Meals from the Italy trip #4

On our third day in Venice, Dad and I had a bit of a marathon session. It was the sort of vacation day that you look back on and say "Man, that was great." We didn't plan on a lot of things, it just sort of flowed and we went with it (and kudos to Dad for it - first time I've ever seen him not have a full meal at lunch and just go with the flow instead).

I don't want to make this a super-long post, so the summary is this - "lunch" was a variety of snacks (meatballs, pancetta, bread) and a couple of glasses of wine at our friend Massi's restaurant on Giudecca, then more wine at the wine bar (bacaro) Cantinone in Dorsoduro. After an afternoon of culture and shopping, we returned to Cantinone for more wine and some ciccheti. Following that, a quick stop at Harry's Bar for Negroni's and we finally arrived for dinner at all'Acuigheta a little before 10 pm having had a lot to drink on the day.

Once again, Dad was willing to let me look at the wine list, and this time I went for another "different" choice - we've been hearing about this newer producer in the Veneto called Zyme. It turns out that among their wines they make an IGT that is 100% Osoleta (a somewhat forgotten grape that several in Valpolicella are now rediscovering and putting in their blends). The 2001 Zyme Oz was quite a treat. The Orsoleta offers a great body and unique profile, but was well-balanced and had plenty of flavor to offer.

Whagt to have with such a wine? Well, to start with I had to have the mussels in red sauce, like what we had at Da Romano the day before. Here it was just mussels (no clams) and the sauce was a little thinner, but it was still incredibly tasty, and the mussels were huge. For the second course I again chose a bigger meat dish to match with the wine, this time the grilled lamb chops. They were cooked perfectly, and were a great match with the wine. Yet another great meal at the Acuigheta.

As for the wine, it was definitely a treat, and something I doubt I will be able to find easily here. It also definitely shows what Zyme is capable of - don't know how easy it will be to find any of their wines in the US, but I'll definitely keep an eye out.