Vite Vinifera De Vino's Blog

Vintages

2010-05-04T08:44:00.013-05:00

Timing, as the saying goes, is everything. The art of doing the right thing at the right time is often a result of intuition and experience. Good timing is also often ruled by the unseen forces of luck and fate, which have made themselves known to us throughout human history (not too long ago we thought the earth was flat). Fate, luck and good timing are what prompted me talk about vintages in today's post.

We all know that vintages can make a difference in taste, even if we're not sure how. In truth, a lot of us somehow have that knowledge branded in our brains. Sometimes we care about it even when is not really a factor. How have we learned about different years and their reputations? Most likely, it is because somebody reliable told us, "this vintage is good," or "this vintage is not so good." Since we cannot be present for every harvest of our favorite wines, we are left to trust wine professionals and friends. But how do those people define a great year, or an okay one, or a bad one? Here is where one can take a million different roads, depending on who he asks... and where he asks.

Take, for example, the 1997 vintage in Italy. In Montalcino, the general consensus is that 1997 was one of the best vintages of the century. In Barolo, the vintage was also good, but experts will tell you that wines from 1997 will not last as long as wines from 1996, which happened to be a very poor year for Montalcino. How does one define a great vintage? Is it better when a year is hot or cold? Rainy or dry? Sunny or cloudy? There's no way to make a determination with a universal rule; such a thing doesn't exist. The answer lies in a single word, and is as easy as it is complicated --

balance!!!

I asked my teacher, the master winemaker Roberto Cipresso, what balance means, and if he could define a common rule for it that was valid all around the globe. He said that balance in viticulture has to do with the tangible factors of sugar, PH (acidity) and tannin (antioxidant), and the intangible factor of timing. In an ideal year, with a regular season cycle, there is an even maturation of the grapes, and the three tangible factors will be evident in the fruit. Of the three Roberto told me that the tannins are the most important. This is because the maturation of the tannins can be extremely variable, where sugar and acidity can be more easily managed, and will result in fewer surprises in the bottle. His words showed me, literally created an image, of what this all business was about. "Tannins will give me a good indication of how the year was," he told me, and he began to describe some of the specific indicators. "When the seed is red and crunchy, when the skin transfers the color to the pulp when you lightly touch the grape, or if I chew the skin for few minutes and the tannins are not bitter - these are all really good signs." Those qualities, matched with a balanced PH and an agreeable level of sugar (so as not to have a wine with exorbitant alcohol content) makes a great vintage.

After that conversation with Roberto, I had a vocabulary for defining a "good" vintage. Then, I asked myself: what does "great" vintage mean, and does every grape need the same weather and season to meet those requirements? Let's start from the second question: the answer, frankly, is no. Vines adapt to their environments, and have been proven to do so quickly and efficiently. A balanced year for Burgundy, Barolo or Montalcino will have unique characteristics, as will the grapes for all of the different regions of the world. Just because all grapes are similar doesn't mean that each vine has the same optimal environment. To me, that would be like saying that every child should be raised the exact same way, regardless of advantages or shortcomings. It's just not true.

The first question needs a little more articulation to the answer. "Great" is a value judgment, and since we have an idea of what "good" vintage is, we're obviously looking for something... well... better. For this reasoning, I return to the idea of time: more time makes a greater wine. Generally speaking, a "great" vintage translates into wines that have a notably long aging potential (buying a wine that has many decades of longevity is a good investment - vintage is often an excellent indicator of a wine's lifespan). Technically speaking, a wine will live longer when the fruit goes through an even maturation. This is a rare occurrence, and the result is a well-balanced wine that will develop evenly, elevating the wine's overall structure. Evenly developed tannins (neither to ripe nor too green) will also preserve longevity, as well as the acidity. There are, of course, a number of vintage exceptions to the rule that equates greatness with longevity. 1990, 1997, and 2000 for example, were all fairly warm years, but the vintages are almost unanimously described as "great." This may be because the wines were exemplary of their appellations, or perhaps because warmer vintages tend to be more approachable at an early stage of life, and the wines' great qualities were more immediately evident. Whatever conclusions we draw, we must remember that we are judging with a lot of subjectivity, and that no vintage is universally "great."

By the same token, no vintage is universally "bad." I think it is worthwhile to look especially at the wines from great producers in difficult years. Here are a few reasons why. Primarily (and most importantly, I believe) a man's hand can take action to deal with the problems that derive from unfavorable weather. This means that a skilled and experienced "vignaiolo" can develop the ability to manage his vines, and after careful supervision of his cellar, great wines can still emerge. A good winemaker can (and often will) downgrade the wine, using the best juices for what would be considered a "lesser" label. For example, in Montalcino in 2002 (a generally poor vintage), many great Brunello producers used all of their fruit to produce only Rosso di Montalcino, which bears a shorter aging standard and fewer fermentation requirements.

Another reason to look at good wines from bad vintages is more sentimental and emotional than it is practical. It has to do with the fact that any bottle of wine has a "memory"; the nectar in the glass will, in a sense, "remember" how hot, wet, cold or dry the year was. A few years ago I went to visit Riccardo Talenti in Montalcino and tasted his 2002 Brunello. We talked about bottling that year, and he told me that he corked only a few thousand bottles (very low production) and put a tremendous amount of effort into carefully selecting grapes. In the end, he managed to create a very good Brunello, a wine that he was happy with, but only because he worked so hard and sacrificed so much. He put his efforts in terms of history: he didn't make Brunello in 2002 for monetary reasons... he did it because he didn't want to miss the chance to do what only the greatest producers are able to do -- create good wines in bad years.

I found the resulting wine from Talenti was quite impressive, considering that the main problem in 2002 was a prolonged rain stretch at the end of the maturation, which can be devastating to a crop. The wine holds within it the memory of the year; truthful, not built. I bought a case of six bottles for a good price, and I am happy to say I have enjoyed them a few times already.

For the casual imbiber: "great" vintages are good to know, but a "bad" vintage will give you the opportunity to really single out a "great" wine. It is also a great standard on which you can purchase wines from renowned producers at a favorable prices. This can help to increase your experience without killing your bank. For the collectors: I will repeat what Mark, a great lover of wine and huge collector from London, told my good friend Piers: the memory of a particular year, good or bad, will fade. Look for great producers in off years - inevitably, the name will outlast the year.

Remember: don't dismiss a "bad" vintage too hastily - you could be missing out on a great opportunity!

Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Instruction Manual

2010-04-29T18:46:00.002-05:00

Understanding wine is not limited to being able to provide a description of it. Understanding a wine also means knowing how to drink it. And no, knowing how to put the glass to your lips is not enough.

In my previous post I talked about trade tastings, where a taster can try many different wines; today, I'd like to focus specifically on studying a single bottle. It's very important, I believe, to continue learning about the things you care for. With wine, going deeper and learning more means profoundly understanding a particular juice, which requires a lot of time, drinking many different bottles of the same stuff. Now, let's say you're getting a bottle (probably from your trusted store!) that you've never had before, and you walk out without any instruction on how to drink it. What would happen? Often, people don't know what to do - sometimes even I don't know, if it's a bottle I've never had before. That is when I sit back and I let the wine talk to me; I literally let it "open up" to me.

For example: there is a winery in California called Coturri. They are certified organic, and their wines have the lowest allowable concentration of sulfates. Every time you open a bottle of theirs, it's a journey, and I love to try them time and again. After several different tastes, I have come to believe that the Coturris work with oxidation: sulfates are antioxidants, so a low sulfate content will not protect a wine from oxidizing. That said, a winemaker might as well use that process in his or her favor. This can have some interesting results. When you open a bottle, sometimes it will smell... you might even think it's bad. Obviously, I had this very experience. So the first thing I did was try to understand if the wine was dead or alive - I poured half a finger in a crystal glass and smelled it, set a benchmark and waited few minutes. Then, I smelled it again and noticed that the wine was losing its initial, unpleasant funk and was coming together. It was alive!!!

After that, I periodically tried it in small sips from fresh pours until it seemed ready. And when it was, I poured myself a glass and sipped, and began my analysis of the juice. Oxygen interacts with wine, developing it until it reaches a peak, and then through its subsequent decay. At the beginning, I poured only a small quantity because I wanted to have more air in contact with less wine. This technique accelerates the process of oxidation, like decanting. When I felt the wine was ready, I wanted to slow that process, so I could have time to understand what was happening in the bottle itself. By the end of that experience, I had learned that this particular wine was not a wine to drink immediately; it needs time and patience, so I refrain from recommending it for any occasion where time is short. I also make sure to mention that it can age in the bottle for at least another decade or more. After few hours that wine had lost all of its oxidation flavors and it was simply delicious.

I purposely didn't mention which of the Coturri wines was the star of that story. Here's why: I have found that a winery's style is reflected in different degrees, depending on the bottle. To some extent, all of the Coturri wines will act like the one I had (I confirmed that intuition later, by opening all of their wines). But some may not take so long - others may take even longer. I don't want to tell you that you'll have the exact same experience that I had, because you may not; the specifics vary from bottle to bottle. The goal in fact is not just to detect and expose flavors to your friends, or to know a wine dead-on before you open it. The goal is to develop the ability to choose the right wine for the right occasion and to know what to do with it. That skill will dramatically change the emotions you'll feel and improve the overall experience of your meals, or whatever situation in which you've chosen to enjoy your wine. Then, you can transfer your knowledge to your wine friends, and they can do the same for you. You'll save time and money in the process of becoming informed winos.

One bottle is never enough. If you find a wine you love, you should try it over and over, especially at the beginning of the journey. After years of experience, you'll have enough know-how to understand or at least have an idea of what to do even before opening a bottle. Your brain will be trained to remember better and to categorize the wine so that you'll be able to choose more deftly. Knowing more also make you more confident. You'll believe in your intuitions and surprise your friends and yourself by choosing wines you've never had before, but already having an idea of what they will be like. In this process, learning one bottle of wine will provide you with a knowledge base for countless other bottles - an invaluable category of information.

I'll finish today with a short anecdote about wine confidence, and how it can truly guide you to new and exciting choices. I trust my wine intuitions often when I'm out with my girlfriend Susan; she is very passionate about food and wine, her palate is refined and challenging and even though she could easily pick a wine, she often asks me to do it. She made me think about being more specific in the way I choose wine from a list in a restaurant; several times after I'd made my selection, she would ask if I knew the wine. If I answered "no," she would ask what made me choose that particular bottle. I've always had to think about the answer, and at least at the beginning I wasn't able to put it into words... I was following a system but I didn't really know I had one. Having been coerced to think about it, I was inspired to write this post, through which I am finally able to provide an answer. I look at the list with confidence: if I see the selection is well thought-out, then I trust the palate behind the list, and my confidence increases. Then, if I know the wines from that region are good, and I am curious to try a new producer who I know to be very capable, again, my level of confidence rises, and ultimately, using my own intuition and shared information, I choose a wine I've never had before, and am often pleased with the results, and the subsequent journey.

I hope that in the future, sharing this kind of information will be the main focus of wine publication as well. I also think it would be very useful if wineries themselves wrote suggestions for how to enjoy their wines on their back labels. Until that happens, the helm of the ship on your wine journey belongs solely to you - navigate well, and the journey will be unforgettable.

Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Quick Sips

2010-04-09T12:00:00.000-05:00

If you read my previous post and found some truth in it, you may be looking for a new approach to the wine world. This particular world is not made of absolutes, there is no mathematical certainty. Even if you are able to retain untold volumes of wine statistics, the numbers and figures are bound to change every single year.

So - how can we value a wine? A good start, I feel, is to create a sort of template that will put 'apples with apples and oranges with oranges,' so to speak. There are many different ways to taste and drink wine; in trade tastings or blind tastings, with food or without it, vertically or horizontally (no, that has nothing to do with body orientation... verticals are when you taste different vintages of the same wine from the same producer, and horizontals involve only one vintage), all these different ways will allow you to see and appreciate wine from different angles and prospective. Today, I'm going to stick to an analysis of trade tasting.

When I'm tasting professionally, I'll have maybe two sips of each individual wine, and often I don't actually drink it - I spit it. All professionals have their own specific objectives at trade tastings. My goals are few and simple: I'm either trying new wines, or new vintages of wines I already know. In both cases, my limited tasting time forces me to taste the wine without context (trade tastings are often packed with people, and it is common to feel rushed). Instead, I make a summary judgment either on the differences from previous vintages, or the basic objective value of the wines (if I haven't tried them before).

When I attend these tastings, my sole objective is to find wine that eventually I will buy for De-Vino. That action is comparable to being a critic, with one main difference: I do not primarily use my own personal taste. I buy based on more objective parameters; overall quality, observable elements of the bouquet, palate and finish (regardless of the style), balance, and acidity. Independent of my individual taste, I believe those criteria to be sturdy and thorough in the general assessment of a wine. There are, of course, more detailed parameters applied for specific kinds of wines; for instance, reds require a judgment regarding tannins, and in champagne, the finesse of the "perlage" must be taken into account. Provenance, the size of the winery and price are also key factors. A wine can be spectacular, but horribly outpriced for the market.

These points will work for any style of wine, and I think they are just about as objective as they can be, especially in a field where personal taste is so highly prized. In this particular kind of tasting, whether or not I like a wine isn't as important as whether or not I believe my customers will like that same wine, keeping in mind, we may not have similar tastes. Sometimes I feel as though trade tasting is like speed dating; but, instead of meeting women, I meet wines.

I don't mean to make it seem as though professional tasting is impersonal and menial. It's not. Going to big tastings lets you asses a flavor and style profile; modern, traditional, fruity, dry, full, light, floral, astringent, velvety... you can develop a vocabulary to match the sensations you get from the wines. It is also a good way for non-professional palates to create flavor memories. Part of my own education consisted of going to trade tastings with wine experts. Often, the producer himself (or herself!) will be pouring the wines, so just listening to the conversations between producers and experts can be a great resource. You'll learn about tannins, acidity, wood, mold, yeast, sugar, flavors and countless other elements of the winemaking and tasting process. That said, listening should always be a big part of the process. It certainly has been for me, from listening to my parents talking about wine at dinner as a kid, up to now, listening to the wine itself. If you're just starting out, don't worry if most of what is said doesn't mean anything to you. Consider, perhaps, that you are accumulating dots that only time and experience can connect. With patience, every piece of the puzzle will come together.

Trade tastings are a great resource. It's like scratching the tip of the iceberg - it's a great way to broadly taste numerous wines and help you increase your flavor data base, learn terminology and vinification techniques from the people of the trade. But! It will not give you the value of emotion, because you are tasting wine without context, and thereby without the mechanism required appreciate the more subtle complexities it may have to offer.

In the next few posts I will keep on analyze different ways to taste and appreciate wine, hopefully giving you more dots that than we can try to connect together. So for now and until next time...

...Buona Bevuta a Tutti

And We Are Back

2010-03-26T12:00:00.000-05:00

After a long silence, I have decided to come back to my blog. I'm not sure yet how often I will post, but for those of you that are interested I will write more regularly.

There were many reasons behind my silence; one in particular was the sore state of the wine industry. It somehow made me lose hope, and thereby the will to write. The past year was difficult for many reasons... 2009 was the year of scandals, fights, accusations and a lots of turmoil in our world. There were many voices focusing on wines that were considered "great deals," and the fight for quality was definitely lost against the economic meltdown. On top of that, we had the Brunello scandal, which was not much of a scandal in my eyes. All of a sudden, purveyors became concerned that some of the wines bearing the name "Brunello di Montalcino" contained grapes other than Sangiovese (the DOCG law prohibits this). The notion that many Brunellos are composed this way was, to me, a well known fact, and it made me laugh to see the major Montalcino players in the "defendant" role. Even the "Consorzio" hierarchy, the ones who presumably preserve the Brunello quality, were accused of wrongdoing. The same sore of scandal occurred in Chianti and in the North of Italy where few wineries decided to bottle of Pinot Grigio and Prosecco that were tainted with muriatic acid (the same chemical as hydrochloric acid - yum!), and similar problems plagued some of the highly prized Bordeaux wines. It was fun to see the excuses behind the scandals; most of Montalcino blamed American wine critics. Evidently, in order to please the "American" palate, the winemakers had to put unauthorized grapes into their Brunello... so they were forced to break the law to sell their products. How absurd - especially if one thinks that critics are there to protect quality, when they often, in fact, force producers to lower it.

Where is the truth? As always, I see it to be in the middle. Italians love shortcuts, the so-called "easy way." So, instead of trying to let the critics understand and explain what "Good Brunello" should be, they figured it would be easier (and cheaper!) to just tailor the wines to the critics' taste. Great job! Congratulations!!! The real misfortune is that, in spite of all the scandal, not much has changed. Critics still think that wine can be categorized with points and wineries still try to get higher scores in every way possible, even with clandestine methods, to sell more.

Things aren't much different than they were a year ago... but I think it's time to express myself again. I will try, starting now, to approach the subject from a different angle. I will try to let go of the "Which Is The Best Wine?" philosophy, and focus more on When And Why Is A Wine Good?" Hopefully, this will leave my readers with options, rather than a hard and fast suggestion based on some circumstantial idea of expertise. I don't believe in the best wine, but in the right wine at the right time. So, instead of prizing a theoretical "best," I will give you options that you can use at your own "right time."

Tasting many wines for work and drinking as many for pleasure, I often wonder why the point system is so successful. I mean, really. Does anyone really believe that the millions of differences that exist in as many wines can be explained and categorized with a 100-point chart? I've had wines that, on a given night, were perfect. Then, on another arbitrary night, the same wine was not as exceptional. That could have happened for several reasons: maybe my state of mind was different. I might have been upset, tired, taking medication or eating something different that didn't pair as well. Most likely, the weather conditions were also different; warmer, colder, drier or wetter. All of those factors change the perception of what a person is tasting.

That said, it might be more useful if the point-based wine reviews also disclosed the conditions in which the wine was tasted. That way, enthusiasts will know that a particular wine was a 99-pointer when it was tasted after great news, or the taster was very happy, or had great sex the night before, or... whatever. Then, perhaps the same wine was an 85-pointer after the taster was audited by the IRS, or had a fight with his wife and slept on the couch, or was taking aspirin for a migraine. Obviously, I'm exaggerating the situation to give you a better idea, but if you consider the difference a 90 or a 95 score makes for sales, it's clear how important it can be to know the state of mind and the environmental settings when the wine is tasted. It is true that a professional taster is able to adjust and take in consideration things like palate fatigue or other interfering factors... but trust me, it is very difficult to be that objective, even for a professional.

Scoring wines in a more realistic sense, however, is essentially pointless. Why? Because we all have different palates. I, for instance, like more challenging and austere wines. It's rare for me to like - or even see the value in - many 95+ Parker point wines... not because I have a better or worst palate than he does, but because I have a DIFFERENT palate. With Robert Parker, you deal with a well-defined style; many wineries around the world have been "Parkerized," meaning that they produce bigger, more concentrated, fruit-forward wines, because that's what Parker likes. So, when you buy a wine with a 95+ Parker score, you know that is going to be a big juicy wine. Easy. With a lot of wine publication, however, it's not that simple. You don't deal with just one palate or style, so the scores are all over the map, which makes deciding on a wine even harder for the final consumer. The scores just confuse the situation. And that's not even considering the fact that these publications also need to generate revenue of their own, leaving any active consumer with lingering suspicions regarding the origin of a wine's score. It is a vicious circle that can lead to uniform wines - if all producers start to make their wines for the critics, we will lose diversity for the sake of just a few palates. This is already happening in many places, like Chile and Spain... and the noble region of Montalcino.

So let's find a new way to talk about wines together. Let's look at these beautiful juices with a perspective that is less mathematical and more empirical. Let's focus more on the right fit than on an abstract search for a non-existent "best." Wine is a complex matter, and I think that trying to simplify it is not the best we can do to transfer our passion to fellow enthusiasts. I think that the best thing we can do as wine professionals is to teach the people how to think with their own heads (and palates) instead of relying on someone else's numerical accounts. Let's get to it.
... Buona Bevuta a Tutti

What Has Happened to the Journey?

2009-06-05T13:10:00.003-05:00

A wise man once said that the greatest pleasure is not in the destination, but in the journey. In today's world, it seems we are way too focused on our destinations, so much so that we rush through our journeys, or we take the so-called shortcuts. Applied to wine, the journey is the time a vine needs to grow deep roots, or for a bottle to develop and reach its potential. When I try a new wine or a new vintage of something previously tried, I usually open it, pour a small amount in the glass, and try it right there to get an idea of the wine's initial condition. This helps me foresee how much time it needs to be ready to be drunk. A decanter will speed the process up, but sometimes it will speed it up too much, with the risk that the wine will die in your glass. Of course, you'll get the wine ready in a much shorter amount of time, but in doing so, you'll miss the journey, you'll miss years of the wine's life. To me, it's like giving birth to a kid that is already 21 years old and an adult, and I would hate to lose the experience of all of the years in between. I learned about the pleasure of the journey by riding motorcycles. I used to take long trips, and always chose the side roads over the highways, if only because they are much more beautiful to ride. I once went from Manhattan to Montreal, a ride that would have taken 8 hours on the highway. It took us 3 days, but it was one of the most wonderful trips I have ever taken. I was lucky enough to experience a wine after I saw, 5 years before, the vines right after they'd been planted. I saw them growing, until they were old enough to produce wine, and then tried the wine, and realize that it was better the day after it had been opened. The way I see it, waiting for a wine or the vines to be ready should be, romantically, part of the enjoyment. Seeing how it develops, like a baby taking its first steps, or saying its first words, is an irreplaceable experience.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Nice evening at The Ten Bells

2009-04-21T22:00:00.009-05:00

I was introduced to The Ten Bells a few months ago, when I went for the Dresners' after-tasting party. Since then, I've been back another 4 times and liked it more every time. This is probably because it took me some time to get over the fact that they are cash only, and they serve amazing wines, but in the smallest glasses imaginable. The Ten Bells is a very informal French Bistro with no menus or lists. Everything they serve is written on huge chalk boards on the walls, where the decor is proportionally inverse to the quality of the plates and wines served. The service is home style, but the staff has a good grip on their extended wine list. As you can see in the picture to your left, they use a Erlenmeryer flask as decanter, the silverware is available in water glasses, and the bar napkins can be found in good old-fashioned silver dispensers, a symbol of many diners around the world.
Last night I went there with Bobby, an old friend who had moved to Austin a year ago or so. He came to visit and I brought him to The Ten Bells for some wine and food. We chose an impressive bottle of Chinon 1989 from Olga Raffault, an organic producer, like all others present on their list. This was a Cabernet Franc from 50 year-old vines, facing south over the beautiful Loire Valley, in Savigny en Veron. Emily, our helpful and prepared wine-tender uncorked the bottle and poured some in the 500 ml "decanter" and a small amount into our tiny glasses. Contradictions are part of the charm of this place, and I have learned to love them. The wine was already open and still very vibrant in the nose, the palate, and the finish - it really didn't show 20 years of age. Herbal spices, red currant with hints of mushrooms and barnyard filled the nose, very elegant, with a complex simplicity typical of wines made by great "vignerole" that respect the vines more than favoring the cellar. While the wine was breathing we picked from the above-mentioned chalk board a spicy duck tartare, some delicate and lean lamb prosciutto, an octopus and potato salad, delicious, warm, seductive, and spicy that comfortably melted in my mouth, and finally, some trustworthy Cacciatorini. The Chinon was flowing and quickly opening (even too quickly), with persistent minerality and clearthinness. The wine was structured and ethereal and the texture built on the mature and yet still firm tannins. In the end, I'm not sure this bottle benifitted from decanting, as it had a fairly short window of vibrancy, and I had the sensation that the wine was descending by the last glass.

If you'd like to go there, I highly reccomend it - try to abide the unwritten house rules, and bring cash since no plastic is accepted.

The Ten Bells is located at 247 Broome St., between Ludlow and Orchard.

Buona Bevuta a Tutti

A volte capita...

2009-04-11T13:11:00.004-05:00

...di svegliarsi non immaginando quel che si scoprira`, a volte capita di leggere una frase che cattura la tua attenzione non sapendone ancora il motivo, a volte capita di chiedere perche` "non ha senso" e di scoprire che un'amico di vecchia data se ne andato sbattendo addosso ad una macchina. La vita e anche questo purtroppo!!!
Ciao Riccardo Riposa In Pace

Sadly I have to announce...

2009-04-01T11:27:00.005-05:00

...that my journey in the United States has come to an end.
I sold the store and I'll be moving to Australia where I was hired by Yellow Tail. I'll be their ambassador to enhance the perception of the high quality levels Yellow Tail wines had reached to the world population.
I'll be gone by the end of the month it was a pleasure talking with you all for so many years.

