Last night T-rep, DW, Corkster and I met at Sesto Senso on 18th St. to partake of a little Italian vino and food. The restaurant is easy to miss when you are driving down Connecticut Avenue, and on-street parking is a little tough, but we all managed to find it - with some of us arriving late due to heavy traffic.

The service was very good (attentive), but the stemware we had was pretty simple. I had better from Bed, Bath & Beyond's 12 stems for $10 deals. As for the food, I thought it was OK - I had mushroom risotto to start, some Cornish Game Hen for my main course, and a mango gelato for dessert. But for $55 per person out the door, it was reasonable.

Now for the wines:

Braida 1997 Barbera Bricco del Uccellone
My second time trying a Barbera from Braida (the 1997 Ai Suma with whiner was very good) and it was delicious. Aromas of dark cherry preserves with a hint of anise. Bright red fruit flavors, and that zing of acidity paired very well with the risotto.

La Spinetta 2000 Barbera d'Asti Gallina
The other half of the Barbera duo - while the Braida was showing more elegance, this was all about upfront fruit. Dark blackberries abounded with a little minerality (that's hard to detect because of the stemware). Extracted, but not out of balance, with fine grained tannins. Delicious.

Uccelliera 1995 Brunello di Montalcino
Initially when this was opened, T-rep and I got an aroma of steamed cauliflower. But that blew away pretty quickly to reveal a wonderfully silky and elegant Brunello. Red cherries, leather, a hint of tar and a wondeful cedary aroma to wrap it all together. A wine all about finesse that was the best match to my game hen. Excellent!

Avignonesi 1997 Vino di Nobile Montepulciano Grand Annate Riserva
This is either a "love-it" or "hate-it" wine. I am of the latter camp, though hate may be too strong. Bazooka Joe bubble gum aromas jump out of the glass, with strong red cherry fruits. For my palate, it was a like cough syrup, but I can see why this wine has its share of fans.

Antonelli 1997 Sagrantino di Montefalco Passito
Our dessert wine. Inky in color and aroma, with savory notes of cloves and soy intermingled with copious dark fruits. With good acidity and smooth tannins, it was delicious with the butter cookies/scones at the end of the meal.

Another successful outing by the Cru - thanks for hanging out, guys.

Great notes and good time indeed. I had the mushroom risotto (passable, although I wished I didn't have the parmeasean cheese, whihc overwhelmed the flavors) which paired well with the Braida. Lamb steak meduim rare w/ a bitter arugula side of greens paired nicely with the Brunello. Peach sorbet topped it off for me.

All-in-all the wines were very nice and the company better. T-Rep's daughter, whoi just finished her first year of law school, and her friend stopped by to make T-Rep proud (and apparnetly to list the places they had been/were going to for the evening).

The house comped $20 of the $50 corkage, which was nice.

Did any of you notcie the thong underwear that kept creeping up the girl's butt at the bar?

Quite an enjoyable evening, even though the stems were only adequate and the food while good, was not anything to write home about. Service was attentive.

I started with the a half order of the tagiatelle with tomatoes, pine nuts, spinach and artichokes, and then had the Grilled and Sliced New York Strip with Mushrooms, Broccoli Rabe And Grilled trio of peppers. It was cooked just as ordered, very tender and tasty, but farly thin. I prefer thicker steaks. Dessert was Profitteroles with Vanilla Ice Cream and Warm Chocolate Sauce. The butter cookies that ended the meal were delish.

I really enjoyed all the wines. My WOTN was probably the La Spinetta 2000 Barbera d'Asti Gallina though it was a close call with the Avignonesi 1997 Vino di Nobile Montepulciano Grand Annate Riserva. I guess I'm one of those who love that wine.

Good company, good discussion, and if it hadn't been for the delays on the metro getting home, would have been a perfectly enjoyable evening.

My turn...

A good evening as is usual with the Cru...

I started with the calamari fritti, which was done quite nicely. I followed this with the mushroom risotto that Corkage and JT had as their appetizers. I found it to be very good and didn't mind the parmesan cheese the kitchen put on the dish.

Agree with Dinwiddie, that although the food was good, it wasn't GREAT. The service was good and yes, they comped us some corkage.

I really liked the 2000 La Spinetta Barbera d'Asti Gallina and thought that was my WOTN.

And yes, my 24 year old daughter dropped by at the end of the dinner since she was in the area with a friend of hers. As Corkage said, she told me where she was and where she was going, not that it made any difference if I objected....at 24 did I really care what my parents thought??? Of course not.

A good time and I'm looking forward to June's event.

Sounds like a great time.

Quote:

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Did any of you notcie the thong underwear that kept creeping up the girl's butt at the bar?

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Was she attractive? If so, sounds like areally great time

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Sorry I missed this one - but like I told travel rep- I was a real candidate to pull a Whiner. I'll be ready next time

Nice writup gents. Sounds like another great time even if there was lackluster stem-age. I, BTW, am in the camp for loving the Avignonesi 1997 Vino di Nobile Montepulciano Grand Annate Riserva -- not what you'd expect -- probably exactly the opposite!

TJ, Capitolkat, you both missed a good one. Aside from the stemware being not so fantastic, the wines were good and the food good as well. Hope to see you both at the next soiree...

You guys never bring a camera....