Above: Hans Wirsching 2009 Sylvaner is what we drank to get us started. Put enough Master Sommeliers under one roof together and something delicious and geeky is bound to be opened.

Saturday night “happened” to find me at Mark Sayre’s newly renovated bar at Trio in the Four Seasons in downtown Austin, where the board of the Court of Master Sommeliers “happened” to be staying for a Court meeting.

I wasn’t exactly invited to the party that ensued. But some how I ended up in a hotel room where I was the only lay person, so to speak. Having five Master Sommeliers and one Master of Wine offering to pour me wine was — how can I put it? — a unique experience.

It was really interesting to meet MS Geoff Kruth, director of operations for the Guild of Sommeliers, and learn that he speaks Italian fluently and is an unabashed fan of the often forgotten Italian region of Molise. He had recently returned from a visit there and was raving about the venues where stayed and ate. His Italian and his knowledge of Italy are impressive, to say the least.

My conversation with MS Shayn Bjornholm, the court’s examination director, was also intriguing. He had a lot to say about the legacy of the 2012 film Somm (in which he appears) and how it has reshaped awareness of the court and its mission. Dialog was candid and he spoke of his personal investment in making hospitality, rather than wine connoisseurship, the primary focus of the court’s evolving curriculum.

It was also great to catch up with MS Bret Zimmerman, whom I know from my years in New York. He affirmed my conviction that Boulder, Colorado, where he runs the excellent Boulder Wine Merchant, is one of the (not so) new epicenters of North American enogastronomy.

And it was equally rewarding to hear MS (and Austinite) Craig Collins, wine director for the ELM Restaurant Group, talk about plans to develop a new Italian concept restaurant in Austin. He’s on his way to Rome, Chiantishire, and Montalcino for research.

The next morning, when Tracie P gently roused me from bed (after generously letting me sleep in), we couldn’t help but laugh about a comment a good friend and high-profile wine writer made when I told her I was moving to Austin five years ago.

“What will you drink?” she asked, deeply and genuinely concerned for my enogastronomic health.

Looking back now, “What won’t you drink?” would have been more to the point.

Above: a traditional “spiedo bresciano” must be roasted slowly for a minimum of four hours (image via M@rcello;-)’s Flickr, Creative Commons).

Click here for a fun translation that I posted today for my client Barone Pizzini in Franciacorta.

It’s culled from the “official designation” of Brescian rotissere according to the Oglio, Franciacorta, Lago d’Iseo Slow Food chapter.

And please click here for for Maurizio Gily’s legal aid fund.

If you haven’t read about Maurizio’s legal battle and the suppression of his freedom of speech, please click here.

He’s trying to raise €16,000 to cover his legal costs as he prepares his appeal.

I am just one of (literally) scores of Italian wine trade observers and wine lovers who have reposted the link on social media.

Neapolitan journalist and wine blogger Luciano Pignataro has posted the entire text of the judgment here (in Italian; as Luciano suggests, skip over the legalese and read the judge’s decision at the end).

Buon weekend…

Above: Wine writer, journalist, educator, publisher, blogger Maurizio Gily visited the Tonnellerie Chassin in Burgundy in 2011 (image via Tonnellerie Chassin). He reported his notes from the visit in an essay entitled “France and its Wooden Treasure: from forest to barrique, a heritage managed sustainably and safeguarded by the French government.”

Italian enonauts continue to reel in the wake of news that beloved Italian wine writer Maurizio Gily has been ordered to pay €5,000 to so-called journalist Paolo Tessardi for damage to the latter’s reputation in a blog post published in 2008.

The bottom line: Tessardi’s reporting of an Italian government investigation into wine adulteration in 2008 was inaccurate and sensationalistic; and Gily’s attempt set the record straight was vindicated by the fact that Tessardi’s claims proved to be untrue.

As Antonio Tomacelli noted on the popular wine blog Intravino today, Tessardi was censured by his editors at the time. The title of Antonio’s post: “Whisper the truth, shout the lie.”

Even the judge who presided over the case noted that Gily’s facts were correct. But Gily should have “shown more discretion” in “attacking” a colleague, he wrote.

