Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/833814
{ SOMMjournal.com } 75 Chef Wolfgang Puck took a rare break from greeting guests in the main Spago dining room and patio to sit down with us for lunch at the private table. In high spirits as usual, he told an anecdote about the first time he met Zanella, in the early 1980s, when Spago was located in a much smaller location on L.A.'s raffish Sunset Strip. "Three guys came into the restaurant one night and sat at a corner table," recalled Puck. "The waiter comes into the kitchen and tells me, 'These guys want to order every - thing on the menu.' I was in the weeds, very busy—I used to do the cooking back then—so I just started sending out everything: every starter, every main course, the works. Those guys ate for hours. When I finally had time, I went to the table and intro - duced myself. It was Maurizio with another Italian winemaker and an Italian wine writer. We've been friends for 35 years now." Puck also recounted the time he experienced Zanella's Italian- style driving on location—in a Ferrari, of course. Another Los Angeles local at the lunch who goes back a long way with Zanella is The Somm Journal's Editor in Chief, Anthony Dias Blue, who helped produce the wine photo book 11 Fotografi, 1 Vino for Ca' del Bosco in 2004. "Helmut Newton was one of the pho - tographers we contracted," Blue recalls. What did Newton photograph? "Nude women in the vineyard, what else?" Blue laughed. He also remembers visiting the winery and being stunned by the life-size sculpture of a rhinoceros hanging in the fermentation room—part of Zanella's extensive art collection. Chef Wolfgang Puck relates an anecdote about Maurizio Zanella. The two have been close friends for more than three decades. Maurizio Memories Maurizio Zanella shares memories with The Somm Journal's Editor-in-Chief, Anthony Dias Blue. Maurizio Zanella is an international-style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. (right) Roasted rack of lamb. The multi-vintage Ca' del Bosco Cuvée Prestige was served from magnums. (right) Spago's sublime Meyer lemon soufflé.