When I tasted with Produttori del Barbaresco export/sales director Aldo Vacca last year at Vinitaly, he showed the cooperative winery’s “new” label. “Every year our importer asks for us a ‘new’ product for the market,” he told me with his signature sheepish grin. “We didn’t really have anything new and so we decided to rename […]
Above: As my good friend and top sommelier David Rosoff will tell you, “I learned more about Barbaresco talking to Aldo Vacca for 10 minutes” than I have in my whole career. I wanted to draw your attention to a comment made by winemaker Aldo Vacca, Produttori del Barbaresco, posted the other day here at […]
From the “department of keeping the world safe for Italian wine”… Above: I tasted with winemaker Aldo Vacca at Produttori del Barbaresco in March 2010. Anyone who reads my blog knows that I am one of the wineries hugest fans. Reader Ken wrote me a private message recently, asking if I’d seen an email blast […]
Fortune has smiled on me lately: I’ve had the opportunity to taste a lot of 2004 and 2005 Barbaresco and 2006 Langhe Nebbiolo by Produttori del Barbaresco side-by-side over the last few weeks and it’s been really great to see how the 04 has been evolving in bottle, to experience the differences between the 04 […]
Earlier this year, Produttori del Barbaresco’s president and winemaker Aldo Vacca (left) took time out from his importer’s grand portfolio tasting to talk to me about recent vintages and the cooperative’s approach to winemaking. Produttori del Barbaresco has always stood apart for its steadfast traditionalist approach to winemaking. Where do you see Produttori in relation […]
Above: Nebbiolo grapes ripening this week in an appellation that lies outside the hallowed Langhe Hills. If approved, new Piedmont appellation regulations would allow growers across the region to label their Nebbiolo as “Piemonte Nebbiolo DOC.” Currently, only growers in select townships can use the grape name in labeling. According to a person familiar with […]
Above: Nebbiolo grapes in Piedmont. Italian wine writers and bloggers have been up in arms this week and last over two controversial proposals for major changes in appellation rules. The first, which is to be voted on today by growers, is the creation of a new Pinot Grigio delle Venezie DOC modeled after the current […]
CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE EPISODES. Video by Tracie P. Aldo Vacca from Produttori del Barbaresco was in town last week and he graciously agreed to appear in the seventh episode of the Italian Grape Name Pronunciation Project. (You can read about Aldo’s Texas adventures here on Alfonso’s blog). Thanks again to everyone for submitting […]
Above: Angiolino Maule didn’t know us from Adam and Eve when I called him in January asking if we could visit his winery and vineyards. By the end of the visit, we had become fast friends (sometimes it helps to speak Italian with a Veneto accent!). If you follow along here at the blog, you […]
Above: I love it when you drop in on someone and they just happen to be opening single-vineyard designated Produttori del Barbaresco! Yesterday, while meeting with Tony in Houston, one of his clients asked me, “if you could only choose one Italian red wine to recommend for value and quality, what would it be?” Anyone […]
Do Bianchi 