The Wine Experience - Italy

It's been another one of those weeks at work, I'm exhausted. Leaving the office at 7pm I head into the city, I'm off to a wine tasting, a last minute decision and one at this point in time I'm beginning to regret. Queen Street is bumper to bumper and my taxi driver opts for sitting in the traffic rather than taking an alternative route, I ask him to take the quicker route and he turns at the next junction, two minutes later I'm there. The Royal Scots Club, Abercromby Place, Edinburgh is housed in an amazing example of Georgian architecture, spread across numerous floors there's a restaurant, meeting rooms and accommodation, all in traditional Scottish style. I make my way through the bar and down two flights of stairs to the Dumbarton Room.
Ian (@thefinewineman on twitter) offers a warm welcome and I take a seat. I instantly spot a bottle of Masi Campofiorin Rosso del Veronese rowed up for us to try, excellent one of my favourites.

It takes to half way down the rather large taste of Prosecco we have first for me to start to wind down and relax.

It's a really good selection of Italian Wine, I like all of the reds:
Masi Bardolino Classico 2008 DOC
Serego Alighieri Pssessioni Rosso 2005 IGT
Itynera Montepulciano D'Abruzzo 2008 DOC
Tomaresca Neprica 2007 IGT
Masi Campofiorin Rosse del Veronese 2006 IGT
Tasca d"Almeria Camastra 2005 IGT

The Serego Alighieri a Valpolicello blend with Merlot and aged in cherry oak is quite unlike anything I have tried before, it has lovely black cherry aromas and taste. The Masi Campofiorin (an old favourite of mine that I first tried when living in New Zealand) a wine that seems to have black fruits, red fruits, spices......... every time you take a sniff it seems to change.

The cold meats and cheese provided are just right for making a great combination for the palate.

The well thought out selection of wine underpinned an evening that provided a good grounding about Italy and it's wine regions. Ian's enthusiasm and knowledge of wine also made the evening informative but not too serious.

By the time I left the Royal Scots Club to make my way across the city towards home I was really glad that I went and made a mental note to check out the other events the wine experience have on offer.