Food & Wine Pairing Night in Dubai: Casa Mia hosts Michelin Star Chef Enzo de Pra and Gaja Wines

By February, 28 2017
At The Tasting Class we’re incredibly fond of great wine and food parings. So much so, we’ve established a business in Dubai that allows us to pair wine and food for clients on a regular basis. Naturally, when Le Meridien Dubai invited us to enjoy a meal by Michelin starred Chef Enzo de Pra, paired to highly acclaimed Gaja Wines at Italian trattoria Casa Mia, we jumped at it. Chef Enzo was in Casa Mia’s kitchen for one week only and created a special wine and food pairing menu for some lucky punters. The Gaja family have been making wine for over 150 years, and controversially modernized the region’s traditional winemaking techniques helping bring recognition to the great Nebbiolos of Piedmont. It was apt Chef Enzo chose wines from their illustrious cellars to go with his delicious creations. The Food and Wine Pairings Ca’Marcanda Vistamare 2014 took us through the first two courses – radicchio, bean and patora salad with cream of beans, corn and barley soup, followed by a delicious risotto with pistachio, chilly and prawns and ricotta ravioli. This wine is a unique grape blend of vermentino and viongier and both dishes were hearty with delicate flavours. The refreshing vermentino adds an element of acid that cuts through both dishes rich and creamy characters while complimenting the lighter flavours of seafood and vegetables. The viognier in the blend gives the weight needed to stand up to these filling dishes. The next wine was the Sito Moresco 2013 from Langhe,  Italy. It’s a blend of the regions most celebrated grape, Nebbiolo, combined with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Chef Enzo kept the food pairing real with his yummy rendition of Margherita pizza, and pan seared duck breast with orange sauce. As for the pizza pairing, it’s hard to go wrong with Italy’s high acid wines which match the zingy tomato sauce. Sito Moresco’s fruity elements played to the orange sauce on the duck beautifully, and its medium-body weight proved a perfect pairing with the robust and flavourful poultry. Dessert was not one plate but two – a crispy horn of plenty filled with cream and red berries, and an á la minute apple tart. The pairing, Kabir Moscato Di Pantelleria, was not from Gaja, but another respected Italian producer, Donnafugata. This sweet wine is made from raisins and hails from the satellite island off the coast of Sicily. The wine style has been in production for so long, it’s featured in ancient mythology as the wine that the goddess Tanit used to seduce Apollo. The wines are part of African + Eastern’s portfolio but may prove tricky to find as this caliber of wine is often reserved for hotel and restaurant wine lists. Your best bet for retail pricing is to head to African + Eastern’s Al Wasl shop, or take a trip to The Cellars in Fujairiah. Both stores carry an extended range of African + Eastern products. If it’s good food you’re after, head to Casa Mia for an authentic trattoria experience.  Or you can follow chef Enzo back to his restaurant in Italy, Dolada Pieve d’Alpago 🙂

The Wines we tasted

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