LaStella makes music in a glass
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Degan Beley
August 25, 2009
LaStella is an Okanagan winery making Italian-style wines. They make 6 wines, named after musical instructions, and at a recent tasting they tried to pair wine and music and food together. That’s difficult to do in an open house style of tasting where people are not necessarily drinking the same wines at the same time, but cello and violin music filled LaStella’s lush Italianate office and set the stage for the oeuvre of wine.
First up was the Leggiero Unoaked Chardonnay, as light and delicate as it’s name, tasting of pear and honeysuckle. Paired with seared scallop, it was a good start to the evening, but didn’t stand a chance against the Vivace Pinot Grigio. The Pinot is lemony and citrus, nice and crisp. LaStella focuses on Italian style wines, so the choice of grigio over gris is obvious, but even though it’s the same grape, most Okanagan wineries favour the French style and it’s nice to taste an BC grigio done well.
The Lastellina Merlot rosé was a bit weak and no one flavour really stood out from it. This is the only wine that is not named after a music instruction, so maybe they have other plans for it. Allegretto means to pick up tempo, and so we did, moving on to a Merlot of the same name. This is a beautiful wine, 100% merlot, that tastes of black fruit and berries with a little bit of spice. It’s my favorite until I try the Maestoso. Also 100% merlot, but made from 1 ton of hand-picked grapes per acre, it means “grandiose” in Italian, and it is. Plum, berry and spice flavours roll around in your mouth. In the glass it’s dark in color and dense; the legs on it were incredible.
We also had an opportunity to try the Fortissimo, their first blend of Merlot and Cab Sauv from multiple vineyards and so new it has a hand-written label. It’s a good one.
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Nice post, Thirsty Bites!
However, I should point out that “allegretto” means “slightly faster than allegro,” which just begs the question: what does “allegro” mean? Answer: briskly.
To pick up tempo would be something like “accelerando.”
And here I thought all those piano lessons wouldn’t amount to much.