Monday, October 17, 2011

Spotlight on Lazio - wine, cheese, friends, and charity

Saturday night two of my favorite people in Rome, Katie Parla and Hande Leimer, hosted a wine tasting focusing on the Lazio region at the enoteca Il Bacocco in Trastevere.

The proceeds from the evening went to the food rescue charity A Chi Serve.

Saturday was a surreal day. The peaceful Occupy Rome protest turned violent once the Black Bloc showed up. The self-proclaimed anarchists have done this before. They hijack organized peaceful protests and then proceed to burn and break anything they can get their hands on.

The area around San Giovanni looks like a war zone. The cost of the damage is over 1.5 million euros. This is money that could be used for something else, especially during a budget crisis.

Despite the mayhem, there was a strong turnout.

Sommelier Hande gave a great presentation about the two wines we tasted, one white, one red. They went very well with the various cheeses and salami. Vincenzo Mancino of DOL-Di Origine Laziale donated the food. I must check out his store. I'm still thinking about the goat cheese.

We drank Marco Carpineti’s “Capolemole” Cori Bianco and L’Olivella’s “Quaranta/Sesanta” Rosso Lazio IGT.

Katie's excellent (and more detailed) post about the event is HERE. She has links to all the places that helped make Saturday a special evening. I hope Hande and Katie will organize more events like this in the future.








3 comments:

Paola said...

I was going to ask you how you coped with the tragic Saturday event ...


I love wine tastings.

Katie Parla said...

Arlene YOU are one of MY favorite people. Im so glad you were able to be there and I really hope to do more of these in the future. Any ideas? you inspired the first one, why not the next? :)

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

Paola - I was lucky. My area was very quiet. I love wine tastings too.

Katie - Thanks cara! You know I love San Carlo chips, but I don't think a potato chip tastings would really work. heh