘seen’ afterwards) and try to taste a group of 6-8 similar wines at the same time. My backlog of wines had been building up, and after two days of very disappointing tastings, I really wasn’t looking forward to tasting still more wine. I understand this is not a complaint that many people understand, but tasting a series of well-made, but uninteresting wines night after night tires very quickly. Last night I found five wines supplied for a ‘Something different for Easter’ article which never materialised. We had nothing for dinner, so I bought a shoulder of lamb from my local butcher, which I roasted. Not only was the lamb magnificent – tender and full of flavour, but three of the wines were really enjoyable and each went very nicely with the lamb. So, three very different wines, each good in their own way, and perfect with Easter lamb. I also tasted a few white wines, and really enjoyed a Chenin Blanc from the Loire Valley, pert of the Superquinn wine sale currently running.

J. Mourat ‘Sacré Blanc’ Chenin Blanc 2010

Fresh honey and quince on nose and palate, with good acidity and pretty decent length. A really enjoyable interesting wine at a great price.

€11.99 down to €9 for the Superquinn Spring French Wine Sale

Masciarelli Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2009

Light violets and red cherries on the nose; light sweet fruit with good acidity; very pleasant and refreshing, with a nice earthy note on the finish. A very Italian wine that went very nicely with the lamb.

€14.50-14.95 from Fallon & Byrne, Exchequer St; Baggot Street Wines; 64Wine, Glasthule; Wicklow Arms, Greystones; Deveneys, Rathmines; Corkscrew, Chatham St.; Nectar Wines, Sandyford; Hargadons, Cabinteely.

Castello di Potentino 2005, Montecucco Rosso

Sweet ripe cherry nose with an earthy note; on the palate, sweet old-style Italian, with tea and liquorice flavours alongside the mature sweet fruit; possibly not the most polished, with some drying tannins on the finish. Possibly tiring a little, but a wine of real character and I really liked it – great with the lamb too.

€14.10 from www.fromvineyardsdirect.com

Domaine des Hauts Châssis, Cuvée Esquisse 2010

Forward clean dark fruits on the nose; sweet and savoury at the same time, with cool just-ripe dark cherries, and a light savoury kick, and a touch of tobacco; no great concentration or structure, but a very pleasant wine for drinking now.

€19.95 from www.thewinestore.ie , The Vineyard Galway; On The Grapevine, Dalkey.