Italian Wine Month Dinner at Wine Bar Destin

Italian Wine Month Dinner at Wine Bar Destin

During our getaway to The Cove, our Destin, FL vacation rental home, we dined at The Wine Bar, another favorite eatery that we try to visit when in town.

As luck would have it, this week they featured one of their wine producer dinners. Like VinTij Wine Bar and Restaurant on Grand Boulevard in (San)Destin where we dined earlier this week, as featured in this blogpost David Arthur Chardonnay at Vintij Grand Blvd VinTij, they are a combination wine bar, restaurant and retail wine shop. 

The Wine Bar is co-located with Chan’s Wine World wine and cheese shop in Destin, one of seven locations in the Emerald Coast and western Panhandle area. The Destin Wine World and Wine Bar feature a great selection of wines, available for take home, or for enjoying in the restaurant. This allows a broad selection of fine wines at retail prices, as opposed to the typical restaurant mark-up of 2 to 2.5 or three times or more.  

They offer wine dinners several times each year and we attend whenever we are in town. 

Tonight’s dinner was kicked off and hosted by emcee Wade Starwalt, Wine Sales Director of The Wine Bar, Destin. Wine World is celebrating Italian Wine month and to that end, tonight’s dinner featured Italian wines from La Mangerina Italian wine brand produced by Tenute Piccini.

Some of the previous wine dinners we attended there were Massolino Wine Dinner Destin, featuring the world-renowned wines of Massolino, guided by fourth generation producer Franco Massolino, visiting from the heart of Italy’s Langhe region. This was the same format as the "Tour of Bordeaux Wine Dinner at The Wine Bar Destin, the same format as tonight. 

Tonight’s dinner wine was curated by Ethica Wines, an Italian wine importer and distributor, based in Miami, Florida. Established in 2016, they are a licensed wine importer in the US and import 56 producers’ brands. They have coverage across the US, Canada and Southeast Asia operating out of offices in Miami, New York, San Diego and Bangkok, and a ‘ready to ship’ warehouse in Italy. 

EthicaWines’ representative Niccolò Rossi presented the La Mangerina Italian wine brand produced by Tenute Piccini, featuring Vermentino from Sardinia, an Barolo, and Tuscan regional labels including Chianti Classico, Bolgheri, and Brunello di Montalcino Reserva. 

 

The wines were presented by Niccolò Rossi, regional sales manager for the importer and distributor Ethica Wines of Miami, FL.

Niccolò Rossi Is from his hometown in Buccinasco, Italy near Milan, and attended high school at Liceo delle Scienze Applicate Ettore Conti (Milano). He graduated Summa Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree in both International Business and in Psychology from Cardinal Stritch University, then went on to pursue his MBA at Coastal Carolina where he also played on the tennis team. 

His passion for wine goes back to his childhood and his family roots owning a winery in Chianti. He began his wine career with an internship in the Off-trade department of a prestigious Tuscan winery and is pursuing his WSET studies.  

Niccolò Rossi presented the La Mangerina Italian wine brand produced by Tenute Piccini, featuring Vermentino from Sardinia, an Barolo, and Tuscan regional labels including Chianti Classico, Bolgheri, and Brunello di Montalcino Reserva. 

The dinner featured five courses each paired with an appropriate wine. As I write often in these pages, a proper pairing and food and wine is a force multiplier and ameliorates and enhances the enjoyment of both.

The Wine Bar culinary and wine team did a masterful job crafting a broad imaginative menu with each course enhanced by a wonderful complementary wine. 

The first Antipasti course featured Red snapper ceviche with lotus root chip , Seared fole gras with cocoa and port sauce on focaccia toast, Deviled egg with smoked tuna and caviar. 

The wine accompaniment was Salimare di Sardegna Vermentino 2025. 

This is 100% Vermentino grape from the Salimare di Sardegna wine district of Sardinia. 

The secondi, second course: 

Barolo-braised rabbit stew with wild mushrooms, blood orange and sage crème fraîche. 

Cascina Bochetti Barolo Vecchi Filari 2022  

Cascina Boschetti 'Vecchi Filari' Barolo DOCG is a 100% Nebbiolo red wine from the Piedmont region of Italy, produced by Cascina Boschetti. 

Located in northwestern Italy near the Italian Alps, Piedmont is home to two of Italy's more famous wines: Barolos and Barbarescos, both made with the Nebbiolo grape, the premier red grape in the region. Piedmont's capital city is Torino which we visited back in the late 1980’s. 

This was rated 92 points by James Suckling. 

Producer’s notes - Ruby red with garnet reflections that deepen with age. The bouquet is ethereal and refined, revealing ripe red fruit, rose petals, and blackberry, followed by evolving notes of licorice, and sweet spices. Elegant and well-balanced, with soft tannins, graceful structure, and a long, spicy, mineral-driven finish.

Ruby colored, medium bodied, red cherry and pomegranate fruits, floral, subtle spices, hints of licorice with bright acidity and subtle smooth tannins on the finish. 

The Third Course:

Grilled hanger steak with bordelaise, goat cheese and tomato risotto, and broccolini. The food highlight of the evening with the brown sauce and out of this world risotto.  

La Mangerina Bolgheri 2022 

Features notes of dark cherry, spice, ginger, and round tannins.

 

Fourth course:

Veal saltimbocca with beurre blanc, tomato and feta spaghetti squash with basil 

La Mangerina Chianti Classico Gran Selezione 2022 

Winemaker’s notes - “Ruby garnet color. Aromas and flavors of toasty vanilla, fallen apples, berries, and smoked meat with a bright, dry medium-full body and a nuanced, medium-long finish displaying elements of black pepper, vanilla, and strawberry with silky tannins. With a modern approach to oak, the smoked cherry-blackberry-stone flavors in this wine provide for a delightful old world wine with a splash of new world wine style.”

Final course:

Selection of Italian cheeses and meats with toasted nuts and dried fruit

La Mangerina Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2020 

This was by far the best, WOTN - Wine of the Night, the most premium, complex, full round, elegant sophisticated wine. A Super Tuscan style with black currant, vanilla, and bright acidity, complex notes of leather, dark cherry, and dried herbs.

We were seated with Brock and Brenda, from Destin. 

https://www.thewinebarfl.com/

https://www.ethicawines.com/