Okay so I lied. Yesterday was actually the best day ever. I woke up excited for the day ahead, as we had our second sensory lab wine tasting, a free wine tasting in the piazza, and a special wine dinner open to anyone that was offered at a restaurant in town. Thursday’s sensory lab focused on four international red wines: a Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Syrah (or Shiraz, they are the same!). I absolutely died after having the Cabernet—it was hands down my favorite. It was a 2009 vintage with a pretty medium-full body that went down so smoothly. It was also the most expensive. I think I’m starting to get a little better at picking out different aromas and tastes as the course goes on, but I still need more practice. Following our sensory lab, we ran up to the dorms to change before heading down The Hill to the main piazza for a free wine tasting that highlighted the five wines that were to be served at our dinner later in the evening. Out of these, my two favorites were the Chianti Classico and the Cabernet Sauvignon. We had some time to kill after the tasting, so we stopped by the pub for some free wifi before heading to dinner.
[The Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah]
[Wine tasting on the Piazza]
Dinner was to die for. I used to think Last Resort was my favorite restaurant until last night. The five course dinner was held at Osteria del Teatro, and had each course paired with a specific wine. Pictured below are my favorite dishes; one was a very rare, thinly sliced steak with a type of mushroom-potato cake, and the other was bowtie pasta with some type of ground meat. I didn’t get a picture of my third favorite (probably because I was too busy drooling), but it was the most tender and moist piece of lamb on a bruchetta, with the best Cabernet Sauvignon. I wasn’t a huge fan of the dessert, but the Moscato they paired with it was phenomenal. We sat at dinner for probably a little over three hours just laughing, drooling over the food and wine, taking silly pictures, and making friends with Marco, the local wineship owner. That dinner was probably the best 45 euros I will spend on this whole trip.
[Steak & mushroom-potato cake course]
[Bowtie pasta + ground meat…don’t know what exactly, woops]
The general trend after dinner seemed to be to head back to the pub for a little social hour, so that’s what we did. Marco showed up not too long after, and we sat at talked with him for probably 30 minutes. He actually went to UGA, so it was fun to compare stories between the years. Amidst all of this I think I found the Italian of my dreams…we even made eye contact a couple of times. I’ll keep you updated. Having class at 8:30 a.m. was looming in the back of our mind, so we headed up for bed around 12:45.
[Becoming BFFs with the local wineshop owner & UGA grad, Marco]
We have our first test tomorrow morning (on a Saturday!), then we are heading off for a weekend in Pisa and Florence!
Ciao!
