A wine made when Nixon was President reminds us how sexy 'old' can be

As a critic, I get to taste many hundreds of wines each year and sometimes get invited to events, many of them involving wine regions, wineries or importers presenting their latest releases. Sometimes the wines are memorable and I write about them; sometimes not.

One of the more unusual experiences of this kind came not long ago when I was invited to stop by Morrell & Co., the well-known New York retailer and wine bar just across the street from my  office in Rockefeller Center. The occasion was an updating of the store and bar and a chance to taste a few wines. There was a rosé from Provence, a red Bordeaux and a California chardonnay. Good wines, but hardly the stuff of which memories are made.

Fortunately, there were more wines to taste. There, on the counter, sat three very large bottles that towered over the others around them. Each was a Barolo, the famous wine from the region of the same name in Piedmont in northern Italy. Not only that, they were from the 1970s -- a ‘79, a ‘76 and a ‘70 to be precise. They represented an unusual chance to go back in time.

 
Wine is all about connections -- to those with whom we enjoy it and, for me, connections to wines themselves and their histories. The most interesting and vital of these old Barolos was the 1970, which was clearly a very good vintage for Barolo.

To put the year it in context, Richard Nixon was president, the Beatles broke up and the computer floppy disk was introduced, all of them relegated to history long ago. In Barolo, on the other hand, Giacomo Borgogno would make a wine that would remain vibrant for decades to come, the 1970 Barolo Riserva “Antichi Vigneti Propri.’

The nebbiolo grape attains its greatest expression in Barolo and the wine is made for aging, gradually losing the strongly tannic character of its youth and evolving, in the best vintages, into a transcendent experience in which fruit and wood and sense of place become one.

As I stood at the counter, David Johnson, Yung Leung and Jura Almeida carefully poured small quantities of wine from the big bottle, which held 3.78 liters and would cost more than $500 today, into a decanter for aeration. Then they poured a half an inch or so into our glasses. The color was light brick red; the aromas conveyed red fruit, roses and cedar.

This is the kind of wine that makes you want to talk about it with anyone around you, and I found myself doing just that – describing how it was still very much alive after all these years, with vibrant acidity, still-firm tannins and beautiful fruit.

With each small glass I found myself focusing on something different: in one glass an emphasis on the secondary tastes of leather, meat and beef bouillon cube; in another hints of raspberry, blueberry and a long, mineral-driven finish.

We all had the sense on this evening that we were tasting something unique, something that could not be replicated. I found myself transported back to another era, thinking of the images and the history of the time, and in my glass, enjoying something old that was still very much alive.

Pasta with a sauce of yellow tomatoes and hot and sweet sausage

A couple of weeks ago, after I reviewed an excellent Tuscan red made by the tenor Andrea Bocelli in my NBCNews.com column , a number of readers asked if I could provide a recipe for the pasta dish I had with the wine. I use yellow tomatoes when available for this sauce because I like their lower acidity and their sweetness, but I have also enjoyed this dish many times with red tomatoes, both fresh and canned, so feel free to substitute them.

Ingredients:

½ pound sweet Italian pork sausage

½ pound hot Italian pork sausage

2 tbsps olive oil

1 medium onion chopped

1 large garlic clove, finely chopped

Small bunch of Italian parsley chopped

2 pounds of yellow or red tomatoes, cored, broken apart by hand or coarsely chopped

1 pound penne, fusilli or other pasta

Grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Spoon the olive oil into a large, heavy-bottomed sauce pan, preferably cast iron. Add sausage (if sausage is in casings squeeze the meat out). Over low to medium heat, break sausage into small pieces with a wooden spatula and cook for 10 minutes or so, tossing frequently, until nicely browned but not burned. Add onion and cook until translucent. Add garlic and stir with onions and sausage until golden. Add tomatoes and mix thoroughly with other ingredients. Use the spatula to break the tomatoes apart. Cook over a low flame, partially covered, for 15-20 minutes until the tomatoes have softened. Remove cover. Break tomatoes apart more with spatula if needed. Simmer 10-15 minutes more until tomatoes have cooked down and sauce has thickened. Stir in parsley. Toss with penne, fusilli or your favorite pasta and top with grated Parmesan. Serves 4.

Sips: La Quercia’s 2010 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo

I am always on the hunt for juicy, fruit-forward Italian reds, the kind I can pop open on the spur of the moment to enjoy with pasta, pizza or other casual foods. One that really over-delivers for $11 or so is a red from the Abruzzo region, La Quercia’s 2010 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo.

