Wine gets a date on Friday nights

WITH wine bars opening left and right, Campanile has decided it too can be a wine bar one night a week. To that end, owner Mark Peel and wine director Jay Perrin have instituted Friday Night Flights.

And why not? After all, the beloved Cal-Mediterranean spot boasts one of L.A.’s best wine lists, not to mention cheese programs. Campanile was probably the first restaurant in the country to feature the Austrian Gruner Veltliners and Rieslings that have become the darlings of the sommelier set. And since Perrin, late of La Terza, took over as manager and wine buyer, he’s been collecting some beguiling wines from all over the world, some little-known and underappreciated.

To showcase them, he came up with the idea of doing not just wine flights but also wine and food pairings on Friday nights, starting at 5:30. It’s something to do after work, a little more sophisticated than hoisting beers and gobbling buffalo chicken wings. It’s also a great way to wait out the traffic.

Peel says he’s having fun thinking up little dishes to accompany the wines. He writes ideas down on a big list, and then on Tuesday afternoon he and Perrin sit down and play, matching this wine against that dish until they have several pairings and groupings that work.

The menu is different each week. It might be “Study of Chardonnay,” “Tempranillo and the Like” or “Summer Fling,” the last an all-white flight that proposes a Gruner Veltliner with melon and prosciutto and Idiazabal cheese, a Grenache Blanc from Priorat in Spain with gazpacho, and a Moscato Giallo from Trentino in Italy with a summery tomato, mozzarella and basil salad.

On a recent Friday, I went with the menu that paired a lovely Valtellina with veal meatballs in amatriciana sauce, a beautiful Etna Rosso from Tenuta della Terre Nere on Sicily with spaghetti with figs and bottarga, and a sturdy Rosso di Barbagia from Sardinia with a delicious shell bean salad with grilled squid and clams. Yummm. And since my friend had ordered a different flight, one that included a Vouvray Sec and squash blossoms stuffed with burrata, we had to switch halfway through, of course.

These were all wonderful taste sensations, and the meal was filling enough that we decided to finish off a bottle of wine with some cheeses from Campanile’s well-edited selection. We could also have had a flight of American blues with various ports.

What’s innovative here is that it’s not just about wine, but about food and wine pairings. They’re very specific, but you may decide another wine in the flight goes better than the one Peel and Perrin have picked. Just for science, it’s fun to try each dish with each wine in the flight.

The pours are 2 ounces, enough to give you a real sense of the wine. Altogether, it’s just a glass of wine, but if anything there grabs your fancy, you can graduate from a taste to a regular glass. The same goes for the food. You may fall in love with roasted chanterelles with Red Cow parmesan or grilled spicy lamb sausage with lentils, mint and feta. Or maybe your partner greedily snatched more than his fair share. Not to despair: You can order more.

The dishes, I have to say, are not tapas-sized but slightly bigger. Three of them could be dinner for somebody who eats light or wants a quick bite. Another option is to order a main course from the regular menu after.

They’ve also just introduced cheese flights with appropriate wines, and dessert flights too, both at $20 and appropriate for a two-person scenario.

Perrin’s mission is to introduce people to some wines they maybe have never tried. Peel just wants to cook. For fun.

Note that Campanile will be closed for renovations Monday to Sept. 5. But Friday Night Flights will be back on the schedule as soon as it reopens.

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Campanile’s Friday Night Flights

Where: 624 S. La Brea Ave., L.A.

When: 5:30 to 11 p.m. Fridays, except closed Sept. 1. Valet parking.

Price: Wine and food flights (three of each in each flight), $38; three cheeses or three desserts with three wines, $20.

Info: (323) 938-1447, campanilerestaurant.com