A few months ago, I wrote a post on the great red wines of Piemonte made from the Nebbiolo grape. Included in that post were the two most famous reds of the Langhe, Barolo and Barbaresco. Today, I would like to go into greater detail about Barbaresco.

Vineyard on the outskirts of the town of Barbaresco 

(Photo ©Tom Hyland)

Produced entirely from Nebbiolo, Barbaresco originates from vineyards in three communes east of Alba: Barbaresco, Treiso and Neive as well as a small section of Alba itself known as San Rocco Seno d’Elvio. The wine must be aged for a minimum of two years with one of those in oak casks of any size. The wine is released after three years (the 2006 vintage of Barbaresco is the current one on the market in 2009), while a Barbaresco Riserva can be released four years after the vintage.

There are more than 60 geographical designations that can be named on a bottle of Barbaresco. Most of these are cru (vineyard) designations, which were most recently reorganized in 2008. Among the most famous cru designations in the Barbaresco zone are the following:

BARBARESCO

• Asili
• Ovello
• Pajé
• Rabaja
• Pora
• Montefico
• Montestefano
• Moccagatta

TREISO

• Rombone
• Valeirano
• Cichin
• Pajoré
• Nervo
• Fondetta
• Bricco

NEIVE

• Cotta
• Curra
• Sori Burdin (Bordini)
• Basarin
• Serraboella
• Serracapelli

Asili Vineyard, Barbaresco

Soils throughout the area are generally Tortonian, which are the younger of the two predominant soil classifications in the Langhe; the other, older soil is from the Helvetian era. As the yonger soils are not as deep as the older ones, wines from these soils tend to be more approachable upon release and do not have as intense a tannic profile. This is one of the primary reasons why the wines of Barbaresco are more approachable than those from Barolo, as that zone is comprised of more Helvetian soils. 

As Barbaresco is a much smaller area than Barolo and has a shorter history, Barbaresco is not as well-known as its neighbor. Add in the fact that Barolos in general can age longer than Barbarescos and you have a situation where Barbaresco is usually thought of as a “lesser” wine than Barolo. This is quite unfortunate, as Barbaresco is a great wine in its own right.

Two Great Producers

While there are not as many famous producers of Barbaresco as compared to Barolo, there are two in particular that have done a tremendous job of elevating the image of Barbaresco. These two producers – Angelo Gaja and Produttori del Barbaresco – have a different approach to winemaking, but each in their own way have done tremendous work in the promotion of Barbaresco.

Angelo Gaja (Photo ©Tom Hyland)

Gaja is the master salesman who makes wines from great sites and charges a good deal of money for his wines – if you want a bottle of Gaja wine, you have to pay for it. But what you get is a wonderful offering with great depth of fruit and a lovely expression of site. The wines offer tremendous complexity, are elegantly styled and age well. They are made in a modern style of winemaking (aged in small oak barrels), yet the wood rarely overwhelms the fruit.

For years, Gaja produced several bottlings of Barbaresco, from a normale to cru bottlings from Sori San Tilden and Sori San Lorenzo, but some years back, he changed the designation on these last two wines to Langhe Nebbiolo. This has alowed him to alter the wines in slight fashion – often these wines now contain a small percentage of Barbera, to increase the acidity of these wines. Thus Gaja now only produces one bottling of Barbaresco each vintage, while his most famous offerings are no longer known as Barbaresco. This has angered some of his fellow producers in this area, yet the truth remains that for many consumers, the name Gaja is the most recognized with Barbaresco.

Aldo Vacca, Produttori del Barbaresco (Photo ©Tom Hyland)

As for Produttori del Barbaresco, the message here is much more tied in with the land and not an individual; in fact, managing director and winemaker Aldo Vacca is about as far removed from Angelo Gaja as you can imagine. Reserved and insightful, Vacca produces wines that reflect the terroir of Barbaresco as well as any wines do. This is a cooperative producer with growers from several of the finest crus in the town of Barbaresco supplying their grapes. 

