Our second hotel was in the center of Alto Adige hunkered up against a mountain wall in a small village of the Alto Adige region. Ciasa Salares might be in Italy, but you will be looking for Heidi!! We had both our dinners in the hotel and a blow your mind wine tasting(photos on FB) with the owner and master sommelier Clemens!
The first night some chose to have an intimate fondue fun night in the wine cellar, but the food in the dining room was really fab as well.
A rich cheese fondue with saffron potatoes, salted red onion petals(WOW!) and black truffle was the starer( after our 2 hour 3-star Michelin lunch!!) and I could not resist the local Pressknodel, a sort of pancake made from pasta served in a sauce of hazelnut butter, parmesan, chives and with a cabbage salad--now that sounds AUSTRIAN! Alpine Char was perfection with mixed salad, radishes, green apple(I should note that this region is one of the largest apple regions in Europe) and horseradish yoghurt. There were many wonderful local wines, but I somehow did not keep track of them all. I do have to say thet Will opted for the vegetarian main and was not happy. There were many yummy desserts on the buffet and the cheeses were insanely out of this world!
The next night after our amazing wine tasting there were Fried courhette flowers stuffed with Mozzarella cheese and Anchovies in Fresh Tomato Cream that I could have eaten a dozen of. The pasta was a divine Garganelli with Lobster ragout and fresh courgettes while the baked chicken with potatoes, sweet and sour peppers and BBQ sauce was the real dud of our entire stay there.\We found two new wonderful wines this night in a Souvnigner Gris 2018 (an obscure cross between Seyval blanc and Zähringe) from Thomas Niedermayr and a Vernatch (or Schiavo grape) 2017 from Pranzegg Campill. These wines are almost never seen in the US or other parts of Europe and made this trip even more special.
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