Subscribe to our FREE Newsletter , or Telegram and WhatsApp channels for the latest stories and updates. On a balmy Monday evening in November, as the city’s lights began their nightly shimmer, a select group gathered at Luce Osteria Contemporanea in Kuala Lumpur for what would prove to be more than just another wine dinner. The restaurant, known for its authentic Italian cuisine, which includes wood-fired pizzas and traditional regional specialities, transformed its intimate space into a showcase of Tuscan wine culture.
San Felice’s Chief Wine Maker, Leonardo Bellaccini , making his maiden visit to Malaysia, had flown in with bottles that told stories of sun-drenched Tuscan hillsides. At the same time, Executive Chef Paolo Cola orchestrated a five-act culinary opera that paid homage to Italy’s rich gastronomic heritage. The evening opened with a zucchini flan that defied its humble vegetable origins.
Nestled in a pool of pecorino fondue and crowned with crispy bacon, it performed an elegant dance with the 2021 Rosso di Montalcino Campogiovanni , whose youthful vigour cut through the dish’s creamy decadence with the precision of a surgeon’s blade. As conversations warmed, the porchetta tonnata arrived – a dish that could have been conceived in a fever dream of an Italian nonna. The roasted porchetta, wearing its tuna-mayonnaise sauce like a silk scarf, found its soulmate in the 2019 Chianti Classico Riserva IL Grigio .
The wine’s aristocratic bearing – all lea.