★ Love a Locavore's Sicilian dinner with Italian wine specialist pairings ★

Description

The Curatolo family has been producing excellent Marsala and quality wine for over a century from their winery in, Marsala, Sicily. Tonight we welcome Victoria Curatolo, who represents the 5th generation of the Curatolos and has been working for the family for the UK and Irish market for the last 4 years.

We will be offering Victoria's expert wine pairing combined with some traditional simple and super fresh Sicilian dishes prepared in Love a Locavore's kitchen. As well as Victoria, we also welcome Lizzie Burton, Italian wine specialist, of Liberty Wines. Both ladies are extremely knowledgeable about their wines and will be available to answer any questions you may have with regards to the wine pairing as well as providing you with the opportunity to take home some of their carefully selected wines.

The 5 course menu, with wine pairings, will be something along the lines of the following, but as both Victoria and Lizzie will have been to Sicily before the event, the menu is subject to change, adding on their new ideas:

★ Canapés
Bruschetta with Sicilian olive oil
Aranchini (deep fried risotto balls)

★ Starter
Tuna carpaccio with an orange and fennel dressing, pine-nuts, raisins and caramelized peppers

★ Main
Stuffed mini aubergines in a spicy tomato sauce

★ Pudding
Almond and lemon Tart with pistachio ice cream

★ Sicilian cheese platter

Wine pairing included with all the courses but should you wish to BYOB for extra wine, then do!

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A little more info about the winery for you if you are interested -

Since the 1999 vintage Alberto Antonini has acted as a consultant to the Curatolos and brought with him the modern winemaking skills that allow the varieties to express their maximum potential. The wines are uniformly excellent. The whites combine the richness that Sicily can easily provide with the freshness only someone with Alberto’s experience can retain. The reds express the power of the fruit and warmth of the land.

The company was started by the entrepreneurial Vito Curatolo Arini in 1875 who had already been making wine but was keen to build a winery in the middle of his vineyards. Enlisting the help of a Swiss commercial expert to help him build a model business, Vito Curatolo Arini was later to become one of the first companies to export wine (Marsala wine only initially) to the USA.

In 1970, a group of viticulturists from the Davis Institute in California came to Sicily to study the potential of the area’s winemaking. Their conclusions were positive and the Curatolo family took on board their recommendations to modernise the winemaking and reduce yields. The result is a range of clean, fresh modern wines with all the character of the island preserved. The company is one of the few Marsala producers still existing and the only one that has always been managed by the same family.