Recently I started posting a few recipes that my friends had given to me before I left Italy. This one is from Paola Cornelli, a dear friend and a fabulous skipper. I decided to pair it with a wine that I love, Confini 2005 IGT, from Friuli Producer Lis Neris. The wine is made from a blend of grapes with slight changes in the percentages on a yearly basis. The 2005 is a blend of 30% Pinot Grigio, 60% Gewurztraminer and 10% Riesling.

I brought the wine to my tasting group and they had a hard time placing it. The Gewurztraminer’s floral and lychee notes shine through and are well integrated with the minerality and wet stone tones from the Riesling. The wine is truly a celebration on your palate and is rich and full bodied without being overdone. The late harvest aromas and flavors are what makes the wine confusing in a blind tasting I think. Alvaro manually late harvests the wines from 10-25 year old vines. The wine ferments and matures on its fine lees (dead yeast cells) for 10 months in 500 liter French oak barrels. It is in the end, elegant and slightly restrained, much like Alvaro Pecorari, the winemaker.

This is a photo of Alvaro and his daughter Federica at Vinitaly this past year. I sometimes do work with Alvaro’s importer in the United States and have been to his winery in San Lorenzo, a town right on the border (confine) with Slovenia and very close to the Isonzo river. Alvaro has 50 hecatares of vineyards which are planted on gravelly soil that was dragged down from the Alps. I can’t say enough good things about Alvaro and his wines. They are hands down my favorite white wines coming out of Italy. He is a very meticulous wine maker and his wines speak for themselves.

Salmone al Cartoccio (Parchment or Aluminum foil) (for 6 people)

1 large Salmon fillet
Salt
Pepper
Lemon

Light the over to 356 F, place the fillet in a plate covered with oven paper and sprinkle it with pepper and salt and lemon slices (rub the lemon on the skin so that it doesn’t get too dry while cooking).
Close the oven paper around the salmon on both sides, leaving a slight space for air to circulate inside. Cook for about 30 minutes. Open the parchment paper (let it cool a bit) and remove the skin and fish bones.
Serve it hot and accompanied by these two sauces

Swedish Sauce

1 cup of yogurt
2 cups of mayonnaise
2 spoonfuls of Italian mustard
Ground white pepper
Freshly chopped dill

Mediterranean Sauce

Cherry tomatoes cut into very small pieces
Chopped Basil
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Dried red pepper