Dinner at Murano, London

3 Sep 2011: Dinner at Murano, an Angela Hartnett restaurant on Queen Street, London.  Decor is meant to be chic contemporary Venetian....I think.  They brought us some parmesan crisps and warm truffle-flavoured risotto balls as amuse bouche.  Then we were given some charcuterie and bread, as part of the amuse bouche.  Frankly, you probably wouldn’t need a starter after all this!  Menu is based on 3 or 4 courses, to be chosen from a selection of starters, main courses, vegetarian dishes, desserts and cheese.  So good to see a healthy selection of vegetarian dishes.  The chef had kindly prepared an off-the-menu langoustine starter for Richard and I took the warm caramelised tomato, lightly flavoured with balsamic vinegar, basil and smoked ricotta.  Then I had the linguine, with prawns, chilli and parsley.  Richard had the Iberico pork shoulder with pearl barley and salsify, which was tangy orangey.  The portions were perfect, and there was plenty of room for the cheese trolley, which is highly recommended.  We had a lovely Italian cheese with a name that would sound like ‘Medieval Castle’!  To add to this, we had Lincolnshire Poacher, Stinking Bishop and a Calvados-soaked Camembert.  We decided not to take dessert, but to our pleasant surprise, our waiter produced two ‘generous’ slivers of smoked lemon tart, a chef’s signature dish, apparently, together with a bowl of cherries and some hazelnut truffles.  Service was slick and impeccable and the restaurant felt spacious.  The food was perfectly executed and presented – attentive and imaginative cooking from the heart, a subtle display of talent.

For the wine, we took the sommelier’s recommendation.  2006 Lessona DOC, Proprietà Sperino: Traditionally a covinification of 95% Nebbiolo and 5% Vespolina (red grape variety related to Nebbiolo), grown on marine sandy, acidic but mineral-rich soil, at 295 – 350 metres above sea level. (Lessona DOC is north of Barolo, and next door to Gattinara DOCG). Use of natural yeasts.  28 days of maceration, followed by 13 months sur lie.  Maturation in barrels and 15 hl casks for 30 months, with further time in bottle, prior to release.  The 2006 vintage was aromatic, elegant, charming and very approachable, with a well-defined purity.  Lovely red fruit of red cherries, with slight herbal, earthy and floral character, with a hint of spice.  Medium in body, with smooth fine tannin and good level of acidity.  Went equally well with my linguine with prawns, chilli and parsley, as with Richard’s pork shoulder in a tangy orangey sauce. 16/20

A bit of background on this estate.  The estate was originally owned by the Sperino family, a renowned family of doctors, whose most notable members who contributed much to vinegrowing were Casimiro Sprino and particularly his son Felice Sperino, who was a close friend to Italy’s first ampelographer, and took active interest in indigenous grape varieties of northern Piemonte that were fast disappearing.  In the early 19th Century, as a result of no direct heirs, the estate passed to the De Marchi family, their close relatives.  Vinegrowing was abandoned for reasons of difficult economic climate and lack of economic scale to make the property work, without compromising on quality.  Paolo De Marchi (Isole e Olena, Tuscany) had dreamt of returning to his roots in Piemonte one day to revive the winemaking on their estate, and in 1999, he returned to the castle with his son Luca.  They have taken painstaking efforts to revive the tradition of vinegrowing and winemaking in Lessona and the results have been very encouraging.  Their first vintage was 2004, released in 2006.   Proprietà Sperino lies in the Castello quarter of the village of Lessona (Biella), among the foothills of the North Piedmont Alps.  The Nebbiolo grape is locally known as ‘Spanna’.