I love you Tracie P and Georgia P!
Buon weekend, yall…
Luigi Tecce: “what I don’t put in my wine”
Luigi Tecce’s wines first came to my attention two years ago when I was visiting and tasting in southern Italy. They blew my mind… They’re some of the best wines I’ve ever tasted… period… end of report…
And I’m very proud that we have the 2009 Satyricon (Campi Taurasini) and 2007 Poliphemo (Taurasi) on our new fall list at Sotto in Los Angeles.
These are native-yeast-fermented, large-cask aged STUNNING expressions of Aglianico from Campania. I’ll never forget the look on Tracie P’s face when she tasted the wine with me last night at dinner.
“This,” she said, “THIS is what Aglianico tastes like.”
She would know: she lived between Ischia and Naples for nearly five years.
I loathe the saying that Aglianico is the Nebbiolo of the south. If anything, Nebbiolo is the Aglianico of the north!
But I will say that there is a virtual kinship between Luigi Tecce and Bartolo Mascarello. Here’s a translation of the back label:
cultured [pharmaceutical] yeast NO
enzymes NO
malolactic bacteria NO
added tannins NO
de-acidification NO
clarification NO
filtration NO
gum Arabic NO
No need to call this wine “Natural.” It’s just wine… great wine… friggin’ brilliant wine…
incredible dinner @SottoLA last night with my ladies
Georgia P has so much fun in restaurants… she LOVED Sotto last night in Los Angeles (where daddy works).
Involtini di melanzane, classic eggplant rolls cooked in tomato. Chefs Zach and Steve are really reaching new and even greater heights with their cooking these days…
Fusilli di grano arso al ragù di coniglio e porcini, toasted wheat fusilli with rabbit and porcini ragù. This dish was tough to photograph but amazing, balanced in its flavors and textures, and the pasta cooked perfectly al dente. This might be my top dish for 2012.
Rapini (cime di rapa) con collatura, broccoli raab with garum (anchovy sauce), so simple and so delicious.
Sardinian pane frattau, classic Sardinian pane carasau (crunchy, thin, savory flatbread) that has been soaked in water, layered (in this case) with pork innards, topped with an egg (look at the color of that yolk!), and baked. This dish will definitely go in my top dishes of 2012 post at the end of the year.
Many erroneously believe that frattau means fretta or hurry in Sardinian. But it’s more likely that it means grated, possibly akin to franto.
Amazing meal… truly amazing… a note on the wine will follow later today… stay tuned!
Amphora-aged Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo, almost as good as sex cc @SottoLA
“Just one look…”
There are certain wines that seduce you from first glance. Their color and visual texture alone are enough to make you horny.
Such was the case yesterday early evening when I opened a bottle of Francesco Cirelli’s amphora-aged Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo for some of our best friends. I’ll never forget the moment when I poured it into the glass and the whole table collectively sighed…
Beyond its hue, Francesco’s wine achieves a benchmark balance of savory and sweet and its mouthfeel and finish are toe-curling.
It could possibly be my favorite wine for 2012, almost as good as sex.
Earlier this year, I asked Francesco to pose for my video camera and pronounce Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo for the Italian Grape Name and Appellation Pronunciation Project (see below). And I’m extremely proud and thrilled that we will be debuting the wine this week on my fall list at Sotto in Los Angeles (I’ll be at the restaurant tonight and tomorrow).
Cultural entrepreneurship on the rise among Italian winemakers
A photo of Vigne del Vulture’s vineyards in Aglianico del Vulture, taken September 20. Image via Gabriele Ladislao Moccia’s Facebook.
While Tracie P, Georgia P, and I were in Melfi (Basilicata) a few weeks ago, we had the chance to meet and taste with a young producer, Gabriele Ladislao Moccia. His winery, Vigne del Vulture, is new on the scene: a native of Vulture and purveyor of fine food products, Gabriele has been using his contacts in the nordic countries to distribute his wines with great success.
Above: I wouldn’t call Gabriele’s wines classic in style but they are a true expression of the grape variety. Note the dark color and transparency of his 2007, which I liked a lot.
His wines aren’t yet available in the U.S. but I wanted to write a note about them because I believe that Gabriele represents a new trend of young Italian entrepreneurs who recognize the value of authenticity in their wines.
