The Mantra restaurant has always dared to be a little different, and the Sandrone Wine Dinner was no exception. Handled in Thailand by Vanichwathana (Bangkok), the dinner introduced Sandrone wines to some of Pattaya’s wine drinking connoisseurs.
To expound on the various wines was Dr. Cristian Maddalena, the export manager for Sandrone, a passionate man about wines, who understands oenology and the individuality of winemakers. As he stressed, the Sandrone wines are in the style of Luciano Sandrone himself, with his own stamp upon them.
Dr. Cristian Maddalena, the export manager for Sandrone, and Piyawan Niruntraporn.
The first wine was a Luciano Sandrone Dolcetto d’Alba 2009. This was pleasant, without being memorable, and was taken with a lamb shank parcel which was an excellent item from Mantra’s Australian chef Leonard Faust.
The second course was a wild mushroom soup with a splash of black truffle. This was just superb, hot to the table and plenty of it. (There is a tendency these days to serve soups in a demi-tasse!) The wine with this course was the Luciano Sandrone Barebera d’Alba 2007, also superb, and the evening’s favorite for most of the diners.
The main course was a choice of snow fish or beef tenderloin, and the organizers of the dinner very cleverly had two different wines for the different choices. With the fish was a Luciano Sandrone Nebbiolo d’Alba “Valmaggiore” 2008 and with the beef it was a Luciano Sandrone Barolo Le Vigne 2008. I sampled both, whilst the Valmaggiore was good, the Barolo was even better. I picked that wine as the wine of the evening, a wine that you can drink just for the sheer pleasure of imbibing.
The choice for the main course included snow fish.
A cheese assortment was next with the Valmaggiore continuing into this course, and then we came to the dessert. Dr. Cristian explained that he had no sweet wine in his Sandrone portfolio, but had instead brought some Barolo Chinato, distilled from a 600 hundred year old recipe, originally for medicinal purposes. This was a great shock to the palate, and needed the chocolate and raspberry mousse to sweeten it up. It should stay in the medicine cupboard, rather than the wine rack!
However, it was really a very enjoyable evening and Dr. Cristian and Amy from the Mantra, ensured all guests left smiling and replete!
The Mantra dinner introduced Sandrone wines to some of Pattaya’s wine drinking connoisseurs.
