Even in winter, Enoteca Meucci impresses with its well-executed dual souls. Upstairs, the restaurant offers traditional basic cuisine with appealing personal variations and decidedly generous portions. Below, the wine bar is a paradise for those who like to choose: Tuscany in the spotlight, but also lots of Piedmont and the rest of Italy, as well as excellent proposals from abroad. Stefania Vinciguerra tells us about it.
There are venues that become irresistible in the summer, amid dehors, outdoor glasses and “easy” sunsets. But the really solid places you understand best in winter, when there is no help from the landscape and everything is about hospitality, substance and quality. My recent visit to the Enoteca Meucci, on the slopes of Cortona., was just that: cold outside, craving warmth and a dinner capable of putting the day back on track.
Enoteca Meucci was born with a declared dual soul – wine shop and wine sale together with a restaurant – In a Tuscan farmhouse. All thanks to a very clear plan by Mauro Meucci and his wife Laura.
The kitchen: tradition as a base, personal flick as a signature
The restaurant works on a very precise line: dishes that start from the Tuscan tradition, therefore legible, reassuring, territorial, but which then almost always find a personal variation, a detail that makes them more contemporary and especially more interesting. It is that kind of “interpretation” that works because it does not force the hand: it does not distort, but makes it more contemporary.
And then there is a detail that counts more than a thousand words in winter: the portions are large, generous in earnest. An abundance that never gets sloppy, but gives satisfaction and comfort: the idea of leaving the table happy, full, and with the feeling of having really eaten.
The kitchen is led by chef Massimo Romano, with menus related to seasonality and attention to homemade pasta as well. In the dining room there is Elisa, the owners’ daughter, polite and knowledgeable.
The wine shop: Tuscany at the center, but the gaze is wide
And here we get to the heart of the project. Because Enoteca Meucci is not “a restaurant with a few bottles,” but a place where wine has a concrete presence, structural.
The choice is vast and above all deep, with vintages that allow one to really reason. And with an eye for great wines without, however, losing curiosity for small, less obvious gems. Tuscany is of course the protagonist – and we would miss it, we are in Cortona. But the selection does not end in the region: there is much more, I would say everything an enthusiast expects.
And then there are the international openings: the France abounds, among fine Champagnes and great reds. And there are interesting forays into the rest of the world as well, with choices that tell a vision: to bring together important bottles and discoveries, “big names” and transversal pleasures.
Why it works
Enoteca Meucci succeeds in something not taken for granted. Holding two souls together without making a compromise. On the one hand a cuisine that comforts, with a traditional flair and a personal touch. On the other hand a wine shop where one can choose calmly, and above all with the feeling that wine is not an accessory, but an identity.
In an area where experience often relies on the allure of place, here it plays on substance instead.
If you are looking for an address near Cortona where you can eat well and drink even better. With a cozy atmosphere even when it’s cold outside, Enoteca Meucci is a safe stop: generous in its dishes, serious in its wine offerings and able to speak as much to enthusiasts as to those who simply want to indulge in a nice evening.
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