Buona Bevuta a Tutti and Happy April's Fool

Wine in grocery stores?

2009-03-30T12:29:00.000-05:00

... Well, why not? I actually never understood why there are so many (seemingly) idiotic rules regarding alcohol in this country. After the Prohibition Act was repealed, each state retained the right to regulate for itself most matters pertaining to alcohol. The irony is that today the country that invented the free trade market and promoted the World Trade Organization does not have free trading within its own borders. Here's a great example: if I ship a bottle of wine to Massachusetts I can be incarcerated for a class A felony.

What needs to change in order to have a fair competition between small stores and supermarkets? The first couple of issues I can see are the multiple locations - in NYS you are not allowed to participate in any way under more than one retail license. Does that apply to the new license for the grocery stores, or they will have the same rules they have now to sell beer? In that case, they will be allowed to have multiple licenses and if the current laws do not change, the retail stores certainly will not do it of their own accord. Second - are the retailers allowed to sell products other than alcohol and accessories? Current laws prohibit this, creating another huge disparity between the retail and liquor licenses. And finally, the hours of operation have to be reconsidered; stores are currently allowed to sell alcohol from 9 am to 12 pm Monday thru Saturday, and 12 Pm to 9 Pm on Sundays; grocery stores can sell beer until 3 am every day.

So far there are no answers on how these issues will be handled. Obviously the supermarket lobbies are pushing to leave the things as they are, so they'll have an overwhelming advantage, and of course, retailers associations are raising numerous questions that have thus far gone unanswered.

Personally I'm not scared of those changes. I'm actually in favor of free trading, where it's really free, and no one is ostracized because of economic reasons. I would like to have clearer (and fewer) rules, so that we all play under the same commandments. I doubt that will happen any time soon, considering the revenues that are connected to this trade. Some states act like private businesses, operating in total absence of competition, resulting in higher prices and lack of choices for the final consumer, and big revenues in the order of billions of dollars every year for the state. So now I'm curious to see what new changes will occur, knowing that there is a reason why stores like mine exist - I hope the powers that be will keep that in mind when it's time to decide what game to play.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti!!!

Choices.....

2009-03-04T22:00:00.001-05:00

That is the main job of a "vignerole"; making choices!
A while ago during a conversation with Roberto Cipresso, the subject of choices came up. That's when he told me that he wasn't so good technically speaking but he is good in making the right decisions. He also talked about intuition and sensibility.
Those 2 words are actually closely related to each other, without sensibility you can't hear your intuitive side. Roberto's sensibility allows him to "feel" the ripeness of the grape, "feel" the weather and then pick then right day to begin the harvest. One more piece to the puzzle is that, with some exceptions, there is no right or wrong decisions made during the wine-making process, the result is a difference in the wine. The different styles, philosophies and beliefs in making wine are neither right or wrong but they are just different paths to achieve different results. Let's take as an example a modern producer versus a traditional one with similar quality standards; both makers make very different decision. The traditionalist will try to express the terroir; where the modernist will try to enhance the bouquet and the structure and correcting the genetic faults of the grape itself. In the case of Sangiovese a modernist will produce wines that are approachable while young with silkier texture and a round palate. Whereas, the traditionalist's wine will result in a more tannic, closed and austere version. Now personally, I tend to like more challenging wines so I'm more of an old world guy. But, that does not mean that the modernist have it all wrong. Actually, they just have a different vision of what wine should be; I obviously am not talking about adulterated wines, that in my opinion, are at the same level as the worst processed food. These kind of wines follow a different path and the objective is to create a flavor based on marketing studies and chemical formulas. There is a certain path that wine drinkers walk throughout their life. Most begin with sweeter, fruit forward and jammy wines and progress to seaking out tannins, acid and dry ones. Similar to what happens with food as a kid; starting with sweets and candy and moving toward craving salt. In wine-making this path is filled with crossroads; that require many choices. When Roberto was talking about his intuition he meant that that skill helps him to make a choice from a different prospective. It's a hard concept to explain, but, with experience and much repitition, it is possible to reach a deeper level of understanding about the grapes and the process. Meaning that you'll decipher more information that helps in making those challenging decisions. When I walk the vineyards with any winemaker, the ritual of touching, looking and tasting, by eating some grains was common. Now, although I could get a sense of the maturation from eating the grapes, they were able to get information about past, present and possibly future problems they have, had or will have. All this information will help to then make decisions; like when to pick, how long should the wine be left to macerate with the skins, should the the temperature be controlled during the fermentation, were it should be aged; stainless steel vats or wood barrel, what size and for how long...

Is an intense job especially during the harvest time being that the wrong decision during that particular period could end up in the loss of a valuable section if not the entire crop. A typical example is when you are a few days away from a perfect balance, with an even maturation of the different components of the grape. Then rain is predicted within a day or two, now if you wait and it does not rain you win, losing will have disastrous effect on the grapes. Do you want an example on how disastrous the wrong weather at the wrong time could be? Think of 1996 in Tuscany, one of the worst years; now up to mid August 1996 was considered a perfect year, balanced with the right amount of sun and rain up until mid August then the weather turned and started to rain for weeks lowering significally the quality of the crop. Hopefully this helped you understand what is behind a bottle of wine, and also to demostrate how complex of a matter wine making is and where the grape is just one of the many factor that have to come together to produce the God's nectar. So complex that it's impossible to identify the best wine or the favorite ones. Like a winemaker you should have options more then a set favorite.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti!!!

3 Bicchieri In Los Angeles Breaking News

2009-03-02T15:22:00.009-05:00

It looks like this year in the Los Angeles Gambero Rosso kermesse the 3 Bicchieri are going to be sadly empty due to a snow storm that held the wines somewhere in the USA...anonymous sources stated that the wine will eventually show up by 4:30 Pm Pacific Time...more breaking news and maybe some picture from the West Coast to follow...

... the wines finally arrived at 7 Pm only problem they were in very bad shape being that after a trip a wine should rest for few days...What a disaster!!!

Sorry for the silence

2009-02-06T13:42:00.013-05:00

It's not because I'm lazy or I'm drinking less, but lately I am having a hard time finding a subject. Is this whats called writers block? Most likely yes!!! So what should I talk about during a bad case of writer block??? What about a nice dinner...
Last week it was my sister's birthday and I decided to get some Joe's Stone Crab shipped from Miami, I've already talked about those fabulous claws in the past, but I like to reiterate the fact that I love the next day delivery of fresh crab to my door.
Along with those succulent claws we had 3 different kinds of oysters that my sister picked at Citarella. So far, the best venue I found, along with Dean and Deluca for fresh oysters. But, I'm open to suggestions as well if you have any? We also enjoyed some Scottish smoked salmon from Russ and Daughters. It wasn't a real party, Piers and his girlfriend were part of it and Danilo joined us a little later, but it was more an excuse, to enjoy some great seafood, wine and company. One way to think less about your personal problems become inebriated with life. I was in charge of cracking the claws and shucking the oysters. Piers tried a couple with mixed results. So I put him in charge of opening the wines...yes right the wines. Ok! Let me just say that we might have gone overboard a little with the quantity. But sometimes it is better to have more then to run out, right? Going back to the God's nectar, I brought home a Magnum of Quintarelli Bianco Secco Ca del Merlo 2005 and a bottle of Villa Rinaldi Dolce di Creme` 1998, we loved it so much at the last dinner that I proposed an encore.
Piers participate with a bottle each of Percarlo 1998 and 1999 and we had to open a great bottle of Billecart Salmon Rose Non Vintage. Needless to say there is nothing better to put you in a great mood then some pink bubbles. The Billecart always surprises me for the elegance and intensity of the acidity, as soon as we popped the cork there were flavors that indicated a little age, so we looked and that bottle was disgorged in 2001, amazing!!! While sipping Champagne, shucking oyster and cracking stone crab claws I thought that life does not get much better than this! Maybe it could, but this is pretty damn good...after getting everything ready on the table we decided not to follow a particular order so I set 2 glasses one for the Quintarelli and the other for the Percarlo, it was interesting to see how going back and forth from red to white will work with the food. The Quintarelli had an evolution that surprises all of us; it started with elegance and a balanced acidity with flowers and a little citrus flavor. After a few hours it almost tasted like a Burgundy Grand Cru filled with tropical fruit, citrus and minerality. The wine was so impressive that Piers, a fervid believer that Italians can't make white wines, changed his opinion. It was an experience to be replayed having a small vertical of Percarlo, 1998 was rated by critics as slightly worse then 1999. Well we didn't have that impression; both Piers and I agreed on the fact the 1998 was drinking much better, it tasted much more traditional than the '99, it had more length and more depth, the '99 oak still hadn't integrated with the wine and was still a bit predominant. In favor of the 1999 I must say that the wine opened up with more time and knowing how much time the Percarlo needs to come around I'm curious to try it again in a year from now. After honoring the food and the wine it was time for dessert, I don't really have a sweet tooth, but I love the Lady M's mille crepes, a highly addictive and dangerous cake, a truly decadent sweet treat that I paired with the Villa Rinaldi Dolce di Creme, a sparkling desert wine made of Garganega grape, that was the perfect match with the dessert. Another great evening was about to end, and the empty "corpses" left on the table was a clear sign of it. We had finished everything on the table and went to sleep happy, satisfied and fairly inebriated by the events...

Buona Bevuta a Tutti

In Vino...

2009-01-28T09:05:00.008-05:00

Usually that phrase ends with veritas and is Latin for 'in wine there is the truth.' The Romans who coined those words, used to use the god's nectar like a truth serum.
As human beings, even after a couple thousand years, we still rely on a glass of wine for several healing reasons. Scientifically proven to be good for your health, in moderation, wine has also an effect on the soul. If you believe in the existence of it. The Romans already realized that one of the effects of the fermented must was to lower the inhibitions of an individual and put them in a state of relaxation. Thus, leading to being comfortable and speaking truthfully. So to connect to my previous post, I will say that probably in a period like this people will naturally seek some comfort in a bottle of wine more frequently. Recently I had quite a few bottles of really good wine, my friends and I are opening good vintages, Champagne is flowing in glasses and some of those special bottles hidden in the back of the cellar were popped. Other than the physical pleasure of tasting the flavors, I had emotions!!! I felt joy, love, excitement and shared moments. I traveled trough time and space and I lived the moment. Being inebriated, which I believe is different than being drunk, has lead to inspiration for many writers and artist for thousand years. Virgil loved his wine, sipped under the tree, while asking his muse for an idea, and the same emotions is what I long for in a bottle of wine. Now I don't think all wine is capable of that, I believe good wine is capable to inspire an emotions, that is actually one of the parameters that need to be satisfied when I judge a wine. For example, I opened up a bottle of Colin Delenger Santennay Ville Vignes 2002 with Edoardo, an old friend that is getting the wine collector virus, it was perfect, great spice, in the nose the ethereal notes of violet and roses where dancing in the nostril, filling the brain with magnificent images, the red liquid almost massaged the spine while descending the esophagus like a small electric charge passing through the discs. Not many wines give that kind of emotion and definitely not always the same one, it depends on the situation, the state of mind, the weather and every external factor that interacts with our life. In a way that's the beauty of wine, every bottle, even from the same wine same year from the same case has a different story to tell you and you are a different listener as well. You have to admit that is a level of complexity that not many recreational drinks have. Emotion, inspiration, soul soothing that's what wine should be about; as it has been in our history as human being.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

The State of NY feels I can close the business for a few days

2009-01-23T12:24:00.005-05:00

That is the answer I got from the Juror office this morning when I called to see what option a sole proprietor and single worker of a business has!!!
When I said to the gentleman on the other side of the phone that closing for few days will actually put the business in jeopardy considering the economic slump. I couldn't believe his answer when his suggestion was; "well if you feel that the state of the economy is so bad why don't you just quit now?"

I felt like I had been slapped in the face! I am left speechless with declining sales and increasing expenses. My property taxes raised by more then 50% from last year like every other expense related to the business. So, I would like to know why exactly the State of New York feels that I can close my shop for few days!

Buona Bevuta a Tutti!!!

Do People Drink More During a Recession?

2009-01-17T14:54:00.010-05:00

I have heard it many time in the past few months and to tell the truth I don't know if it is an urban myth or there is some truth to it. In my experience people in general have been spending less for wine. However, I have been selling more or less the same amount of bottles as prior years. The big spenders are more rare and my private clientèle is a bit shyer. The axiom bad financial times and more drinking does not convince me completely. The only benefit for the wine retailers is that probably now the trend is to save money; so the first thing people cut is eating out in restaurants. Thus, the retailer's of wine and food, sales should go up. I did see that happening to a certain extend but that benefit has been leveled by the drop of the average bottle price. The so called 'big spenders' probably are not acquiring as many bottles as in past years, also because their cellars are most likely filled. So in such a time they are drinking what they have put away. This is what I find myself doing as well, drinking wines from my cellar, the weird part is that I am opening more great bottles than in the past. It's almost like Nero fiddling while Rome was burning down. I'm drinking Grand Crus while the world financially melts down. Maybe this is because in times like this, the trust in the future is kind of low, so that quote 'life is to short' is more valuable. Or is it just a reaction of a very bad economic slump, drinking good bottles is somewhat a reassurance that life is not that bad? Among my friends I see that happening, Piers is taking out of the cellar the good stuff, Michael is drinking vintage Brunello like there is no tomorrow and I'm sharing more great bottles like I never have before with my love. Are we just reacting in a foolish way to a critical period? Who knows but I would like to hear your opinions on this, so for now and now more then ever...
Buona Bevuta a Tutti!!!!

Time and Timing

2008-12-29T08:30:00.001-05:00

Like everything else in life time and timing are two key factors to succeed in every field, meaning that all the qualities and skills in the world might be not enough to reach a goal if the timing is off. With the nectar of the gods time and timing is even more critical factor. Let's start with time; slow pace is what vines requires, from the moment you plant a vine it will take at least 4 years for the plant to be able to produce enough complex grapes to have a good wine, but it will take several decades in order to have grapes complex enough to produce a great wine, with time in fact the vine's roots will crawl down in to the earth and as exponentially the deeper they go the more complex the grape will get. Making a wine takes time, from the fermentation to being release to the market, some wineries will age their wines in their cellars for a decade, like Kalin cellars or Giuseppe Quintarelli (his Amarone Riserva is aged for 13 years). After being release to the market some wines are still not ready and will need several more decades of aging in the consumer hands (a clear example are the 2005 Burgundy). Timing is also essential in life as well as for wine, like in life there is not a magical formula that will teach you about timing and like in life good timing comes with intuition supported by experience. Famous is the "dumb" period in Burgundies a window where the wine will close without any apparent reason and can last for few years, also Chateaunef du Pape has timing issues, either you drink it young or you'll have to wait for a decade. Wrong timing is also when you'll open a bottle in the wrong conditions; an Amarone is best enjoyed when outside temperature is low, opening a 16% plus wine in the middle of August it might not be a good idea. Probably the only wines that are timing free are the sparklers, good with virtually any food, any weather, any occasions and reasons or any celebration!!!
Talking about that I guess this is going to be the right time to wish you a great 2009...
Buona Bevuta a Tutti!!!

Happy Holidays!!!

2008-12-16T20:48:00.002-05:00

It has been very hectic here at De Vino and that's why I haven't post lately, I promise you I'll be back on schedule as soon the holidays will be over.
Meanwhile I like to extend the best wishes for a great Holidays Season and a wonderful New Year to all of you.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Segni

2008-11-23T10:33:00.014-05:00

Back in what seems like another life, I briefly touched the winemaking world when I got involved in starting a winery in Sicily, the biggest island in the Mediterranean sea. That experience was fairly brief, but it did have a few added bonuses, one of which was a pact between Roberto Cipresso and I to make a wine together. Now, after 5 years, that pact will be honored - Segni is about to be bottled.
Let's go back to almost a year ago when Roberto came to New York with 12 small plastic bottles (much easier to transport) filled with different red wines from different vineyards around the boot. That day, we decided what the wine would be composed of. Roberto told me that he knew already what is going to be but he wanted to see what I thought before telling me. After going back and forth tasting through, two bottles stood out; a Syrah from Umbria and an Aglianico from Basilicata. We started then to blend out of the plastic bottles, higher percentage of Syrah, then more Aglianico or in equal parts and with some Montepulciano. In the past, I have done many barrel tastings in various wineries, and one in particular gave the sense of the importance of blending, even if the wine is produced from a single varietal. A clear example is the Fattoria Il Carnasciale, which I visited a couple of times. They grow just one grape - the "Caberlot" - and they have different parcels of land at various altitudes and exposures. In the cellar, all the parcels are vinified separately in barriques and every cask is like an instrument, with the wine maker as the director that needs to assemble the orchestra in order to create a sublime concert. And of course, that's exactly what happened we opened a bottle of Il Caberlot after tasting through the barrels. This time was a little different, therefore exciting, since my role changed from passive taster and appreciator of the final music, to active participant, all the way down to the choice of the instruments. So after trying in the store and then again last September in Montalcino at Roberto's cellars, the final blend was decided and the wine is about to be bottled... and soon we will be able to hear the sound of it. The final blend will be Aglianico and Syrah vinified separately:
the Aglianico comes from 44 year old vines situated in Barile (Basilicata), trained on a guyot system with a density of 10,500 plants per Hectare, at 480 meters above sea level. The vines produced 700 gr each and the grapes were harvested in the second week of October 2007. The fermentation lasted 10 days and it was carried out in stainless steel tank. The wine was then aged for 12 months in French oak barrels.
The Syrah came from 7 year old vines, situated in Orvieto (Umbria), and trained in "Cordone Speronato" system with a density of 7800 plants per hectare at 300 meters above sea level. The vines produced 500 gr each and the grapes were harvested at the end of September 2007. The fermentation lasted 10 days and it was carried out in stainless steel tanks. The wine was then aged for 12 months in French oak barrels. There will be 400 bottles and 100 magnums of total production. These two vineyards produce wines possessing big character that could be bottled as single grape, and it was almost a revelation to see how these two vineyards could compliment each other, enhancing the terroir-driven connotations. From the last barrel tasting, the wine was layered with fruits, minerality and salinity, with sweet, firm tannins and a lingering note of dark berries and hints of violet. In January, I will probably open a sample bottle and see how much more time the wine will need to sit in bottle.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti!!!

Why did you choose that wine?

2008-11-16T10:00:00.009-05:00

Over time, young men come to know the rule that states, plain and simple: the old guys know the exceptions. This apparently simple phrase has opened up a new horizon in my wine education; I remember the general pairing rules that I learned as kid were - red for meat and white for fish, no artichoke or fennel, and beware of lemon... and caviar goes with vodka. Pretty straight forward, but maybe a little TOO straight forward. One thing I've learned is that exceptions confirm the rule... so where are the exceptions in the pairing world? That is what I've learned with time and casual pairings.
After many bad pairings and few lucky ones, I can still remember a great one from when I was 18 (in Italy we do not have age limits for alcohol - Mom and Dad take care of that) in a small but great restaurant in the Porto Ercole called Bacco, in Toscana. The pairing placed an Alsatian Gewürztraminer next to Mediterranean lobsters, and it was divine. To tell the truth, I learned that combination from my father, an Alsatian wine lover who, along with my uncle Riccardo, used to ravage the vineyards, filling the car with cases of wine at least once per year. They were the ones who told me about crustaceans and aromatic wines.
So, I was saying - after many years I learned slowly but surely the exceptions, the grey areas, the fine line of pairing where you can play with your creativity. Ironically, I was also learning that as a person, although I didn't leave the black and white comfortable ground in my life for few more years. Inside, I had an uneasy feeling of the fear of the new. So I carried on, holding on to my beliefs until I was ready to fly solo. A big help during that time came once again from Luciano AKA Il Frasca, a wonderful friend. When I was in charge of Il Bagatto's wine lists, we had a long conversation about pairing red wines with fish - a conversation that, like a fever, entered my soul and grwe strong with time.
Eric Asimov, in his blog The Pour wrote:
"Twenty years ago – back when critics used to talk of the wine “marrying’’ the food — I used to take this business of pairing foods and wines more seriously than I do now. I used to try for precise matches, carefully analyzing the characteristics of the food and conjuring up wines that offered sufficient compatibility, or contrastability, to achieve semi-perfection. But I tired of this approach. Or more precisely, it bored me out of my mind. My eyes still glaze over when I read some treatise outlining the supposed principles of food and wine pairing. I prefer a far more casual, instinctive approach."
I believe, judging from Eric's sentiments, that he got the same fever I did. He is right about the instinct, which is also supported by years of experience. You don't ask why you choose something anymore, you don't run the rules in your head, but instead you start to FEEL the wine - you have a sip and the pair will materialized in your mind... you think of an occasion and the bottle unveil like magic before your eyes. It's happened many times in my fairly short life with an increasing average as I grow, and I really spent a lot of time analyzing the change. But last Monday, my thinking began to shift. I was having a great lunch at Balthazar (definitely among my top 3 places in New York) with S. and ordered a 1990 Bourgogne Rouge 1er cru (sorry, I didn't take pictures, and I forgot the name:) with "Le Grand": two stories of delicious seafood, including oysters and other delicious raw delicacies.
So S. asks me "have you had this wine before?"
"Nope," I said. "I actually like to pick things I haven't tried before when I trust the list."
Then, innocently she asked "so why did you choose this wine?", and I stumbled a bit on my answer. I thought, well... I knew the plate, because I had had it many times before, and I did experience red wine with oysters (read here). I had also had a heavier wine like the Marion Cabernet Sauvignon with mackerel, and that worked great, but none of those thoughts actually answered her question. So I smiled and said, "I don't know, but it worked, right?!!!"
And indeed, the Pinot Noir was integrating well with everything we had in front of us, including the company.
Then I read the Asimov article, and realized that I followed my intuition, just like I've been following it for quite some time now. I don't have a scholastic approach to wine - I just let the wine or the wine list talk to me, more then trying to talk to it. Yes... a good wine list will talk to you, and allow you to freely choose without preconceptions... and yes, a wine will talk to you about his home, the year, the problems and the good parts of it, the stressful periods and the happy ones and whatever else may have happened during its life, until the moment you drink it. Once you learned how to listen, I believe the wine will actually call to you, wherever the bottle is... in your cellar, in a shop or written on a list.
I guess what I'm trying to say here is that instead of just tasting a wine and use your knowlege to formulate a judgment, it might be more useful sit back drink the wine and feel what it has to say to you. Am I being too romantic??? Maybe. But what actually is the essence of wine, other than a never ending romantic story?

Buona Bevuta a Tutti!!!

Tasting At The Times.

2008-11-09T12:16:00.005-05:00

Lately the phone calls at the store have been bringing a fair amount of good news. Perhaps one of the best came a few weeks ago from Eric Asimov, the chief wine critic of the New York Times, bearing an invitation to be part of his panel to taste some Montepulciano d'Abruzzo.
This was my second time on a tasting panel at The Times, and needless to say, I consider that a great honor. I would once again go into Renzo Piano's creation to sit among the best palates in the world, at the headquarters of one of the nation's most read newspapers. I got there a bit early, and I was welcomed by Eric, who took me to his desk and started to talk about Camillieri, the author of "Il Commissario Montalbano," a series of books based on the stories of a Sicilian police inspector in a small town called Vigata. I'm a big fan of Camilleri's work, so much so that I've read all of the Montalbano books and I think he is simply a brilliant writer - probably the best we've had in Italy in the past century. The next topic was, of course, wine. We exchanged some opinions on 2006 Burgundies, and the scoop is that we both agreed on the notion that 2005 was not significantly better than 2006, though the prices are suggesting otherwise. Then, it was time to get upstairs to the tasting room, where the table was already covered with glasses filled with Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. Eric, of course, did a great job on describing the tasting and the results, and you can also hear my opinions on the tasting. (click here to read the article) For this post, however, I will just focus on some thoughts about this fairly simple grape.
Like most of the Italian red grapes, Montepulciano's origins date back to the Greeks. But only since the 17th century has it been known as Montepulciano - the name has been contended between the Toscani and the Abruzzesi since then. The confusion started because of the many similarities, both organic and morphological qualities of the wines produced in Montepulciano (Tuscany) and the ones produced in Abruzzo. It was later discovered that the grape Montepulciano Primutico, grown in south of Tuscany, was in fact Prugnolo Gentile, a clone of the Sangiovese not related to the Montepulciano grapes. Going back several centuries, we find that the wine produced in Aptruzi (old name of the Abruzzi region) fed the Cartago Commander of Hannibal's army, and animals during the long-lasting Roman siege. The grape itself is quite simply, monochromatic. Montepulciano translates itself in cherry flavors - most other layers in the wine come from the terroir and/or the vinification methods. It is commonly used in "Purezza" (100%), or in blends. It is also a fairly adaptable vine, planted in most of the Italian regions. The wines are often very inexpensive and mass produced; wineries like D'Angelo and Zonin are a clear example, but Montepulciano also reaches the inner sanctum of the best Italian wines, especially when we are talking about Pepe and Valentini, the two iconic producers of the region. For some, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo could become the king grape of Italy dethroning the Sangiovese. In my opinion, we are still pretty far from that happening - but if go back with my memory to when I opened an Emidio Pepe 1980 a couple of years ago, I can see the reason why some winemakers think that way.
I would like to thank Eric Asimov for inviting me, Bernard Kirsch for choosing the wines for us and Florence Fabricant for being a great host at the panel tasting.

