Gala Dinner at La Festa del Piemonte
at The Pool Restaurant, NYC (4/1/2022)

This was the Friday evening gala dinner at Antonio Galloni's Vinous Media's La Festa del Piemonte 2022.

I sat at the Vietti table with Luca Currado and Elena Penna of the Vietti Winery. You can find a lot information and photos of this winery from my visit with Luca & Elena at their winery in 2016.

The wines came one after another, so I have grouped them under the courses with which I tasted them. Where I know something about the decanting, I have included it. In most other cases, the wine was decanted just before the dinner or it was brought to the dinner already decanted. I have no way of knowing which.

Sections

Part 2 of La Festa del Piemonte 2022 was a Morning Tasting of the New Release of 2017 Barolos the next day in the The Pool Restaurant. I did not attend the morning tasting this time.

I went to the first five Gala dinners, then skipped the next two. Here are my notes and photos for those that I attended:

Click on any photo for a larger view of that photo. Many larger photos contain more image as well as much higher resolution and are typically 3-4 MB.


The Venue and the Reception

Arriving at the venue which used to be the historic Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building.
It is now two separate restaurants: The Pool and The Grill, under the managment of the Major Food Group.
The entrance is on 52nd Street:


Reception

Grady Gorsuch of Marta Restaurant was pouring
Champagne as we entered The Pool:

My friend Mikhail Lipyanskiy was the official photographer for this event:

Jack Gordon and me. We've met at multiple wine events and eventually
figured out that I graduated high school with his brother Brian.



The Vietti Table

Sitting down at our table:

Each table was assigned a primary sommelier. We were quite fortunate to have
Marquita Levy of the exclusive Crown Club in the Barclays Center. The Crown Club
is another project of the Major Food Group. She also works with Jeff Porter at Volcanic Selections.
In the second photo, that's Nick Lasotto (Sorriso Market) left, Don Muraca (MS Walker) right.
Both from Boston.

Antonio stops by our table:

Luca chats with Hristo Zisovski (Wilson-Daniels), while Elena looks on:

Jeremy Noye and Anny Chen of Morrell:



The Red Wines and the Food

As far as I know, the red wines were double decanted around 5:30pm, except where noted. Dinner started about 7:30pm. The last wines were served around 11pm.

Antonio gets things started:


First Course: Prosciutto with Mustard Fruits
This was delicious.

Second Course: Mushroom Risotto
Not the prettiest dish, but it sure was delicious.

Third Course: Ricotta Tortellini
Tasty. I just gobbled these up.

Fourth Course: Filet Mignon Florentine
This was very good except that the crusting on the steak was overpowering. There was just too much black pepper.

Shared Sides with the steak: Sesame Spinach, Brussels Sprouts:
These were both delicious.


Fifth Course: Robiola Cheese
With Sea Salt Crackers & Gooseberry Jam:


A Few People Pix

Lorenzo Scavino of Azelia poses with Erika Parjus (Domaine):

Giuseppe Vaira of G.D. Vajra chats with Jack Gordon:

Nicola Oberto of Trediberri chats with fans including Jack Kuo:



Swag

This was the first year that we had swag to take home.





Conclusion

Another wonderful evening with great wine, good food, and seeing old friends.


Tasting notes posted from CellarTracker.


 

All original content © Ken Vastola