Wine dining experience

"Italian Wine Restaurant" Fiume in Beijing is dedicated to creating good matches of wine and food. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The most recent event was "A Journey through Italian White Wines from North to South", a four-course dinner priced at 438 yuan ($66) paired with five wines from different parts of the country. This time the wines were from Umani Ronchi and Santadi, and other companies will be featured in future events. Maseroli started things off with an appetizer of culatello di zibello with curls of Italian butter to go with a sparkling brut.

The main dish, quail-egg tagliolini served with roasted rabbit ragu, was presented with an elegant Plenio Verdicchio Dei Castelli Di Jesi Classico Reserve from Umani Ronchi. (Full disclosure: Despite being a grown-up, I still squirm a bit at bunny on a plate.) I found this dish to be rather bland, though the wine was a real pleasure. The second course, grilled Argentinian shrimp served with Italian burrata cream, revived my enthusiasm for the kitchen－and the Vieris Sauvignon Vie Di Romans. Dessert was a star pairing too: handmade mascarpone semifreddo and dry biscuit, served with Latina Vino Bianco Santadi.