Heavy Metals Found In Most of European Wines

2008-11-01T15:47:00.004-05:00

Thanks to Eric Porres's Blog NY Grapes, I learned that a study of biomolecular scientists Declan P. Naughton, PhD, and Andrea Petroczi of the Kingston University in London indicates that there are hazardous concentration of heavy metals in wines coming from the old world. The good news are that Italian Brazilian and Argentinian wines are safe to drink. Here are the list of the countries with the worst THQ (target hazard quotients) score:

Hungary
Slovakia
France
Austria
Spain
Germany
Portugal
Greece
Czech Republic
Jordan
Macedonia
Serbia

Hungary and Slovakia had maximum potential THQ values over 350. France, Austria, Spain, Germany, and Portugal -- nations that import large quantities of wine to the U.S. -- had maximum potential THQ values over 100.

You can read the full article on MD Web HERE

Comte Liger Belair

2008-10-25T18:05:00.014-05:00

In the ways of wine, it has been a good period lately - I guess the summer is over, so it is getting colder, and easier to open some cellar jewels. But before I get into that, I'd like to introduce Susan, a wonderful woman with whom I am glad to have shared some great time and obviously some of God's nectar with recently. Now, the wines - let's start with Comte Liger Belair Vosne Romanee. This micro-winery has a long history in Burgogne; the Liger-Belair family settled in Vosne when Louis Liger-Belair, a Napoleonic general, acquired the Chateau of Vosne in 1815. When the Comte Louis-Charles died, the family’s holdings covered more than sixty hectares principally in the Côte de Nuits, with ownership of some of France’s most prestigious appellations: the monopolies of La Romanée, La Tâche, La Grande Rue, a large portion of Malconsorts, parcels of Chaumes, Reignots, and Suchots in Vosne Romanée, Saint Georges and Vaucrains in Nuits St. Georges, Clos Vougeot and Cras in Vougeot, Chambolle, Morey, as well as Chambertin. In addition, they also held a domaine of fifteen hectares at Fleurie in Beaujolais. In 1933, because of the French inheritance laws and the will of most of Comte Liger's sons, the domaine was auction off entirely. In 2000, Louis Michel created his own ,buying back 1.5 hectares of vineyards in Vosne-Romanée La Colombière, Clos du Château, 1er Cru Les Chaumes. In 2002 he recovered another 1.6 hectares and today he mananages 8.7 hectares of vines in Vosne-Romanée, Nuits St. Georges, and Flagey Echezeaux. I first tried Liger wines at a Liz Willette tasting where I had the pleasure to meet Becky Wessman and her husband Russell. A small taste just gave an idea of what this wine can express, so after receiving few cases of both Vosnee Romanee and Nuits St. Georges 1er cru Les Cras, I shared the Vosnee Romanee 2006 with Piers. We open it at the store and drank it throughout the course of the evening (an hour and a half more or less) without food. These vines are 40 to 60 years old, planted in clay and limestone soil and merely 2600 bottles were labeled in 2006. I had the Nuits St. Georges a week later, this time at the store with Susan, and a decanter to help the wine along. The vines of this 1er cru are 70 years old, and they lay on fine clay soil that covers a limestone base. Fewer than 1600 bottles were produced in 2006.
Both wines were showing, although they were very young, a great complexity. Layers of flowers intersecting with mild wild strawberry scents were hitting the nose and the palate, firm and sweet tannins made for a long finish. The Les Cras was more focused and elegant, showing the age of the plants through a velvet texture with a touch of vanilla that disappeared after 20 minutes or so. Spicier and with great herbal complexity, this was probably the best 1er cru I have tried so far.

Buona Bevuta a Tutti

A Special Bottle

2008-10-04T16:39:00.010-05:00

Every once in a while, an ordinary day can turn, just for a moment, into an extraordinary one. Picture this: a sunny and fresh Thursday afternoon during the Jewish holiday (a notoriously slow period for business), and the biggest economic crash in years - not many bottles were leaving the store, and I wasn't running around suggesting a white for sushi or a red for a gift. Although I can't be insensitive to what is happening in world right now, I actually like the fact that things are slowing down a bit, that I have time to think, and a reason (a very good one I will add) to read the signs and plan strategies for the future. Conclusively, I think New York, after the storm has passed, will be a better city. Sorry for the digression. - So this day, this slow and contemplative day, was dragging itself along aimlessly, when all of a sudden, a call from a blocked number on my cell started to flip things around. That call created an excuse to give a different meaning to an uneventful day. As it often happens, you don't create a special situation to open a special bottle, but it is the chance occurrence of that situation that will suggest what to open, and last night suggested that it was time to open a bottle of Billecart-Salmon Cuvee Elisabeth Salmon Rose` 1998.
A word or two about Billecart-Salmon: the maison was founded in 1818 by Francois and Elisabeth Billecart, and today the seventh generation of their family is working the estate that covers about 30 hectares of land and source grapes from 110 hectares of 35 single crus. The Cuvee Elisabeth was first bottled in 1988, is an even blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, vinified white. Some Pinot Noir from Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, vinified as red wine, is added to create the rose. I had never tried the '98, and my guest was the perfect fit for the task. We both put our noses in the glass and glanced at each other right after with a mixture of surprise and satisfied expressions on our faces then it was time for the palate to give an assessment. For a second the world disappeared around me and all I could see was the salmon color of the glass while I was about to ingest some of that nectar. A million bubbles started to gently tingle my mouth while several layers of fresh red berries, light violet and candied lemon skin were dancing between the top of throe and the back of the nose. Amazing!
The champagne was served at 9 Celsius degrees and I left the bottle in a bucket on top of the ice with just enough glass in contact with the ice to keep the temperature constant, drinking a Champagne like this one too cold is a sin. After I came back to earth, I felt like the first time you kiss somebody you care, I started to notice the firm acidity and other signs of youth, with time the flavors became more focused, it was incredible how powerful and yet elegant the wine was, like a beautiful, sexy and sophisticated lady...yes because a wine is not just about the flavors you fell but is mostly about the emotions you get from it, the little chill down the neck when the fine bubbles massages your palate, the time and space traveling while having it in your mouth, and the reminiscence of what it was in the finish tempting you for more until sadly you pick the bottle up and is empty. One thing tough if close my eyes now I can still taste it on my lips!!!
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Montevertine Fest

2008-09-27T15:55:00.010-05:00

Thanks to Alessandro Lunardi, a long-time friend through the wine world, I recently had the opportunity to taste a vertical of Pergole Torte from 1983 to 2001. Alessandro was kind enough to invite me to his house on Saturday to crack open several bottles of one of the wines that changed the history of all Italian wines.
For the occasion, I put a sign on the store door announcing that it would be closed for the following hour or so, then I jumped on my Vespa and in the London-like rain, rode to Varick where Alessandro has a beautiful loft. Elizabeth, Alessandro's wife, welcomed me and I got my precious goblet and started to stare at all the labels. Alberto Manfredi is the artist that creates a different painting for every new vintage of the Montevertine monster's label, it is actually fun for vinophiles to try to call the year just by looking at the label. The very first time I tried this 100% Sangiovese from Radda in Chianti was almost a decade ago. I was with my friend Frasca, while helping to prune a part of a friends of him woods. Yes you heard right - we drank a case of 1993 Le Pergole Torte in the middle of the woods. And to tell the truth we didn't even have glasses so we drank "contadino" style - directly from the bottle. It was an amazing experience - the only problem was that after a while it became very difficult to use the scissors without the risk of chopping off pieces of fingers with the branches.
Going back to the veritable vertical Sangiovese orgy: this is a list of the wines Alessandro served:
Le Pergole Torte 2001
Le Pergole Torte 1999
Le Pergole Torte 1998 magnum
Le Pergole Torte 1997
Le Pergole Torte 1993
Le Pergole Torte 1992
Le Pergole Torte 1990
Le Pergole Torte 1988 12-Liter
Le Pergole Torte 1987 magnum
Il Cannaio 1997
Il Sodaccio 1987
Montevertine Riserva 1990
Montevertine 1983
Overall, the wines were in spectacular condition. Some were showing some age signs, mushroom flavors and pale color, but some others were absolutely fantastic. In particular, the Il Sodaccio 1987, along with Le Pergole Torte 1988 and 1995 had something more than the others.
I'd like to say something about the vintages, especially for the critics; 1985 for the so-called Supertuscans was an excellent year (famous is the 1985 Sassicaia, the "pinnacle wine of its generation"). In reality, 1985 didn't have the aging potential of the 1988 or the 1995 which have been forgotten by the media and the critics. I remember when the 1995 Brunello were released in 1999. They were tight, tannic, bitter and closed, which is probably why most of the critics didn't made much of the year. In reality the vintage was spectacular... as a matter of fact, the 1995 Le Pergole Torte was showing what Tuscan Sangiovese is really all about; layers and layers of cherry, leather and big old barrel spice. The acidity was still bright, and there were mature tannins that were still biting, and exceptional. The 1988 was somehow similar, more developed than the 95 but still very vibrant and youthful. The cherry on the top of it all, so to speak, was watching Klaus (up to 2005, he was responsible for the estate) open up the Salmanazar and pouring it very carefully into several different decanters, making sure that the sediment didn't stir from the bottom of the bottle.
Il Cannaio 1997 was also in spectacular condition. This wine was made exclusively for Giorgio Pinchiorri, owner of the Enoteca Pinchiorri, which is one of the few 3 star Michelin Italian restaurants.
The time I had was, as it was always destined to be, sadly finished, and I had to leave the party to go back to the store. I had a big smile on my face and a renewed love toward one of the wines that made history in Italy, and all over the world. I would like to thank Alessandro and Elizabeth for being kind enough to invite me into their house and share so many great bottles.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti.

Good Bye Paul

2008-09-27T09:40:00.005-05:00

Starting young Paul Newman was my idol, he had all the qualities and the faults I liked to have as an adult.
Born in Shaker Heights Ohio, he was color blind, served in the navy during WWII, his career started in 1955 as an actor and ended in 2005 as producer, always surrounded by powerful cars, tempting women, dangerous thrills, completed by fine taste that never spilled into opulence or excessive, yet always sober and elegant; I believe he lived a full life and died content of it.
My condolences to his family and friends.
Today is also Google 10th birthday.
Tanti Auguri.

I know this subject is not concerning wine...

2008-09-24T18:07:00.004-05:00

...but I have to ask something about the proposal for 800 plus millions dollar aid for Wall Street.
I like to know what the public (AKA us tax payers) will get back from this, is the government going to claim ownership of the companies that will receive the grants? Are we going to make sure that what happen will be impossible to recreate again? Is the financial aid a loan? If yes how much is going to be the interests on the loan? If I rack up a huge amount of debts is the government going to help me as well? Does money grow on trees? Last but not least where is the government taking the money from, if indeed money don't grow on trees? Are we lending money? Or are we printing money? If we are lending at what rate we are doing so and how many decades we are going to be paying for? And if we are printing how much the inflation rate will grow? I wonder if any of you has some answers, meanwhile I'll be drowning my sorrows with a great bottle of Barolo (Pian Polvere Soprano Bussia 1999 Riserva)
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Monday Dinner

2008-09-17T13:11:00.012-05:00

Monday is my only day off during the week, so I use it to get together with friends and make new ones, at a more decent hour than I am usually able (I close late in the evening every other day of the week). This past Monday was a little different because my sister Beatrice was behind the pots and pans and the guests were all very serious wine lovers and experts. It was also my first opportunity to meet in person with Alice Feiring (up until Monday, we just exchanged emails). Before I continue with my chronicles of the evening, I have to apologize for the absence of any pictures - I was too busy with pouring wine, opening oysters and bringing food to the table. The guests arrived around 8:00 with their bottles; Mark and his wife Carol brought two of the Prince Fiorano wines, the Malvasia 1986 and the Semillion 1990, plus a bottle that he wanted us to be tasted blind. Then Luigi showed up with an Isole Olena Oreno 2003, Piers, the Francophile, arrived with Daniel Rion Echezeau Grand Cru 2000 and a Dauvissat Chablis Les Clos 1998, then Alice with a biodynamic Jura Puffeney Arbois Poulsard 2005. Susan also showed up with a red and a white from Francois Chidaine' Clos du Breuil and Descombes Morgon Cru Beaujolais 2005. My brother in law, Julio, opened a Montevertine Le Pergole Torte 1997, and I uncorked a Refosco 1988 from Ronchi di Cialla. The guests were welcomed with some refreshing bubbles - the Godme 1999 Millesime Grand Cru. This is a small grower that gave me a lot of satisfaction on several different occasions, and it was enjoyed with some fresh oysters, carefully shucked by yours truly. I don't know why, but in addition to loving the taste and texture of oyster, but I also find pleasure in opening them up. The final aperitif was a plate of some great cheeses; Gorgonzola dolce with a little honey, some Castelrosso and a deliciously stinky Taleggio with a cream of "Amarene" (Sour Cherries), which my sister selected with the cheese monger Luigi Di Palo earlier. After sipping on champagne, we started to check the condition of the wines before we sat down. Luckily, we had no corked bottles, but one funky one (unfortunately the Fiorano Semillon wasn't in great shape - the oxidation had killed most of the bouquet) but considering the age of some of the wines we were very fortunate indeed. The dinner didn't have a theme, so I decided to just leave all the bottles on the table and set up the guests with 2 glasses. I kind of liked the lack of "discipline," leaving space to experiment with the same dish and several different wines. A big terracotta plate of pasta with tomatoes, fried eggplant and ricotta salata, a Sicilian specialty, was the first course - we started right in with the drinking as well. As I said, there was no order so I went back and forth with the same wines for the course of the entire dinner. I found the reds better fitted to the pasta; I tried the Jura first, a young Pinot Noir with very pale color, elegant and minerally. It was a bit closed, and it will benefit with some more aging in the bottle, like it benefitted from breathing in the bottle after opening. Then I tried Susan's Cru Beaujolais, which was also a good pair with the pasta - medium bodied with some fresh berries and a violet bouquet, some minerality and firm acidity. While time was passing by, and I was attacking my second plate of the delicious first course, the wines were getting better. My next choice was my Refosco, which had been opened for several hours at that point. It was incredibly young, still very vibrant with charming red berry flavors and hints of herbal spice (somewhere in between oregano and rosemary). There were no signs of aging whatsoever, which is pretty impressive for a 20 year old wine. Oreno was next - it was an 03, so a modern wine in a hot year, well done but probably lacking in complexity compared to the others. Piers's Echezeau was also from a hot year but the wine was showing layers of violet and minerality, the tone of the bouquet gave hints of the year with some ripe scents around the nose and in parts of the palate as well. Last but not least was the Le Pergole Torte 1997. Leather and cherry perfumes were bursting out of the glass and in the palate those same flavors were supported by some mature tannins, gaining in lenght and depth. Finally it was the secret bottle's turn. The wine was an old friend with a totally different attitude, a Chateau Musar 1999. None of us got the winery although Alice, Piers, Luigi and myself had had the Musar many times in past vintages. They must have changed something in the way they make wine because it didn't have any of the old characteristics that made Musar special, to tell the truth this more polished by-the-book version was not as interesting as the older ones, and that was also Piers and Alice perception. I'm just wondering why they changed - could it be because they now want to please the big critics? I don't really know but it was a bit of a disappointment. The second course consisted of 2 whole red snappers, roasted in the oven with olive oil, wine, oregano and garlic, and as side dishes we had a wonderful and tasty potato salad and some green sald with olive oil and vinegar dressing. As the night was progressing, the focus of the conversations shifted from the wine itself to the different methodologies to vinifying must. We focused on some shady practices of some producers involved in this business, and briefly talked about Mr. Parker (his wine majesty was mention when we tasted the Musar). One thing Alice said about him (which I thought was spot-on) is that Parker is a very cultured individual that loves wines, but is blissfully ignorant when he writes about them.
Going back to the wine of the night - with the red Snapper, the whites showed their best. I first tried Susan's Chenin Blanc which was slightly sweet but minerally, with some complexity. Usually sugar residues give stronger flavors to the wine but also flatten it, making it less complex. Next was the Chablis, which was vibrant and citrusy, with strong minerality showing terroir and some tropical fruit along with lemon zest. Now a different chapter needs to be opened for the Fiorano wines. I heard a lot about the story of these wines and thanks to Mark I had the chance to drink them. As I mentioned earlier, the Semillon was not in good shape being that the oxidation had overcome most of the flavors, so I focused on the Malvasia. I tried it from its initial opening to few hours in, with a final taste while I was cleaning after everybody left. I'm a bit torn in what to say about the wine, because there were several positive aspects, but there was something lacking in the wine. Alice told me that it was lacking in acidity, but my mouth was watering from the sides, which is a sign of a lower PH. She was right though - there was something missing in the middle of the palate, the backbone of the wine was weak so the still-bright fruit did not have something to hold on to. Because of that, the Fiorano was not as complex as I thought, I'd be curious to blind taste it next to a Lopez the Heredia Rioja Riserva Blanco from the 80s.
It was a great evening where some exceptional wines were opened, and, as often happens, the wines were mirrored by the great mix of people sitting at the table, so I'd like to thank all my guests for another brilliant evening.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti.

Meet the Makers: Bruno De Conciliis Part 2

2008-09-12T21:35:00.003-05:00

Here is the second and last part of my interview with Bruno De Conciliis owner/winemaker/slave of the viticoltori De Conciliis.

G: (Laughing) However, to create less confusion, the conclusion is that [the process you described] reflects in a way your way of being and of making wine where you do express creativity, like the fact that you make so many different labels; you did innovative things like Le Traccie used to be, Gli Impulsi, and as a result of these two you came out with Antece. Therefore, on the outside it seems as if you are following a path that, in my opinion, has changed yourself and your way of making some wines in the past five years. You seem to have gone from a more stressed intervention in the cellar to an increased search for elegance and complexity, that maybe you lacked a little before that time.

B: Yes (not convinced) maybe…maybe it was an adolescent phase, an acne phase where there was the need to express the muscles and let those four hairs grow on your lip to make believe that you had a mustache. However, I don’t believe that it is this way.

My awareness has changed, and the number of parameters that I try to follow during vinification has increase; my capacity to drink wine and read it has improved. The common trait certainly is this chaotic dimension.

You’ve been in my cellar.

Sometimes, I dream a Teutonic cellar where everything is in order, precise, organized and clean, some other times I say that I would not feel at home in a place like that…

G: You would disorganize it again.

B: Yes, yes! Heraclitus’s notion that from chaos originates creativity…

G: You embraced it as your own.

B: Or let’s say it is my karma. Certainly, when it comes to the qualitative growth of my wines, in some cases this applies and in others it needs to be verified through the time-length. Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to taste a vertical of all my Zero and Naima vintages with Sandro Sangiorgi from Porthos. It was very interesting to go back to the ’98 and the ’99 vintages. I found them both very…

The 1998 was definitely a minor vintage, due to weather conditions of that year. I had to harvest much earlier than I usually do because of the frequent precipitations that took place in September. While the ’99 was a really cool year, I could anticipate a positive evolution, and that, in fact, took place. Moreover, in the States, -in Italy, it is not so easy for me to do so- I had the opportunity to go back twice to the ’99 Naima. I have to admit that I went back to it with….

G: Satisfaction

B: …I got out of it with pride, despite the mistakes that I know I’ve made back then; mistakes, which sometimes were not even so small. However, the wine is in great shape, and it expresses a complexity and dialectic to the nose, which is something that I constantly strive to reach.

G: Then, can we consider this as Mother Nature that runs its course despite man’s intervention?

B: …Despite my foolish mistakes, absolutely.

G: Ok, three words to describe the Cilento area -which I’ve visited and it’s beautiful- to persuade people to come and visit you.

B: Well, the first word that always comes to my mind, and that is also present in the choice of the pictures that you’ve seen, is “dramatic”. Dramatic understood as: total need of confrontation, in its most negative component… dialectical in this case. [In Cilento] even the clearest and sunniest days, the ones when you can breathe the thinnest air and where everything presents itself in the right way, there is an very slight veil of anguish that stays under. I do not think that you need to be a masochist in order to appreciate this characteristic. I believe that this light suspension, this feeling of not being out in the sky, out in the sea, nor down on earth is something that in a way impresses both the people who come and visit and the ones who live there. This land has a dramatic and dialectical ability in the way it poses itself towards things…

I’m not really sure that this is persuading anyone… (laughs)

G: (laughs) Well, maybe someone.

B: Certainly not the ones who want to spend their entire time to lying on the beach. Even if we actually did lie on the beach and surfed…

G: We also ate that really good Bufala yogurt…

B: Yes this. One reason of pride, which can persuade people to come down and visit, is a very strong and solid gastronomic tradition that you can still find even in the “Trattorie”.

G: This is something that is declining a little bit in the rest of Italy. In Rome, every time I go back, I find fewer autochthonous places that serve good food. There is a higher volume of Manhattan style, pseudo- restaurants that serve you food that is not as good as it should be, and the true Trattoria style is now extinct.

B: Instead, in our area, it’s often the contrary. In the place, where you would never imagine finding a dignifying meal, they serve you a dish of Fusilli with Castrato which is…

G: The real one!

B: …Which is made exactly as it should be done. Then, they might give you a “Caprettino”… Basically, it’s there. This tradition is still very strong and beautiful. In fact, for a few years now -maybe thanks to me or to this ability that I have to communicate- I’ve been visited by many restaurateurs, from both the East and the West coast, who come down to get some hands-on experience with…

G: [Who come down] To learn!

B: No, not to learn. I take them in these sea-places, in simple places… Clearly, it would not make sense to take them in sophisticated restaurants or in those places that reinterpret the tradition. For them, it makes much more sense trying to gain experience over these elementary culinary roots. I have to admit that, in a way, this form of cultured-enogastronomic tourism is increasing. I just hope that these “scoundrels” of my fellow people are not going to be led astray by (laughs)… the successes of their culinary abilities…

G: (At the same time) By the successes… that this would not go over their heads.

B: Exactly!

G: One last question: which is the wine that’s in your cellar dearest to you, and which is the one that you don’t have but you would like to have?

B: As of today, Antece is definitely the wine that satisfies me the most both under the creativity level and the end result that expresses to the tasting experiences every time I open a bottle. I’m sincerely proud of the product that I was able to create with this wine. Even if… how would I say this- “children are a piece of heart”- … I have to admit that Zero, in the past three vintages, 2004…2006, basically since we have started a biodynamic process in the vineyards, is expressing itself at a level that it never reached before. It needs to be said that this starts from the grape. Two out of three times, when I open a bottle of Zero with someone, I notice…

G: Improvements, changes..

B: No, I see the sparkle in the eyes of the person who’s drinking it. It is understood. The ones passionate about wine and the connoisseurs in front of such a wine lighten up from the inside. With Zero, this phenomenon happens pretty frequently.

The wine that I would like to make is the one that I’ll probably never be able to make. I’m currently working on a project that would bring the Fiano vineyards about 2,000 feet above sea level. The reason for this is that the wine that I can’t make is the one where the game and the eloquence and the deep ability of elegance, levity and of the light component of life, - (jokingly) not the dramatic one, maybe it is not from Cilento - are fully expressed in the wine. In reality, with these past hot vintages and, therefore, with difficult harvests, the Cilento area has been expressing, not just through me but also through other winemakers there located, wines more representative of withering power. It would be an extraordinary achievement to be able to make an Aglianico with the levity and the elegance of a Pinot Noir. It would not make any sense, though, to make a Pinot Noir from Cilento.

G: Maybe not! (Laughs)

B: I read that question in your eyes.