Dulcis in fundo, here’s the icing on the cake: Tessardi only read Gily’s blog post three years later when everyone had forgotten about this sad episode in the annals of yellow-tinged Italian journalism!

I remember Tessardi’s piece well (as do many Italian wine trade observers). News of the Brunello controversy had just broke and the Italian wine trade fair, Vinitaly, had just begun.

The shocking and now infamous “Velenitaly” (Poisoned Italy) cover was on every newsstand. There was hysteria in the air. There were rumors that Italian paramilitary forces had stormed the fair and confiscated wine. With echoes of the 1986 methanol scandal, the damage to consumers’ perceptions of Italian wine was palpable.

Gily and his blog were Davids to Tessardi’s Goliath: L’Espresso, the magazine that published Tessardi’s sloppy reporting, is one of Italy’s top glossy weeklies, akin to Newsweek except for the liberal depictions of the female body in the former.

Maurizio is a wine writer, publisher of an excellent trade magazine and blog, Mille Vigne (A Thousand Vines), editor of numerous works devoted to Italian enology, an educator and lecturer, a scholar, a wine industry consultant, and one of the sweetest people you’ll ever meet in the world of Italian wine writing.

I have traveled and tasted with him and I have the utmost respect for his integrity and his professionalism.

And this whole thing just makes me sick…

Above: that’s what I am feeling right now. Who is that man? It’s Umberto D.

In what is widely viewed as an egregious travesty of justice, leading Italian wine writer Maurizio Gily has been convicted of defamation in a case brought against him by Italian investigative reporter Paolo Tessardi. In a sentence handed down today, a judge in northern Italy ordered Gily to pay Tessardi €5,000 for damage to his reputation.

The case dates back to 2008 when Paolo Tessardi published his now infamous “Velenitaly” cover stories for L’Espresso, a popular glossy news magazine. Velenitaly is an amalgamation of veleno, meaning poison in Italian, and Vinitaly, the Italian wine industry’s annual trade fair held in Verona.

In Tessardi’s stories, he reported that hundreds of thousands of liters of Italian wine had been found to contain “poison.” He also claimed that Brunello producers were aware of the presence of toxins in their wine. The story appeared just a few days after news of the Brunello controversy of 2008 broke, when, in fact, a handful of Brunello producers had been accused of allegedly adding unauthorized grapes to their wines.

Tessardi’s articles appeared during the 2008 Vinitaly gathering.

Not long after, Gily — one of the country’s most respected wine writers — published a blog post on his Mille Vigne blog in which he contested Tessardi’s claims. Ultimately, none of Tessardi’s claims proved to be true.

In the judge’s ruling today, he noted that although Gily’s facts were correct, he had damaged Tessardi’s reputation.

In an interview posted by SlowFood today, Gily ascribes the urgency and vehemence of his blog post (subsequently removed) to the fact that Tessardi’s inaccurate reporting caused inestimable damage to consumers’ perceptions of Italian wine.

Tessardi only discovered Gily’s post three years later (thanks to an internet search). And he filed his complaint against Gily in the wake of his discovery, long after any memory of the Velenitaly story or Gily’s editorial had faded from public discourse.

Today on his blog, another leading Italian wine writer, Luciano Pignataro, remembered how Tessardi’s editor at the time, Enzo Vizzari, was so dismayed by the tide of criticism of Tessardi’s coverage, that he removed Tessardi’s blog from the magazine’s website.

As news of the sentence spread through Italian social media, scores of Italian wine trade members and observers have expressed their dismay and disgust.

“Well articulated lies and incontinent truths. This is Italy unfortunately. Solidarity for Maurizio Gily,” wrote Italian winemaker Marilena Barbera on her twitter today.

She was referring to the judge’s comment that Gily should have used “continence” (decorum or discretion) in his “personal attack” on Tessardi.

Gily has not yet decided whether or not to appeal the ruling.

Sources: SlowFood.it and Luciano Pignataro Wine Blog.

Above: Angelo Gaja in the Gaja tasting room in Barbaresco (photo taken in 2010).

