Father’s Day Dinner at Angeli’s Italian

Father’s Day Dinner at Angeli’s Italian

Son Alec and D-in-law Vivianna and their girls took Linda and me to Angelis Italian in Naperville, our favorite neighborhood trattoria for an early Father’s Day dinner. 

I took from our cellar one of our favorite Italian varietal wines for the occasion, for an ideal food - wine pairing. 

For a starter I had their Angeli’s Special Salad and we ordered their delectable Baby Black Mussels sautéed in white wine sauce.

Alec ordered the daily special, Veal Margherita - veal with capers, lemon and parmigana cheese with  white wine sauce over angel hair pasta.

I ordered the Veal Joey from the menu, breaded veal with tomatoes, capers, mushrooms, and artichoke hearts topped with a white wine sauce and finished with shaved parmesan cheese. Served over a bed of arugula.

Linda ordered the Angeli's Salmon Salad - Fresh spring lettuce with caramelized walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, and sliced apples & pears, topped with fresh grilled salmon and finished with our sweet raspberry dressing.

And, Vivianna ordered the Shrimp salad over pasta. 

 

From our home cellar we brought this Piazza Del Dotto Napa Valley Sangiovese 2015. 

Del Dotto is a family favorite paying tribute to the close knit family there, and our family having 'grown up' with the brand over the years, and many of us having visited Del Dotto during our many visits to Napa Valley. Alec and Vivianna visited the Piazza estate during their wildfire smoke shortened honeymoon trip to Napa Valley back in 2020.  

We’ve written often in these pages about Del Dotto wines and the Piazza Del Dotto labels. We featured Del Dotto Piazza and this label in a more detailed blogpost excerpted below.

Del Dotto Sangiovese for Family Lasagna Dinner

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2018/11/del-dotto-sangiovese-for-family-lasagna.html

Del Dotto Piazza Napa Valley Sangiovese 2015

This was delicious and everyone loved it making me glad we were able to acquire more. I wrote back then that “I wish I had more than the single case we acquired last year. I'll be looking for more.”

We tasted and acquired this wine during our Del Dotto Estate Cave Tour and Tasting back in 2018. We featured this wine soon thereafter and in several posts to follow including this one when we took it took it BYOB to our favorite neighborhood Italian Trattoria, Angelis Italian. 

After we consumed all the bottles we acquired during that visit, we reordered more and finished that too. We tried to order more and it was no longer offered on the Del Dotto shopping site (s). Then, we received an email from Del Dotto clearing out numerous vintage labels and we acquired a mixed case of favorites including several vintages of this label. 

Tonight's tasting experience was consistent with my notes from earlier tastings except this bottle, acquired from the recent Del Dotto clearance sale, showed some signs of diminution with slight rust hue color on the edges and a slight burnt taste. Never-the-less, we love this wine and it was still delicious. We’ll plan to consume those bottles sooner than later in the event they’re on the backside of their drinking window. 

My notes from the initial tasting soon after receipt of our initial acquisition - "This was dark garnet colored ((with a slight grayish hue that signaled caution but the wine was fine, we'll monitor the next bottle (s) with interest to see if this is an early warning of trouble ahead) (as noted, there was a slight discoloration setting in tonight)); medium full bodied, this was delicious with sweet ripe raspberry fruits accented by notes of vanilla and almond with supple smooth silky tannins on the lingering finish.

RM 91 points, reduced by a point for this bottle relative to earlier tastings, attributed to bottle variation.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2579868

http://www.deldottovineyards.com/

https://x.com/DelDottoWine

https://x.com/unwindwine

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2018/08/del-dotto-piazza-sangiovese-at-angelis.html

Piazza Del Dotto Petit Verdot

Piazza Del Dotto Petit Verdot

Called to grandparents babysitting duty, we took to our son's house a BYOB to enjoy for the evening with artisan cheese and fresh fruits. We took a favorite label from a favorite producer from a memorable estate visit and tasting in Napa Valley. 

We discovered, tasted and acquired this wine during our visit to the winery and as part of the Del Dotto Piazza DELICACIES Food and Wine Experience, which was definitely one of the highlights of our Napa trip. 

Piazza Del Dotto Petit Verdot 2014

Regretably this is the last bottle of this label from a multi-case mixed assortment acquired during that visit. At nine years of age, this was likely at the peak of its tasting profile, as good as ever.

We posted earlier tasting notes of this label in 2018 and several times in 2020. 

8/13/2020 - 92 Points - Consistent with earlier tasting notes - Dark blackish garnet colored, full bodied, reasonably balanced, firm forward concentrated black berry and black currant fruits, with notes of licorice, spice and hints of mocha and subtle pepper spice with bold but approachable lingering tannins.

