What are you drinking? Claudio Blotta at barbrix
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At barbrix, owner Claudio Blotta, who owns the Silver Lake wine bar with his wife, Adria Tennor, features 50 wines by the glass, along with an eclectic list of about 80 to 90 labels. His is a wide-ranging palate, hard to peg as he enjoys so many different wines from so many regions around the world.
But he does have a few areas of focus. Piedmont reds and Austrian whites are a passion for the Argentine native who came here to study aviation in 1981.
As former manager and wine director at Campanile, Blotta is a longtime fan of Weingut Knoll in the famed Wachau region along the Danube, west of Vienna. Right now he’s enjoying Knoll’s 2009 Loibner Riesling federspiel.
“This Riesling has great minerality and because it’s a federspiel, wonderful ripe fruit. It makes a perfect apèritif, but it’s also a great food wine, especially now with the weather getting a little warmer.
‘I like it with fried squash blossoms stuffed with cheese. It also goes well with fava beans — right now our chef Don Dickman has a fava bean salad on the menu. Beets with avocados is another spring dish I like with the Knoll Riesling.”
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-- S. Irene Virbila