The following is my translation of Angelo Gaja’s most recent “open letter,” posted today on Luciano Pignataro’s Wine Blog.

As the elder statesman of Italian wine, Angelo Gaja often shares his insights into future trends in Italian wine and the challenges faced today by Italian winemakers.

I hope you find his op-ed as interesting as I do. Buona lettura…

*****

We need to remember that we Italians are not the only ones who produce wines made from historical/indigenous grape varieties.

Spain is the other country that has its own grape varieties and its grapes are different from ours.

Just to name a few, the following are some of the most well known varieties.

Reds: Tempranillo (in its different classifications as Tinto), Bobal, Garnacha Tina, Monastrell, Carinena, Mencia.

Whites: Airèn, Pardina, Macabeo, Palomino, Albarino, Godello, Verdejo.

Spain doesn’t have as many as Italy. But like Italy, it has a wealth of grape varieties. As in Italy, Spain’s international grape varieties represent a minority.

There’s no doubt that foreign consumers and lovers of native/indigenous grape varieties view Italy and Spain as the leaders.

Official data on Spanish wine production are still not available.

According to estimates, the 2013 harvest in Spain should be around 46 million hectoliters. If that number were to grow — and we will find out in a few months — Spain could become the leading producer of wine in the world and would overtake Italy by a hair.

In terms of volume sold abroad, Spain is in second place not far behind Italy.

The average price of a liter of exported Spanish wine is less than half of the average price in Italy, where prices are already relatively low. As a result, in foreign markets, Spanish wines are seen as an excellent value for their quality. Spain is also able to offer the lowest prices for bulk wine.

Continue reading →

Above: a geological survey of the Chianti Classico DOCG was presented by a group of leading grape growers and winemakers in Florence in December, 2013.

Yesterday, Italian wine writer and wine professional Andrea Gori published his notes from a Chianti Classico subzone held in Florence in early December 2013.

(Even if you don’t speak Italian, I highly recommend watching this video, included in Andrea’s post, in which enologist Maurizio Castelli — “heir to the Giulio Gambelli legacy,” as Andrea calls him — presents his overview of Chianti and its subzones.)

The conference, organized by Sangiovese activist Davide Bonucci, was as controversial as it was significant.

Many in the Chianti DOC oppose subzoning and even though the list of presenters included some of the appellation’s top names (Maurizio Castelli, Niccolò Montecchi, Roberto Stucchi, Sebastiano Capponi, Tommaso Marrochesi Marzi), the Chianti Classico consortium was loudly absent from the proceedings.

Yesterday, winemaker Roberto Stucchi sent me the following essay.

*****

The Evolution of Chianti Classico
by Roberto Stucchi

The time has arrived for Chianti Classico to evolve towards its natural future, by recognizing, describing, and communicating (and possibly regulating) the local communal and village appellations that compose this beautiful territory.

This zone is too large and diverse to remain locked in the current DOCG regulations, which make no distinction between the extremely diverse expressions of Sangiovese in its original territory.

The first natural level of evolution above the simple “Chianti Classico” appellation would be naming the Comune [township] of origin of the grapes for wines that truly represent their territory.

Continue reading →

Above: the lovely Tracie P was my “hand model.”

Like the ability to tie a bow tie or mastery of Latin, knowing how to open a bottle of wine correctly is one of those skills that can set you apart from the crowd (especially at dinner parties).

It will also lead to greater enjoyment of the wine: In part because extracting a cork from a bottle of wine can be stressful for people who don’t have experience in serving wine; and in part because the aromas and flavors of wine can been affected negatively by improper handling of the bottle.

My post today for the Houston Press addresses one of the most banal but most important elements of wine appreciation…

From the department of “so much to tell, so little time”…

Above: looking north-northwest toward the Alps from the Cascina delle Rose in the village of Tre Stelle (Barbaresco), just north of Alba (see map below). I took that photo nearly four years ago on our honeymoon, the first week of February 2010.