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2020/08/del-dotto-piazza-napa-valley-petit.html 

6/20/2020 - 93 Points - Consistent with earlier tasting, a big hit for our dinner! Dark blackish garnet colored, full bodied, reasonably balanced, firm forward concentrated black berry and black currant fruits, with notes of licorice, spice and hints of mocha and subtle pepper spice with bold but approachable lingering tannins.

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2020/06/covid-breakout-engagement-celebration.html

2/16/2020 -  92 Points - Dark blackish garnet colored, full bodied, reasonably balanced, firm forward concentrated black berry and black currant fruits, with notes of licorice, spice and hints of mocha and subtle pepper spice with bold but approachable lingering tannins. 

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2020/02/del-dotto-piazza-petit-verdot-2014.html

12/22/2018 -  91 Points - Dark blackish garnet colored, full bodied, nicely balanced, firm forward concentrated black berry and black currant fruits, with notes of mocha, spice and hints of pepper spice with smooth lingering tannins.

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2018/12/gala-holiday-dinner-features-napa-cab.html

Del Dotto Piazza Napa Valley Petit Verdot 2014

Of course, Petit Verdot is one of the Bordeaux varietals, appellation authorized for inclusion in the blend. Most often, Petit Verdot is the fourth varietal in the mix, subordinant to the primary Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and the secondary Cabernet Franc.

Petit Verdot is added to a red blend for structure, backbone and colour, to round out, augment and enhance the profile of the blend. Standing alone, without the core Cabernet, and the softening roundness of Merlot, and the hint of tangy spice added by Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot comes across as huge, bold, muscular and forward, perhaps awkward or obtuse and overpowering to some.

Indeed, those are the characteristics I love in a wine and while lacking polish and balance of the harmony of the overall blend, its a wonderful wine with bold and full flavored food such as tonight. I wish I had ordered more and will savor what we have, and miss it when it is gone. I'll be looking to top up our holdings of this label.

Tonight this was as good as any previous tasting, showing well, benefiting from nearly of decade of graceful aging in the cellar. Wish we had more! Dark blackish garnet colored, full bodied, reasonably balanced, firm forward concentrated black berry and black currant fruits, with notes of licorice, spice and hints of mocha and subtle pepper spice with bold but approachable lingering tannins.

RM 93 points.

We also acquired some of the 2015 vintage of this label which I took to a gala tasting of which I blogged about last winter in this posting:

https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2018/12/gala-holiday-dinner-features-napa-cab.html

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2757017

https://www.deldottovineyards.com/visit/piazza

https://twitter.com/DelDottoWine 

@DelDottoWine 
 

Piazza Del Dotto Napa Valley Sangiovese 2016

Piazza Del Dotto Napa Valley Sangiovese with Spaghetti and Meatballs 

Inspired by the fabulous Italian meatballs we had at Eataly Chicago last week, Linda prepared spaghetti and meatballs for midweek dinner. I found in the cellar Napa Valley Sangiovese one of our favorite go-to wines for Italian dining. I wrote in detail about Del Dotto Napa Valley wines and their history producing Sangiovese in an earlier blogpost.

 

  We tasted and acquired this wine at the Piazza Winery Delicacies Wine and Food Tasting Experience during our Napa Valley Wine Experience 2018. 

 

We had previously tasted and acquired the 2015 release a year earlier at our Napa Valley Del Dotto Estate Cave Tour and Barrel Tasting in 2017. 

I thought we had consumed all of our collection of this label but I found this in our cellar, the last bottle of a couple of cases of this label we acquired during those visits. 

We've been trying to obtain more of this label and haven't seen it available on the Del Dotto shopping site or in the marketplace. We're hoping to find more. 

As we have written in recent tasting reviews of wine acquired during this Estate visit, this label is from Piazza Del Dotto, Del Dotto's newest project, a new winery south on St Helena Highway featuring an Italian-inspired “barchessa,” or barn, magnificently appointed with tasting rooms and dining areas. It is surrounded by fountain gardens with al fresco tasting cabanas, vegetable gardens, 17^th century fountains and an outdoor barn with turkeys, peacocks, pheasants and doves. There are wine caves as well, all surrounded by 8.5 acres of cabernet sauvignon vineyards.

This is Estate grown fruit, I believe from the Rutherford vineyards that surround the Venetian Estate Winery & Caves, the site for the Del Dotto cave tours and barrel tastings.

Consistent with earlier tastings of this label, dark garnet colored, medium full bodied, delicious sweet ripe raspberry fruits accented by notes of sweet vanilla, cedar, tobacco and almond with supple smooth silky tannins on the lingering finish.

RM 92 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3038663

http://www.deldottovineyards.com/ 

 

https://twitter.com/DelDottoWine

 

@DelDottoWine