Tuesday, January 4, 7:00 pm
Members $100, guests $125

Many of us can still remember a time when there were only two types of Italian wine, at least that’s what it seemed like here in America—Asti Spumante and Chianti. (The basket-wrapped bottle meant it had to be good, right?) Slowly, a few other Italian wines came into focus—Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello, Soave, and that hard-to-pronounce (and hard-to-afford) Sassicaia. Today, any Italian wine list worth its sale includes Pinot Grigios, Sangioveses, and Nebbiolos from around the country, not to mention localized varietals like Umbria’s increasingly popular Sagrantino di Montefalco and Friuli’s Colli Orientali.

The increased interest, education, and availability of Italian wines in America is due in large part to the work of the Bastianich family in general and Joseph Bastianich in particular. Through the wine program at the restaurants aligned in some way with the Bastianich name—Felidia, Becco, Babbo, Esca, Lidia’s, and others—Joseph’s Italian Wine Merchants wine shop (which, like Babbo and Esca, he operates with Mario Batali), and his book, Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy (which he co-wrote with David Lynch), the Bastianiches have encouraged Americans to explore and enjoy the myriad and miraculous wines of Italy. Now, they’ve taken the natural next step: making their own wine. Under Joseph’s direction, with the aid of enologist Maurizio Castelli, Azienda Agricola Bastianich is producing critically acclaimed wines in the Colli Orientali del Friuli region of Friuli-Venezia-Giulia.

In Italy, you don’t drink wine without food. So for this Beard House Wine Lovers’ Dinner, Bastianich is bringing along the chef of Becco, William Gallagher. After Joseph’s parents made their Manhattan debut with Felidia, where Joseph created one of the finest Italian wine lists in America, Joseph and his mother, Lidia, opened Becco in the Theater District in 1992. “Becco offers solace...and surprise every day,” wrote Bryan Miller, then critic of The New York Times. And a dozen years later the same can be said now that the kitchen is under the direction of William Gallagher, whose 20-plus-year culinary career has included executive chef posts at Au Café, The Mariner, and Le Barbat. As the 2004 Zagat Survey said, “You can’t go wrong” at this “Theater District star.” Ditto for the stars of this Beard House event.