A GREAT ITALIAN AFFAIR AT 22 KITCHEN & BAR WITH PASQUA

Passione and sentiment wine dinner ; from Romeo and Juliet’s city, Verona, the taste of love. Pasqua Family dedicates a bottle to Verona and to one of the legends that have made it famous in the world…

Great pleasure to be introduced to Pasqua wines and to discover one of their premium red wine…along a perfectly matched 4 course dinner.

Founded in Verona in 1925 by brothers Riccardo, Natale and Umberto Pasqua, this family business is now managed by a second generation of the family and remains one of the main privately owned wineries in Italy. Values like family, history, tradition and respect for the terroir are fundamental for the company. Those values are reflected in the production methods which take care of the vineyards and use respectful methods of vinification. The excellent quality of wine is the result of the passion and dynamism of a family that has been producing top-quality grapes for three generations.

Nowadays the family is devoted to producing wines from the region using the unique and local ‘appassimento’ technique of partially drying the grapes, used for Amarone and similar style wines. Pasqua also have a reputation for crafting beautifully made, top-end and Amarone-style expressions.

Every day, three thousand love notes tell stories of passion, similar to that of Romeo and Juliet, for which Verona is the unforgettable setting. In the courtyard of Juliet’s house in Via Mazzini, where it overlooks the famous “Juliet’s balcony”, one of the most visited destinations of our city, the signatures of visitors adorn the home of the most famous lovers in the world. All this is told in the label: a photo taken by Giò Martorana, Unesco Prize for Photography, which portrays the daily messages left by lovers on the walls of the famous Courtyard.

Merlot 40%, Corvina 30%, Croatina 30% Veneto, Italy: The grapes for this wine were grown on local vineyard sites, just a short distance from the town of Veneto on a mixture of hilly-slopes and soil types that included clay, limestone and alluvial-pebbles. The Merlot and Corvina grapes, selected and hand harvested and then left to dry for 1 month into wooden trays in the Fruttaio. Here, the grapes lose around 30% of their water content and gain high sugars concentration. The vinification process takes place in separate steel tanks at controlled temperatures of 25-28oC for 30 days. Maturation in oak tonneaux (at second use) for 3 months. Afterwards the grapes are blended and malolactic fermentation follows to harmonize and soften the wine.

Tasting notes: Deep ruby red in colour. The nose has intense aromas of cherries and red berries with a hint of spices. The palate is well balanced with crispy acidity and aromas of red fruits with velvety tannins, and a soft, round finish.