Vigne del Vulture’s wines are a little rough around the edges and they still need to come into focus. But I was impressed by Gabriele’s resolve to make wines that truly reflect the appellation.
A generation ago, many Italian winemakers set out to make wines for the American market: if you follow along here at Do Bianchi, you’ve seen my reportage on wine industry greats like Ezio Rivella who have declared — very publicly — that they were “deliberately adopting a California style.”
Above: I thought that Gabriele’s 2007 showed the best in the flight we tasted. It tended toward modernity but didn’t ever lose its continuity with true varietal expression and the appellation.
As we traveled through Italy on this last trip, I found more and more signs of a new generation of young Italians who are looking to enter the U.S. market with wines that reflect their local traditions, even if they do lean toward modernity.
Of all the winemakers we visited, Gabriele was one of a score of thirty-somethings who embrace authenticity (if not tradition) in their approach to their products.
This trend is the opposite of the generation that came before them. Perhaps they take their inspiration more from a renewed sense of identity and purpose than from old man Mondavi and the Napa Valley revolution.
I liked Gabriele a lot and I’m looking forward to tasting the new releases next year when they arrive.
What wine didn’t Romney drink in Boca Raton?
@SottoLA new list this week (Aglianico on my mind)
One of the reasons that Tracie P, Georgia P, and I were so geeked to get to Melfi (Basilicata) on our recent trip to Italy and to visit Vulture where Aglianico del Vulture is made is that I have Aglianico del Vulture on my mind.
This week at Sotto in Los Angeles (where I curate the wine list together with my bro Rory Harrington), we’ll be launching our Fall 2012 list, including — what I hope will be — the largest selection of Aglianico del Vulture in the U.S.
That’s Mt. Vulture in the photo above, btw.
Another reason I was excited to get to Melfi and Vulture was that I was looking forward to seeing my dear, dear friend Filena Ruppi (in the photo above, left, with Tracie P and Georgia P).
Filena and her husband Donato d’Angelo make some of my favorite Aglianico del Vulture and Donato is considered by many to be the “father of Aglianico del Vulture.”
(BTW, if you’re having trouble pronouncing Aglianico del Vulture, click here to hear my good friend and Aglianico del Vulture producer Sara Carbone say it for my camera.)
I’m very proud that we will be featuring Filena and Donato’s wine on our new list. They’ve had some trademark problems lately (a tragedy, really) and I’ll address what happened in a future post. But in the meantime, I’m thrilled to be able to share the wine with our guests at Sotto (and I’m thrilled to get to drink it myself). It’s fantastic…
That’s the Castello di Melfi, above.
I’ll be at the restaurant on Wednesday and Thursday nights this week. If you’re in town, please stop by and I’ll pour you some Aglianico del Vulture and tell you about our visit. Sara Carbone’s wine isn’t in yet but it should be in time for my visit in November when I’ll also be hosting a dinner with Frank Cornelissen and Lou Amdur.
urban botanical milan #milanobotanica @LinariaRete @SpigaSt cc @TerraUomoCielo
Those of us who work in the wine business rarely go to Milan. But I try to go every chance I get: not only is Milan where many of my friends from Padua university days live and work (in the publishing industry), it’s also one of the most thrilling European cultural capitals, one of the best places in Italy to eat seafood (surprising but true), and now the subject of a microblog devoted to the city as botanical garden.
The author and curator is one of my oldest and dearest friends in Italy, Stefano Spigariol.
You can follow the microblog via #MilanoBotanica or by visiting the Facebook of Linaria, a Milanese publisher and non-profit environmental activist group.
Those are snowberries (Symphoricarpos albus) in the photo above. And the map that will lead you to them below…
Here are some hedge-apples (Maclura pomifera)…
And here’s the map…
The wonderful project has received a lot of attention from both literary and gardening circles in Italy.
What fascinates me about it is how it speaks to a theme that pervades the twentieth-century Italian narrative: the natural alienation (estrangement) of citizens who migrate from rural areas to major urban centers.
While I grew up in a big city and have lived in big cities all of my life, many of my Italian friends — like Stefano — left small towns in rural areas to study in major metropoles. Stefano’s taxonomic “discovery” of urban botanical Milan represents a subversion of such alienation, however fleeting.
