Networkcrasher, my wife was up in Vancouver awhile ago so picked some of these up at the 49th Parallel shop - no shipping charges They do have a nice look and I like to serve my SOs in them. Weight wise I think WLL just posted it wrong. The machine weighs about 37lbs empty and about 48lbs full. Just swap out the oz for lbs and you'll be close.

Cheers

Ian

Looking forward to this review also, guys.
Many thanks for the time and effort

woodchuck wrote:Weight wise I think WLL just posted it wrong.

I hear ya Ian - that was just my horrible attempt at being sarcastic

I was looking for a DB pourover and was considering the Dalla Corte Mini but for some reason the price is about 30% higher than the Mini Vivaldi in Canada (at Creative Cookware), so I ended up going for the Vivaldi.

For some weird reason, when you check the price in the UK (at Bella Barista), the Dalla Corte Mini is actually 10% lower than the Mini Vivaldi.

What's up with the big price tag for the Dalla Corte in Canada? Is it the rise in price of Carbon Fibre??

My own problems with the Dalla Corte are purely aesthetic, and purely hypothetical. I do have a hard time with that carbon fiber "shower cap" cover . . . and I'm not crazy about the (analog) dial for temperature control in a digital age.

Silly, I know, but when you have to live with one in your kitchen for years to come --

Cheers,
Jason

Sad but true. I too find the Dalla Corte styling not to my taste.

Too bad. It seems if they simply used a better head cover and more modern knobs they would attract a lot more customers. Looks like a classic case of great engineering (ahead of its time) but bad taste in styling (Edsel syndrome). It's especially sad because it's all cosmetic and so easy to fix.

In my modest opinion, for all their rich cultural history, the Italians have rarely hit the mark with design other than clothing the last 40 years (some would say furniture as well). To my eyes espresso machine design since about 1970 has been quite stagnant. Functionalism at its worst, sort of like French architecture of the last 50 years. Dalla Cortes trying and I agree- yikes, throw a lever on there and it would be one sweet looking little machine.
-Ian

No, it won't win any styling prizes, but be aware that the pictures in the top two posts are out of date. They show the pre-2008 graphics that I called "pachinko" in my review. The current models are much more subdued.

The cowl serves a safety function. Unlike an E-61, it will not burn anyone who accidentally touches it. I collected a couple of nasty ones in my early days with the Zaffiro and always used to shut it down on cleaning day, so our cleaning woman wouldn't burn herself. Now I can leave it on without worry.

This isn't to say I would turn my nose up at a Kees redesign of the shell, but I have my doubts he could fit it into the same space.

Reliability update: no problems in five months of daily use, except for the old-design inline hose filter that was discarded.

wildbwilson wrote:In my modest opinion, for all their rich cultural history, the Italians have rarely hit the mark with design other than clothing the last 40 years (some would say furniture as well). To my eyes espresso machine design since about 1970 has been quite stagnant. Functionalism at its worst, sort of like French architecture of the last 50 years. Dalla Cortes trying and I agree- yikes, throw a lever on there and it would be one sweet looking little machine.
-Ian

Yes, their cars are just hideous.

Pulled the covers off the mini today. Easy enough done, just four bolts on each side to pull the wrap around cover off.



Nice clean layout. The steam boiler is the larger 1.5 L boiler in the front and the small 0.5 L group boiler is located behind the front panel. Pretty compact!

Some nice design touches as well - notice the catch caps for the vacuum breaker and over pressure valves.

Getting to the pressurestat is easy once the cover is off. A quick tweak of the steam boiler pressurestat and I was off to the races.

Here a closer view of the steam boiler.



I also pulled a goodly amount of coffee out of Dalla Corte today. I had picked up a batch of Finca Mauritania pulp natural roasted for espresso from Counter Culture Coffee the other day (Tim and Nathan mighty thanks!). The coffee has some very vibrant notes of orange and spice with a wonderful syrupy mouth feel. Peter G tells me that the pulp natural process tends to lower the acidity. Well, it's still bright enough but I had to lower the temperature down a bit to keep the spice from disappearing - easy enough to do with a pot on the front panel. My best shots ended up coming from 16grams of coffee and pulling at about 91°C (as measured by a Fluke over the lip). Much more coffee and the puck gets jammed up against the shower screen leading to some channeling for me. Much less and I lose some of the body. I do like the ability to quickly change temperatures. Especially since I having been pulling more SOs these days.



Also Marshall does your machine have the new graphics? Was there much change from the unit I have?

Cheers

Ian