A white and a red at Cinghiale in Baltimore

[wondersofwine]

Restaurant opened in September 2008. My first visit. Have you been there, Drew? You must try it sometime.

Same management team as Charleston Restaurant in Baltimore and Petit Bistro Louis. The emphasis is Italian cuisine and the very lengthy wine list is devoted to Italian wines from all the major and many minor regions of Italy.

I ordered a Bellini upon arrival (Prosecco and peach puree.) The peach puree kind of settled at the bottom and didn't give much peach flavoring to the drink.

With the marinated artichoke salad I had a 3-oz. pour of 2008 Attems Collio Sauvignon Blanc from Fruilia Venzie Giulia.
The price was $6.50 for 3 ounces or $13 for six ounces. Crisp, dry, without being sharply acidic. No vegetal elements and not a lot of citrus either. A balanced, minerally S.B. that maybe leaned more towards grapefruit than lemon if anything, but muted on the grapefruit note. Pure and nice. I would call this a good QPR at the $16 to $20 prices found on wine-searcher.com

After consulting a wine steward who backed up my thought of the Aglianico, I had a 2007 Bisceglia Aglianico del Vulture "Terra di Volcano" from Basilicata, Sicily. This is also good QPR at under $15 a bottle and some shops. This was to go with loin of lamb with asparagus, peas and mint and cippolini onion bites. $5.50 for 3 ounces ($11 for 6 ounces) Purple in the center, ruby or garnet on the rim. I had trouble pinning down the components of the nose and flavors in this wine. It was fruity and balanced and paired very nicely with the lamb but was awkward with the side vegetables. Smooth, light to medium body. Quite pleasing and attractive.

The restaurant has a formal dining room and a slightly less formal wine bar (where I ate.) Nice decor with dark woods framing the windows, thin beams across the ceiling, large mirror behind the bar flanked by shelves of bottles, black/brown/ivory patterned tiles on the floor, six-lamp chandeliers along the length of the wine bar room. Quite a nice decor.
The room was extremely noisy however. I had to raise my voice to be heard by the server and had to ask the server to repeat some statements about the menu or preparations.