This is a relatively soft, easy-drinking casual wine that’s made from the native montepulciano grape without oak and is all about the fruit – blackberry and blueberry tastes with a hint of unsweetened chocolate on the finish. When you breathe it in, it fills the nose with these dark fruit aromas. It’s delicious on its own and, as I said, is a versatile wine for all kinds of Italian and other dishes at a price that can’t be beat.

Imported by August Wine Group, Seattle, Washington. Received as a press sample.

Sips: Celebrity wines, for better or worse

Do celebrities make better wines? Would you be more likely to buy a wine if a celebrity were associated with it? I explore these questions in my column this week on MSNBC.com. The occasion is Drew Barrymore's debut in the wine business and the release of her first wine, a pinot grigio. How does it stack up? I put it to the (taste) test and take a look at some of the actors, athletes and other celebrities who have been bitten by the wine bug. Click here to read.

Swirls: A wine guide takes a leap and does away with scores and ratings

I’m just catching up with a newly released guide to Italian wines called “Slow Wine 2012: A Year in the Life of Italy’s Vineyards and Wines,” which marks the debut of an English-language edition of this reference. The guide, which covers 3,000 wines produced by 400 cellars, is notable for a number of reasons. Not only does it describe the people, vineyards and wines involved with each property, it also lists the use of fertilizers, plant protection and weed control practices, yeasts (native or selected), grape sources (estate or purchased) and whether a winery has organic or biodynamic certification.

Beyond this important information, the “Slow Wine” guide is notable for how it rates wines, which, with this edition, has fundamentally changed. “We have abandoned the very easy-to-understand, but ultimately trivializing, method of awarding points and sought to look beyond the glass,” the editors announce in the introduction. Obviously, they say, the wines reviewed are of excellent quality “but for us it is equally important to describe the vineyard and vinification methods used to create these top-flight products.

“And so,” they say, “we have opted for a new mode of communication – telling the story of the wine.” While this may not be revolutionary, it is refreshing not to see scores or stars or what have you alongside the wines listed. The concise, half-page narratives about each property are generally well-written and translated. Without ratings or scores, there won’t be much appeal here for those importers,wholesalers, retailers and consumers for whom a number is what matters most. But it’s good for those of us who appreciate the narrative of a wine and getting to know how and by whom it is made.

“What matters is wine’s soul,” the editors write. “That is why we have adopted new assessment criteria including respect for the environment, the countryside and territorial identify, relatively complicated issues that have demanded, and continue to demand, a quality leap from wine lovers, critics and producers.”

“Slow Wine” deserves a good deal of credit for elevating the wine conversation. Published by Slow Food Editore, $25.

del.icio.us Tags: Slow Wine 2012,Edward Deitch,Italian wines,Wine guides,Italian wine guides,Wine scores,Wine ratings,Slow Food Editore,Organic wines,Biodynamic wines

Swirls: The coming out of organic wine -- some things to keep in mind

Suddenly, it seems, the organic wine crowd is coming out of the woodwork. From growers to importers to supermarkets and other retailers, the wine world is seizing on “organic” as never before. Some growers, of course, have been making natural wines for years, including quite a few in France’s Loire Valley where most choose not to call attention to the fact, preferring to let the wines speak for themselves. And many of them do as wines of distinction. So the bar is high for wineries that trumpet the fact that they are producing organic wines or wines made from organic grapes (I’ll explain the difference in just a minute). My guess is that the market is ready to embrace the organic wine movement more broadly, but the wines will have to demonstrate that they have character, passing the same critical (and consumer) taste tests that non-organic wines must endure.

One that does is Cirelli’s 2010 Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, a delightful and refreshing non-oaked white made from organic trebbiano grapes in the Abruzzo region of southern Italy. A group of friends really liked this $14 wine when we served it at a holiday dinner party a couple of weeks ago, and my only regret is that I didn’t buy three or four bottles of it from Chambers Street Wines here in New York, which, speaking of natural and organic and biodynamic wines, has pioneered the trend among retailers for some years now. With stone fruit, pear, herb and citrus notes, Cirelli’s trebbiano is enhanced by an underlying minerality and was excellent with cheeses and other appetizers. Alcohol is a modest and welcome 12.5 percent. (A Zev Rovine Selection, imported by Fruit of the Vine, Long Island City, New York.)

