A lunch challenge for Cernilli and Prompicai

It took only 80 seconds for Cernilli and Prompicai to recognize a little-known white Chateauneuf du Pape.

The idea of writing this article came to me at the beach while I was discussing with my partner and friends on Facebook what to drink with the Russian duck foie gras I had in the refrigerator. There were thousands of possible pairings, including more or less famous ones like Hungarian Tokaji and some options that were quite a stretch, and then I remembered I had a bottle left in my cellar of this white French wine. This, in turn, reminded me of the last time I had tasted it.

It has been more or less six years since that summer morning when Daniele Cernilli phoned to say he was coming to my Osteria for lunch with the Legendary Prompi (Silvano Prompicai). He is “Legendary” for his immense skill as a taster and being extraordinary during blind tastings. To have these two characters at the same table at the same time was a challenge and I had to find something decent to offer them with their meal. Daniele, in fact, had asked for a blind tasting, something different and strange, not from the restaurant’s cellar but from my own personal one. What I came up with was this white Chateauneuf du Pape. The AOC appellation is well-known for its reds, including some truly outstanding ones, but a ridiculously small number of producers also make some white wine that is relatively unknown. I was sure this would stump them and brought a stopwatch to see how long it would take them to guess what it was, convinced it would be a débacle.

This is not exactly what happened when these two had the wine in their glasses. They began by bringing the glass to their noses and began to list the wines and areas the wine was NOT from. These naturally included Verdicchio (even if I was the one offering) and they excluded wines from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, Argentina, California, Germany and Austria. That done, always just smelling the wine, never tasting it, they agreed it was a Mediterranean white or one that was subject to the sea’s influence. After considering and rejecting some Italian regions they turned their attention to France and immediately Danielle turned to me and decreed it was a Chateauneuf du Pape. This was only 80 seconds from when I served the wine! It just goes to show that I was right to feel challenged having these two at the same table.

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