Finding New Frontiers
When it’s good to go beyond your comfort zone
Posted: Jan 18, 2011 10:47am ET
Although I review the wines of Washington, Oregon and Australia, I often look elsewhere when I peruse a restaurant wine list or buy a few bottles for my wine cellar. Mind you, I love and admire wines from the regions I write about, but why pass up a chance to try something else that might be good?
Last week my wife and I dined with friends at La Ciccia, a restaurant that serves Sardinian cuisine that just happened to be halfway between their home and ours. The food was terrific, especially the baby octopus braised in red wine and their famous spaghetti with bottarga. The wine list, like the food, reflects Sardinia, a mountainous Italian island out in the middle of the Mediterranean. I asked our waiter to recommend a Vermentino for us; he offered the Costamolino Vermentino di Sardegna 2009. It was one of the less expensive white wines ($28 on the list), a good sign that he wasn’t just trying to upsell us.
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