Italian food and wine, what’s not to love?

Fine dining establishment Sartoria in Mayfair was the location for a wonderful lunch to celebrate EuroWines, where some of the company’s best wines were matched to food prepared by talented chef Francesco Mazzei, chef patron of Sartoria.

It was a fantastic opportunity to sample some excellent grapes from our home country, each expertly paired to the various courses we enjoyed.

We started with a round of canapés which included mini pizzette and Tuscan chicken liver pate tartlets while we met and chatted with the other guests before finding our tables sipping a sparky, refreshing Soligo Prosecco Superiore Extra Dry. I had the pleasure to be in great company including one of D&D’s senior sommeliers and representatives from the Zenato house as well as Euro Wines and my fellow blogger Sonia.

We all marvelled over Francesco’s food. The first course was a beautifully presented crab salad, while mine was an incredible winter crisp salad over a bed of lentil hummus which was incredibly good, creamy and nutty, this dish was the highlight of the meal for me (and sorry for the non vegetarians who did not get to try it).

Following, was a bowl of tortelli with burrata dressed in sage, balsamic vinegar and hazelnuts… the meaty version also included ‘nudja, and I am sure – as my veggie version was absolutely gorgeous – it was an even more rich, umami flavour bomb. Both versions were spot on the pairing with a luscious, medium bodied Lungarotti Rosso di Torgiano DOC 2019.

The third course was – according to the meat eaters – incredible. Roast Welsh lamb was cooked to perfection, just blushing pink and very tender. I surely enjoyed my stone bass with a seafood tomato sauce and samphire. The chosen pairing was a Dezzani Langhe Nebbiolo 2020, which provoked much discussion around the table with everyone agreeing it was in fact, the perfect pairing.

The dessert course was a hand made tartufo di Pizzo with hazelnut and pistachio, and it was such a fabulous, Moorish dessert. Creamy and not too sweet, it was in my view better than its original counterpart! Francesco joined us at this point to share his insights into the dishes’ pairing choices as well as provenance of his ingredients and how carefully these are selected, between the UK of course, and where needed Italy. A sip of Vin Santo del Chianti Badiadi Morrona 2015 – made with Trebbiano and Malvasia grapes as well a locally grown Colombana – was the perfect way to end (in my case) a fantastic meal.

I sadly had to leave before the Italian cheese course, which would have been paired to a Zenato Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore 2018, and obviously, as full as I was, I was quite guttedto miss out.

Thank you to EuroWines, Sartoria and chef Mazzei for inviting me to this event and the opportunity to learn more about Euro Wines.