Everyone knows wine improves with air but what about air guitar?
Guests at Tuesday night’s first-ever Great Led Zeppelin Wine Tasting were an odd combo of wine fans and Zep heads but it didn’t take many samplings for everyone to start feeling a whole lotta love.
“This is one of the best nights of my life. The food, music and wine you can’t beat it,” said Edward Iazzetti, 53, who sang along to the songs while playing air guitar.
A pasta manager at Borgatti’s Ravioli in the Bronx, Iazzetti had attended all six Zeppelin shows at Madison Square Garden in 1977 and even managed to crash the band’s suite at the Plaza.
Now he was soaking up the atmosphere of Becco’s rustic back dining room, which was transformed into a raucous backstage party thanks to colorful lights and music cranked up to a level not usually heard in polite dining circles.
His favorite pairing of the evening? Thunderous “Black Dog” matched with a bold Argentinean Malbec.
Marcelle Grazi, Iazzetti’s 23-year-old daughter, also enjoyed mixing Zoso with her rosso. “I’m not such a red wine drinker [but the music] made the wine taste better,” she said. “Being from the younger generation, it makes it more fun.”
About 70 people paid $175 to attend the six-course wine dinner, which featured dishes like pappardelle with wild mushroom ragu and grilled rib-eye steak. Some, like Richard Ringkamp, 47, and Christina Persich, 40, of Westbury, Long Island, wore Zeppelin T-shirts, jewelry and other memorabilia they had picked up just for the occasion. “We’ve been bragging about it for the past week,” said Ringkamp.
And just in case guests forgot where they were, a note on the evening’s program read: “Please be advised, bathrooms are equipped with smoke detectors, so please refrain from using your one-hitters!!” referring to the smoking devices more associated with arenas than restaurants.
“The turnout is more than anything we could have imagined when we hashed this out at a bar very late one evening,” said sommelier David Lynch, who co-hosted the event with restaurateur Joe Bastianich and writer-musician Mike Edison. “And I’m very pleased and relieved to see that there are actually women here.”
The evening’s opener was “The Song Remains the Same” paired with a French Champagne, whose “tingly acidity” drew approving nods.
“Led Zeppelin is the perfect band to pair with wine,” said Edison. “They can be earthy and intense, they can be dark and mellow and they can be insanely huge.”
Of course, not every proposed pairing was a winner. A request for “Stairway to Heaven” was swiftly met by boos.
There were a few other quibbles. “I thought it was blasphemous they cut off [some of the] songs. Respect the Zep,” said Deron Slapin, a teacher from NJ who was at the dinner with his wife Lina, 26.
Still, he conceded, “I thought it was a cool idea and they pulled it off well.”
So well in fact that there are plans to go live with a Led Zeppelin cover band. First stop on the tour? A much larger local venue with a stage followed by where else? Las Vegas.