G: No, no, no, I wasn’t thinking of asking…

B: No, But, but…

G: Maybe a Syrah…

B: But there is a common thread between the Aglianico and the Pinot Noir in terms of the way they express themselves. The Aglianico has an extraordinary acidity even in warm climates that in a way it is able to feed these “big animals” that we are creating. It keeps them standing and it gives them character. The Aglianico does not have the primary scents as developed as the ones of the Pinot Noir. Even if, in my opinion, once we are able to properly define the balance of the load of grape per vine, and once we find the right time for vinification, we can definitely extract the way of expressing such primary scents. On some vineyards, in some vintages, I’ve been able to hit this little miracle of balance on the Aglianico. I think that this is a long way to go and to understand. Therefore, [the Aglianico] has this acidity and this potential longevity; it has, it can have or we can find a way to make it fully come out in its primary terms- a front-wheel drive wine- as I define it. Perhaps, the thing that [the Aglianico] is missing at the moment is the right vintage to express all of that. Even if we should ask ourselves: if we need to wait for the right vintage, is that the right wine to make? The reason why there are all of those uncompleted experiments in my cellars is exactly this one.

G: The search for the Grail?

B: The search for the Grail. Wine is not art, wine is handicraft. This means that the ‘design’ of a wine implies the ability to duplicate the product despite the climate conditions or a single harvest. The single-spot vintage can be an extraordinary thing. It can be the shot that changes your life; it is- how to say this- hitting the right barrique, in experimental terms, that can lead you; that leads me sometimes – I’m an imbecile in this case- to get a feeling of omnipotence. (mockingly) “I was able to do this in the Cilento area, during this vintage, I am…

G: You’re a magician!

B: (still mocking) “I’m God!” Instead, it is not like this, not like this at all. The serious representation of a wine implies the ability to duplicate during every vintage, clearly not in an identical manner- it is far from my winemaking philosophy, the idea to reach a standard and to persist on it-, the planning and the overall structure of the wine. If this aim is not achievable, then, it means that we need to change some of the parameters such as, as far as the Fiano is concerned, trying to plant higher, around 2000 feet above sea level in order to express the finesse and the elegance that I’m longing for in this wine.

G: Well, I thank you a lot for this half-hour together. We have to go in a little while because a table is waiting for us at the Blue Note. Many know that Bruno has a great passion for Jazz music, which transpires also from names like Naima, Selim and Perella. I thank you again. I hope that your tour in the state has been profitable, and… see you next time.

B: Thank you! A year from now, we’ll take stock of the situation and I’ll tell you the exact opposite of what I just told you now (laughs).

G: And I’ll be here, listening to you.

B: (Still laughing) You’re great!

G: Ciao.

Click here if you like to listen to the interview in Italian

The Battle For Wine And Love Alice Feiring

2008-08-28T12:40:00.010-05:00

One of the things I love most about vacation is that I finally have the time to read. Over the past two weeks, I read about 5 books, including Alice Feiring's "The Battle for Wine And Love, or How I Saved the World from Parkerization." I usually do not read many wine books or magazines, but there are always exceptions to the rules, and in my opinion, a book that is promising to save the wine world from "Parkerization" deserves to be read. Alice has an impressive palate, so much so that she won the James Beard Foundation Award for excellence in culinary review, and makes a living traveling the wine world and writing about it on her own blog, Veritas in Vino. Now that sounds like a good life to me. Sure, it has its downsides: being on the road takes a toll on you after a while, and if you combine that with tasting wines at the crack of dawn, walking up and down cellar stairs and vineyard rows all day, it's not quite as easy and fun as it sounds. Still, I'm not sure I'd let that kind of opportunity pass me by.
Feiring's book is witty, deep, and very informative, with strong arguing points. It is refreshing to see that there is still somebody in this world that cares about how things are made - not just because a particular style is trendy at the moment, but because an interest in production can help lead to a healthy life style. When she talks about "Parkerization" (manipulating the term "globalization"), Alice stipulates that, in order to please a very influential critic in today's market, wineries around the world have embraced Mr. Parker's guidelines, creating wines that are heavy, high in alcohol, and concentrated with thick color. All of this is done in the name of the profit, says Alice, because a 100-point score can dramatically increase sales around the world. You might say, "what's wrong with making some money?," and I would answer that there is nothing wrong, as long as you are not deceiving your customers, leading them to believe that are buying quality-production goods, when the wines are chemically manipulated in the vineyards and in the cellars. These falsehoods come from producers who use certain "techniques" like reverse-osmosis, spinners that separate a wine's components, leaving a sloppish wine concentrate, which is then re-hydrated, sugared and acidified. It sounds to me like a similar process that Chicken McNuggets go through to be created...
Alice's preferences tend toward the extremely natural - she likes paler and more elegant wines that are the result of a highly natural growing philosophies. But her judgment is objective - in the book she leaves more space for the growers that are of opposite beliefs, trying to understand their point and eventually agreeing when their explanations made sense. I highly recommend this book if you are ready to leave the "score" world of influential wine critics, and start to become your own critic. Scanning down the lines you will see the different ways to make wine from different perspectives, styles and issues, giving enough information to help you make up your own mind about your preferences. And on a personal note - thank you, Alice, for shouting for a minority of wine and food geeks that is in serious danger of being extinct.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti!!!

Grapes Vs The Winemaker's Hand: Which is More Important?

2008-07-26T11:14:00.009-05:00

A symbiotic relationship exists between man and vines, where the grape is domesticated by man, and man, in turn is eventually rewarded by the grapes - the care of a human hand is repaid by the grapes the plant produces. The grapes are obviously a key factor in producing a good wine but without the hand of man, the juices will naturally turn to vinegar, which is very good on your salad - a little less tasty in your glass. So, considering the relevance of the two equal, let me ask another question; how important is the grape varietal? I believe that it is important, but that it also has to be appropriate for its environment. I love Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo, for example, but if I have land in a warm and dry place, I would most likely not have good results with those grapes, no matter how good of a winemaker I am. So at an early stage, the importance of a man's hand is key. But, it is also true that we have found naturally cross bred grapes like the Caberlot in Veneto and indigenous vines abandoned like the Schioppettino in Friuli that now produce great wines. In these cases, the plants had found their homes by themselves, but needed the care and the patience of man to restore them to health and productivity. The Finca (vineyard in Argentine) Altamira owned by Achaval Ferrer has a story that illustrates that same idea. After a long and strenuous search, the operating partners of the winery came across a little flat in between mountains, at a hight of 1200 m above sea level facing north (in the southern hemisphere the best exposition is north). The flat was inhabited by what appeared to be old abandoned vines, that in few years were brought up to produce perhaps the best Malbec in the world. What happened here is that the men found a hidden treasure (the vines were over 60 years old) that needed restoration and time to recover. Their care, in this case, was repaid by the quality of the final product. So who had more relevance to the final result in this case? The man that brought the vines back to life, and transformed it into a beautiful wine? Or was it the vines, with the complexity and concentration that several decades of life can give? I would say in this case that the input is pretty even. It shows a kind of relationship like the bond between humans and dogs - the man gives the dog care and food and the dog grows loyal and protective of the owner. With wine, the plant produces healthy grapes that the man needs to bottle an exceptional wine that, after sold, will give prosperity and financial security. You might argue that all kinds of vegetables, plants and fruits have that kind of a relationship with their farmer, and I think you would be right. I would add, however, that a grapevine is one plant that needs more care to survive - most trees and plants do not need that much attention. There are also several passages that require the care of man in order to turn grapes into fine wine. Other plants, like olives, do not need that many passages. once they are pressed, voila - olive oil! The grape, on the other hand, becomes must after it's pressed, must which has to be fermented, filtered, fined and cared for, not to mention AGED before it even comes close to the end of its transformation.

It is also enlighting to see how differently the same grape tastes after it is bottled, even if it is coming from the same area. Just think about Burgundy, where 2 adjacent vineyards, owned by the same estate, planted with the same grapes (Pinot Noir in this case) are separated by just a ditch - the grapes result in two dramatically different wines that are differentiated, for a trained nose, just by smelling the glass. That wouldn't happen with, say, potatoes - if they're planted in the same soil, they will not taste different from each other.
So - I think the best answer to the original question is that is that both the grapes themselves and the hands of the winemaker are important, and it is essential that the relationship between the vines and humans stays as balanced as possible, where one cannot exist without the other.
I'll be going on vacation for couple of weeks, and I don't know how good my internet connection will be, so I might be silent for a little while. Also, a reminder - the shop will be closed from august 11th to the 27th.

Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Is It Possible...

2008-07-15T18:03:00.007-05:00

... that the big companies that govern a large portion of our economy are never accountable for the problems they create? It looks like this has become a generalized issue all-around: there is ConEd's ridiculous refund decision for the 8-day blackout a of couple years ago; anybody that ships regularly with UPS knows that if they lose or break a package it will take several hours on the phone in order to get a refund that, in my experience, is rarely a full one. The funny thing is that Verizon, UPS, FedEx, Con Ed and many others have increased their prices dramatically, while exponentially lowering their service standard. Today, to send 12 bottles to California via ground shipping will cost little over $45; 3 years ago the same shipment was $ 25. It almost doubled, and proportionally their customer relations got twice as bad, as did the services they provide. UPS lost and broke a fair few of my packages, and every single time that sort of mistake was made, I ended up frustrated by the way their errors are handled.
I'll give you one of the truly ridiculous examples of what I'm talking about, just so it doesn't sound like I'm whining over spilled milk; if UPS loses a package, their policy states that it is the shipper's responsibility to notify UPS, open a claim and wait 8 business days to hear from the claims department regarding reimbursement. First of all, can anyone explain to me why I'm responsible for notification (or anything, really) when UPS loses something? How am I even supposed to know? Second - in the case of a lost package, if I ask them what I should do while the claims department is coming to a decision the answer is, as usual, that my course of action is my responsibility, and that UPS has 8 business days to find the package and deliver it. Now I understand the reservation of a number of business days (though 8 seems a little hefty), so they don't deliver the same package twice, should I choose to ship a replacement. But it is truly incredible how many times I have heard, "IT'S YOUR RESPONSIBILITY" when someone has lost or damaged something I entrusted to their care.
To top it all off, when I want to know exactly what the responsibilities of UPS are, because I don't feel like they're fulfilling them, the conversation always ends up tethered to the phrase, "I'm sorry you feel that way." Well, I do feel that way, because of the moronic mistakes of these companies. - Today, it was Verizon's turn... the credit card and fax line was down, so I called the Verizon repair number, and I was told that there was a problem with some cable that will be repaired by June 17th at 8pm. I said, "that's 60 hours from now... how can I do business without processing credit cards?" Peter, my brilliant Verizon representative, answered: "well, you are the businessman, you figure out how to overcome the problem. Maybe hook the credit card machine to another line." What other line? The only line I have available is the store line, the one that needs to be free to receive orders! This was my unanswered reply, and when I asked about compensation, they told me that MAYBE I would get a refund for the days of non-service (a whopping $6), but that Verizon is not responsible for loss of business. Once again, those words of wonder - "NOT RESPONSIBLE."
"Considering the fact that my business is done mostly on credit cards," I told Peter, "you do the math, and see if $6 will do me any good." The last words I hear are:" things break... we didn't do this on purpose, you know... cars break, airplanes break etc etc." Yes. Things break down. I know. But again, I don't understand how that allows these companies to shirk responsibility for their problems. Why is it that their problem has to fall on my shoulder? Why is it, when UPS loses a package, I automatically lose several business hours to report the loss, and start a long and painful refund process that would never happen if I, the non-offender, didn't initiate it? What happened to the services that made this nation powerful and efficient? Where is common courtesy, now that we are almost slave to the services (read: functions) the companies that take advantage of their stronger position to steal our time and money?
The saddest part of this mess is that the situation is getting worse, and is spreading into every company. I switched to FedEx because I was fed up with UPS. FedEx promptly broke a package insured for $260, and I got a check for $118 because according to them, I didn't declare the package's value. So I had to download the shipping detail from the FedEx's website, print it out, then call an 800 number and fax them the details in order to retrieve what was missing... and when I asked how it was possible that FedEx denies a claim based on a lie, the conversation's culmination was, of course:
"I'm sorry you feel that way."

Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Meet The Makers Bruno De Conciliis Part One

2008-07-10T19:00:00.002-05:00

Previously, we already established that many of the great wines, you’ll taste or have tasted in your lifetime aren’t simply an expression of a good vintage and of an excellent way of making wine. Out there, there are so many different Barolo, Nebbiolo, Aglianico ect. The prices vary, based on the vintage, the type of grape they’re made from, and the winemaker. So what makes one wine more special than the other when it comes to the same wine type but different winemakers? We all know by now that a good vintage per se or a perfect winemaking technique is not the answer. In fact, great wines aren’t simply the wines that were well made. Great wines are a direct reflection of the personality behind the winemaking process and of all the little nuances that helped in such process. To prove my point, I could not think of a better example than Bruno De Conciliis. His wines, from the moment the grapes are picked until they are bottled carry with them every little hint of the passion for wine itself and for the land they come from. They are also a magnificent expression of their winemaker’s great personality and of all the people who work with him. Their names, the labels he picked, every single detail will distinguish his wines from all the other Aglianico, Fiano and spumante out there. The following interview will be a revelation of the sensation you’ve felt when you tasted his wines, or a preview of what you’ll discover when you will taste them.

Here is the first part of it enjoy.

Gabrio: Bruno De Conciliis, visiting New York. Thanks for coming.

Bruno: Thank you!

G: I know that these are the last days of your tour, how did it go?

B: Extremely well! Warm welcoming on the wines, the new vintages….

G: I can see you happy, and very tan.

Let’s talk about the beginning of your adventure; your life, for as little as I know, was totally different. Can you briefly explain the events that have led you to your present life?

B: Yes! I’ve apparently lived two or three lives; something that nowadays seems to be a normal occurrence. More often than not, when I talk to people this pluralism comes out, and I, like many of our generation, my generation, have lived at least three. This will be the last one: farmers plant their roots once and forever. Inside this life, I brought… I brought the precious treasures that I collected in my previous lives: the open, revolutionary -if I’m allowed to say so- vision of the world; certainly the will to change; the desire to…

I always thought that my generation was one of the last ones who had the impression that they could hold their fate, their future into their own hands. This is something that I could not see in the new ones: the ability to decide of your own existence, of your own future, of the organization, of the structure to live in. In the “maturity” phase, if mature is the phase I’m leaving now, this will, this awareness to hold the future in my hands and to give it a shape; to inform the world with my terrestrial passage, still holds a social drive. The Cilento area has been and still is one of the most disadvantaged and poorest areas in Italy. At the beginning, this drive was definitely stronger. I strove to prove to my fellow neighbors, that it was possible to go behind the logic of power and the servitudes passed on from one generation to the next and to demonstrate - and this is a paradoxical act for an anarchist- that through individual effort, the ability to put oneself in the field and to transform in an entrepreneur able to manage people and things, one can be able to move on to a different society in a microcosm, and in a microeconomics.

G: It would almost seem that you have closed the circle by touching the two ends. Let’s talk about your winery. How long has it been your family’s property?

B: The vineyards were planted by my father in the 70s, the oldest ones, or even the others ones that we have then, taken over little by little. Until 1997, most of the grapes were sent to a Cantina Sociale. My dad established the winery in 1961, a year before I was born. However, again, the grapes were granted to a Cantina Sociale. In 1993, when my first daughter, Chiara, was born, I decided that I had to do something with my passion for wine. Therefore, I went back to my family. I asked my father and my brothers to assist me with this project. I spent three years studying the possibility to make wine because, as you already know, we do not have an enologist. I always had the idea that if we had to do something, it should have been from within ourselves; the energy should have come totally from the inside of the winery. After my three years of studies, in 1996, we had our first harvest, only white wines: Fiano, and at the time, we had also Trebbiano and Malvasia. In 1997, it was our first harvest for the red wines. Therefore, the 2006 harvest has chronologically been my 10th one and this is the reason why we came out with the idea of the Cilento pictures on the Aglianico bottles…

G: Really nice! I’ve seen it this summer when I was there to visit you. Who helps you in the cellar? Who are the other key players of the team?

B: The slave players. The cellars as you know….

G: Slaves?

B: Slaves… (Both laugh) Yeah, yeah, a Freudian slip. (Pause) First of all, there is my brother in the vineyard. He is a key player because he has inherited the most serene and tranquil family trait. Supervising the vineyards entails waking up at 5 am in the morning, every morning and starting the work, establishing the timing and the techniques. It also means to have to go in the vineyard and determine the health state of everything else related to the vines. He took over this part of the job and he’s constantly improving himself. The true path of a farmer is never ending because it is a path of constant growth.

Then, there is Giovanni, my brother-in-law, considered the mother of the wines. He is, like me, totally self-taught. He’s done 2000 different things in his life. He still writes and paints; he has a highly creative soul. In the cellar instead, paradoxically, probably because of me- I’m too invasive, I occupy his creative space- he has an extremely strong, precise, productive behavior. He is fully committed and in total control of the wines and their evolution. He is the mother of the wines. He “feeds” them daily. Then, there are the girls who make up for the female component, which is vital in winemaking; the devotion in the feminine and maternal sense is a really strong one.

G: When I was there during the summer, we tasted some wines from the barriques. We also tasted some bottles. Many of the barriques I’ve seen there, you told me that were only experiments, that you were not convinced, you didn’t know and that most likely you would have never bottled those wines. Specifically, you made me taste an Aglianico that was a bit peculiar, and that you said you would not bottle, but I could not understand why?

B: I’ve said that I’ve learned to make wine on my own by making mistakes and mistakes, mistakes, mistakes, mistakes… I’m an empiricist. To learn means to experiment. If we try to play “The Game of Roles” and you put on the winemaker pants and shoes; you can understand how exciting it can be the possibility to have a game so variegated and so vast where truly… during vinification sometimes it is enough to raise by a half degree and the structure and the characteristic of the wine changes in a way…. How to say?

G: A drastic way.

B: Yes, yes, in a total and absolute way and…Since I’m not starting from an absolute certainty, from a requirement, from a recipe, nor from a consolidated history of the wine… The one thing that one can find in the Cilento area today is the fact that we can start from a land, which has a very ancient history: if the grapes came with the Greeks 2600 years before Christ, and we are now in 2008…

G: No...

B: Yes, 600 years before Christ. They have been around for 2600 years. However, it is also true that there isn’t anything encoded about winemaking. For this reason we have always had; I have always had in front of me a blank piece of paper and I have to admit that I never had the writer’s angst…

G: …of filling this paper…

B: Yes of filling it… because the variety of things, the quantity of ideas that came up to me and the ability to read the grapes and the will to imagine what could have been the wine’s evolution of this raw material has always been… actually it has always been an element of added confusion. This is the reason why these wines, some of these wines, most of these wines are in experimental or approaching phases, which I’d define as the courtship of the wine, which even in this field is the part that gives you the most adrenaline charge because…

G: Hm! That’s nice.

B: Eh…Because you go around it, because it’s not…. Many things in the contemporary world are banal because they are assertive and in this way they are self-referential. Saying that the paper is white is banal and it is also useless and, therefore, there is no need to say it. It becomes monolithic and monochord and senseless to the purpose of the conversation. Instead, it is good to say and to think: “I see this paper baby blue, purple, orange or full of leaves, of butterflies”. This is the phase where the objects assume a shape within the one who has the responsibility to create them, or to give them a definite shape, or to make them become objects that are concrete, tangible, drinkable in our case (laughs)…

G: Mostly drinkable (laughs)

B: Exactly! This phase is for me the most interesting one. The harvest is the time where we reach the peak of the hormonal explosion… no?...

G: Is it there where-as they would say in a Northern Italian expression- you get hard! (laughs)

B: No… No! On the contrary… On the contrary, once again, this is a game where it is important to reach a balance between the masculine and the feminine components. Therefore, the one, which, in a way, takes, owns the things, and gives them a shape in the creative phase and which I would define as the masculine component has to absolutely find a balance with the feminine one. This is the one that, instead, comprehends and takes things in. If you are not… If you are not able… if I weren’t able… This is my creative process I do not want to, and it would be crazy to universalize it….

My creative process starts from the comprehension, it starts surely and always from the feminine component.

During the potential phase, everything that I can express from the wine can be found in the grape. Not in the grape as…. How to say this…

We are not talking about the Fiano and the Aglianico and we’re not talking about the Fiano and the Aglianico from the Cilento area but of every single harvest, which, based on the climate condition, based on a series of processes that took place over that vineyard and that vintage, brings to the grape an aromatic or a potential structural characteristic that is very precise and distinctive. If the “wine creator”, the one who has to imagine and create this wine, is not able to comprehend this peculiarity, the only thing that he can do is to amplify to an extreme level the masculine component. Therefore, he states that this is the way the wine has to be, and this is a way to force the harvest in function of a state, of an idea, of a prejudice…

G: of an objective

B: Exactly! This is poles apart from my idea of what a wine should be. I hope I was clear, or at least less confused than what I feel I’m being right now...

Stay Tuned for the Secon Part

Buona Bevuta a Tutti

More Pictures Of Champagne Night

2008-07-09T12:17:00.007-05:00

The Swimming Pool

A Little Order Please

Bubbling Smiles

The Guests Are Warming Up...

...And Art Is Performed!!!

Champagne Night Among Friends

2008-07-04T13:37:00.001-05:00

I happen to be lucky enough to be part of a wine group called NY Grapes, which is a fun and great concept, as well as a great excuse to dig into the cellar and open some "sleepers." The system is easy and efficient; we meet in a member's house or office every couple of months, and the host provides food and sets the theme of the night. Then, the members that can attend the dinner bring their chosen bottle in accordance with the theme. I attended my first dinner in September, when I was invited by the President of the group Eric Porres, whom I met in the store and bonded with, thanks to a magnum of Bartolo Mascarello Barolo 1997 that he bought for a dinner with the mirroring group in the west coast. The bottle, coincidentally, turned out to be the wine of night and from there we had started a good friendship. We've had quite a few dinners since I joined, and many with some great wines from around the world. The last dinner, one of my favorites thus far, was hosted by Paul DeBraccio in his office, and the theme was small growers from Champagne. The lineup for the night was composed of 4 Brut non-vintage, two Rose non-vintage, 5 Millesime (3 1999 and 2 2000) Champagnes and two outsiders: Huet 2002, a sparkler from Loire made from Chenin Blanc, and the Erpacrife from Piedmont made from 100% Nebbiolo grapes which were both very interesting. It was definitely a great array to experience the difference in terroir for real champagnes. On the NY Grapes site you will find our president's descriptions of the wines and winners, so I won't repeat those here, but I'd like to point out that a denomination or an appellation do not guarantee a level of quality. That evening the difference between bigger and small wineries came out clearly, wineries like Mumm and Gosset didn't stand up to the others, and to tell the truth, the Loire sparkler was more complex and interesting then the ones described "as done by the book" by Eric. Pricing-wise, I noticed that the Millesime weren't much more expensive then the non-vintages, but the difference in taste was dramatic. With prices ranging from the high 50's to the low 70's, the tasting also showed that 1999 was a more elegant and probably better vintage then 2000. Being part of these kind of groups is a great way to experience and learn about the nectar of the gods among friends, so if it interests you, get together with your friends and take an evening off every couple of months to get together around several great wine bottles.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti!!!

