WineInk: Castel Fragsburg comes to Aspen

If you are extremely lucky in life, you may have the opportunity to visit Italy and the Dolomites to taste exquisite wines and enjoy the creative foods of the region. And if you are just plain lucky enough to live in Aspen, you may get to experience some of the same, when Italy and the Dolomites visit the Rockies.

Such was the case earlier this month when a pair of chefs from the Michelin-starred gourmet restaurant Prezioso in the Castel Fragsburg in the South Tyrol region of Italy brought their talents to Element 47 in The Little Nell hotel for a series of dinners.

“I had met the people from Castel Fragsburg at a Relais & Châteaux event,” said Little Nell General Manager Henning Rahm, “and I thought it would be a good fit for the Nell.”

Indeed, it was as if Chef Egon Heiss and Pastry Chef Phillipe Plattner brought not only the cuisine of the region for the dinners in the intimate Gallery Room at Element 47, but also the spirit of the Castel Fragsburg, as well. Billed as the smallest five-star hotel in the Italian Alps, the property features just 22 rooms tucked neatly below a hilltop castle that dates back to 1624. Open in the spring, summer, and fall, the luxury hideaway marries the legacy of an historic past and the beauty of the mountains to create one of the most unique properties in the one of the world’s most beautiful places.

The chef’s seven-course menu featured small bites, each an exquisitely prepared work of art that emphasized respect for the natural ingredients that they cherish. And, of course, the wine team at Element 47, under the tutelage of Wine Director Chris Dunaway, paired the courses with hand-selected wines to showcase the flavors of each dish.

The first pour of the evening was a Louis Roederer Champagne 2015.

“I expected Italian bubbles,” I said to Dunaway, as I watched him pour the vintage Champagne into my flute.

He smiled and declared, “There are just some things the French do so well.”

Touché.

And naturally, he was right. The crisp, citrus notes of the Roederer were not only apropos as an aperitif, but they also worked with the collection of first bites, which included a buckwheat pancake topped with Sturgeon caviar, a mushroom tartelette with Black truffle, and a trout and sour cream morsal wrapped in a beetroot. We were off to a good start.

Do you know what Zander is? Neither did I, but it occupied the second position on the menu.

“Zander is a freshwater fish from the lakes,” explained Heiss with a heavy accent.

A little further research indicated that the breed is very popular in European culinary circles and prized for its “light, firm but tender meat with few bones and delicate flavor.” A member of the perch family, it is similar in flavor to walleye. The Zander dish featured a tiny slice of the fish with an artistic “dam” of kohlrabi and apple holding back a spoonful of ceviche stock.

What pairs with Zander, you ask?

Well, Dunaway went with one of Italy’s classic producers, selecting a rosé, the Nervi-Conterno Il Rosato 2021, made by Roberto Conterno in Gattinara in the Northern Italian wine region of Piedmont. Made with 100% nebbiolo grapes, the signature grape of Piedmont region, the wine was bright and fresh, and it worked with, as opposed to overwhelming, the delicate Zander.  

While Dunaway poured one more French wine, a Domaine Moreau-Naudet Chablis 2017 from Burgundy with a dish called a “Mountain Carbonara” (plush little potato gnocchi with Ewe’s Cheese, tiny bits of bacon and a smoked egg yolk), we spent the rest of the evening in the esteemed vineyards of Italy.

A Brunello di Montalcino made by the producer Uccelliera in Tuscany was poured with a veal dish that included a braised cheek and poached fillet, which were both big and rich. It was a perfect pairing.

Then there was nectar from the gods served to complement Plattner’s amazing vision of a tiramisu and a plate of cookies. The Felsina Vin Santo del Chianti Classico 2015, also from Tuscany, is an amber-colored, unapologetically sweet, slightly syrupy work of alchemy made by air-drying malvasia, trebbiano, and sangiovese grapes until they produce the desired sugar levels.    

While all the wines were a treat, the wild card was a wine made from a grape and a producer I was not familiar with. Ever hear of Vitouska? It is a greenish-gold grape that is found in the Carso region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia in the northeast portion of Italy near the Slovenian border. The producer, Paolo Vodopivec, makes an orange wine from the grape that is fermented in clay amphorae. It’s an acquired taste but one with a pedigree.

The Castel Fragsburg dinner was the closest thing to a trip to the Dolomites.