Enoteca Pinchiorri, in Florence, Italy, could possibly be the World’s Greatest Restaurant for wine. Its 3-star Michelin rating speaks to the caliber of the food, a mix of Modern Italian with influences of French and subtle techniques of molecular gastronomy. In my opinion, this is a destination for wine connoisseurs, a place where wine comes first and the food is the accompaniment(albeit, an amazing one!). Here, appropriate dishes were prepared to go along with the wines. This was the vision of owner/partners Georgio Pinchiorri and French Chef Annie Féolde. Pinchiorri is a sommelier/former wine bar owner turned restaurant owner—this is apparent.
On our way to Enoteca Pinchiorri, my husband and I got into a car accident with a couple of Italian early-twenty-somethings joy riding in their stylish and sleek, sea foam green Motorino. The accident was not our fault, and no one was seriously hurt, but let’s just say it was the dramatic beginning of the most impressive wine experience I have ever had in a fine dining restaurant.(Being in the trade, it is always easier to have impressive wine experiences at home or at tastings and wine dinners, but this dinner was personal, and a nontrade related wine dinner or event.) This opinion was formulated not by the wine pairings alone, but also based on the overall wine list, presentation, and impressive wine cellar. This is part one of our experience.
We pulled up to the restaurant in our wrecked Volvo, sans driver’s side rearview mirror(a casualty of our accident) 2 hours late of our reservation we had made several months prior. The staff was more than happy to greet us and get us started with a lovely glass of Champagne - still shaken up from our accident, my husband and I threw the glasses back like shots. Unfortunately, this moment was a blur, so I can’t tell you who the Champagne producer was. We proceeded to sit down in the main dining room - very Baroque, Louis XIV-esque with frescoed ceilings and pink walls - and were presented with our tasting menu options and wine lists.
Enoteca Pinchiorri has the most extensive wine list known to man. It is a large thick, dark reddish-brown, leather-bound book of wines, reminiscent of an epic novel; this was the War and Peace of wine lists. The restaurant also has separate smaller bound versions of these lists by region, so you can ask for the “Italian” list and the “Burgundy” list, amazing in themselves, but much less heavy and overwhelming. Next, we were presented with the infamous “pairing” wine list comprised of a series of wine pairings in tiered price point levels which corresponded to the number and caliber of wines included. Options led well into the thousands of dollars per person, depending on whether your pairing contained bottles of Petrus, DRC, and Screaming Eagle in it or not. We chose one of the relatively modest pairings which resulted in the following wines:
2002 Meursault Coche Dury
1998 Quinault L'Enclos
1996 Clos de la Roche Ponsot
1997 Barolo Cannubi Boschis Luciano Sandrone
1999 Costa Russi Gaja
1990 La Conseillante
1988 Yquem(complimentary)
This line up clearly speaks for itself. Not only was this a selection of premium, top notch wines from some of the world’s best producers and vintages, but these wines were opened up for our table, and our table alone. Most fine dining restaurants have a wine pairing of the evening, when the diners have the opportunity to "opt in" for the wine pairing accompaniment allowing premium bottles with less expensive, esoteric wines to be shared across many guests. In our EP experience, the above bottles were opened and displayed in front of us and repoured into our glasses as needed. This was not your typical wine pairing experience: no inexpensive, esoteric bottles, no one-time pours, and our bottles were unshared. I am not sure if this was special or standard treatment. Perhaps the staff felt bad for us given our traumatic Motorino run-in (looking back on our photos, it was clear we were in need of several drinks.)
This wonderful meal and pairing selection ended with a lovely surprise, a complimentary pour of 1988 Yquem that had been left over from another table's pairing. Wow! Typically, pairings aren’t really a deal given the markup and selection of wines. However, in this instance, it was the best deal ever. For the cost of a nice bottle of wine per person, we were able to drink(and plenty of it) from wines totaling close to 3k at retail, potentially up to 9k st restaurant prices. Most would agree that using the word “deal” in reference to Enoteca Pinchiorri is ridiculous, but when you do the math, it is a fact, at least in our experience.
In my next post I will continue with our visit to Enoteca Pinchiorri’s cellar. This was the true highlight of the evening! In the meantime, what are some of your most impressive wine pairing line-ups or experiences?