Montalcino... Yet Again

2008-06-18T15:15:00.000-05:00

In the film-noirish espionage that has plagued Montalcino over the past few months, the script is getting better by the minute. The latest development is that the Italian government took over the supervision the DOCG Montalcino, removing it from the Consorzio's hands. As reaction the President of the Consorzio di Montalcino, Francesco Marone Cinzano resigned from position.
He explained to Decanter Magazine that he left 2 years early because he had two goals; to keep the Montalcino producers united, and start an era of transparency, and according to his statements, those missions are now accomplished. That idea of justification doesn't really make sense to me, because if he thinks that the growers of Montalcino are united or operating under principles of transparency, he must had too much of his own Brunello. As long as we're talking about transparency, it's interesting to note that Count Cinzano is also the owner of Argiano, which is one the 100 wineries under investigation by the Italian authorities.
Some people can be so shameless!!!
I was talking with my friend Marco, who has been working with an Italian importer for many years, about the whole thing and he told me that as far as he knew, Gianfranco Soldera was the one who reported the "sophistication" of certain Brunello to the authorities, and started the investigations.
This leads me to wonder why Soldera would want to do such a thing, why he would want to destroy Montalcino's reputation, risking his own sterling reputation in the process. I guess he got tired, maybe tired of seeing celebrated critics praising Brunellos with high scores, Brunellos that by law should not be called Brunello. Or maybe, just maybe, he got tired of living in a town where 250 producers carry the DOCG band, and just few actually are worth that honor.
I don't really know what the reasoning was behind his opening that can of worms, or if it was really him who did it. But one thing I do know is that every time I go to Montalcino I'm surprised by how much the local businesses support the big wineries. I often have an argument with my friend Marina, whose family owns a great restaurant in Montalcino named Boccon Divino, about Banfi and why she has their wines on her list. The answer is always the same: "because Banfi did a lot for Montalcino." I always answer her: "yes, like trying to convince everybody to plant Moscadello instead of Sangiovese," then the argument keeps on going back and forth until somebody stops us. It seems that the Montalcino Enoteche take more pride in showing mainstream products than smaller producers that most of the time guarantee a better quality for more or less the same price. Now that most of the "well known" wineries are all but caught red-handed with tainted wines, I'll be curious to see a change in the way Brunello is praised. I remember not long ago, The Wine Spectator released an issue on Montalcino where the front page displayed a big picture of the Frescobaldi estate, and the highest scores were reserved for the very same wineries that today are under investigation. I hope all of this scandal will help the honest growers... but I have a feeling that in the end they will be the ones paying direly for somebody else's mistakes.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Travelers With Roots.

2008-06-12T14:20:00.000-05:00

My friend Gigi says that in Italian, "Viaggiatori con radici," or "travelers with roots" is romantic yet illogical way to describe people involved in the world of wine. At his description, I had this vision of several little people going around a small globe, attached to their vineyards with a sort of elastic rope that the pulled them back to their original place after a set time.
The way I see it, the wine world is more complex than a complicated woman. It feeds on opposites; it's slow and static and yet dynamic and modern, it's based on uncontrollable variables like the weather, yet it is detailed-oriented, and requires substantial skill and knowledge. It is a world that grows and develops unbelievably slowly, yet the Vignerols never have enough time. And ultimately, it is a world with strong, solid roots, but the wine itself and the wine people have always traveled, since the time when humans started a symbiotic relation with the vines. Behind a bottle of wine, there is often a human figure that follows it; Gigi and his family are the owners of a fairly new winery called Tenuta Vitalonga, in Umbria. I've talked about him in the past, and he is a perfect example of one of these viticultural "viaggiatori;" he travels for a good part of the year, as most of the "wine people" stay home during the harvest and travel during the rest of the year to sell and promote their products. At this point, the romantic vision of the old man working from dusk to dawn in the vineyard is almost certainly long-gone, although a few wineries still exist where the owner is also everything else for the estate. Vittorio Graziano in Emilia Romagna and a few others like him around the globe are the sole proprietors of their estates, doing the harvest, vinification and bottling almost entirely alone. But for the most part, now a winery is a piece of an industry that has to be efficient, with costs that need to be covered and bottles that need to be sold. So I can imagine all these people scrambling around the globe, representing their lands and products often several thousand miles away may sometimes feel as if they never see home anymore... but they are still strongly connected to the land that shelters their lives and inevitably pulls them back to their roots.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

What's Up Clinton Street

2008-06-07T13:52:00.001-05:00

Today was kind of a sad day; Punch and Judy's plug has been pulled, squelching the few desperate hopes to see it resuscitated after a prolonged attachment to small-business life support.
Here's a little more detail on the saga that became Punch and Judy's unfortunate legacy. Almost 2 years ago, or maybe a little less than that, Punch and Judy was closed by the police for missing documentation. The ownership changed, and when they applied to transfer the previous owners' liquor license, they were denied. Since then, the spot has been on the market to be sold, without much success I might add. The gate was almost always down, but occasionally the broker would open it up to show it to potential buyers. The inside was exactly the same as it ever was; the bar, the chairs, the kitchen, the plates, the glasses the silverware and the bottles were exactly in the same spots. Imagine my surprise when today, they emptied out the entire place! Now, you might be wondering why I care so much about a place that has been closed for a good few months now, and there are several reasons. But the most important of them is simple: I really thought that something would happen to bring it back to life! Punch and Judy was opened originally by two good friends of mine, Constantine and Giacomo, and during De Vino's early stages, I spend a lot of time in there talking with my friends and savoring some great food. Dominique Giuliano was the first chef to set up the kitchen. He used convection burners and ovens, so no gas was needed, and he set up a simple but well thought-out menu, while Giacomo and Constantine chose the wines. After Dominique Jason took the chef position (right around the time I signed the lease for De Vino), I ate there almost 3 times a week. Jason, now owner of a few restaurants in California, is a very talented chef - his sweetbread plate was to die for, not to mention several bottles of excellent wine shared with them, including old vintages of Lopez de Heredia white and red Rioja and 10-plus year old J.J. Prum Rieslings. Good times... that now, unfortunately, are permanently confined to the form of memories. This morning, I came to open the store and I saw Dominique, who is now is the head chef for the new ownership, which is a corporation that owns a number of restaurants and bars around the city. They were moving everything that wasn't nailed down out of the building. That day had finally come, and they gave up on the lease and sold everything that could have been sold, included the chairs and the bar.
So, after 71 Clinton and Lotus, yet another Clinton street icon has closed its doors. Hopefully they will be replaced by somebody that will keep the high level of quality and professionalism that this street has had for many years now, and maintain the integrity that we hold ourselves to.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Business As Usual

2008-05-17T16:43:00.009-05:00

After yet another fiasco in Italy,
the resolution led to its usual result - nothing.
It's business as usual, with the scandals leaving only a smattering of irony behind.
Let's start with the bad news. The winemaking scandal involving addition of acids and other harmful fermentation agents that SHOULD have absorbed the majority of concerns, at least in quantity, slid silently in to the Land of the Conveniently Forgotten... with the government's help, it has disappeared from the front pages of newspapers (although there is an investigation still going on). And at the center of attention is the Brunellopoli, the ongoing yet ultimately arbitrary argument over the integrity of the wines being labeled "Brunello di Montalcino." I must say that for once I was proud of my fellow countrymen: they did such a good job keeping attention focused on the Sangiovese's purity that the news got to the ear of the American government who, because of concerns for the American consumers, decided to look into the mess as well.
The American Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has asked their Italian counterpart to provide information about the wineries involved. But, since the "Magistratura" in Italy is still investigating the case, little or no information was sent by the Italian authorities, upsetting the Americans, who are now threatening to block all the Brunello imports by June 9th unless the shipment is furnished with laboratory test documentation that attests to the wine's purity. Meanwhile, back at the ranch... some of the wineries involved, namely Antinori, Frescobaldi, Banfi and Argiano decided, rather than waiting for a court date, they would declassify their Brunello to an IGT wine, and sell it at roughly the same price. A few houses have even decided to give the wines alternative names (I think Argiano is going to call it Duemilatre).
You might be wondering where the irony might be in all of this, and I will tell you that to defend themselves, the wineries involved stated that they added small amount of international grapes to please the American palate and most important the critics, to make it more approachable and easier to drink, enhancing the fruit bouquet. That being said, because some wineries in order to please the American palate, sophisticated the Brunello, the American authorities are going to stop the imports of it, depriving the same palate that those practices was supposed to pleased, of their precious nectar. Now, because the wineries involved decided to downgrade the label, the American market will get the declassified label of the blended wine for about the same price while the "clean" producer will be stuck with expensive laboratory tests and drawn-out bureaucracies at customs. Meanwhile, back at the Fattoria the long arm of the Italian law still wasn't able to recall all the wines cut with dangerous acids that are still for sale in the major supermarket around the "Bel Paese."
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Pictured: the former Agricultural Minister.

Conditions

2008-05-09T09:30:00.008-05:00

Last night I had Piers over for dinner and we rehashed our Cru experience from the previous week . One of the more prevalent subjects of conversation was the Champy 1961, because of the spectacular condition the bottle was in. It was because the wine was released by the winery long after it had been bottled, after the Maison had been bought by Jadot, so the bottles sat peacefully for 30 years before being sold. Piers and I had a similar experience with an Austrian Pinot Blanc from 1989 that was bought from the winery last year. The bottles were covered with mildew and dust, and the labels were almost nonexistent, but of the 6 bottles I drank, none had perceivable problems or flaws; they were all in perfect condition. Traveling can be destructive to a wine's condition. I remember an incident that happened back in the 70's when, because of a strike in the San Francisco docks, an entire consignment of French wine sat at port for over a week and cooked in the 100-plus degree heat. Today the containers are, for the most part, refrigerated but still mechanical malfunctions can happen and the results can be disastrous (this can also be a problem because those wines will be released to the market, being that the importer might not be aware of any mistakes that were made along the way).
I wrote a while ago that wine is alive (at least what I consider to be wine) and that, like a human being, it can get injured and heal, leaving a scar. An overseas trip could be stressful for human being as well as a case of wine - just thinking of what I have to go through in order to get on plane I get stressed, and like a human being, a bottle of wine will also need some time to settle down after a trip. The difference in taste can be dramatic especially when the wine is old (once again like the humans a young body is more resistant to injuries and can repair much faster than an older one) and the proof is the way the 1989 Pinot Blanc and the 1961 Burgundy tasted; aging signs were nonexistent, and the wines were still vibrant and focused. And the bottle conditions were surprising perfect. That being said, the provenance of a wine is one of the many key factors for a wise acquisition. Sometimes if you see a bottle sold for a lot less than its normal value, you'd be wise and prudent to check were it came from. Here is another step on the road to the essence of the nectar of the gods which is as complex and intersected as a 1961 Beaune 1er Cru.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Finally Some Real Service

2008-05-01T11:28:00.003-05:00

This week has been an uncommonly busy week! I've gone out almost every night, and had some great wines. I already relayed the pleasures of Monday's dinner at Il Posto Accanto... and now I would like to share with you my experience at Cru on 5th Avenue and 9th Street.
On Thursday evening I met up with Mike, Piers, and two new friends, Pierre and Nick. Piers, an art auctioneer at Christie's and a French wine specialist by passion, went in during the afternoon and had opened a few bottles that were previously chosen with Mike, an old vinyl and hi-fidelity equipment specialist with an impressive cellar, mostly composed of old vintages from Italy and France. They opened the wines during the afternoon so that they would have the time to open up and be ready by 8 o'clock.

The evening's theme was Burgundy. Piers loves wines that are produced from a single varietal,sp to start, we indulged in a Puligny Montrachet Premiere Cru Folatieres 1992 from Etienne Sauzet. It had a pale yellow color, strong minerality and high complexity. We finish that bottle with the "amuse bouche" - between the five of us, there was just enough for a glass each in the bottle. The service at CRU is impeccable, the knowledgeable Maitre'd described our options regarding the food, and we decided to have the chef tailor the menu with the wines we where about to drink. The attention of the staff was incredible; it was one of the first times I actually saw wine poured in a proper way at a proper temperature in the right amounts, which is to say the capable staff managed to keep a constant flow in the glasses refilling small amounts frequently. Personally, I hate when full glasses are poured... there is no need, and is usually indicative of the staff trying to sell you more wine. I realized how much I'd forgotten about what good service was - the ability to anticipate your needs, the above-mentioned wine etiquette and the perfect pace of the whole experience. It is refreshing to see that it's still possible to get a ratio between staff and guest at one to one.
While we were waiting for the appetizers to show up we had a bottle Mersault Charmes 1990 from Francois Jobard, a totally different style - golden color with fuller fruit bouquet compared to the Puligny Montrachet. The minerality of the Montrachet was replaced by tropical fruit and fresh apricots. It was paired magnificently with few different appetizers based in fish. Most of the dishes we had were prepared specifically and they are not present on the menu (actually, when you decide to have the chef choose your dishes, not even the floor staff know the line-up, which I think is great). I love when a professional surprises me. Then we moved on the "rouge," into the wine that gave me the best emotions of the night; Maison Champy Beaune 1er Cru Les Greves 1961. The Cotes de Beaune sits on a limestone ridge that gives way to paler, lighter and more perfumed wines. This bottle was opened half an hour before being served and not decanted. We let it breath in the glass and the bottle, because that kind of wine with that much age will have a very small window of peaked flavors and textures, and if opened too early or decanted, it could die in the glass. It was indeed a very good call - the Burgogne was elegant, thin and vibrant, still with acidity and life. The red juice was changing at every sip, trading a floral note with an herbal shade... the aromas were literally dancing on the palate. Silky and focused at the same time, the Beaume was so engaging that I almost forgot about the food. After a series of appetizers the first course appeared and I kept on going with fish, in this case a calamari julienne and crab meat duo that melted with the wine, while the others, who are not following a no-carb regime, got their pastas dishes; an enticing homemade gnocchi with an incredible rabbit ragu and some great oxtail ravioli ( I did had a taste of both just for chronicle duty). Meanwhile a bottle of Pommard Clos Des Epeneaux 1993 made its appearance on the table along with a new set of Burgundy crystal ware that sat next to the ones still holding the Beaune. Piers had the Pommard opened in the afternoon, because unlike the Les Greves, it needed a lot of time. Next to each other you could definitely notice the difference in color - the Pommard is a big, muscular Pinot Noir with the nose showing horse saddle scents. It almost resembled a Pomerol or a Cabernet-based Bordeaux. As was predicted, the Beaune had very short window of life, I would say 30 minutes time frame, so the last sip of it was showing signs of tiredness. So we had space for another great Pinot Noir from another great Premiere Cru - more specifically, Vosne Romanee Le Malconsorte 1995 of Sylvain Cathiard. The Cote de Nuits is the home of the world's most famous and probably most expensive winery, Romanee Conti. Despite the monopoly control of four of the six Grand Crus, the village has at least forty growers sharing its vineyards; Romanee Conti, La Romanee and La Tache are exclusively owned by Domaine de la Romanee Conti, La Grande Rue is a monopoly of Domaine Francois Lamarche, the Richebourg and the Romanee Saint Vivant are the only crus that are not in a monopoly regime. The Vosne Romanee 1er cru is right next to La Tache - the two crus are divided by a ditch, and they also share similar characteristics and soil. The wine itself has strong and firm violet and mineral aromas, focused and clean the wine was well open and showing a wide range of herbal and spice flavors. Although still young (at 18 years old), compared to the previous wines, the Vosne Romanee Cru produces wine that are more approachable at early ages. "Dulcis in Fundo," as the Latins us to say, we got to the desserts; selections of Vahlrona chocolate under different shapes and forms along with mousses and other delicious sweet treats made their way to the table along with a bottle of Mabilliere Vouvrey Moelleaux 1989 from the Loire that was served at a perfect temperature. Bortytis dessert wine, the noble rot that add life to the grape, showed nice an light flavors of apricot and honey, still high acidity that made the sugar residues almost unnoticeable.
The whole experience was remarkable and I'd like to underline again the excellent service. The wine was always served at the right temperature, the staff frequently poured small amounts in the glasses that needed to be refilled and never overfilled them. They managed to keep a constant flow without ever being pushy, most of the time the staff movement was so natural, it was unnoticeable.That night, I remembered that etiquette exists for good reasons and far too often, it is forgotten in a lot of higher-end New York restaurants. The city used to be different 10 or 12 years ago, and I'm sure that any of you that have live here longer can tell me how different service was even earlier than that. The reality is that the customer services levels, of which the USA used to be a model of, has sadly fallen dramatically in every aspect of the service industry. So complimenti allo chef and the rest of the staff for such professionalism... it was time for the check and to call it a night...are you curious about the tab? One thing I can tell you is, it was the most expensive meal I've ever had and paid for... but worth more than the total.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Basta Parliamo di Vino Ora

2008-04-25T13:27:00.003-05:00

With all of the politics and red tape surrounding wine these days, it's easy to lose track of a pure love for the juice itself. It has been a while since the last time I actually wrote something about WINE - real wine, not just the idea of it. So, I guess it's time to do so again.
I'd like to start by touching a few sensitive subjects; first, that winemaking is not an exact science; there are a lot of options in the wine world and most of the time one option does not exclude the other. Exemplary of this is the concept of style: specifically, modern style or traditional style. You can favor one over the other or like both for different reasons, but there are certainly great wines in both categories.
I experienced this conundrum on Monday when I met up with some friends at Il Posto Accanto and opened up a bottle of La Fiorita Brunello Riserva 2001, Domaine Dujac Vosne Romanee Les Beaumont 1997 and Diesel Farm Nero di Rosso 2003.
The Burgundy was traditional, while the Pinot Noir from Diesel Farm was more modern and the La Fiorita, somewhere in the middle. So we started decanting the Brunello, uncork the other two bottles and sipped some Cascina Morassino Barbaresco 1996 to begin.
The Barbaresco was also in a somewhat more modern style, displaying a darker color although there were no flavors of wood. It was still vibrant and powerful, the acidity was markedly high, giving the the sign of a still-long aging potential; once again, a great example of why the 1996 vintage for Nebbiolo from Piedmont was one of the greatest ever experienced. Next it was La Fiorita's turn. 2001 was an exceptional year for the Brunello, so much so for La Fiorita, in fact, that they only bottled the Brunello Riserva, which implies one additional year of maturation before being released to the market. Sangiovese, like Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo is a thin-skinned grape that is highly subject to weather and diseases, and thereby grows well only in specific conditions and altitudes. In Montalcino, those conditions are met and Sangiovese from there can reach incomparable complexity an length. La Fiorita showed us exactly how; elegant on the nose and in the palate, fresh violet and cherry scents were bursting out of our goblets; very drinkable and perfumed with just enough minerality to make us think it akin to an elegant women with little to no makeup. This was a treat - I associate most Brunello to an old grumpy farmer with coarse hands and very little will to talk, translating to wines that have big shoulders (tannins structure) where layers of flavors sit and rest, releasing their perfumes a little bit at a time. Our lady instead was polite enough to answer our questions but still maintaining a secret and mysterious aura, and the nectar was sort of a Mata Hari. From one feminine beauty to another, the third bottle we poured was the Domaine Dujac, a fabulous example of Burgundian style. Light red color with purple reflections, and a nose with firm violet and minerals, full in the palate again with violet, wild strawberries with the addition of a herbal note of thyme and green pepper, again very perfumed, elegant and feminine. The last bottle of the night was the Nero di Rosso 2003, Pinot Noir from Marostica in Veneto, bottled by Diesel Farm, owned by Renzo Rosso (also the founder of Diesel Apparel). With an intense nose (2003 was a very hot year) and dark shades of purple, it seemed to be a monster wine at first glance. Incredibly, on the palate the wine was very well-structured and maintained elegance and drinkability, thanks to the acidity the wine retained despite the hot weather. Little flavors of wood at the beginning were detectable over a strong bed of herbal spices scents; the wine changed a lot in the glass, the vanilla flavors left giving space to long violet aromas.
Another fun night was about to end, with an orgy of flavors still in my mouth - it was, as often happens with good company, wines and food, a great experience because in the end, we remember that the wine world is not based in exact science. It needs the atmosphere to be complete, creating different experiences in different contexts.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Some Considerations On The Scandals

2008-04-12T15:12:00.007-05:00

A lot of wine-related controversy has been coming out of Italy: Brunello di Montalcino cut with non-authorized grapes, and very cheap wines tainted with dangerous acids, just to name a few issues. Although the Brunello affair had monopolized the attention of the media, it seems to me that is quite a bit less dangerous to drink small percentages of "non-authorized grapes" than substantial quantities of muriatic acid. I'm puzzled by the response given by the Italian Agriculture Minister regarding the tainted juice, which clarified questions from the UE by stating: "there is no threat for the public health; the problem was connected to the addition of water and sugar and the rest were common vinification procedures." The Minister also said that "small percentages of ammonia and muriatic acid are commonly used to activate the fermentation." What???? I spent many years in the wine world and never once heard of muriatic acid as a fermentation activator. I've heard about yeast, about a proper temperature and enzymes to encourage fermentation, but never acids. Maybe I just visited wineries that do not use a common vinification method - who knows? Regardless, what is disturbing is that the judges and investigators involved do not feel the same way the Ministry feels. They actually arrested Mr. Castagna, the scandal's perpetrator, for Agricultural fraud, and for putting public health at risk. Many others were indicted for the same felony, had their facilities seized in Puglia and Veneto, where the wine surrogate was created, prompting the police to refer to this scandal as one of the biggest food adulterations ever discovered in Italy. The Minister, on the other hand, is emphasizing the discovery of the Brunello affair and the utility of the "Vendemmia Sicura" (safe harvest), as though they arrested another big shot of the mafia.

Why is that?

The first answer that came to mind was the obvious, though awful answer: the cheap wine is a product for poorer people, and who really cares about their health anyway, right? It's not really a big problem if several thousand people get cancer from drinking what is essentially non-wine, as long there is a business of several hundred million Euros behind it. Let the indigent people die, right? Sadly, I think the problem lies exactly there - the Italian government cannot afford to admit and invoke consequences for such a large-scale crime. It would thrown certain sects of the economy into chronic anemia. There were an estimated 50 million bottles and tetra packs of fraudulent wine made and, according to the police, it is almost impossible to recall all of them. That said, it is in their better economic interests to amplify the Brunello scandal, which is barely a scandal to begin with. The point being, it serves as an innocent cover for (or at least a diversion from) the public attention to the real threat, so businesses might carry on as usual.

The other question is this: why didn't the Minister reveal the names of the wineries involved? The problem lies in the fact that the tainted wine was sold in bulk and then bottled by different estates, so the wineries probably bought the wine without knowing that was tainted. This leads me to believe that the estates involved in this scandal are most likely big names, producers who buy wines from all over and then bottle it under their name and sell it as a quality product for 2 euros at the supermarket... a 2 buck chuck type of philosophy. I must say, there are a lot of similarities, the key difference being that here in the States, it is legal to add sugar to must and call the resulting mixture "wine"; in Italy, it is not, so the ruthless criminals involved in this grand-scale scandal decided to use the dangerous acids to "break" the sucrose and turn it into glucose and fructose, which are naturally present in the grapes. Since those sugars are a key ingredient in the fermentation process (sugar will turn in alcohol), they have a product that can pass off as wine as well - and most importantly, it's LEGAL.

To tell the truth from an insider's perspective, the fact that not everybody in Montalcino uses 100% Sangiovese for their Brunello is no new news. It's just as well-known that not all Champagnes are made with grapes from the Champagne region, and that you can find small amounts of Barbera in some Barolo. The fact that it is common to augment such integrity-based wines does not make it right to do so - in fact, producers who DO make wines that are false to their classifications are still cheating, and deserve to be reprimanded. I don't have any sympathy for those who say that they were forced to add other grapes because of the taste profile of certain critics or what the market requires - if you like to please the crowd you can always bottle an IGT wine and follow whatever trend the market asks for in an honest way. Or, maybe we could all decide that it is allowable to use small percentages of other grapes and still label the wines as single varietals, like in the USA. Either way, I hope that this time, my fellow countrymen will learn the lesson, although I'm not sure they will, because as a good friend always says: "Italians love to cheat - it's in their DNA to do so." The problem is that because of few lowlife greedy people (actually the word I would like to use starts with "B," ends with an "S" and has "astard" in the middle) who are often protected by those in power, the reputations of too many honest people are compromised so it does eventually look like cheating is indeed, all we do.
My only hope is that sooner or later we can get rid of those "parasites" so that the honest people are able to continue to provide good products without the unfair competition that cheaters represent.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Meet the Makers: Roberto Cipresso Part 3

2008-04-08T21:00:00.002-05:00

The Wine Station in Torrenieri Montalcino

Here it is, as I promised, the 3rd and last part of Cipresso's interview...

G: I know that you are pretty wanted. What is it that makes you pick a winery and what makes you leave it?

R: Well! The winery has to have some credentials that are not only the ones linked to the capital the owner has available, but also to the potential of it. It’s important to have a favorable terroir but mostly it’s important that the ambition of the winery be equal to its potentials. All this works very well. Then, another important element is to evaluate if the winemaker is a connoisseur and can become my accomplice because to make a superior wine you are always incurring big risks and often the winemakers can become the scapegoats of the situation. When does it end with a winery? Well, it can end because of an altercation, I do not know. It has, also happened. Normally, though, a consulting relationship comes to an end when the terroir has been explored, the winery is well trained and it has now the need of a relation of friendship and confrontation more than one of development. In addition to that, I’m afflicted by a grave illness which is boredom, and I can’t think to stay with the same winery for life because I have to constantly look for new incentives. Some wineries know about this, therefore, the friendship has become so deep that, in order to avoid losing the adrenaline that I need to work for them, every year they come up with something new and this is good for them, but mostly it is good for me, because when I have a lot on my plate I can also give the best of me. It seems strange. (laughs).