Few wines in this country are labeled “USDA Organic.” That’s because under Department of Agriculture rules, organic wines cannot contain added sulfites, which are used in varying degrees by the vast majority of wineries as a preservative (and which some people say gives them headaches). If a wine is made from organically grown grapes but has sulfites added, the label can only say that it is made from organic grapes, as with the Cirelli wine.

Before the other day, I couldn’t recall the last time I received a wine with the USDA Organic designation. The bottle was from Italy, La Cantina Pizzolato’s 2010 Organic Cabernet Sauvignon NSA, from the Piave appellation in the Veneto region. NSA refers to “no sulfites added,” and the labeling on this wine makes the point that it contains “naturally occurring sulfites.”

I didn’t quite know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. It's a light cabernet with an almost unheard of alcohol level of 12 percent (most New World cabs are in the 13.5-15 percent range). It has good varietal character with red fruit and blueberry notes and a subtle herbal touch. Made without oak, it reminded me more of Beaujolais than Bordeaux and was stylistically as far away from California cab as you can get. Delicate and refreshing and a bargain at a suggested price of $11. Try it slightly chilled with chicken, pork and veal.

The wine was sent to me by Natural Merchants, an importer of organic and biodynamic wines in Grants Pass, Oregon. Interestingly, I received a press release the other day from Whole Foods Market announcing the fact that it was the only national retailer to carry NSA wines from Italy and Spain, including the cabernet and others from Pizzolato, which it described as “Italy’s top-selling organic winery.” Organic and NSA, it seems, are about to go mainstream.

Sips: From organic grapes, Di Giovanna’s charming $11 ‘Gerbino’ red wine from Sicily

After three days of holiday entertaining, a simple pasta sauce and a (hopefully) decent, inexpensive red wine were on tap for our dinner the other night. The pasta would be based on some of the tomatoes I picked in late summer and early fall, then skinned,  seeded and placed in Ziploc bags for freezing so that we might  enjoy them at this time of year and early into the new year. Believe it or not, freezing retains a remarkable amount of the tomatoes’ original taste; you simply thaw them and simmer them until most of the excess liquid that results from freezing is cooked off. Then, in another skillet, sauté some chopped garlic in olive oil, add the tomatoes and, in this rendition, a fistful of chopped fresh basil and oregano. The result: a summer reprise in late December.

As for the wine, I came across one at my neighborhood wine store that I hoped would fit the bill: Di Giovanna’s 2009 “Gerbino,” an $11 Sicilian rosso, or red wine, made from a blend of organic nero d’avola and “other international varieties,” according to Di Giovanna’s website, hence its IGT designation. With a little aeration, the ruby-red wine, named for one of Di Giovanna’s vineyards, opened up beautifully, revealing charming cherry and blueberry fruit, good acidity and a fine tannic structure that supported its lengthy finish. It was simply delightful, particularly on its own; alas, it was fairly mismatched with my tomato sauce, which overpowered its delicate fruit. It would have been better with chicken or pork or even a seared steak. In any event, I was grateful to find a very affordable new red wine that was a pleasure to drink. Alcohol is 14 percent. Imported by Montecastelli Selections, New York.

del.icio.us Tags: Di Giovanna Sicily,Sicilian reds,Italian red wines,Under $15 wines,Under $20 wines,Di Giovanna Gerbino,Organic wines,Italian organic wines,Edward Deitch,Montecastelli Selections,Sicilian red wines,Nero d'Avola

Sips: Post-hurricane, the power returns and the corks pop

Hurricane Irene, as everyone knows, inflicted only a glancing blow on New York City, but in the suburbs and beyond it was a much different story. The day after, we spent most of the day cleaning up around our house in eastern Long Island, and now it was time for some (hopefully) good wines.

Irene knocked out power to our entire town, along with about half a million other homes and businesses throughout the island. There was no damage to our place but lots of branches and leaves blanketed the property. Down the street some big trees were down, one crashing on a main power line, closing the road, another a huge weeping willow blown over, narrowly missing the historic home next to it. Fortunately for us our neighbors have a   big emergency generator and they were nice enough to let us run an extension line from their house to ours. Candlelight is fine for a night, but the adventure quickly gives way to frustration.