As I was writing some copy for a client in the months that led up to the winter break, I set about researching something that had troubled me for a long time: even though wine writers commonly and widely (however erroneously) refer to the “Tortonian” and “Helvetian” subsoils of the Barolo appellation, geologists use the terms “Tortonian” and “Serravallian” to denote the two classifications.

Pick up any nearly any wine encyclopedia, guide or atlas to the wines of Langa, and you will find that they nearly unanimously point to the younger, “more compact” and “more fertile” Tortonian subsoils to the west of the road that leads from Barolo to Alba (see map below) and the older, “less compact” and “less fertile” Helvetian subsoils to the east.

Generally speaking, the wines from the west are more approachable in their youth and more generous with their fruit flavors while the wines from the east take longer to evolve and can be more austere and earthy in nature.

“The first soil type, calcareous marls of the Tortonian epoch which are relatively compact, fresher, and more fertile,” write the authors of the Barolo entry in Jancis Robinson’s excellent Oxford Companion to Wine, “characterizes the vineyards of the townships of La Morra and Barolo and produce softer, fruitier, aromatic wines which age relatively rapidly for a Barolo. The second soil type, from the Helvetian epoch, with a higher proportion of compressed sandstone, is less compact, poorer, and less fertile, with the result that the townships of Monforte d’Alba and Serralunga d’Alba yield more intense, structured wines that mature more slowly.”

Why, I’ve always wondered, do wine writers use the term Helvetian — from the ancient name of Switzerland — when the term Serravallian actually refers to a village in the Barolo appellation?

Continue reading →

Above: the marina at Vico Equense, Naples province (image via Dave Does the Blog’s Flickr, Creative Commons).

Doing some research for a writing project over the weekend, I became obsessed with Vico Equense, a small town with roughly 21k inhabitants on the Gulf of Naples.

A Google search had swiftly led me Vico Equense Online, a blog devoted to the township and the people who live there. Yesterday, when I set about searching for info on the town, the day’s blog post was devoted to an interview with 36-year-old Maurizio Cinque, an independent politician who just finished serving his first year as the town council’s president.

I was so moved by what he had to say that I decided to translate an excerpt from his reflections on 2013.

According to the most recent data I could find, unemployment in Italy is currently 12.5 percent. Youth unemployment (15-24 years) is a staggering 41.2 percent (in the U.S., youth unemployment is 16 percent and overall unemployment has fallen to 7 percent).

As I return to work and begin blogging about Italy and Italian wines again, I feel it’s important to remember that Italians — grape growers and winemakers among them — are facing some serious and seemingly insurmountable challenges on their road to recovery. I hope you’ll find this young politician’s view of the world from the fiords of Naples province as moving as I did…

*****

There’s no doubt that 2013 was a very difficult year for all of us. In many ways, it was a “very unusual” year for the world and for Vico Equense.

In 2013, we saw two Popes in the Vatican.

We saw how a political party [the Five Star Movement] can become the top party simply by means of vaffanculo [saying f&*% off].

We saw how one can “rise” and one can “fall” rapidly in politics.

We saw how the right and the left can govern together even after years of insulting one another.

We saw how you can “lose” by winning elections.

For the first time, the President of the Italian Republic was re-elected [Giorgio Napolitano].

After 25 years, Berlusconi orchestrated the birth of a pacification government, was convicted [of tax fraud], and then was expelled from the senate.

Suddenly in 2013, the political parties nearly simultaneously elected “young secretaries.”

In 2013, Nelson Mandela died, Andreotti died, and Vico Equense elected a 36-year-old township council president.

But there’s no doubt that these times of financial crisis and economic difficulties affect many of us in different ways, including here in Vico Equense.

We’re trying to offer support to families with numerous initiatives. We’re trying to help small businesses and merchants who are living in terrible times. We’re there for artisans and we’re ready to work with them and hear their ideas. We’re there for the many young people who can’t find work and the workers who have lost their jobs…

In 2014, I’m appealing to young people, asking them not to lose hope and not to give up. I’m asking them to keep on fighting for their dreams even when it seems that “the sky has forgotten to be blue.”

—Maurizio Cinque
Vico Equense Township Council President