G: Let’s talk about your personal cellar, which wine do you have in there that is dearest to you: vintage and label, and which is the wine that you do not have but that you would like to have?

R: Oh my god! I have a lot of wines, and some of them are very special. I love Bourgogne but I love also like older Bordeaux. A wine that I have and that I observe and would like to drink every day, but desist from doing so is a Chateaux Mouton Rothschild ’82. This is one of the greatest wines of my life and I still have one bottle of it. Then, I have some of my wines, historical ones, like Ciacci ’90, wines by Pian Rosso, La Fiorita ’93, the vintage, the Mosclapado, the Pignolo of Dorigo, basically some very important wines but hmmmm…

G: The wine that you would like to have?

R: Probably a wine that I would like to have is one that I already drank, damn it! It is wine that I already drank and I do not have anymore and I regret. A Chardonnay Botrydis ’91 by Regaleali, for instance, is a wine that has left me speechless or, something like a Leoville Poyferre 1900; I drank it and I wrote a book on it. Then, a wine that I would like to have…damn! I would like them all! All of the best wines!

G: (laughs) you’re not the only one. There is why the passion for wine can become a very expensive one. To end our interview, I know that you are pretty busy, an advice for who enters the world of wine: what is the first thing that they should do?

R: Well, they would have take some time and some vacation because there is nothing better to understand wine to go and visit the winemakers, to spend time with them, listen to them and try to understand what risk means in this world where nature is not so generous like today people want to make you believe. Nature is treacherous and every morning each winemaker wakes up hoping that there be no hail, no wind and no frost. Therefore, you need a little time to understand the wine under the labor point of view and of the respect for it. Then, you need to drink wine, and a lot of it. Life is too short to drink bad wine; therefore, you need to drink only good wine. Finally, you certainly need to read. However, you cannot do only one of these things. You cannot just read, just drink o just go around cellars, because to hit the mark you need to be able to do all three of them.

G: As far as reading goes, I can personally advise your book: Il Romanzo del Vino (The Wine Fiction). We didn’t talk about it. Let’s spend some words on it. Il Romanzo del Vino truly is a fiction. On a technical level you write about things that are correct but its main essence is this fiction. This is the beauty of it: the fact that you explain difficult concepts in an original way. How did you come up with this idea?

R: Well, after so many years in this profession I’ve gathered a drawer, more than a drawer of notes, labels, but not only about the wines and the terroirs, also about the people in the wine field. The people in this field are a little special. I laid them on a table and I had a friend help me who’s an expert in writing, Giovanni Negri. So, a book was written and I didn’t believe that it could become so famous in such a short time. I hope soon to be able to propose it to the American market. This book called Il Romanzo del Vino more than a ”romanzo” is a real story, because fictions are made of fantasy. This is a true, romantic story enclosed in nine first chapters because these are all trips among the wine, the people, the history, the culture, the passion, the effort, among the emotions but also the blasphemies, because winemaking is something that is very real, very raw and very special. I tried to narrate it in a more comprehensible language, outside of the usual frames the ones that are too didactical, too fancy or too “oaked” as you would say with a glass in your hands, and searching for a more romantic formula that could be interesting, real and accessible under all aspects. This is a book that can be read even by a non-drinker.

G: Roberto, thanks a lot for your time. I wish you’ve had a pleasant visit here in New York, and I hope you’ll come and visit me the next time you’re in town.

R: Thanks to you too.

I like to thank Gilda Galiano for helping translate this interview.

Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Would You Care For a Glass of Muriatic Acid?

2008-04-03T11:42:00.006-05:00

The following story is today's news, but in reality , it's old news - a piece that L'Espresso published on their site today. (click here for the translated version)
Yet another scandal is scuffing Italy's reputation. After the "adjusted" Brunello fiasco, and the Mozzarella scare (in the end the EU tests came back negative), it became apparent that GREEDINESS has become one of the biggest problems the modern world is facing - the alarming and disconcerting realization that our supposedly "guaranteed" products may very well have been tampered with for the sake of a larger profit margin. The latest scandal has been discovered by the Guardia di Finanza, one of the Italian police agencies. According to the Guardia, a prosecutor and 2 judges, the issue at hand is very disturbing; 70 million liters of wine (which would fill 93 million bottles) have been found to contain only a small percentage of actual must (tests found between 20 and 40% of it).
The rest of the wine's content was composed of sugar, water, muriatic acid and sulfuric acid (widely used in liquid plumbers). Needless to say. the people who are exposed to this deadly mixture will most likely develop different types of cancers. There are 8 wineries who have been implicated so far, and 20 more are under investigation; one of them was already involved with a methanol-tainted wine scandal 22 years ago, a fiasco that killed 19 people and left another 15 blind. In winemaker Bruno Castagna's facilities, the police have discovered 60 Kg of sugar (sucrose) and large quantities of muriatic and sulfuric acids next to the tanks, a find which put the detectives on the right trail to uncover perhaps the biggest food adulteration fraud ever to happen in Italy. The sad part is that similar adulterations are made almost everywhere in the world - probably not to the extent of using such dangerous acids, but regardless, a product that is supposedly made from grapes to be composed mostly of something else is despicable. It is particularly sobering to remember that big corporations are in this field for profit that has to grow every year in order to satisfy the shareholders. It is shameful that that goal is now being sought out through dishonest means that compromise the basic integrity and quality levels that should be required for every eatable and drinkable product.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

How to Beat the Recession

2008-04-02T08:30:00.000-05:00

There is a big debate within our borders regarding whether or not we are in a recession. The reality is that the US economy is not in a good shape to say the least, and the average level of spending is declining. I feel the repercussions of that in the store, where I'm paying against the strong Euro which is pushing the prices up, creating a dangerous gap between retail costs and the money in people's pockets.
So what should one do in order to maintain the quality of his healthy habits without going broke?
The first suggestion is simple: STAY AWAY from Bordeaux. The top quality Chateaus are amazing, as well as some second and third growths (Leoville Barton is a splendid example of my theory) - but if you could find a few deals in those categories six months ago, chances are, they too are almost untouchable today. The above-mentioned Leoville Barton went from being in the $50 range no more then 3 years ago to well over $100 on the shelf today. And in most of the wines below that level, you'll start to see the "high-tech" wines; the ones that are part of the "Constellation" philosophy. Like McDonald's, they might taste good, but they are not expressive nor are they experientially satisfying. Burgundy is still holding up its quality standards, but the prices are prohibitive. That region in particular would not allow, for morphological and historical reasons, the discussion of higher production levels, so the amounts available are very limited. And since the wines are sought out from all around the globe, the prices are pushed up to the moon, and rightfully so, I might add. So where should one go in France for quality that won't break the bank? I would look for Rhone, Cahors, Sancerre (a good Sancerre Rouge is better then an average Burgundy and cost less) The wines I believe are still fairly priced, considering that today because of the note exchange we are paying 60% more than we were 6 years ago. But with a keen eye, you can still find a good selections of Cotes du Rhone, and other more obscure appellations for under $20 on the shelf.
In France there is also still the Champagne phenomenon - a small, tough region in the north that still manages to have monster productions, lower the overall quality of the non-vintage products, and after all of that, still claiming a shortage of it, resulting in the prices doubling over the course of just a few months. Want an example? Here's a good one: the wholesale price of the Laurent Perrier Brut NV in April will go from $174 to $ 204 for a case of six and from $ 510 to $ 990 for the Grand Siecle La Cuvee (these prices are published with the State Liquor Authority and are both the 1st case price). So if the 30% increase in price for the NV Brut can be justified buy the Euro's unstoppable strength (although there was another increase of 20% in September) the close to 100% increase for the Grand Siecle cannot be. As an alternative, sparkling wines from Italy, especially Piedmont, Lombardia (Franciacorta) and Trentino have the potential for very serious quality at a fraction of the price of Champagne (this category doesn't necessarily include Prosecco, which is not made using the traditional Champanoise Method). An additional similar alternative can be found in Spain as well, with some of the better quality Cava.
In Italy, most economy-related things are better off than they are in France - but still some of the more sought-out wineries can charge an arm and a leg for a bottle. If you compare the best from Barolo, Giacomo Conterno Barolo Monfortino could be a good example, which sells for little over $ 300 retail. For the best from Burgundy, Romanee Conti and Henry Jayer sell for well over $ 300, and in some cases, they're getting closer to four figures. And while you can find great quality in the $40-$50 range with wineries like Fantino, Rocche dei Manzoni, Eraldo Viberti and many others, but then again, it cannot be the wine of choice in a moment of crisis. Once again I would look at different "Denominazioni." A Carema or a Gattinara has a more down-to-earth price point, while maintaining a good level of quality. I think it's better to spend $29 for a great Carema than 30+ for an average Barolo. Even if you have an occasion where you cannot live without Nebbiolo but your budget is $20, Valtellina is the place you want to look. A good Rosso di Valtellina can be found in the $15-$20 range and in some cases tastes better then the 20+ dollar Langhe Rosso from Piedmont. A similar argument can be made for Tuscany and Veneto and if your taste is open enough you can also substitute the wines with monumental stigma with something coming from a not-so-well-known wine region, like Abruzzo, Marche, Umbria, Apulia, Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia. The same thing is generally true for the rest of the world as well , regarding where you can find great wine without inflated prices. Argentina's prices are stable, because the peso is the only currency in the world that has depreciated against the dollar in the past year. So my recession remedy suggestion is this; don't lower your quality standards. Instead, try choosing a less expensive, little-known denomination, but spend the same money on a higher quality wine.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Meet the Makers: Roberto Cipresso Part 2

2008-03-29T11:16:00.005-05:00

… As I was saying before, there is more behind a bottle of wine than you might imagine. To make this concept even clearer, here is the second part of my interview with Roberto Cipresso, which, I hope might increase your passion and thirst for knowledge… and for more truly good wine.

R: We started by reviving an old tendril. The original was made of 800 vines and today La Fiorita became a 7 hectare estate. Today we have two Cru: Poggio al Sole, which is in the Sant’Angelo al Colle area and one in Castelnuovo dell’Abate, characterized by warm and sunny weather, and Pianbossolino, which is in the area closer to Montalcino, in a high, fresh and vertical position and it expresses different tones. Based on the vintage trend, part of each cru is made into Riserva and the other one is left for the regular Brunello. Today, there’s the idea to build a final block of vines, I’ve already intercepted the piece of land where this could take place, but we are moving slowly so that we do not risk overgrowing. La Fiorita today, with a 7-hectare land produces 20,000 Brunello bottles and a second wine named Laurus that represents the Rosso di Montalcino, but it actually isn’t because it is a blend of Sangiovese that makes it an IGT and a part of Merlot.

G: As you’ve said, you’re from Bassano del Grappa, any cultural shock moving in Toscana?

R: Yeah, Bassano is a different culture and a different type of people, I left with regret, first due to the “Malattia del Campanile” typical of people from Veneto, which is the inability to detach from their perish, and because I had to abandon my first, true passion which was the mountain. Of course, Tuscany has beautiful places, wonderful air, great light so much that I’ve decided to raise my children in that place. Beside the mental shock, at 23 years old, I have to admit that we have a strong elasticity of mind and the ability to rapidly change and revolutionize everything. I have to acknowledge that making such a move today would be much more difficult.

G: So, the encounter with Achaval-Ferrer; the Altamira vineyard discovery: do you remember what have you felt when you found those ancient Malbec plants?

R: Well, the discovery has been spectacular, because I found myself to chase a project in Argentina that in Spanish is called “Deferimento in Positivo” which means: a project promoted by the state offered to all of those in Argentina who were willing to invest in the north area of Mendoza, the one in San Juan, in exchange for a very interesting tax break. For this reason a big group of Cordova asked me to make a feasibility plan. We were supposed to understand if in the San Juan area we could start a relevant project of a certain quality. So, I went and I had an incredible experience, exploring land where I believe that no other human being has stepped foot on before. An experience that has left me a strong heritage: the friendship with Santiago Achaval and Manuel Ferrer, today my partners along with two friends Marcelo Victoria e Diego Rosso in a project that, in this case as well, started as a game and ended in a very important and relevant project. We planted a first vineyard in the Valle de Uco in the Tupungato area that is an hour south of Mendoza. Then, I started searching for an old vineyard looking for a land with an identity as close as possible to the old world. I looked for a higher point to find a peculiar microclimate until I found these old abandoned vines in the Consulta region south of Tupungato near the Rio Tunuyan. This was an amazing place, the vines were abandoned but old, almost secular near the mountain facing north (an ideal exposition for the south hemisphere). No one could ever imagine that, after a few years, those dying vines would have been able to provide such a great outcome. The satisfaction for my partners and me came as a surprise considering the market found for that wine, and the great reviews received by Wine Spectator and Robert Parker, where we were assigned respectively 96 and 98 points. Dazzling numbers.

G: Let’s go back to your consulting job: with so many wineries spread around Italy and around the world, how do you organize yourself to be always on top of your game?

R: In the beginning they were a few and I used to follow them on my own. Then, they increased and so did the people involved. At first, there was the Studio Cipresso, then, Winemaking which is a firm of professionals; six of them helping with the technical matters. Our responsibilities are divided by areas which they follow hand on. I’m the supervisor for this “school”. It is still my philosophy, they all report to me and then I make the decision and ultimately I’m the one responsible for the projects. Luckily I’m now able to make wine with four hands with some really talented professional people who are truly focus on these projects and who, like me, travel miles and miles every year.

G: Now that you have this structure that allows you to have some free time, you’ve decided to take on two new big projects: “Winecircus” and “Le Stazioni del Vino” (The Wine Stations). So tell me: don’t you enjoy resting?

R: (Laughs) This is a good point! I’d like to, but the thirst of research and the ambition to close the circle that started twenty years ago in the wine world is very high. In fact, there are two concurrent projects, Wine Circus and Winemaking, which in reality are the same type of plan but they are expressed in two different platforms. Winemaking deals with consulting, explores the land and meets with many different types of people, both in the work environment and in those with whom I have to mediate in order to find the right compromise into obtaining a feasible wine. On the other hand, Winecircus starts as a gymnasium, a big laboratory where my boys and I go above and beyond. We do not make wine for the market but here is where we deepen specific thesis that in other people’s vineyards cannot be done. So, we try to vinify some stocks of grapes that are impossible, vertical, in mountains, in old places, from old vines, by the sea, on the original rootstock, forgotten and abandoned varietals. Thanks to this project now we have a series of ingredients able to generate some very interesting wines, and among these, one that was released for the first time a few years ago, called La Quadratura del Cerchio. This actually represents a wine that is born with respect to the terroir, and that, at the same time, takes advantage of that terroir as an extraordinary ingredient, able to offer formulas that come out of mathematical theories but that develop into a more philosophical concept, for which, sometimes 1+1 can even be equal to 3. Wine Station, instead, by offering consulting for WineMaking and research for Winecircus, wants to be the Disneyland of wine, a place where the connoisseurs and the people curious about the wine with a sporty spirit can be able to drink in a very peculiar location. This is an old place that we are bringing back, where they can drink great wines, free of ties and lies, this is therefore, a real and original space. This is an area that I hope to be the one where instead of chasing after the world, the vineyards, the people, I welcome and wait for friends and connoisseurs to come and see me in such a suggestive place.

Stay tuned for the 3rd and last part...

Sicily is on the wine map now.

2008-03-19T14:59:00.002-05:00

Sicily is the biggest and one of the most beautiful Mediterranean islands. It has been historically relevant for over 4000 years and it's very likely that it's soils hosted the first grapes ever planted on Italian turf.
It's a magical land that inspired Homer (Polyphemus, the Cyclops defeated by Odysseus dwelt on Mount Etna) as well as many other writers throughout the centuries. The soil is rich and luxurious but also demanding and hard to work - there are very hot and dry summers, fairly rainy and windy with great luminosity. The oldest trace of winemaking, dating back to over 4000 years ago, was found in Sicily, although the island just in recent years has been recognized for the wines. Historically Sicily produced wines to be sold "sfuso" (in bulk) often to France and the north of Italy where, because of the cold climate, there was a need for juices richer in sugars. Today along with the historical estates like Rallo, the king of Marsala, Donnafugata, Conte Tasca d'Almerita and the Duca di Salaparuta, new ones have flourished and in some cases outshone the more renowned estates. Wineries like Planeta, Cos, Valle dell' Acate, Passopisciaro of Andrea Franchetti, Palari, Spadafora, Santa Anastasia and many others helped Sicily to rose from the mediocre and antiquated conception of wine making to having a steady spot in the circle of top wines of the world. Recently I received an email with 90+ Parker ratings on Passopisciaro. The red wine of the year for the Gambero Rosso was indeed Sicilian (Palari Faro 2005) , and there are properties like COS and Spadafora that have embraced bio-sensitive (biodynamic and or organic) growing systems. COS actually started to use amphorae to age their Cerasuolo Pithos. The Cerasuolo di Vittoria (a blend of Nero d'Avola and Frappato) is the 1st DOCG of the island, meaning that now Sicily can sit with the elite of the Italians wine regions.
I had a brief but intense experience down in Sicily: a few years ago I participated in a project for a winery in a little town called Santa Venerina on the Mount Etna slopes. It is an amazing place - the land is black (composed by lava and ashes), very rich in organic substances, south west exposure, with a breathtaking view of Taormina and Giardini Naxos. And with Etna behind all of that, the place radiates a constant powerful energy (since the volcano is still very active you can feel its power just standing next to it). I believe that Sicily is still unappreciated considering the concentration of historical sites, and the spectacular weather. I was swimming in the sea in November, eating the unbelievably fresh and tasty foods, from next-to-alive fish to the typical plates like Caponata, Cannoli and Cassate. You can ski in the winter on Mt. Etna and then start to enjoy the sea in the spring.
I don't think there are many islands in the world that have so many attractive qualities. No, I'm not paid by the Sicilian Tourism Agency. :) Actually, after I split up with my partners in the winery, I haven't be back there, so I'm actually surprised that after so many years, every time I think about Sicily I still have a powerful nostalgia for that magical and impossible island.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Young Or Old?

2008-03-07T09:33:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago I was reading, with a bit of jealousy I must say, Eric Asimov's diary on DRC tasting. While reading I was struck by the comments of the co-owner and co-director of the estate Aubert de Villaine on the possibility of drinking a Burgundy in early age; "when you get older, you develop a taste for young wine." My first thought was one of disbelief... but then I remembered how the Tuscans drink their own wines - young - and it didn't seem so irrational after all.
Obviously there are some wines that need to be drunk young and others that need more time to develop, a fair few having almost the same progression as a human being - a few years of infancy, followed by childhood, adolescence, puberty and so on. Wines like Barolo, Burgundy, Brunello and in some aspects, also Bordeaux age like humans. A bottle develops, grows, changes in color and characteristic, loses power and gains complexity, until finally shrinking (ullage) into death. Now if that is somehow true my question is: are all of the teenagers not quite worthy of our attention? My answer is no - Mozart was a prodigy in his childhood, as was Picasso. So is it possible to appreciate a wine, which is destined to grow old, in early age? Now my answer gets a bit more complicated. Yes of course I enjoy young wines - they are more challenging, austere, bitter and astringent, is fun to let them open in a glass and feel my taste buds battle through the tight tannins. It's akin to wrestling with a kid and tricking his impetuous energy with the experience. But, on the other hand the chess game you can have with an older wine is also a great experience. Ideally, there would be enough bottles of the same wine to enjoy it in all the stages of its life, but that is a prohibitively costly solution, not only in simple practice, but because it implies the acquisition of larger quantity of the same wine for every vintage, which for most of us is not possible. So, the process I like to use goes something like this: open a wine and pour a glass right away, take a sip and set an aroma/taste benchmark - are there any aromas or flavors at all? How hard are they to detect? What are they? Then, keep tasting it in regular intervals (every half an hour, for example) and see how the wine changes. Then leave the bottle open with a piece of paper on top (so none of our small flying friends can usurp your fine juice) until the following day and pour another glass... and so on until the wine dies or the bottle is finished. That will give you a pretty good idea on the wine's longevity. Usually after the second day you will start to taste the oxidation, although I've had wines that lasted over 3 days (like Bernard Faurie Saint Joseph I wrote about a while ago). Doing this, you don't need to open a bottle per year - you can decide when the wine will be developed enough to be enjoyed. But! - the real question here is whether or not you can enjoy young a wine ought to age; as I mentioned before, the Tuscans like their wine young... they are wine pedophiles. I always thought of that as sort of a sin, but growing up I find more pleasure in drinking a wine at an early stage, like Mr. de Villaine did, so I my answer will be yes I can, and I not only think is important for my job to do so, but is becoming a growing pleasure to sip low ph and Gallotannins. Am I becoming wine pedophile as well...
Buon Bevuta a Tutti

What an Honor!!!

2008-02-21T08:56:00.009-05:00

It was in January when my phone rang, whom to my wondering ears should speak but Eric Asimov. He had contacted me in order to invite me to be part of his recent tasting panel for the Chianti Classico. I obviously and gladly accepted with a healthy amount of excitement.
The tasting was held in the New York Times' new building on 9th Avenue, beautiful and humongous structure of glass and stainless steel created in the incomparable mind of Renzo Piano. After passing security I was received by Eric's warm smile that cleared a bit of the tension I had - after all, this was quite an honor. He handed me a note book and a pen, and I had brought my palate - so we were ready to start.
The room where the tasting was held had a great view of the river and New Jersey. The table was set up for four people with 25 glasses already filled and numbered, as well as crackers, bread and bottled water. On the east wall at the end of the room I found a long and narrow table with a few plates of delicious food.
Eric was seated at one of the end of the table Ms. Florant Fabricant across from him, and Mr. Charles Scicolone and I facing each other, forming a sort of cross. After relating to us the tasting rules Eric started the tasting. I was the rookie of the table and I must say that everybody did their best to create a very informal and comfortable environment; the atmosphere was very real and there was no space to show off or to be snobbish, and although I was the least experienced in the room my word had the same weight as the others. There were no competitive behaviors among us, and it was a highly focused and professional tasting. Being the new kid on the block, I was asked a lot of questions about my training and past along with conversation about the wine and food world, between all of the swirls, sips and spits. We did a first round eliminating 4 or 5 of the wines, and then continued with the rating and comments on each of the remaining wines.
While the words were going around like a carousel I was amazed by how precise some of the comments were, included some of mine, and it was great to challenge the palate, hearing a comment about a flavor and going right back to the glass and try to see it. The great exchange of information, among the 4 of us, about every wine lead up to detecting whether the wine was more or less expensive, from a small winery or a big one, at times almost getting to the grape compositions. All that was obviously done blind, and the wines were revealed at the end of the tasting by Bernie Kirsh, the 5th element of the table AKA the tasting coordinator.
The whole thing lasted little more than 2 hours but the impact on my education was worth a much greater amount of time. Therefore, I would like to thank Eric for inviting me and Florant, Charles and Bernard for sharing with me and adding a big brick onto my learning wall, a wall that I'm convinced is not going to stop growing until I'm no longer able to breathe.
Thank you

Meet the Makers: Roberto Cipresso Part One

2008-02-17T16:06:00.013-05:00

When you drink a bottle of fine wine, smell the aromas of its land and identify the little nuances transmitted to your palate, you taste also the expression of nature and personality. Nature is obviously a fundamental component in the making of wine. However, the crucial impact of its end-result is the personality behind the process of making that product. So, to complete your tasting experience, I would like to you meet Roberto Cipresso, an icon of the wine making process, and consultant for various wineries in Italy and around the world, nominated Best 2006 Winemaker by the Italian Sommelier Society.

Gabrio : Roberto, welcome to New York and thanks for being here for this interview.

Roberto: Thanks Gabrio! It’s a pleasure!

G: Let’s talk about the beginning of your career. Is there a character that left a mark with you and helped develop your career?

R: Well, there are a lot of people, producers especially. When you develop the passion for wine, then, a great curiosity is triggered and that’s when my never-ending journey started. So, I’ve met numerous “vignaioli” friends, or rather, wine-makers who have become my friends and each one of them has had and has something important to say. Most of all, I got closer to the older producers, the ones who have lived in strict contact with the land and have been able to tell me things… real things about wine and about life.

G: After getting your education, followed the classical training period, which we all have to face, then your first job: what do you remember?