With the lights on we were able to start preparing a decent meal and went with a simple favorite – penne tossed with crisply sautéed Italian sausage and broccoli rabe. As we cooked we started off with what turned out to be just the right aperitif wine – a light and lively Italian rose, Santi’s 2010 Infinito, a Bardolino  from the Veneto region. Salmon colored, the blend is 65 percent corvina, 30 percent rondinella and five percent molinara. It was an instant hit with its cherry and strawberry flavors accented by some herbal notes and a touch of lime rind. Fruity and refreshing, it was great for casual drinking with alcohol at just 11.5 percent. The suggested retail price is $11. (Imported by Frederick Wildman and Sons, New York.)

With dinner I wanted a serious red, and with the weather now  cool and clear after the storm, it was the perfect night to try something I’d been avoiding in the heat of summer -– a big California  red. I went with Sbragia Family Vineyards’ 2007 Rancho Del Oso Cabernet Sauvignon from the Napa Valley’s Howell Mountain District. This exquisite, concentrated yet precisely balanced wine is showing very well right now and, with ample acidity, belies its relatively high alcohol level of 14.8 percent. No California clunker here. The blend is 95 percent cabernet sauvignon and five percent cabernet franc. With a classic blackberry core and notes of graphite and truffles, this is a California cab I could drink every day. It was perfect with our sausage and broccoli rabe dish and will match nicely with all kinds of meats and risotto with mushrooms. It’s listed on Sbragia’s website at $75. (Wines received as press samples.)

Technorati Tags: Santi Infinito Rosé,Veneto wines,Frederick Wildman and Sons,Italian rosés,Sbragia Family Vineyards,Spragia 2007 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon,Spragia cabernet,Edward Deitch,Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon,Howell Mountain cabernet sauvignon

Video: Five great summer white wines

Last night I joined Chuck Scarborough on his NY Nightly News program on WNBC’s New York Nonstop Channel to talk about five exciting white wines for summer. For detailed information about the wines, see the post just below this one.

View more videos at: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/

Technorati Tags: Domaine Felines Jourdan Picpoul de Pinet,Picpoul de Pinet,Edwad Deitch,Channing Daughters,Channing Daugters Sauvignon Blanc,Sella & Mosca La Cala Vermentino di Sardegna,Sardinian wine,Viore Verdejo Rueda,Spanish white wines,Trapiche Torrontés,Chuck Scarborough,New York Nonstop

Sips: Five Top White Wines for Summer

When I was asked to put together a summer wine segment and appear on WNBC’s New York Nonstop channel, I immediately thought of lighter whites that are easy to drink, match well with a variety of simply prepared foods and are good values. Beyond that, I wanted to introduce viewers to some wines they might not have heard about that are very much worth exploring. With that in mind, I chose five wines from five countries, each made from a different grape. What unifies them is that they are refreshing as both aperitif and food wines, especially with fish and simple chicken dishes, and are made without fermentation or aging in oak. Although I have nothing against chardonnay, I decided to keep chardonnay out of the mix this time around because it is so well known and popular. So, enjoy these five whites with your summer dining. I’ll have many more to share in coming weeks.

Channing Daughters 2010 Sauvignon Blanc “Mudd West Vineyard,” Long Island. $20. Light, delicate and elegant sauvignon from this Bridgehampton winery. The wine is made from grapes grown in a North Fork vineyard and shows subtle green apple, herb and citrus notes.

La Cala 2009 Vermentino di Sardegna, Sardinia, Italy. $12. A delicious example of this Mediterranean variety, this is an easy-to-drink yet interesting wine that will pair well with a variety of foods. Pear and apple notes and a good deal of minerality. A natural for linguine with white clam sauce. Imported by Palm Bay International, Boca Raton, Florida.

Domaine Félines Jourdan 2010 Picpoul de Pinet, Languedoc, France. $13. One of my favorite wines of the summer so far. Picpoul de Pinet is the name of the grape and it’s grown only in Languedoc very close to the Mediterranean Sea. The domaine, which I visited last month on a tour of Languedoc, overlooks oyster farms, and the wine, in fact, is just perfect with oysters. Very fresh with a little brininess, good acidity and lots of complexity. Notes of lemon, herbs, a little honey and vanilla and a good deal of minerality on the finish. Imported by Gabriella Importers, Bohemia, New York.

Viore 2010 Verdejo, Rueda, Spain. $9. I’ve been tasting a lot of verdejos in the last month or so and was newly impressed with this variety, which is the most important white grape in the Rueda region. This one is quite racy and almost jumps out of the glass. Complex with notes of apricot, tangerine, some herbs and smoke on the long finish. Imported by Vintage Wines, Staten Island, New York.

Trapiche 2010 Torrontés, Mendoza, Argentina. $8. Torrontes has become a new darling among fresh and lively white wines, and I saved this one for last on tonight’s TV segment because it’s the most aggressive of the five whites. The variety is highly aromatic and this one, beyond the flower notes, is like biting into an orange. It’s a warm-weather thirst quencher and a real bargain at just $8. Imported by Frederick Wildman and Sons, New York.

Swirls: Wine alcohol levels, China's domestic wine growth, Italy overtakes France

The issue of alcohol levels in wine is getting a great deal of attention these days, much of it focused on California, where the high-alcohol wine “bubble” seems to be deflating a bit. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I generally prefer wines with more modest alcohol levels. Yes, I realize that is something of a blanket statement, but I usually find wines in the 13- 14-percent alcohol range a bit easier to drink than those at 14.5 percent or higher.  Dave McIntyre in the Washington Post has a good, balanced discussion of this.

Fascinating story on the growth of wine in China, not just the increasing appetite among wealthy Chinese for top Bordeaux and other “status” wine imports, but the explosion of China’s domestic wine industry, which has gone from 30,000 bottles three decades ago to six million bottles today, surpassing Australia’s production. Read the full story on Australia's ABC.

And in case you missed it, Italy has surpassed France to become the world’s biggest wine producer, according to data released by the European Commission. Italy churned out 4.96 liters of wine last year, compared with 4.62 billion liters for France. Spain is in third place and the U.S. is fourth. Read more here.

Swirls: From “Flasq” to the Food Network to “Mommy” wines, thoughts on wine packaging, branding and gimmickry

Almost every day, the wine business brings us news of a new kind of packaging, branding gimmick or commercial tie-in. This week I read about FLASQ Wines, which bills itself as “the first domestic  wine sold in 100% recyclable and quick-chilling aluminum bottles.” Would you be at all surprised to learn that the wines were developed “to suit active, highly mobile lifestyles and Mother Earth herself?” (Check out the Web site, especially the “Any Time” category with its heavy emphasis on boating, in which DWI happens to be a significant  problem.)  Ah, yes, and then there’s the wine itself. “No doubt,” says a press release, “FLASQ’s Chardonnay and Merlot varietals taste great, hailing from California’s prominent  Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties.” The wines are priced from $5.99-$7.99 for a 375 ml (half bottle). I have little doubt about the environmentally friendly qualities of the aluminum bottles cited by the company, JT Wines of St. Helena. But at its heart, this seems to be yet another example of a company coming up with a wine “concept” in which the wine itself almost plays a supporting role. It joins a growing list of wine bags, wine boxes, wine bladders, and other motley containers entering the crowded wine space. If any small, artisanal producers have turned to any of these packages, I haven’t heard about it.

Then there’s the line of wines, due out in August, announced last week by the Food Network, a powerful brand that will undoubtedly push sales of the wines far. The wines are (again) from California, this time from Wente Vineyards. They’ll be called Entwine and the project, we are told, was in development for 18 months. And what did they come up with? A a pinot grigio, a merlot, a chardonnay and a cabernet sauvignon, all priced at $12.99.

Before this week, I had no idea that there were two wine brands that appeal directly to overworked moms and capitalize on the word “Mommy.” Yes, there’s “Mommy’s Time Out,” which includes a garagnega-pinot grigio blend and a primitivo from Italy, and “Mommyjuice” from Clos Lachance Wines in California. It turns out, as Reuters reported, there’s a trademark fight involving the two brands, which, if nothing else, should send sales through the roof – and for far less money than any marketing campaign.

Technorati Tags: FLASQ,FLASQ Wines,JT Wines,Food Network wines,Wente Vineyards,Mommyjuice wine,Mommy's Time Out wine,Clos Lachance,Edward Deitch,Wine packaging,Wine marketing,Wine gimmicks,Wine branding

Sips: Cheap red wine – discovering an excellent $10 Chianti

For better or worse, we eat a lot of pasta in our house, despite often-expressed waistline concerns based on the narcotic-like effects of good pasta sauces. (How many of us can really resist the temptation to go back for second helpings?) And because we enjoy pasta so much, I often find myself in short supply of good, inexpensive Italian wines, especially reds, which for me are de rigueur for tomato-based sauces.

Budget Italian reds are a hit-or-miss affair, especially in the $10- and-under category. Yes, there are lots of cheap nero d’avolas from Sicily and primativos from Puglia around, not to mention the familiar big-brand Chiantis from Tuscany and Valpolicellas from the Veneto, most of them ordinary. One that rises above that  status is a $10 wine I brought home the other night from my local wine store, Vincenzo Cesani’s 2008 Chianti Colli Senesi “Pancole.”

This estate-bottled wine from a respected grower in San Gimignano also known for its white vernaccia is one of the better budget Chiantis I’ve tasted in recent years. It’s high in acidity (a requirement for good food wines) with spicy cherry and raspberry tastes, a leather note and a  tannic structure often lacking in wines at this price. Slightly chilled, it was a satisfying match for our tomato and meat sauce. Colli Senesi is perhaps the best known of the “other” Chianti appellations and is generally less expensive than Chianti Classico.  Alcohol in this sangiovese-based wine is 12.5 percent. Imported by Montecastelli Selections, New York.

Technorati Tags: Italian red wines,Edwad Deitch,Chianti,Chianti Colli Senesi,Viincenzo Cesani,Pancole,San Gimignano,Vernaccia,Tuscany,Tuscan reds,Budget wines,Budget red wines,Cheap Italian wine,Cheap red wine,$10 wine,Sangiovese

Sips: For Super Bowl Sunday and beyond, bring out the Prosecco

At last week’s Vino 2011 trade event here in New York, during a review of Italian wine in this country, the subject of sparkling wine was put into blunt context by Leonardo LoCascio, president of Winebow, a leading importer. “I don’t think we have a sparkling wine story,” he declared at a press conference. “We have a Prosecco story.” He was referring, of course, to the highly popular sparkling wine from the Veneto region, which has enjoyed enviable and singular success among non-Champagne contenders for a major piece of the budget bubbly market in recent years. I, for one, intend to have a few bottles on hand as I watch the Super Bowl with friends on Sunday night.

But a typical bottle of Prosecco, unpretentious and affordable, doesn’t need an excuse to be opened, as I reminded myself the other night when I felt like something light and refreshing before dinner. So I pulled out a bottle of  Canella’s Prosecco Brut from the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, where it was sitting among several other sparklers of various pedigrees. Very dry with fine bubbles, it had apple and muted herb and citrus notes and was all but effortless to drink, even more so given a price tag of $15 or so. And with half a bottle left that evening, it also held up just fine in the fridge with a miscellaneous cork stuck back in the bottle until the next night, when I brought it out for an encore. Think of Prosecco as a go-to sparkler for just about any occasion, including  Valentine’s Day.

There are, of course, many other Italian sparkling wines at various price points, including sparkling Gavi, Moscato d’Asti, sweet and dry red Lambruscos, the higher-end Franciacorta and others. Unfortunately, they are minor players in the American market. Leonardo LoCasio said that higher-priced bubbly doesn’t do very because “on a special occasion people want to go safe.” In other words, he said, they want Champagne. Fortunately, for most other occasions, there is Prosecco. Canella’s Prosecco Brut imported by Empson (U.S.A.), Alexandria, Virginia. Received as a press sample.

Technorati Tags: Leonardo Lo Cascio,Winebow,Prosecco,Canella Prosecco,Vino 2011,Edwad Deitch,Italian sparkling wines,Sparkling Gavi,Sparkling Lambrusco,Moscato d'Asti,Franciacorta

SWIRLS: Vino 2011 -- “totally insane” Italian appellations, retro wine, Robert Parker

Here in New York, this week’s Vino 2011 Italian Wine Week opened today with some perspectives on Italian wine and other aspects of the wine business from a panel of industry leaders. Here are some of the more interesting observations and comments.

From Leonardo Lo Cascio, Chairman and Founder, Winebow, Inc.

-- “In the sweet retail spot of $25 and under there is not another country that comes close to Italy” for American wine drinkers.

-- On Italian sparkling wines: “I don’t think we have an Italian sparkling wine story, we have a Prosecco story.” Beyond the great success of Prosecco, Italian sparklers “don’t do very well because they are priced like Champagne” and on a special occasion “people want to go safe” with Champagne.

-- On Italy’s wine laws: “Most Italian wine laws are totally irrelevant to the American consumer. People can’t make their way around DOCs or DOCGs. The  whole thing needs to be simplified and made easier. We have some appellations that are totally insane.” Example he cited: Colli Morenici e Mantovani del Garda. “There are 280 of those appellations.”

From Cristina Mariani May, Co-CEO, Banfi Vintners:

-- There is increasing interest among consumers in regional wines from Italy,  and there is a fallback to “retro wines” such as dry Lambruscos, Soaves, Amarones and Frascatis. “What is old is really new again but new in a better style, a purer style.”

