Movia and Campanile

Sunday evening, we celebrated Mother's Day at the wonderful Los Angeles restaurant on La Brea Avenue called Campanile. I wasn't sure what wine to bring, but ultimately decided on the 2005 Movia Ribolla from Slovenia. And, I am really glad that I went with my instinct.  This was my first time trying their wines, but I had heard really great things. Plus, at $32 a bottle, it's hard to go wrong! Once at Campanile, Carlos took really good care of us and told us how, when Movia's winemaker was visiting for a trade-tasting a few days before, he poured his VERY-recently disgorged sparkling wine. In other words, he disgorge the wine at the table at Campanile! If you are unfamiliar with the process of disgorgement, then it is worth sharing it with you here because it's quite interesting. Disgorgement is the process of removing the lees from Champagne and fine sparking wines before sending them out to market. Champagne is made like most white wine. However, once it is bottled, lees are added to induce a second fermentation within the bottle. Because Co2 is a natural product of fermentation, it is absorbed into the wine thus giving the wine its effervescence. In order to maintaining the seal, the bottles are capped with "star caps" or the caps used to seal beer bottles. But, then one is left with lees floating around in the bottle and no one wants to drink cloudy Champagne! So, the bottles are placed in racks at an angle. A riddler riddles the bottles turning them every few days or as often as necessary so that the lees fall to the bottom, which is top of the bottle. Then the Champagne is disgorged. The neck of the bottles are quickly frozen and the top is popped off. The ice-enclosed lees go flying and the bottle is then corked. This is what the Movia winemaker was doing at the tasting! Apparently he captured everyone's attention every time he opened a bottle! 

What had my attention was the way in which the 2005 Movia Ribolla paired perfectly with my pan-fried Lup de Mer on top of a saffron risotto alongside a few very very fresh and tender muscles. The wine had a rich color, but a very delicate nose displaying hints of roasted chestnut and just a touch of fresh, pure meyer lemon oil. The palate was ever changing and the finish was very very long, but again very very delicate. It cut the saltiness of the fish and matched the creamy-saffrony risotto. I could not have asked for a better meal. More importantly, it made my mother happy and made for a wonderful end to her day.