Nebbiolo

DSC_9713.jpgRight near the end of Against the Day, we witness Dally and Kit reunite with Reef and Yashmeen in Turin. There’s a little wife-with-ex-lover tension, but the whole thing basically seems to go very nicely. Page 1073:

To celebrate they all went out to dinner at the Ristorante del Cambio, known locally as “the old lady.” Since Kit and Renzo had pretended to dive-bomb the place, Kit had made a point of eating here at least once a week. There had been no veal for years, but despite the shortages Alberto was able to bring them agnolotti, and risotto, and mushroom stew, and tagliarini, and it was truffle season, so some of those showed up as well, almost apologetically. Everybody drank a lot of Nebbiolo.

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The old lady is a most fitting name for del Cambio — it’s a real place, and one of the oldest operating restaurants in the world. Their wine list does indeed carry a great many Nebbiolos, including, by a wonderful coincidence, the exact bottle I have here, the Pelissero 2013. How’s that for verisimilitude? Close as I’m getting from this hemisphere. The grapes are grown in three villages in the Piemonte region surrounding Turin, so Kit and Yashmeen and the team are certainly keeping it local, even if I’m not. Whatever the food miles, the wine’s a good one for casual feasting—fairly light, pleasant, easy drinking. Even outside a big messy family reunion, it goes down alright.

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