At Last

Had a little celebrating to do after our apartment finally sold, so we headed out to the highly recommended Trattoria Tosca in southwest Minneapolis. I liked the wine list for its mix of low, moderate and higher priced wines, and its length of three or four pages. I hate it when the list is too long -- too many choices is as bad as too few.
Our waitperson asked if we were looking for a red, which we were, so she recommended the 2006 Itre Vescovi Barbera d'Asti ($46). We love barbera anyway, so she had an easy sell. Unfortunately, she returned moments later to inform us they were out of that wine. Rats!
Next, I picked the 2007 Domaine Serene Pinot Noir (Willamette Valley), which was on their specials list for $52 (normally $80). It had subtle but not unpleasant notes of rubber, and what Bobby described as a "false start" -- sort of bland at the beginning but developing some spice toward the end. I thought it had a long finish, but Bobby passed judgment: "not a lot of body; thin."
Our third pick was the 2007 Ben Marco Malbec (Mendoza) at $45. Well, the 2007 was listed on the menu but the bottle delivered to the table was a 2008. When I pointed out the difference, our server offered to take $5 off the price, so we decided to try it. This wine had a lot going on: a strong scent of berries, slightly yeasty/syrupy/gamey, a bit tannic at first ... it had a lot of personality. We both liked this one better than the pinot noir.
Tosca's food was uneven; I loved the kumquat salad, and my tagliatelle with crab, cherry tomato and fennel was good but a bit plain. Bobby was impressed with the zucchini "pasta" (no noodles, but zucchini sliced into a spaghetti shape) but his swordfish arrived lukewarm. For dessert, the chocolate custard had a funky texture (the waitress ended up removing it from the bill), but the gelato -- one scoop each of roasted banana, orange olive oil and chocolate/hazelnut -- was perfect.
Photo from Urbanspoon