<a target="_blank" href="http://www.giudaballerino.com">Giuda Ballerino</a>


(at the
Bernini Bristol hotel)

Piazza Barberini,
23

00187
Rome, Italy

Tel. +39 06 488931

Food:

Spiedini di Gamberone in pasta fillo con spuma di mortadella (jumbo shrimp in phyllo dough with mortadella sauce)

Salmone marinato, salsa di melanzane affumicate, salsa barbeque e maionese allo zenzero, (marinated
salmon, smoked aubergine sauce, barbeque sauce and ginger mayonnaise)

Ravioli di burrata, scampi, limone candito, e
colatura di alici di Cetara (burrata
ravioli with scampi, candied lemons and anchovy colatura sauce)

Spaghetti cacio e pepe con polvere di cozze (cacio and pepe spaghetti with mussel powder)

Principessa nocciola- Bigné alla crema di nocciole
(puff pastry with hazelnut cream and
sauce)

Tortino al caffè con salsa inglese al limone (Coffee cake with lemon custard cream)&nbsp;

Wines:

<table>
 <tbody><tr>
 <td>
 2005 Ignaz Niedrist Weissburgunder
 Val Venosta
 </td>
 <td>
 &nbsp;
 </td>
 <td>
 &nbsp;
 </td>
 <td>
 &nbsp;
 </td>
 <td>
 89
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 1994 Ronchi di Cialla Schioppettino
 di Cialla
 </td>
 <td>
 &nbsp;
 </td>
 <td>
 &nbsp;
 </td>
 <td>
 &nbsp;
 </td>
 <td>
 93
 </td>
 </tr>
</tbody></table>

Andrea Fusco is one of the most creative and talented
chefs in Rome, if not all of Italy. It is&nbsp;exciting to know that he has moved
his gourmet cuisine to downtown Rome away from the city’s periphery where he
still maintains an Osteria. The new location in the Bernini Bristol hotel
(right in front of the beautiful Fontana del Tritone) is absolutely
spectacular, with one of Rome’s most magical terraces offering an unforgettable
view of the city’s skyline. Fusco’s creativity can sometimes be extreme, and
it’s not always easy to understand his vision; so four out of eight dishes may
leave you wondering, but the others will undoubtedly rank among the best you’ll
have tasted all year. The wine list is also noteworthy, leaning heavily towards
Barolo and fine Tuscan wines, with more older vintages than is present at his
other restaurant -&nbsp;always a great idea in my book. With so many varied choices, I actually had a hard time
deciding on which wines to have with dinner.

The creativity extends to the restaurant’s name: “Giuda
Ballerino” (or “dancing judas”) is the colorful expression that typifies Dylan
Dog, an immensely popular cartoon character in Italy, protagonist of
horror-mystery stories with a high literary and social content. In fact, the restaurant walls and tables are lined with
original comic book artwork, much of it related to the Dylan Dog character.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1432680139172-salmone+marinato+2.jpg"> Marinated
salmon, smoked aubergine sauce, BBQ sauce and ginger mayonaise

Giuda Ballerino just opened&nbsp;this past spring.&nbsp;Still, everything went
smoothly, and my meal was highly successful. I began with two antipasti: the
very clean, pure and lightly marinated salmon, and the now classic spiedino of
scampi with the truly addictive mortadella sauce. The latter is a 'can’t miss' dish. The 2005 Ignaz Niedrist
Weissburgunder Val Venosta (Pinot Bianco) is drinking beautifully at
present, though it isn’t likely to improve further. I have always thought that
Val Venosta producers are especially successful with this grape variety (for
example, both Falkenstein and Castel Juval-Unterortl also make truly
outstanding Weissburgunders), and this wine confirms my
viewpoint. Made in Niedrist’s typically rich, structured style (which is at
times too much for me), this concentrated, tactile Weissburgunder offers mouth-coating
honeyed chamomile, beeswax and stone fruit aromas and flavors that managed not to
overwhelm the two starters. The wine actually matched better with the
outstanding spaghetti cacio e pepe, where the mussel powder brought out the
wine’s inherent salinity. <img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1432680086642-wines+2.jpg"> 

Next, I couldn’t resist trying the 1994 Ronchi di Cialla Schioppettino di
Cialla, a wine that ages spectacularly well, even in&nbsp;average
vintages, as this bottle once again proved.&nbsp;Ronchi di Cialla
is an outstanding Friuli Venezia Giulian estate that single-handedly put the
Cialla viticultural area on the map, focusing everyone’s attention on the high
quality of many of the region’s previously underrated native wine grapes.
Certainly, the estate brought Schioppettino back to life, which until then had
been reduced to just a smattering of vines. Should you be fortunate to find
them, the 1982, 1985. 1988 and 1990 vintages are magical, but on this day the
1994 performed admirably, effectively showcasing the wine’s ability to age,
developing silky, ultra smooth tannins in the process. Aromas and flavors of
small black fruits, botanical herbs, and green peppercorn (absolutely typical
of Schioppettino, a grape variety especially rich in rotundone, a molecule that
evokes pepper) were both intense and precise, and lingered long on the
aftertaste. Drunk slightly cool, the wine actually did not overpower the spaghetti cacio e pepe, though it would
have been a better fit for a white meat dish rather than the delicate lovely
ravioli with burrata and candied lemon, a Giuda Ballerino classic. In any case,
both the 2005 Weissburgunder and the 1994 Schioppettino were wonderful wines:
it’s always a treat to find such older vintages of lesser known wines in
restaurants, and I complement the Giuda Ballerino staff for going the extra
mile for its customers. Well done.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1432680043063-cacio+e+pepe+cozze.JPG"> Cacio and pepe spaghetti with mussel powder

Two very satisfying desserts (the coffee cake and
especially the lemon accented custard cream) and
one of the most impressive arrays of petit fours I have seen and tasted in some
time closed off a wonderful meal and evening. Having just moved to its new home,
the Giuda Ballerino has yet to be visited by many restaurant reviewers in its new location, but I predict it will easily win its
usual one star Michelin rating this year.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1432679969682-tortino+caffe+e+crema+inglese+limone.JPG"> Coffee cake with lemon custard cream

-- Ian D'Agata

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