R: Oh my God! That was a strange experience. It started in 1986. I was into mountain climbing and skiing. One excursion went wrong, and that pushed me away from that passion. Since I was studying in San Michele all’Adige at the time, I was given the great opportunity to meet with Gianfranco Soldera and move to Montalcino. There, I worked at his estate Case Basse. From there, I started moving with others, like Poggio Antico, until I found a truly steady ground working for Ciacci Piccolomini of the Bianchini family, who had recently inherited a property in Montalcino and gave me the opportunity to express myself by assigning me role of executive director of the project. In a short period of time we were able to plant new vineyards, reorganize the cellar and improve the whole productive process, allowing Ciacci Piccolomini, an estate unknown at the time, worth to be highlighted on the Montalcino map thanks to the power, the complexity and the freshness of its wines. With the very great success of the 88 and especially the 90 vintages, my career as a consultant/wine maker has taken a turn, increasing my curiosity to look at various vineyards and vines from all over the “boot” and the world. In Italy I worked in some regions like Veneto, Friuli, Piedmont, Toscana Marche Sicilia and Sardinia. Outside of Italy, I’ve been in interesting places like Croatia, Spain and Argentina, a land where I left a piece of heart that is has been giving me a lot of satisfaction.

G: After that, you decided to strengthen your Montalcino roots and became partner of La Fiorita. Tremendous start! First bottling in 1993; the old production was bought by Giorgio Pinchiorri, owner of Enoteca Pinchiorri, and, then, auctioned in part at Cristie’s. Now, from the little I know about you, you talk to the vines. So tell me: what did you feel when you found the vineyards for your estate and what makes La Fiorita different from other estates in Castelnuovo dell’Abate?

R: La Fiorita, like if often happens for the most beautiful things, was a lucky discovery. I’m from Bassano della Grappa, and I met up with two people who had nothing to do with wine. In fact, they were involved in car racing, more specifically rally, Micky Biason and Tiziano Seviero, who fell in love with Montalcino during their races and decided to start a small, microscopic project. So, I found a piece of land with two olive trees and a shack on it and we started like that; a place to hang out, eat meat and drink good wine among friends more than anything else. Then, my two partners began taking on different projects and I took more interest into that estate and started looking around, gathering new vineyards, putting a lot of myself into it, and trying to express an maximize the expression of the terroir.

Listen to the original interview in Italian, part one and part two

Buona Bevuta a Tutti

A lovely dinner with Bruno de Conciliis

2008-02-09T12:58:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago, we had the honor and pleasure of holding a dinner at Il Posto Accanto for 25 esteemed guests. The guest of honor was Bruno de Conciliis, winemaker and owner of Viticoltori De Conciliis, a fairly small estate in the heart of the Parco Nazionale del Cilento, in Campania.
The theme of the dinner was of course Campania, and the from the hands of Beatrice, Chef/Owner of Il Bagatto and Il Posto Accanto (she also happens to be my sister) came a 4-course meal that was to die for.
I have written about Bruno's wines many times, as I value his winery as the most accurate representative of the area in Campania. Through the years Bruno gained enough confidence and experience to gradually lower the use of sulfites in his wines, and in 2007, after five years of conversion, he received the certification reserved for organic growers. That night, we drank several of Bruno's wines, among which I would say that the Naima showed the biggest change from the year before. Naima is made from 100 % Aglianico, and is aged in Barriques for 12 months. The difference stemmed from the use of second passage wood (old) more than new wood; it gave the wine more depth, elegance and complexity. Hearing the guests' comments on it was one of the major highlights of the night, along with talk over the Antece, a Fiano vinified with a long maceration on the skins that results in a darker, full bodied and, if you can believe it, tannic white wine; I must say, it was as unique as the hand that produce it.
The food was brilliant and the guests barely left a bite on the plates. In fact, I was impressed by their capability to finish every succulent dish, all great pairings with the wines; like the Si:kjube, 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, with the Timballino di Riso al Ragu` e Piselli, or the Zero, an exquisite Aglianico with the Braciolina di Maiale... just thinking about it I got hungry and thirsty again.
A note on the Si:kjube: it is not one of Bruno's favorites, because "it's too easy to work with Cabernet Sauvignon, and l like the challenge." The grapes come from a neighboring vineyard, and Bruno helps the owner make the wine. In exchange, he keeps some of the production and labels it under his logo. According to Bruno, he will bottle the Si:kjube for another year before calling it quits.
The Zero, rather, is Bruno's golden child. The grapes come from old vines in different vineyards of De Conciliis properties. Composed of, 100% Aglianico, the wine is dark like ink with astringent tannins, an intense bouquet of dark fruits, a long finish and long aging potential; we opened the 2003 vintage and the juice was still little closed, showing aging capabilities.
Before the desserts we had the chance to try De Conciliis's latest creation, IBS. This wine is a blend of 80% Aglianico and 20% Fiano, made to be released in 2009. 600 bottles comprise the total production, so it was a so-called barrel sample, because the juices are still aging in the barrique. It was very good, but still with a long road ahead before it is able to express its full potential.
Dulcis in fundo, as the Latin scholars used to say, the desserts made their appearance along with the Ka! and Ra! De Conciliis dessert wines. The Ka! is a Moscato Bianco Passito, full with great flavors of flowers and peaches. The Ra! is an Aglianico passito, which somehow shows up like a Recioto, with herbal flavors over a bed of luscious red fruits.
It was a lovely night and I would like to thank all the guests, and of course Bruno de Conciliis and Dino Tantawi of Vignaioli Imports for their enlightening presence.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Is The Brain Taste Worst Enemy ?

2008-01-18T08:44:00.000-05:00

A couple of days ago, a friend of mine sent me an email with an article about how certain cerebral information can (and almost always will) impair your taste judgment.
The article, written by Kathryn Westcott, can be found on the BBC website. The piece explains in some noteworthy depth that scientific studies have proven tasters' judgment to be influenced by numerous unrelated factors about a wine, not the least of which is the bottle's price tag.
Back in November, I wrote a post about how corruptible and flaky the palate can be, and this study of the California Institute of Technology confirmed a great many of my suspicions. Those suspicions were further legitimized by a musing from the uber-taster, his eminence Robert Parker, when he stated:
"I really think probably the only difference between a 96-, 97-, 98-, 99-, and 100-point wine is really the emotion of the moment".
"The emotion of the moment," huh? Well then, I suppose my question is this: why do people still listen to wine experts, if the pinnacle of taste has more to do with our feelings than our palates? Perhaps we should be asking our shrinks instead.
In all seriousness: I'd like to first say that a price tag's influence on judgment of quality is no surprise. It is a byproduct of capitalism that occurs not just with wine and food, but with most of the goods we buy. Studies show that brands are better recognized when they are associated with higher prices. Secondly, the test was carried with 21 volunteers, but the group's mean level of experience was not known. And, as a car expert can determine the value of a car by inspecting its various parts and assessing its general condition, or a watch expert is capable of telling a fake timepiece from a real one, a wine expert will look for certain information coming from the wine itself when rating it. An average consumer or buyer of cars, watches or wines might not have those capabilities.
I was recently invited to a tasting with a blind format. I sat on a panel with much more experienced palates than my own, and collectively, the comments and ratings of the wines were so precise as to put them in a price category; one wine in particular, I recall was very good, all-around, and at the same time, we said that probably was among the less expensive of the bottles at the tasting. And, as a matter of fact, it was the cheapest one.
In addition to experience, the format of the tasting should also be examined. I can say (from experience) that there are many ways to taste, depending on the goal of the tasting. Blind format is good for honing the palate and removing biases of appellation and label. If my goal is to evaluate the aging potential of a wine, I open a bottle and try it several times over a few days, and the wine's vital statistics (vintage, house, and price) are just used for reference. But as a merchant, if I'm tasting to buy a wine I like to have information, included the price, in order to weigh the price-quality ratio. From that standpoint, a wine could be uncommonly good if costs $6, but middling or average if it goes for $12.
So it is true, taste is often challenged by information, and it plays a large role in making decisions about what to buy. But the "experts," if I may be so bold, have different tools, experiences, and methods to taste a wine - memories of flavors and textures, and historical, geographic, climatic and geological instincts that will help provide an accurate and more precise judgment.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Joe Stone Crab Miami

2008-01-09T15:22:00.000-05:00

Well, I did it - I finally took 3 days off , I closed the store and spent some time in Miami.
This was my first time there, and I must say that I thought it was a really beautiful place. I stayed in South Beach and had the chance to get some sun and swim the ocean before it got crazily cold... as a matter of fact, the low temperature on January 3rd was 38 degrees (does it get that cold regularly in Miami?). I had 3 priorities the first was to relax at the beach, which I did extensively on my first day (and briefly on the second one, as well). The third day, unfortunately, was too cold to even think about getting half naked, much less going outside and laying around.
The second priority was a visit to El Rey de la Guayaberas in the Little Havana district; the Guayabera, a style of shirt, was originally from Cuba but is widely used in the Caribbean islands, especially on "Spanish" ones.
I completed that task on the last day, but it was 47 degrees and, like I said, definitely too cold to lay on the beach anyway. I didn't meet "El Rey" Ramon Puig, but there were two lovely Cuban ladies that adopted me and chose the perfect size and shape of Guayabera, and in my favorite colors!
The third priority was a dinner at Joe Stone Crab!
The story of this famous joint started in 1913 when Joe Weiss moved to Miami and opened up a small restaurant when Miami was still an insignificant and quiet backwater town. After running a lunch stand at Smith's Bathing Casino, he and his wife bought a small bungalow on Biscayne Street and set up eight tables on the front porch; that was the year 1918.
Joe was in the kitchen while Jessie, his wife, tended to the eight tables, their specialties were Pompano, Mackerel, Snapper and some meat dishes. Things got busy quickly for them, partially because they had no competition, but mostly because of the tremendous fish sandwiches Joe's diligently made. They started to use their living room to put more tables up and they opened for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The famous Stone Crabs came around few years later, in 1921 when James Allison opened an aquarium near Joe's restaurant. Jessie, Joe's son, used to go for fun, and check out their research on the local crabs, called Stone Crab. One day James brought 4 crabs to the restaurant and asked Joe to cook them, and after few arguments on how they should be prepared, grilled, broiled and so on Joe just took and threw them in boiling water and that was it. They were exquisite and Joe, who hadn't believed that the crabs could sell, hit the jackpot... because Biscayne Bay was full of them.
Today fishing Stone Crabs is regulated in order to keep a healthy number of them around. I had Joe's Stone Crabs several times in New York. They actually ship it next-day air, and very well packed, so they're always fresh. But the experience of being there is another story. The place was packed and the wait was up to 2 hours; my good friend Luciano, thank god, knew somebody that knew somebody else that had a table ready for the 4 of us. We got the infamous crabs paired with some Alaskan king crabs and some hash browns, Joe's style, deliziosi!!!
The claws were juicy and filled with meat, they were sweet and yet you could taste the sea, creamy and slightly salty, delicate and persisting. They were a real treat, and in fact, I'm salivating just thinking about it.
To drink, Luciano played it safe ordering Laurent Perrier Rose`. Pale orange reflections with very small and light bubbles, scents of berries and citrus with a lingering finish went great with the crustacea and also with the mayonnaise and mustard-based dipping sauce. The dinner finished with a tray of dessert, the highlight of which was the Key Lime Pie made with limes coming from the keys, hence the name, that had unique sweet citrus flavors.
It was so good that the next day I went to their take-away side and got a box with 5 pounds of claws, and proceeded to fight them through the almost ridiculously tight airport security and Continental Airline rules and regulations about transporting ice, just to have them again back in NYC.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Alcohol is rising!!! It is just because of the climate?

2007-12-27T12:36:00.000-05:00

I have, in the window of my store, some bottles from different vintages of Ridge Montebello. I call the window my cemetery, because it is where the bottles I've killed find their final repose. The Montebello is fantastic wine - I'm a big fan of it, and I drink it whenever I have excuse to do so. And then sometimes when I don't.
A few days ago Matt was browsing through the graveyard, perusing the evidence of exploits past. For those that don't know Matt, he is a young but skilled connoisseur that helps me in the store and has edited many of the posts on this blog for me, including this one. While he was browsing the Montebello corpses, he noticed a big difference in the wine's alcohol content, lighter in older bottles and higher on more recent vintages. In 1977, for instance, the percentage by volume was 11.7, and 12.9% in 1988. It climbed to 13% in 1999 and 13.2% in 2003. He mentioned global warming as explanation for the constant alcohol escalation, which does play a big part, in light of the direct proportion between sugar and alcohol. In fact, through the fermentation process the sugars are transformed directly into alcohol with the help of enzymes contained in the yeast. But is it just that... or there is more?
I remembered a conversation I had with a winemaker a while ago, regarding the help that science has contributed with grape clone selection, making more information available to agronomists, in order to select the best clones for the area of production. This information variably increases the quality and the health of the grapes. A big breakthrough happened along these lines in Montalcino, where it has been discovered that Sangiovese Grosso wasn't the best clone for Montalcino conditions and soils. In the past 30 years, the weather has gotten warmer but the grapes got healthier, the grains got smaller, and the vines got older, losing some vigor but gaining concentration and potency. Concentration of the grape from water distress coupled with better and older vines result in a higher content of polyphenols, which is a good thing for a wine. It also results in higher sugars and lower acidity levels which is not so good (distressingly high alcohol levels, and wines with shorter aging potential). Today I think we are in a sweet spot where the climate is more temperate. In Piedmont, for instance, we had a stretch of 6 good to excellent vintages from 1996 and 2001. The level of technology gave the winemakers more information than ever, including the latest creation of the grape's genome map. If this is like drinking a wine at its peak, let's hope we are still far from descending.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti.

Buon Natale

2007-12-24T13:27:00.000-05:00

Omaggio a Valentino Migliorini

2007-12-17T12:18:00.000-05:00

Valentino, owner of Rocche dei Manzoni, passed away last Thursday leaving a hole in the Langhe. Modern and passionate Barolista will be missed by all the Nebbiolo lovers.
Buon Riposo

Lost Flavors

2007-12-05T10:04:00.000-05:00

Sometimes a normal, unassuming evening can turn into a time warp experience: it happened to me on Saturday night.
First I have to provide you with an introduction to my first experience with Luciano Madii aka Il Frasca. I met him over ten years ago in Montevarchi with my brother in law, amidst our self-proclaimed crusade to the Prada outlet. Our journey fulfilled, we unassumingly asked the Carabinieri at the autostrada tollbooth where we could eat a good lunch before the outlet opened. The two of them, almost in unison said "Il Frasca. Make a right, then a left after the bridge and then follow the signs." That is exactly how we unassumingly got to "Il Frasca sull'Ambra."
The restaurant was filled with Prada managers and designers (the factory is few minutes away from the restaurant) and every table was taken, so we waited unassumingly by the bar.
Meanwhile another Prada manager who looked very hurried stepped in after us, hoping for a table. I told Frasca that we were not in hurry, and that we had to wait for the outlet to open anyway, so we could wait for the next one if he wanted to give it to the gentleman after us. That is how we unassumingly became friends, and we spent the whole day with him, only to be invited for dinner at his other restaurant "La Valle dell'Inferno".
A word about the man himself - Il Frasca is an excellent chef with over 30 years of experience. He now owns two restaurants in the Valdarno, La Valle dell'Inferno with his residence connected and la Fiaschetteria where his nephews Riccardo and Daniele run the show. He also owns an establishment in Coconut Groove in Miami. Since that first fateful day, I have eaten at La Valle dell' Inferno and the Fiaschetteria numerous times and always had the best meals. Luciano was in NY last week and stayed with us for couple of days including the unassuming Saturday, the evening that he turned into a great and memorable experience, through a warm, comforting and soothing Ribollita.
La Ribollita, literally meaning "reboiled" because of its second passage in the pan to finish the dish, is sort of a bread soup made with kale, beans, carrots, onions, celery, garlic, herbs and extra virgin olive oil. It is a pretty simple dish, a reminder of the poor roots of the classic Italian cuisine. But trust me, when Robollita is done right, it's like a symphony of flavors in the mouth.
If you go to Tuscany, every little town and every person in the town will keep the secret of how to make the a perfect Ribollita. Some put more vegetables than others, some create a little crust when reboiling, etc, etc. I'm sure one could write an entire book with all the variations and the variations on the variations of Ribollita. The Tuscans, perhaps by nature, have a very efficient networking system, but do not allow it to mar their pride for their own specific creations. As Fabio Giannotti of La Fornace, winery in Montalcino once told me: "my Brunello is the best, but I talk with other winemakers about lots of things, especially when a "friend" has a problem and need information in how to deal with it." The same unassuming networking principle also works with recipes:" my Ribollita is the best but tell me one thing - how do you get the crust so crispy like that..."
So, that Saturday I came home from the shop, and Frasca, Luciano's friend Il Pimpi (in Tuscany more than anywhere else they use nicknames religiously) and my sister were waiting for me to eat a big pot of Ribollita. Luciano took few big spoons put in a pan and started to reboil it, then put it in four plates, landed some thin slices of onions over the top and drizzled some olive oil on it. I poured some Tenuta Vitalonga Elcione for everybody then we all sat, ate and started to travel through time and space, following the hands that made those simply delicious flavors throughout the centuries.
Buona Bevuta e Mangiata a Tutti

Dinning Out The Little Howl

2007-12-02T17:15:00.000-05:00

It took me a little while, a year and a half, to finally go and pay my respect to Joey Campanaro, Chef/Owner of the Little Owl in the West Village. I met Joey several years ago when he was working at The Harrison, a restaurant right below my apartment in Tribeca. As I said I was long due to go there and savor the delicatessen Joey is capable to prepare, so Last Wednesday I'd decide to finally go and check it out. The place is fairly small but very welcoming, the kitchen is enclosed by glasses where Joey can check the dining room, there was a very inviting and enticing scent of home cooked food which in my opinion is always a good sign.
I was welcomed with a nice glass of Prosecco by Chris while Joey was waiving from behind the glass in kitchen, and after few minutes he sat us in a spacious and comfortable table, kind of amazing considering the size of the place. The menu is short but tempting I had hard time to choose from few succulent appetizer like the white risotto with egg yolk and truffles (my partner in crime choose that), the lobster soup (which was my choice), the duck breast with cranberry sauce, endive and walnut pesto or the crispy artichoke so popular that by 9 they already were out of it. The risotto was cooked to perfection (al dente) with enough white truffle on to make it a luscious plate, the lobster was flavorful with big chunks of tail in a little spicy broth. As entrees we both got the Lamb Chop; succulent, juicy, tender and flavorful. Once again the meat was perfectly cooked, served with cheese gnocchi, that almost melted in my mouth, and watercress onions salad.
To go with that I choose a nice bottle of Bordeaux Chateau de Lavaud 2004 full bodied and more new world style with some noticeable flavors of vanilla and strong fruits blending pretty well with the lamb. I must say that the Little Owl is a great little jewel hidden in the heart of the west village fairly priced that makes you feel like at home; I will soon be back to discover more from the menu.
I suggest you to make a reservation ahead of time being the space very limited; ideal for romantic dinners or small groups.
Sorry for the bad quality of the pictures I did took those with my phone...
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

BYOB

2007-11-14T16:10:00.000-05:00

Since the conglomerated eruption of nationally franchised family restaurants in the United States in the late 1970s, the vast majority of culinary service establishments have also become purveyors of alcohol. When places like Bennigan's, T.G.I.Friday's, and later Applebee's and Outback Steakhouse began to sweep the nation in response to the rocketing popularity of fast food, they brought with them the assumption that a place where you could sit, talk, have a steak on a plate and endless soda refills was also a place where you could purchase a draft beer, a glass of white zin or a scotch and soda. (They also served as the nation's chief harbinger of obesity, heart disease and deepening lack of respect for culinary proficiency; this however, is another topic for another day.)

Restaurants have more or less continued to cater to the slow-food crowd's propensity for drinking with dinner, partially because it's a relatively painless service to provide, and mostly because alcohol profits make up large portions of restaurant revenues (particularly in New York City, beverage bills often comprise well over half of a restaurant's profit margin). Some would consider the standard restaurant markup on a gin and tonic or a bottle of Bud akin to highway robbery, but considering the brusque and hefty expenses an establishment incurs to simply serve alcohol, those robberies may very well be as reasonable as the market will allow.

Aside from the costs of storing and maintaining various products, a restaurant must also apply for and be granted a legal permit to serve alcohol (in layman's tongue, a liquor license) by their state's Liquor Authority. In some states, this process is fairly painless and expedient; in others it is, in a word, not. The state of New York happens to fall into the latter category, and with over six thousand alcohol-serving restaurants in New York City alone, not only is the process of obtaining a liquor license mind-numbingly complicated, it often takes the lifespan of a hamster to complete. For some, this time is a liability build in to opening a restaurant - it is unavoidable, and must be factored into an establishment's creation. For others, an alternative concept (and the true subject of this edition of the De-Vino Times) is more enticing: BYOB.

The acronym BYOB was popularized in the 1950s, but it's become a household staple on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where BYOB restaurants and cafes have flourished for years. On Clinton Street in particular, Cube 63 is haven for the concept as well as The Orchard and Subo. It benefits both the proprietor and the patron, allowing one to showcase food, fun and atmosphere while the other can still enjoy a glass of wine, a beer or a cocktail at a negligible relative cost (often up to 200% less than in a restaurant where liquor is served). These BYOB places are win-win, and should be experienced frequently and fervently.

Speaking of which... one of the best Italian restaurants in the city, Il Bagatto, is now granting permission for BYOB on Tuesday nights - with no corkage fee. This is an opportunity not to be missed, especially with De-Vino only two blocks away! Imagine the warm, busting atmosphere, a rich plate of Osso Buco, and a bottle of Brunello that cost less than half of what it would have any other night; I don't know if I could bring myself to miss a BYOB night at a place with food that succulent.

Il Bagatto is located at 190 2nd St, near Avenue B. It is two blocks north of De-Vino. Reservations can be made at (212) 228-0977.
Happy BYOB dining!

My Dumb Period

2007-11-06T21:50:00.000-05:00

A while ago Eric Asimov wrote an article about the dumb period in wine, a particular time window in the course of a wine's life where the flavors disappear, hiding under an umbrella of tannins and tartaric acid.
It's a funny thing... every few years, that happens to my palate as well - a three or four-day period where everything seems to taste bitter and metallic.
Last night, a customer and I were having a chat about specific wines and how many times you have to drink a bottle to really understand it. He told me that in some cases, the wine will taste different almost every time, and though the food they were eating might have played a role, he was convinced that the inconsistency had to be deeper than that. As a matter of fact, there most certainly is; smell is the most corruptible of the senses, especially when talking about wine. The brain processes the information altering the interpretation based on experience or external influences.
I read an article a little while ago in an Italian newspaper that showed proof that the brain can exert influence over taste, i.e. your brain can make you taste things differently. Other senses can also interfere, e.g. certain colors and shape might induce us to think about bitter and sweet flavors.
In reality, even one's mood can affect taste, as well as certain medicines (antibiotics are deadly for the palate). Personal experience showed me that if I'm upset about something, things tend to taste more metallic; when distracted things are duller and acidic; and when I'm tired, they are sour and bitter. A good friend with a very fine palate once told me that tasting is an art and a gift that not everybody has. He made an analogy with a runner saying that most of us are able to run for 1oo yards, but very few of us can do it under 10 seconds, and considering how many years it took me to achieve a sufficient palate, I can relate. I guess a good taster is not just the one that can spot a flavor but is somebody that can filter all the interference that the information finds during the trip from the nose to the brain.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Did you know...

2007-11-02T17:05:00.000-05:00

...that in Montalcino in the late 70s the Mariani brothers, owners of Banfi, asked all the farmers in the area to plant Moscadello instead of Sangiovese?
The story of the Mariani in Montalcino is controversial, as their influence could have had a significant destructive effect on one of the best wines in the world - the Brunello di Montalcino.
In the late 70s, John and Henry Mariani bought 1,800 hectares in southwest part of Montalcino, a property that would soon expand to 2,830 hectares. They also built a humongous cellar and restored the castle for a cost of 200 billion of the old Lire. The two brothers made their fortune selling Lambrusco in the States, and their business plan was concentrated in making Moscadello frizzante, a sweet slightly fizzy white wine, and selling it in the USA to reply to the success of the Lambrusco.
They planted 350 Hectares with Moscadello, which is a marginal grape for Montalcino's climate and soils. They also made mistakes in choosing the training system for the vines, selecting one that didn't allowed the grapes to be exposed to the sun. And worst of all, they even asked the other growers, during an open city board meeting, to replace their Sangiovese in favor of the Moscadello, promising to buy the grapes from them. If it hadn't been for people like Piero Talenti, who at the time was in charge of Il Poggione, Franco Biondi Santi and many others who refused the offer, Brunello di Montalcino may have ceased to exist - forever. But because those that loved and had a much better understanding of the area kept their Sangiovese, one of Tuscany's signature wines remains intact.
The story's aftermath tells us that the steadfast Tuscan farmers were right to keep their Sangiovese. The Mariani brothers couldn't really sell much of their formerly promising sparkling wine, and eventually eradicated the Moscadello and planted Sangiovese.
Today Banfi is the biggest producer in Montalcino. Their lands are in the lowest and the flattest part of Montalcino, which is not ideal in any way for vineyards. Yet still, they are known around the world to be synonymous with Brunello di Montalcino, even though they tried to wipe out the Sangiovese, the very grapes used to create Brunello.
That is why I usually choose not to comment when I hear about how much good Banfi did for Montalcino, and for the promotion of Brunello di Montalcino around the world. While all of that might just as well be true, the fact remains: if it had been left up to the Mariani brothers, we would not have any Brunello today, whatsoever.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Italy Goes Fast!!!

