Most people know that I loved my experience in Piedmont Italy last year. I mean with fabulous wine, excellent food and a beautiful landscape that makes you hope that you never have to go home who wouldn’t love it. Well Broad Street in downtown Richmond may not all of those, but it has a restaurant that definitely has two. Enoteca Sogno is a small authentic Italian restaurant that seems to focus on the cuisine and wine of Northern Italy. We had the pleasure of dining at Enoteca Sogno a couple of weeks ago with our friends Bryon and Leigh and had a quite enjoyable experience. Owner Gary was our server for the evening and knowing that I am a wine geek and thirst for information, was full of detailed explanations of all the wine and food that we enjoyed.
We started out with a couple of appetizers and a great Italian Riesling that was bone dry and extremely good. The 2006 Vajra Langhe Bianco paired perfectly with our two apps which were the crostini with white beans and arugula and the roasted red peppers and mozzarella.
For entrees we all shared the special ravioli of the day which was pumpkin in a brown butter sauce I believe. Megan and I shared the risotto of the day which is only offered on Tuesday’s and was made with wild mushrooms and truffle oil. Leigh had the whole roasted Braziano and Bryon had the gorgonzola gnocchi that he was gracious enough to share with us. All the dishes were fabulous as we paired them with the 2003 Cantina del Pino Barberesco. The wine had great dark fruit flavors interlaced with aromas of cranberry, toasted oak and mushroom with smooth integrated tannins.
After we were done with dinner and the restaurant was pretty much shut down for the evening, Gary shared a couple of bottles of Barolo with us. We enjoyed the 2003 Guido Porro Barolo from two different vineyards, both the Vigna Lazzairasco and the Vigna S. Caterina. Holy crap these were good, but if I had to choose one the Lazzariasco was my favorite with more earth and mushroom flavors and aromas and slightly smoother tannin structure.
If you are fan of Italian food and great Italian wine, and of course live in the Richmond area, I would definitely recommend checking out Enoteca Sogno. Also I would like to say that Enoteca has some of the best restaurant wine prices I have ever seen with very little markup compared to the 100% plus that you usually see. For example, the 2003 Cantina del Pino Barberesco averages about $50 online and is offered for $70 in the restaurant.
Thanks Gary for the brief trip back to Italy, I hope to visit again soon.
Cheers!
Enoteca Sogno
2043 West Broad Street
Richmond VA 23220
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