Restaurant & Wine Review: Al Nautico in Albenga

by Ian D’Agata

Al Nautico

Lungomare Doria, 2

17031 Albenga

Italy

Tel. +39 0182 540304

The dishes

Il Gran Fritto del Nautico (Mixed fry of calamri, shrimp, anchovies and vegetables)

Sauté di cozze con la nostra emulsione di pomodoro leggermente piccante (Mussel stew with creamy spicy tomato emulsion)

Filetto d’ombrina boccadoro mediterranea al forno, cremoso di trombette di Albenga, patate arrostoe gocce d’olive taggiasche (Ombrina fish filet, creamy trombette mushrooms, roast potatoes and Taggiasca olive drops)

Some places you just can’t help but enjoy, and Al Nautico is just such one restaurant. Nestled in a sheltered beachfront location, when dining there you have the benefit of an amazing seascape and excellent food in a charming, pretty setting. Add that both food and wines are excellent and you realize Al Nautico will make for one of your most enjoyable dining experiences of the year. I know that, come year’s end, it will be one of mine.

Fact is, just about anyone dining there seems to think the same way, given how packed the place is all the time. And it should be. The tones of whites and blues mirror the gorgeous Ligurian Sea off to the side, the young staff is friendly, fast and helpful, the other patrons well-behaved and before you know it your lunch or dinner will be over. Much too soon.

The Gran Fritto, or grand mixed fish fry, is just that: grand, both as in goodness and size. Really, two people can share one comfortably. Best of all the fish and vegetables (carrots, zucchine) are extremely well fried, tasting light and airy. It is the rare dish that tastes as good as it looks. The mussel stew is also a winner, especially because of the sauce, a creamy but light tomato emulsion that is welcomingly lightly piccante and so good that short of letting go of all your well-educated inhibitions and licking the plate clean with your tongue, you’ll be looking for a spoon just to finish it all off. Last but not least, the ombrina is well-cooked and delicious: as general word of advice to my readers, never pass on an ombrina dish in Italian seaside restaurants. The ombrina (Umbrina cirrosa) is a very common fish of the Mediterranean Sea (it’s also found in the Atlantic Ocean and the Black Sea), and for those who are into their gastronomic ingredients, one of the best-tasting. It is usually found living in shallow waters over sandy soils and is never especially large (though one fish caught off Turkey was unexpectedly huge, weighing in at 74 kilograms, essentially an unheard of size for ombrina) but is characterized by one of the leanest and most delicate meats of all salt-water fish, and of low caloric content (roughly 74 kcal/100g). It looks and tastes similar to a white sea bass (branzino or spigola) but its meat is more refined still, and considering that the spigola is one of the grandest tasting fish that swims (at least those that aren’t farmed), well, that tells you all there’s to know about ombrina.

The wines

La Vecchia Cantina 2016 Pigato Spumante Metodo Classico Ubertu    93

La Vecchia Cantina 2021 Vermentino Pinea   89

The wine list carries a good if not extensive selection of fine wines and the two we had performed admirably well with the food. The La Vecchia Cantina 2016 Pigato Spumante Metodo Classico Ubertu is excellent, a creamy-saline and complex sparkler that gives many Champagnes a run for their money. It’s a very good example of just how good the wines of lesser-known grape varieties such as Pigato can be. The La Vecchia Cantina 2021 Vermentino Pinea is also good but less interesting, if only because its rendition as a Sauvignon Blanc wannabe forcibly makes it less interesting; this is a typical enough scenario that unfolds when you pick the Vermentino grapes early, saving and highlighting the variety’s thiolic components to the nth degree; but while this makes for fresh lemony wines that match well with easygoing seaside food, ultimately they also lack a little interest.

The Al Nautico restaurant was born in 1964, and is part of the city of Albenga’s local nautical club, hence its name. Current chef Marco Scapellato arrived in 2022, and he and his efficient, likeable team are ensuring with their day-to-day work that they won’t be needing to look for new work anytime soon.

 

Ian D'Agata

伊安·达加塔在葡萄酒领域耕耘超过30年,在葡萄酒品评、葡萄酒科研写作和葡萄酒教育等方面,都取得了杰出的成果,在葡萄酒行业和葡萄酒爱好者中,享有世界性声望。作为享誉国际的葡萄酒作家,他最近的两本著作《意大利原生葡萄品种》《意大利原生葡萄品种风土》被公认为意大利葡萄酒领域的权威著作;前者荣获2015年Louis Roederer国际葡萄酒作家大奖赛“年度最佳书籍奖”,他是唯一获此殊荣的意大利葡萄酒作家,并入选《洛杉矶时报》、《金融时报》、《纽约时报》评选的“年度葡萄酒书籍”榜单;后者被《纽约时报》和美国的Food & Wine杂志提名为年度最佳葡萄酒书籍。

Ian D’Agata has been writing and educating about wines for over thirty years. Internationally recognized as an distinguished expert, critic and writer on many wine regions, his two most recent, award winning books Native Wine Grapes of Italy and Italy's Native Wine Grape Terroirs (both published by University of California Press) are widely viewed as the "state of the art" textbooks on the subject. The former book won the Louis Roederer International Wine Awards Book of the Year in 2015 and was ranked as the top wine books of the year for the Los Angeles Times, the Financial Times and the New York Times, while the latter was named among the best wine books of the year by Food & Wine Magazine and the NY Times.[:]

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Ian D'Agata