<a target="_blank" href="http://www.miramontilaltro.it">Miramonti
l’Altro</a>

Via
Croisette 34, loc. Costorio

25062
Concesio, Italy

+39 030 2751063

Food:

Salad of raw meat in a black truffle and chive
vinaigrette&nbsp;

Vineyard snails with Franciacorta, sweet garlic
cream, spinach, black olives and spelt chips&nbsp;

Pumpkin cream with amaretto&nbsp;

Mushroom risotto with a variety of sweet
mountain cheeses&nbsp;

Variation on the duck leg served with Sechuan
pepper and Balsamic vinegar sauce&nbsp;

Cheese selection&nbsp;

Seasonal desserts

Wines:

<table>
 <tbody><tr>
 <td>
 2012 Tiberio Trebbiano d’Abruzzo Fonte Canale&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 </td>
 <td>
 93
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 2010 François Ravenau Chablis Butteaux&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 </td>
 <td>
 95+
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 2012 Grignolino del Monferrato Casalese Bricco del Bosco&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 </td>
 <td>
 91
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 2000 Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 </td>
 <td>
 90?</td></tr></tbody></table>

I’m a huge fan of the Michelin restaurant guide:
yes, it’s not perfect, but when it comes to Italy’s restaurant scene, it’s one
of the few, and relatively safe, tools at your disposal. So it pains me to
start complaining about it right off the bat: but I have long thought that the
two stars Michelin awards Concesio’s Miramonti l’Altro restaurant is one star
short. Especially given the three stars awarded to some vastly overrated Italian
stops. Never mind: what wine loving sybarites and Vinous readers need to know
is that my most recent meal there confirmed, once again, Miramonti l’Altro as
one of Italy’s most outstanding dining and watering holes. It delivers a dining
experience devoid of gimmicks and faddy ingredients, relying on high quality
sourced foodstuffs, precise cooking and outstanding culinary technique, plus
one of Italy’s most insightful and fairly priced wine lists. Bravi!

&nbsp;<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1419590455954-amuse+bouche+color.JPG">The amuse-bouche 

After a delightfully delicate amouse-bouche
of capers, marinated anchovy, herring caviar, and a mix of fresh and crispy
leek from Cervere (which actually tastes much better than it sounds), Tiberio’s
&nbsp;2012
Trebbiano d’Abruzzo Fonte Canale started
off dinner in fine style. This is only the second vintage of this wine, made
from sixty year old vines of authentic Trebbiano Abruzzese (much of the
so-called Trebbiano Abruzzese growing in Abruzzo today is actually a mix of altogether
different varieties such as Mostosa, Bombino Bianco and Passerina –not to
mention the much lower quality Trebbiano Toscano- that have long been confused
with the real thing). The Fonte Canale is a marvelous unoaked wine not unlike a
grand cru Chablis. Blessed with sneaky concentration and depth, it begins
minerally and citrus, then turns nutty and becomes extremely complex, with more
than a passing resemblance to Valentini’s fantastic Trebbiano d’Abruzzo,
perhaps Italy’s greatest white wine. I sat back and marveled at how the Fonte
Canale had changed after thirty minutes in the glass, a metamorphosis that
allowed it to match perfectly with each of the raw meat salad, vineyard snails
and European-styled pumpkin soup (less sweet and less dependent on cinnamon and
nutmeg than some similarly wonderful Canadian and Eastern US versions I have
enjoyed over the years).

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1419589805487-bottiglie+2+-+Copy+%282%29color.JPG"> Given the aforementioned Chablis reference, I
couldn’t resist picking Raveneau’s absolutely fabulous 2010 Chablis Butteaux, a premier cru he excels with, and putting it
up against the upstart Italian wine. Yes, I realize I was cradle robbing here
as this is built to age. Still, this Chablis is mesmerizingly good already, offering a tight,
extremely pure core of white peach, lime, vanilla and white
flowers, with bright, harmonious acidity neatly extending the fruit and floral
flavors on the back end. A sublime premier cru, it also matched well,
if differently from the Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, with the first three dishes.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1419590259020-pumkin+and+snails2color.png"> Pumpkin soup and snails

Label drinkers will scoff at me when I say that I have had fewer better wines this year than Ermanno Accornero’s delightful 2012 Grignolino del Monferrato Casalese
Bricco del Bosco, an absolute gem of a wine. But less is often more, and
this pale red, light bodied beauty is marvelously perfumed and refreshing, a
paragon of balance delivering boatloads of flavor for a song. It really cut
through the amazingly rich risotto that was heaped onto my plate (dish of the
night, folks!) providing lift and nuance to what might have been something
almost too rich for its own good.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1419589622008-risotto+n+duck2color.png"> 

Risotto and DuckLongtime IWC readers know, and now Vinous
readers do too, that I believe Tenuta San Guido’s 1985 Sassicaia to be one of
the two, maybe three, best wines ever made in Italy. Unfortunately, the 2000 Sassicaia is not quite up to that
level (few wines, and not just Italian, are) as the hot growing season didn’t
allow for full physiologic ripeness of the Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc
polyphenols. Matched with food however, the green, bell peppery nuances are softened
by the marvelously concentrated, succulent duck preparation, which needs a big,
structured wine to stand up to it. Oriental spice echoes in the dish also help
to nicely focus the peppery spice and sandalwood nuances of the Sassicaia. 

Obviously believing that my girth meant I
required still more food, our server charmingly popped by with a spoonful of
warm, creamy multigrain polenta and a richly luxurious, melt-in-your-mouth cotechino
that had me thinking I really needed to come back the next day just to eat more
of it.

I called the evening a wrap after eyeballing one
of the richest and highest quality assortments of artisanal cheeses ever in an
Italian restaurant, and a wonderfully rich but refreshing vanilla ice cream
that would have had any self-respecting child clamoring for thirds, not just
seconds. Had I had more room left to eat, I would have gladly joined them.--Ian D'Agata

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