Dancing on Cloud Nine

In February, we headed out to Aspen with our good friend Sergio Esposito, owner of Italian Wine Merchants, for a wine collector’s dinner in a private home (check out the menu and wine pairings below).

The dinner prepared by Sergio’s chef and his wine pairings were fantastic but the best part of the trip was our discovery of Chef Andreas Fischbacher’s authentic Alpine restaurant at 10,740 feet, Cloud Nine Alpine Bistrot (Cloud Nine doesn’t have a website but you find reservation information and hours here.

We were literally dancing on cloud nine at the Cloud Nine Alpine Bistro in Snowmass, Aspen, at 10,740 feet. You can only reach the restaurant by skiing or snowboarding there.

Chef Andreas makes a number of classic Alpine dishes, like Raclette, a semi-firm cow’s milk cheese, served over boiled potatoes (with their skins on), topped with freshly cracked black pepper and accompanied by cornichons.

After a day of skiing in Snowmass, nothing tastes better than Andreas’ Raclette at 10,740 feet!

Raclette is made in the Swiss canton of Valais. The traditional pairing for Raclette is a wine called Fendant, which is made from the Chasselas grape.

Some people also pair it with tea or a glass of milk.

Raclette experts will tell you that the one thing you don’t want to pair it with is water because plain old water won’t bring out the creamy flavors of this wonderful cheese.

Raclette is also produced in some parts of France but the most famous Raclette comes from Switzerland.

For dessert, we had another classic Alpine dish: a chocolate fondue served in a chocolate fountain.

The chocolate is heated in the basin of the fountain and then it is pumped up through a corkscrew-shaped tube to the top and then drips down the sides.

You sit around the fountain and dip fruit, like strawberries or sliced banana, into the chocolate.

Cloud Nine Alpine Bistro | Aspen Highlands (On-Mountain), Aspen | +1.970-923-8715

Here’s what we ate and drank at the wine collector’s dinner:

A TASTE OF ITALY IN ASPEN

ANTIPASTO
White Anchovy and Puntarelle Salad
PETER DIPOLI 2004 SAUVIGNON VOGLAR
LA CASTELLADA 2001 BIANCO

PRIMO
Oxtail Cappellacci in Brodo
FELSINA 1990 FONTALLORO
ANTINORI 1990 GUADO AL TASSO
CASTELLO DEI RAMPOLLA 1990 SAMMARCO

PESCE
Roasted Baccala and Fried Zucchini Blossom
TENUTA SAN GUIDO 2000 SASSICAIA
ALDO CONTERNO 1995 GRANBUSSIA RISERVA

CARNE
Braised Lamb Shank and Roasted Eggplant
GAJA 1990 BARBARESCO
GAJA 1986 SORÌ TILDIN

Sergio and Italian Wine Merchants host some of the top collector dinners and tasting in the world. You can visit them at www.ItalianWineMerchant.com or give them a call at 212-473-2323. Check out Sergio’s new book about his life and his travels.

Welcome to LiveWine

Welcome to LiveWine, a new blog about wine, about “living” wine and wine that is “alive.”

Wine is on everyone’s lips these days: there are more and more food and wine writers, journalists, and bloggers than ever before and food and wine travel — from the ancient mountains of Argentina to the bubbles of Champagne — is quickly becoming the hottest topic around.

So much is written about food and wine and the luxury of gastronomy and the wine experience today that we often forget that wine is a living organism. It is made from living fruit, grown in living earth. It is nurtured by a living sun by day and cooled the earth’s living breezes at night. Most importantly, grapes are grown and grape juice is turned into wine by living beings: women and men across the world, who pour their blood, sweat, and tears into wines that reflect their land, their traditions, and their national identities.

When we came up with the name of LiveWine for our blog, we wanted to remind our readers — and we hope there will be many of you! — that wine “lives” and that we “live” wine.

Our motto?

Live wine as you live your life for wine is living thing.

So please add us to your blogroll or just come by to visit every once in a while: we’ll be sharing some of our favorite wines, restaurants, stories, histories, and, most importantly, news from our favorite people who make wine and with whom we drink it.