2007-10-21T12:15:00.000-05:00

Following the amazing victory of the Ducati in MotoGP, today Ferrari topped the two wheeled cousins this weekend in Brasil with Raikkonen win in a dramatic last grand prix of the season, that got him the world champion title against all odds.
Congratulations!!!

Help Us To Help You

2007-10-20T13:35:00.000-05:00

My last post garnered a series of funny comments, which was its intention. But it also solicited a request for help from Malcolm H on what might be the RIGHT questions to ask when you need suggestions for a bottle of wine.
General speaking, common sense is the first and foremost consideration to keep in mind. Remember that you are asking for help, and even though the person in front of you is there to help you, you can improve the outcome of the situation significantly by doing nothing more than keeping it real.
If you don't know anything about what you'd like to buy, a good place to start is having at least few simple specifications, like the color (red, white, rose or sparkling) and /or price range (which is a very valuable piece of information in a market where a single format carries such a vast spectrum of value). Trust me, just those simple hints are of great help.
If you are looking for a specific taste, try to describe it (light, medium, heavy, sweet, dry, tannic, velvety etc etc etc). If you just say, "I like Merlot," you are not offering any valuable information, because the same grape (especially with an international varietal like Merlot) can create completely different wines, depending on the soil and the grower. Comment #3 from Lyle gave an example of a lot of quantifiers that are more confusing then helpful - specificity is the key in this situation. Lyle's next comment brings up another very good point - it is a regular occurrence to have someone come in, name a restaurant and ask if I know what wine they drank. To be perfectly honest, I don't think is possible to answer a question like that even if you know all the lists of every Manhattan restaurant (or Prague in Lyle's case). Restaurants' lists do not remain static, and sometimes number into the tens of thousands of bottles. There's just no way.
If you say that a certain wine was "delicious," obviously you liked it and that's why you are looking for it, but you're not offering anything specific about the wine (anyhow these are some tips I wrote a little while ago on what to do to remember a wine that you liked).
Asking about favorites could be a way to go but make sure that you and your wine adviser share similar taste.
Another suggestion I can give you is to build a relationship with your chosen wine expert. Try to talk with the same person every time you seek out a recommendation - after a little time your wine guy will understand your taste, based on the wines you liked or disliked. This relationship can shorten the buying process to something as quick as: "I have 4 people for dinner; I like some red and some white and I like to spend X amount of money. Please include Y as one of the bottles."
One last thought - with wine, especially if you are in a restaurant or a shop where the lists are carefully selected, you get what you pay for. This means it's probably a little self-defeating to ask for something like Domaine de la Romanee Conti for $10, because that doesn't exist.

May I ask a question???

2007-10-05T13:40:00.000-05:00

I've wanted to write about this for a long time, and today seemed to be the right day to do it - the chronicle of silly questions asked in the world of wine and food. I'm not sure why, but for how long food and wine have been around (always), they certainly seem to merit a staggering array of bonehead remarks and requests. Sometimes, the questions aren't even about the food or wine... they're just inane. Herein, a small sampling:
Among the top ten I've ever been asked was this one, from my days behind the register at Il Bagatto, where one of my duties was to answer the phone. In my closing salutation at the end of a reservation call, I gave the address of the restaurant saying:
"we are located on 2nd street between avenues A and B, closer to B." Pretty clear directions, I'd say. So one day, I'm taking a reservation, and I give the address of the restaurant, and the voice on the other end of the line said "Where is second street?" I paused for a second, trying to find an answer that didn't sound rude. "It's between 1st and 3rd streets," I said. She thanked me and hung up... and was hopefully able to find 1st or 3rd street.
The restaurant was an infinite source of amazing questions like, "what are Funghi (she said "fungiai")?" "Mushrooms," I replied. The woman looked at the her date, puzzled, and the date looked at me, puzzled. I did my best to explain... "you know - mushrooms; they grow in the dirt... usually in the fall, when it's very damp..." Hopeless. The guy looked at the girl, the girl looked back at me, and ordered Gnocchi.

Also since I opened the store I've had to answer to a fair amount of poorly thought-out questions like:

"Do you have Tuscany?"
"Do you mean Tuscan wines?"
"No, no the wine has Tuscany was written on the label."
Really.

"Where are your reds?"
(For those unfamiliar with the layout of De-Vino, the northern wall of the store is approximately thirty feet by twelve feet, covered floor to ceiling with red wines. This question is usually glorified with a gesture in the general direction of that wall.)

"Do you have a bottle of wine, red or white, in the $ 20 range that will be different?"
This is a poorly formed question for any occasion, and rather than delving into what the wine should differ FROM, I decided that I preferred the silence and gave her a bottle of Sangiovese-Syrah from San Giminiano. I'm pretty sure that was different.

"What is the theme of your store?"
This one is a recurring question that I have learned to translate as, "What types of wines/which appelations do you stock?" It makes a fair amount of sense, I suppose, but it seems to me that the word "theme" should be reserved for literary critiques and bachelorette parties.

(Referring to an indigenous Italian grape) "How does this compare to, I don't know, a Cabernet or a Merlot?"
No comment.

"Do you have a pinot?"
"Yes. Several." (Unless you mean the colloquial French translation of a "pinot," which is a pinecone. Then no.)

And one of the most common requests of all: " Can you suggest something red? I usually like Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet... you know, something light?"
Light? News to me. - After few seconds I was able to process and translate the request and suggest an old vines Cotes du Rhone or an Italian Pinot Noir.

I think if I continue onward and upward, I might never stop. I would love, however, to hear some of your experiences of similar caliber.

Buona Risposta a Tutti

Grande Ducati (Ducati Rules)!!!

2007-09-23T12:29:00.001-05:00

This is another Italian miracle; a factory that is still Italian with little over a thousand employee (Honda has 167,231 and Yamaha 23,500) managed to win the MotoGp (the equivalent of Formula 1) with 21 years old driver Casey Stoner.
Ducati, founded by 1926 in Borgo Panicale (Bologna, Italy) by Antonio Cavalieri Ducati, started their participation to the Motogp in 2002 after leading for several years in the Suberbike tour.
In order to see another Italian bike on top of the Championship we have to go back to 1973 when the MV Augusta, driven by Agostini, won it for the last time after 6 years in the row.
From that date up to today the races were dominated by Japanese bikes, that's why I'm talking about an Italian miracle well orchestrated by the 100 people that runs Ducati's race division, making possible, in spite of the considerably smaller budgets compare to the Japanese giants, to keep a high level of technology, care for details, reliability and performance (the Desmosedici GP7 is the fastest bike of the "Circus").
Casey won against Valentino Rossi (AKA The Doctor holder of several records and the fastest, at least up to now, driver in the Championship) and the Yamaha with still 3 races to go, the cheery on the cake was Loris Capirossi, at his last season, and his victory in the Japanese GP securing the World Title for Teams as well.
I wish you all the luck for the next season and another year of successes with Casey Stoner and Marco Melandri, which is going to take Capirossi place, hopping to see an Italian driver win on an Italian bike.
Bravi Ragazzi senza persone ed aziende come voi l'Italia avrebbe ben poco di cui andar fiera.

Eurolandia Is Getting Expensive

2007-09-22T17:30:00.000-05:00

Among the millions bad news about the world economics we have also to register the new Euro record over the dollar.
Now we need 1.41 Dollars to buy 1 Euro and considering that most of the non mass produced, higher quality foods and wines come from Europe you make the math on how much more expensive your life will be.
The decision of the Federal Reserve to cut by half a point the prime rate, not followed by the European counterpart, gave the Euro another, not needed, push.
A friend, an importer that works mainly with Europe, predicted the Euro at 1.55 within 9 months.
What that means translated in the everyday life?
If you had bought a bottle of wine for 10 Euro in 1999 you would had pay $ 11.8, same wine in January 2000 $ 10.089, in October of the same year (low record for the currency) $ 8.252 and up to January 2003 you would have paid from $ 8.3 to $ 9.5.
The funny thing is that for couple of years after the "September 11" the dollar hold up maintaing the rate under the $ 1, beginning in 2003 (strangely after the US won the war in Iraq) the green note started to sink and never stopped; in Jannuary 2003 that bottle would have cost you $ 10.5 in 2004 $ 12.75 in 2005 $ 13.4 in 2006 would had save some at $ 11.9 and $ 13 at the beginning of the current year.
Today the same exactly bottle will cost 14.049 dollars and if the prediction turns in reality a painful $ 15.5 bill will be presented to you!!!
I know for a fact that most of the European producer (except the big Chateaus in France that are the only ones able to rise prices because supported by the new money markets like Russia, India and China) in order to keep some sort of competitiveness in the US market have lowered their prices hoping in a stronger dollar, but that represent a palliative that is not a long term solution.
I hope that the unstoppable run of the Euro will soon end so to enjoy a good bottle of wine or a nice plate of pasta I don't have to take a bank loan.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

WBW Bruna Pigato U Baccan

2007-09-14T18:20:00.000-05:00

For my first WBW (Wine Blogging Wednesday) I opened the new vintage of a Ligurian Pigato - the U' Baccan from Bruna.
I wrote about the wine's younger brother, Le Russeghine a little while ago, and I was curious to try the house's signature wine. U Baccan (dialect for "the boss") grapes come from old Pigato vines and are harvested late. The production is minimal (180 cases) and the wine is made with very little technological aid.
The area is impervious and steep, located near the coast, where the mountains run down into the Ligurian sea. The vines lie in very narrow terraces and it is very hard to work in the vinyards. Pigato is closely related to Vermentino, and it's mostly found in the Ligurian provinces of Savona, Imperia and Genova.
The grapes have red reflection on the skin when ripe, and the wine usually has prevalent minerality and often marked acidity.
I opened up the 2005 harvest, and as soon as the cork was popped, the wine was a little tight but already showing a great spectrum of flavors.
As the wine warmed up in the bottle and in the glass, some tropical scents of papaya and pineapple showed, followed by refreshing and charming notes of white peaches.
The juice kept on changing up to the end giving then petroleum (like in a German Riesling) flavors and some balsamic scents of mint leaves.
The structure of the wine was supported by the low PH, which gave freshness, longevity, and complexity. The firm body completed a very good, interesting and unique wine.
My overall comment for the "U Baccan" is very positive, a white with strong character, aging potential of another 5 to 10 years, good with both fish and meats. I want to thank Robert Chadderdon for letting me discover it.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

The Good Bacteria

2007-09-14T11:38:00.000-05:00

Or better yet if you spend time in the dirt you'll be happier and more energetic.
I've started to read a magazine called Discover, after my my friend Bob Guccione Jr. gave me some copies last time I delivered wines to his office.
Now, to tell the truth I thought to myself, "when am I going to read a science magazine filled with numbers and incomprehensible words?" Then I thought, hey, what better place than the bathroom? So, that's where I opened up the July issue and I was surprised to see familiar words, very cool pictures and down to earth (literally) articles.
The one I want to talk about is on page 18, and is called "Is dirt the new Prozac?".
The article underlines the effect of a bacteria that lives in the dirt called Mycobacterium Vaccae, which activates a set of serotonin-releasing neurons, the same neurons targeted by Prozac. The study made a very compelling argument for the idea that the bacteria is something of an antidepressant, that can also improve energy levels, help deal with pain, and for those who are terminally ill, it can heighten the quality of life. How do we assimilate this harmless bacteria?
Simply by breathing it, evidently. The M. Vaccae is present in the soil, and you can get a healthy (literally) dose of it just by walking through a field or hanging out in a garden, or by ingesting it through water or plants, like carrots or lettuce.
I wonder if any shrinks are aware of this, and if they'd be comfortable exchanging Prozac for long walks in the dirt.
Where my personal experience is concerned: walking the vineyards always gave me a sense of euphoria and happiness that I thought was connected to the scenario - breathtaking views, surrounded by rows and rows of grapes. I'm sure those things were a substantial part of my experience, but that friendly and happy bacteria was playing a meaningful role as well. So next time you feel a little blue, see if a walk in the park will make you feel better - you don't really have anything to lose - other than a little time.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Harvest Time

2007-08-31T19:59:00.000-05:00

I've recently come back from another Italian tour: 12 days spent between vineyards and friends.
The excuse this time was a little project I'm working on with Roberto Cipresso (sorry, but I can't tell you anything about it, at least for the time being). My hope was to have some time on the beach and a chance for relaxation. That, of course, did not happen. What DID happen was an amazing 2500 Km tour of southern Italy.
So far, the 2007 vintage has the highest temperature average of any in recorded history, with an unusually hot winter to the point that the first pruning was delayed by as much as two months. A very hot spring and summer followed without much rain, and when rain did come, it fell in short and intense precipitations. When I landed in Rome we walked into a temperature between 33 and 40 Celsius (91 to 104 degrees Farenheit). Across the "Boot", some had already started to cut white grapes and reds to be used for the sparklers. The acidity of the fruit was rapidly declining and sugar levels were rising, to the point at which the cutting was the only logical solution.
The first leg of my trip was dedicated to owner/winemaker Bruno De Conciliis, in the beautiful Cilento national park. Thanks to the precise navigation system of my rented Mercedes (the ugliest one I've ever seen), it took me about 3 hours to reach my destination. Bruno is currently in the process of building new cellars, which means he is working in smaller, construction-addled spaces. Despite the cramped conditions, he is trying to make the best of a difficult situation, as you can see in the video. We tried some barrels of wine that will not be released, even though the wines were excellent.
Those barrels contained some experiments he's doing with Fiano, Greco di Tufo and Primitivo. His goal is to retain elegance in the wines, and control the strong fruit that came with territory in favor of the secondary flavors that are more commonly found in Campanian wines. The current vintage was early for him as well, but I truly thought I would see much heavier damage to the grapes, either cooked or with skin problems. Instead, the majority were very healthy. The only major detraction for his 2007 harvest was that he had lost about 20% of the fruit to the "Peronospora," a mold that kills the clusters. Because he didn't use any chemical treatment against it, he also told me that most winemakers who treated the plants lost around 17%, making bearable the road he pursued, and less expensive considering the money he saved.
The grapes were ready for the first passage to cut the green clusters in order to make sparkling wine. Going through the field of Aglianico (one of the five vineyards that provides the Aglianico for the Naima) one could notice the different maturations from plant to plant and row to row; some grapes were already a thick blue color while others in the same cluster were still green. Eating the grape you could feel already some nice perfumes and a good amount of sugar, with the seeds just starting to turn brown (an indication of an advanced stage of maturation). The acidity was a bit low but enough to give the grapes a sense of freshness.
The Fiano grapes were ready as well for the first passage and in spectacular condition. Amazingly, the acidity was pretty high despite the warm weather. When I left the area the thermometer was around the 98 degrees; which just goes to show you how different Italy is, climate-wise.
I spent a couple of days in Rome where the temperature was between 90 and 100, and then I went to Montalcino, where it was almost the same temperature as in Rome. I met Roberto at the Winecircus, where the facilities are almost completed, a very impressive improvement since April. They also were ready for the "Vendemmia:" the machinery were been cleaned and prepared to receive the grapes from the trucks.
Here, the temperature went from 91 to 64 overnight with some intense precipitation in the early morning. When I woke up, my window was above a bed of clouds in a scenario more proper for the fall than the end of summer. They hadn't had a drop of rain since June 12th, and for several reasons the rain gave a break - with the plants under intense stress, the much colder temperature and the water were good factors. The high humidity... not so much. At the same moment in Sicily, the temperature was 105 degrees, and in Cilento, it was around 95. On a temperature-gauged map, it would have looked like Italy was cut in half. The weirdest thing was that around the middle of the day, the temperature went back in the 90s, only to drop again at night into the high 6os.
With Roberto, we walked down the La Fiorita vineyards. Here also, the grapes were healthy and in very similar condition to the De Conciliis ones: the skins were intact and the flavors were concentrated, with a good amount of sugar. During the visit, Roberto was kind enough to open a bottle of the last release of his Brunello - the 2001 Riserva, aged for 6 years before being released. The wine was very elegant with soft tannins and a strong flavors of violet and cherries. Some notes of leather were also showing; the 2001 vintage turned out so well for him that he decided to bottle just Riserva and no regular Brunello. We shared the wine and a lovely dinner with some friends at the Winestation: Giovanni Negri, owner of Serradenari winery in Piedmont, Fabio Leccisotti, without whose advice Roberto would be a lost man (and probably broke too), and Bob Guccione Jr, editor\owner of Discover Magazine. And after all that, the evening was just long enough for a bottle of Champagne Ayala in "Piazzetta" (Montalcino's downtown square) before my ugly Mercedes took me back to the Hotel dei Capitani, where I took the picture you see above. For the second day in a row I woke up looking at fog, but this time I was in it!!! I have never seen anything like that before the end of August in Italy!
Before leaving Montalcino for Umbria, I stopped by the Talenti estate where I was greeted by Riccardo, nephew of Pierluigi, the estate founder.
Young and passionate Riccardo took me for a tour of the facilities. They now work in 3 different spaces, the first of which was the stocking room, where they were bottling. It reminded me of when I was a kid and the Cantina Cooperativa di Pitigliano had bought bottling machinery - the members were invited for the inauguration. I guess at that time it was a pretty big deal to buy such an expensive machine.
He then showed me where, in the vinification quarters, they have several big stainless steel tanks, square-shaped, reminding the visitors that those tanks where conceived to maximize the space.
At the end of the tour we tasted the 2005 Rosso di Montalcino and the 2002 Brunello; the Brunello was quite good considering the year was very difficult - he corked just 2000 bottles of Brunello for that year.
When I left Montalcino, the weather was cold and rainy. Hard to believe that the very next day the temperature will rise again to over 100 degrees.
I got to Umbria in a couple of hours and Gigi welcomed me with a much needed jump in the pool. Although the sun was out, the water was freezing. Afterward, we walked the vineyards around the house, rows of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Gigi's plants are 5 years old, so they are still very young and therefore vigorous. He also uses irrigation during the hottest part of the summer, so the plants and the leaves were in perfect condition. The grapes were also in perfect conditions with very few cooked clusters. That was partially due to Gigliola's great idea to cut the leaves, so that the grapes are exposed to the morning sun, but protected from it in the afternoon.
My trip is almost over, I left Gigi an Ficulle around 12 PM to Roma; it was a very hot day the temperature rose up to 42 Celsius (107), so what was the hope of most of the "enologi" for some rain and then good weather is turning in reality; 2007 is going to be the vintage where the winemakers can make the difference with their intuitions and expertise. The cold break and the rain are signs that need to be interpret by the professionals, but looking at the grapes, I can say that they are healthy and beautiful and that is always a good sign. We'll just have to see what happens during and after the fermentations.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Would you trust a restaurant were the owner does not eat there or a producer that doesn't drink his own wine?

2007-08-06T23:40:00.000-05:00

I think most of us would say no I wouldn't eat there or I wouldn't drink that; so my next question is how many bottles of Yellow Tail the founders drink?
How many times per week McDonald's CEO eats a Big Mac?
I believe their answer would show a zero or a number very close to it, so why is that millions of people around the planet still trust those companies?
Now I have a question for the editors of wine and food magazines; how come you never asked that question? Although I saw the founders of Yellow Tail being interviewed several times about their business model, and I heard them praise the exceptional quality and pureness of their products but I never heard them asked do you consume your own products? (better if a lie detector is involved)
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Cabernet Night

2007-07-28T20:21:00.000-05:00

This is a true story about a typical case of, as Notorious B.I.G. used to say, "getting high on your own supply."
The excuse was a visit from Luigi on a summer Saturday night. Luigi is a jack-of-all-trades (master of many) who helps me out with various aspect of my work. He also happens to be a close friend. - Saturday was our version of boys night, so we met at my shop, where I decided to take a bottle right from my wall; the Castello dei Rampolla Vigna d'Alceo was calling me, and I most definitely answered that call. I opened the bottle at 9:00 pm, and as soon I uncorked it, a strong perfume of black cherries began to perforate all the air around the bottle. Even before I had poured it into the glass, the cherries were supported by some leather and spice; great nose very vibrant and young, even though the bottle had already reached its 10th birthday.
1997 was a hot year, but in Tuscany it was close to perfect, lest we are reminded of the hype behind the release of the 97 Brunello. This Cabernet base "Super Tuscan" shows a strong bouquet and a heavy weight connected to the climate conditions but still maintaining a great tannic structure and enough acidity to make it very drinkable. Luigi offered a perfect comparison: "it's like an agile fat man".
Castello dei Rampolla is a winery situated in Panzano, in Chianti, and has been part of the Di Napoli Rampolla family since 1739. But, it wasn't until the early 70's that they started to vinify and bottle their own wines.
The winery is organic and biodynamic and the harvest is done by hand; today Maurizia and her brother and Luca Di Napoli Rampolla are in charge of the operations.
One hour in, the tannins became firmer, the dark cherries became less sweet and hints of rosemary and white pepper start to show - the finish was getting longer and longer.
The wine was so good that Luigi and I decided to open another bottle. But we wanted something different. Luigi wasn't sure that we could match the Vigna d'Alceo... but the Ridge Montebello Cabernet 1977 did the trick.
If I had to compare the two, I would say that the Ridge was more elegant and traditional then the Rampolla, probably because 1997 was a very hot year in Italy and the wines tended to be more fruit forward. Both had the same dark cherries and leather as flavor base, but the Ridge was a bit more austere and linear.
Amazingly, after 2 bottles for as many people, we were still making sense and able to appreciate the wines until the last sip, which - as usual - was the best one.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti

Most embarrassing wine moments

2007-07-18T15:50:00.000-05:00

As it goes in every profession, in the wine business, we have our fair share of embarrassing moments.
Personally, I can remember my first time with the Rabbit, a "heavy duty machinery" corkscrew that I notice sitting in a lot of womens' kitchens; I was at a friend's house and obviously, I brought some wine. When I asked for a corkscrew, she pointed at a stainless steel case on the counter, and there it was - the Rabbit (my guess is that it's called as such for the look of it's handles, which comprise a crude representation of rabbit's ears).
So, I put it on top of the bottle and with a firm movement I went back and forth like I was playing a slot machine.
The cork was magically gone - and not just from the neck of the bottle, but also from the opener. I looked on the floor and on the counter, under everything in the kitchen... there was no trace of it. This, of course, was because I had pushed the cork into the bottle instead of pulling it out. I discovered the embarrassing misfortune when I tried to pour with little to no success, inducing my friend to raucous laughter. I remembered about that episode last night when my friend Piers, in an attempt to re-cork a magnum, used a regular bottle cork, and watched it easily drop into the bottle.
Tastings are also places prone to embarrassments. I remember a guy that said something really funny while one of us had just sipped from his glass, and watching the unfortunate man's eyes open wide in the attempt to not laugh, then seeing the red wine coming out of his nose. A particularly unpleasant but highly comical scenario. Still in the tasting department, I have to mention another slip-up; me mistaking the Sella & Mosca Tanca Farra, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cannonau from Sardegna, for an American Pinot Noir during a dinner with Dino Tantawi of Vignaioli Selection, and Chris Cannon of L'Impero. Oops.
There are also tasting goofs that occur more frequently, and are of a more pedestrian nature... there's just nothing you can do to prevent them. For instance - numerous times I've swallowed into the wrong canal and started to cough like there was no tomorrow, while trying to give my feedback under the embarrassed and often concerned look of my interlocutor. Wine and windpipe do not mix.
I think I can go on for a while in this department being that I haven't mentioned any embarrassing moments related to excessive consumption, but I would like to hear your experiences, as well.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti