Another year end wine dinner featuring unusual wines

We had the year end PWC wine dinner last Friday, with the recurring theme of unusual wines and grapes. Starting with two rare champagne grapes, Arbane and Petit Meslier, made into varietal sparklers, there were a couple each of unusual Italian against Bulgarian wines. The Italians were a Lacryma Christi made from Piedirosso grapes and a Pignolo, whilst the Bulgarians comprise a Melnik and a Caladoc blended with 2 Cabernets. The other two wines of the night were the One Wine One World white and a Bouzeron from de Villaine.

The wines were not all new to me, with say the Arbane having been tasted over a number of previous occasions. That proved less acidic than before but still nevertheless proved suitable to the Brillat-Savrin bought to match it. The Pignolo which was initially matched with a Chinese duck with plums was reasonable with the duck breast. That, together with two new (to the gathering) couples proving to be very good company, made for a very nice evening.