-- More and more Italian producers are using natural  growing methods, even if they are not going through the cumbersome process of becoming certified organic.

From Tyler Colman, editor of Dr. Vino.com:

-- On wine journalism and criticism: The traditional model of “handing down points from Manna in Heaven is running out of gas.” Young people, thirsty for wine knowledge, are largely getting it from their friends and passionate retailers. As for wine information on the Web: “It’s a bull market for free content. If you’re giving it away for free on the Internet, people will come and read your content.” He noted that there are four million “core wine consumers” on Twitter alone.

-- Robert Parker won’t be replaced and there will be “a lot more voices” in terms of influential wine writers.

-- On barriers to increasing Italian wine sales even further:  1)more education will be needed because of the great diversity of Italian wines;  2) “The retail channel, I think it’s fair to say, is blocked” because of this country’s still-restrictive wine shipping laws.

Technorati Tags: Vino 2011,Tyler Colman,Dr. Vino,Winebow,Leonardo Lo Cascio,Cristina Mariani May,Banfi Vintners,Castello Banfi,Edward Deitch,Italian wines,Prosecco,Robert Parker

The Daily Sip: From Italy’s Piedmont, Icardi’s 2008 Barbera d’Asti “Tabaren”

Whenever I make tomato sauces for pasta, I simply have to have an Italian wine with lots of acidity, and one of the best I’ve tasted recently comes from a winery I’ve written about a number of times over the years, Icardi in Piedmont.  Barbera, of course, plays something of a second-fiddle role in Piedmont to the more profound nebbiolo, the source of Barolo and Barbaresco. But when it comes to everyday drinking at a modest price with simple, Italian-inspired dishes, almost nothing compares with barbera.

And Icardi’s 2008 Barbera d’Asti “Tabaren” (from the Asti area) shows why. It’s loaded with bright red fruit, especially cherry and raspberry, and hints of red licorice and vanilla. The overall impression is one of freshness and vitality, a wine that almost dances out of the glass with its tingling acidity and moderate alcohol of 13 percent. I enjoyed it with a sauce based on yellow heirloom tomatoes (picked by me at their ripest in October and then frozen), chopped basil and parsley. I tossed the sauce with penne in a cast-iron skillet, sprinkled chopped mozzarella over the pasta and then  browned it under the broiler for a few minutes. The result was superb, with just the right wine to match. I paid $15 for the wine in New York. Imported by Vinifera Imports, Ronkonkoma, N.Y.

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Thanksgiving wine lists: what Randall Grahm and others in the business are thankful for

There is no shortage of Thanksgiving wine advice out there, so instead of joining the pack, as I have for most of the last decade with my own pronouncements about Thanksgiving wine pairings, I decided to do something different this year. What were some of my friends and colleagues in the wine business planning to serve or recommend – from wine styles to regions to individual bottles? A set of email queries prompted a quick response and a broad range of possibilities, which included wines from California, Oregon, Washington, many parts of France as well as Italy, Austria, Germany and Chile. If one theme emerged, it is this: when it comes to Thanksgiving, there are very few rules about wine. Like the stuffing or the gravy, everyone’s tastes and preferences are going to be different. I would add (and the responses largely bear this out) that the wines, whether red or white, will work best when they are on the leaner and less  alcoholic side. Beyond that, my friends seemed to gravitate toward wines with finesse and individuality, as you’re about to see.

The most enviable response came from Joshua Greene, editor and publisher of Wine & Spirits Magazine, for which I occasionally serve on tasting panels. Josh said he would raise a glass, in absentia, from Spain, where he will be meeting on Thursday with the owner of one of the great Rioja producers, R. López de Heredia. “Will think of turkey, native Americans and pilgrims,” he said, “as I toast with a 1981 Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia.”

Randall Grahm, the founder and self-proclaimed president-for-life of California’s Bonny Doon Vineyard, put Thanksgiving in the context of his own wine evolution (or is it revolution?). He wrote: “These days – and I’m more or less counting on this being a semi-permanent state of affairs – I’m pretty much only interested in wines that might be called vins de terroir: wines that express a sense of place, but also wines that exhibit a quality of minerality or life-force (two sides of the same coin). As it turns out, I do think that these sorts of dynamic ‘vital’ wines are in fact a great foil to turkey, which is itself, shall we say, somewhat static.” Among whites, Randall is thinking about a dry riesling from France’s Alsace, perhaps an older example from Fréderic Emile, or one from Austria’s Wachau, or a grüner veltliner, perhaps a Prager Grüner Alte Reben. For reds, he said, “it will most likely be infanticide of an ’05 red Burgundy,” perhaps from Fourier, definitely decanted, or maybe a Cornas from the northern Rhône. As an apéritif, he’s going to try to get his hands on some of Eric Bordelet’s Poire “Granit,” a pear cider from Normandy.