It’s a great project and I’m looking forward to following along…
happy babies in Italy at restaurants
Earlier this week, my song-writing partner, who was visiting us in Austin, treated Tracie P, Georgia P, and me to dinner at one of the River City’s most swank and high-profile restaurants.
The food was great as always (if you know the Austin dining scene, you are familiar with the restaurant); the waitstaff sharp, precise, professional, polite, and highly informed; and the wines by-the-glass and sake by-the-glass selection excellent.
There was just one thing missing: the boundless warmth and affection that Georgia P had become accustomed to during our trip to Italy.
No, there were no rolled eyes or mumbled editorials. The staff at said restaurant was professional and thoroughly courteous.
But we couldn’t help but notice that Georgia P was disappointed when she wasn’t greeted with the shower of attention that she received at every restaurant where we dined in Italy.
I took the photo above at the restaurant Lab 52 (no website) on the famous Rotonda a Mare in Senigallia (Ancona), where we shared a meal with our new friends Alessandro (left) and Silvia from the Pievalta winery in nearby Jesi.
One of the highlights of the meal, btw, was crescia, the classic savory flatbread of the Marches (Le Marche) topped with Prosciutto di Carpegna.
Traveling in Italy as a parent was a new and thrilling experience — in many ways.
But the best part was watching Georgia P light up as restaurateurs and patrons made a fuss over her and competed for the reward of her sweet laughter and smiles.
Just look at her face in the photo at the top of this post! You can see how much she enjoyed sitting at the table with us (and, of course, we enjoyed it more, too, because we were never worried that we were disturbing our hosts or fellow patrons, save for a few grouchy Germans)…
In the post-Berlusconi age, Italy and Italians face a number of challenges — some of them touching the very heart of their identity.
But there are some things that, happily, remain unchanged there. Like the pure, unmitigated joy of watching a baby slurp up long noodles tossed with clams and tomato sauce.
For all the obstacles that lie ahead — in Europe and here at home — I, for one, thank goodness for happy babies in Italy at restaurants…
Buon weekend, yall!
The beauty of Sangiovese in Morellino di Scansano
New York-based and Italocentric wine industry publicist Susannah Gold and Morellino di Scansano growers association president Giacomo Pondini led a tasting of seven expressions of Morellino di Scansano yesterday afternoon at Tony’s in Houston. Here are my highlights from the luncheon event.
According to its back label, the 2010 Morellino di Scansano by Roccapesta is mostly Sangiovese (Morellino) with a small amount of Ciliegiolo.
I loved the wine (look at the color!). From what Giacomo told me, its a newish winery launched by a Milanese entrepreneur who recently acquired an estate in Scansano. The aging is large cask and cement (music to my ears), he said.
It wasn’t my favorite in the flight (see below), lacking the focus it needs to achieve true greatness. But Roccapesta clearly has the right stuff: the materia prima is there and the attitude and approach are 100% right on. I’m really looking forward to following this winery and winemaker as they evolve.
If you’re pouring Roccapesta, please call me!
The 2010 Morellino di Scansano Brumaio by Pietramora is 100% Sangiovese and 150% awesome and delicious, one of the best expressions of Morellino that I’ve tasted in recent memory.
Just cast your gaze upon the gorgeous color of this wine!
It really captured what — to me — is the essence of Morellino: extreme freshness and dark berry fruit combined with a gentle gamey quality that evokes the maquis — la macchia — of the Maremma.
I can only wonder if the proprietary name of the wine, Brumaio, is an oblique reference to Napoleon, who spent his last years in exile on the island of Elba off the Tuscan coast.
Brumaio, from the Latin bruma, is an ancient word for the winter solstice. But it’s also the name, brumaire in French, of the second month of autumn in the French Republican calendar.
Of course, it could also be an allusion to Karl Marx’s Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon.
But I digress…
It probably refers to the bruma (also called brumaio), the morning mist that covers the vineyards of Maremma in the fall as the grapes ripen.
Thanks again, Susannah and Giacomo, for bringing some great Morellino to Texas and for any excuse to revisit one of the greatest works by Marx!
Do Bianchi by Jeremy Parzen 