The Daily Sip: Early Thanksgiving wine tip -- Chiarlo’s winning and versatile Barbera d’Asti

Michele Chiarlo is one of the biggest estates in Italy’s Piedmont, producing a range of wine from Barolos and Barbarescos among the reds to Gavis and Moscato d’Astis among the whites. One of Chiarlo’s most familiar and popular wines in this country is the Barbera d’Asti Superiore “Le Orme.” For a simple pasta sauce I  made using some of the season’s last tomatoes, I picked up a bottle of the 2007 the other day for about $16 and was not disappointed.

Barbera, with its signature acidity, happens to be one of the great food wines, especially for tomato-based sauces, which have their own high acidity. Add to that the concentrated fruit of Chiarlo’s wine, and you’ve got a winning combination. Sometimes the acids can be a bit over the edge in Barbera, but that’s not the case here with everything in balance. Black cherry and blueberry notes dominate with some cedar, herbs and a vanilla touch on the smooth, long finish. The fruit was even prettier the next day, the wine benefitting from a day of breathing. I thought to myself that this would also be an excellent Thanksgiving wine, holding up to the myriad tastes on the holiday table. Alcohol is 13 percent. Imported by Kobrand Corporation, New York.

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The Daily Sip: superb, affordable Chianti from a lesser-known part of the famed region

For the modest sum of $15, it’s going to be difficult to find a good example of Chianti Classico, the most celebrated appellation in the Chianti region of Tuscany. Fortunately, there are other lesser-known Chiantis that can be very good and affordable at the same time. One of them is Chianti Colli Fiorentini, which refers to a Chianti sub-zone in the hills around Florence. I’ve tasted two of them recently, both priced at $15, and one of them clearly stood out (and it was not the one represented by a very well known  promoter of Italian wines).

Petreto’s 2006 Chianti Colli Fiorentini is a fresh and fruity wine dominated by delicious black cherry and blueberry notes, subtle spice and the kind of crisp acidity that makes good Chianti and the sangiovese grape so irresistible. Moderately tannic and easy to drink, the bottle was a crowd pleaser and went quickly at a dinner with friends the other night. While some of its subtlety may have been lost on spaghetti and meatballs, it would do wonders with stews and roasts, hearty vegetable soups and sautéed broccoli rabe and sausage tossed with pasta. Alcohol is 13.5 percent. Imported by Farello Wines, New York.

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The Daily Sip: what’s wrong with a “grapey” wine? A seductive wine from Italy’s Calabria defies the connotation

In many years of reviewing wine, I don’t think I’ve described a wine as “grapey” more than once or twice. What is it about the word? Does it connote simplicity when good wine is supposed to be complex? Is it reserved for more proletarian grape products such as humble table grapes, grape jelly or grape soda? Perhaps. And yet, for the last two evenings, I’ve been tasting an unusual wine from Italy for which “grapey” immediately springs to mind in a most attractive light.

Savuto is an obscure appellation, or DOC as they call it in Italy, from Calabria in the far south of the country. Calabria makes up the “toe” of Italy and almost touches Sicily, which is separated by just a couple of miles of sea. Since the early 1990s, the Odoardi family has been farming about 170 acres of vines in the Savuto River Valley, right, and has been putting some lesser known indigenous grape varieties back on the map. Odoardi’s 2005 Savuto is a blend of Gaglioppo (45 percent) with lesser amounts of Greco Nero, Nerello Capuccio, Magliocco Canino and Sangiovese. See what I mean about obscure grapes?

The wine, for which I paid $15 in New York, has the aforementioned grapey core but with much more, including notes of black cherry, dark plum, vanilla and a touch of eucalyptus. There is both a bright fruit and candied quality, which may seem like a contradiction but which somehow works in a wine that, at first, suggests something quite simple but that turns out to be surprisingly complex. Alcohol is 14 percent. For al kinds of meats, pastas and pizzas. Imported by Jan D’Amore wines, Brooklyn, New York.

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