Each year, there is a regular bottling of Barbaresco from the Produttori and in the finest vintages, the cru botlings – nine in all – are produced. The wines vary in intensity with examples such as Pora and Ovello offering less concentration and tannins than those from Montefico and Montestefano, yet all beautifully express their site’s terroir. One of the principal reasons for this is the winemaking, as each wine is aged solely in large casks (botti grandi), which minimize wood influence while emphasizing the varietal character. These wines offer aromas of dried cherry, cedar, persimmon and orange peel which changes to a profile of balsamic as they age. Impeccably balanced, these are in my opinion, the most classic representation of Barbaresco and some of Italy’s greatest red wines.

There are of course, dozens of other excellent producers of Barbaresco. These include:

• Bruno Giacosa
• Ceretto
• Fontanabianca
• Ada Nada
• Fiorenzo Nada
• Marchesi di Gresy
• Sottimano
• La Ca Nova
• La Spinetta
• Moccagatta
• Bruno Rocca
• Rino Varaldo

The message then about Barbaresco is that it should be examined as a great wine in its own right instead of being constantly compared to Barolo. The 2007 bottlings of Barbaresco will be on the market in the fall of 2009 and these wines should offer exemplary proof of what a great wine Barbaresco truly is!

Justin Lane (the Alpha Box & Dice winemaker) has a reputation for being something different and that he does things his own way.  Their facility – including the cellar door is across the road from Maxwell Wines in  what I remember as the Manning Park cellar door and more recently Settlement Wines cellar door.  There has been an effort to clean up the site and make it reflect the Lane family philosophy.  The cellar door is not your new style with lots of polished wood and glass – here is all about character.  With Justin being a character and his wines showing a lot of character then it should follow that the cellar door has character.  There is also a view to setting up a courtyard area for BBQ’s etc.

The wines are very different in a positive way.  When I was offered a Dolcetto as the first wine to taste from his range, I was concerned as in my very limited experience with this variety it was sweet wine style.  How wrong I was!  The wines show an overall structure with selected fruit parcels (the emphasis is on sourcing the correct fruit to produce a style) with old oak maturation in specially sourced oak barrels plus some funky treatments to produce experience wines.

The cellar door is open weekends and I recommend this as a visit  

Dead Winemakers Society 2008 Dolcetto ($A20)

The Dolcetto grapes comes from a Scott Hicks Kupito vineyard and is aged in old 500L puncheons.  The wine is a pleasant surprise with distinct orange peel aromas.  The low tannic nature of the wine strikes you the moment it hits the palate with the orange peel nature continuing with some fennel overtones and a eucalypt finish (the vineyard is surrounded with gum trees).  Oak plays only a minimum part on the flavour profile and there is long acid finish that is complementary to the rest of the flavours.  The wine is very dry wine that would go well with complex slow cooked food or the citrus nature would appeal to the duck lovers out there.

Fog 2006 Nebbiolo Cabernet Tanant ($A30)

The wine is made up of 80% Nebbiolo from Blewitt Springs and aged in old 500L oak puncheons, 10% McLaren Vale Cabernet Sauvignon (aged in new french oak) and 10% Kupitto Tanant (also aged in new french oak).  The Nebbiolo had extended skins contact (4 weeks) and then a long time in barrel to ensure the different tannins to integrate.

The citrus characters continue on the nose - this time it is reminiscent of mandarin peel.  On the palate there is a fruit sweetness (though it is a dry wine) with lots of sour cherries.  There is a layering effect of tannins (grape tannins and oak tannins) probably assisted by the use of Tanant, fruit and citrus flavours, high volatile acid and high acids generally.  All of these components make this an enjoyable and complex wine.  Food matches would be the same as for the Dolcetta. 

Blood of Jupiter 2006 Sangiovese Cabernet ($A25)

The wine is made of 85% Sangiovese and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon – both from McLaren Vale.  The Sangiovese free run juice went straight into old oak pungeons and the Sangiovese pressings and the Cabernet Sauvignon went into new Burgundian Bariques and had extended time on the lees.

The nose showed the typical Sangivese earthy and peaty characters with distinct sour cherries.  These carry over onto the palate that has layers of fine tannins, oak char and fruit sweetness.  Again there is an almost viscous mouthfeel that is very pleasant.

Apostie 2008 Shiraz Durif ($A30)

The wine is made of 50% McLaren Vale Shiraz, 23% Barossa Shiraz and 27% Durif, that went into Burgundian Buriques of which 70% were new.  The first item of note for this wine is that it is 14.1% alcohol - the wine is neither a fruit or alcohol bomb.  The nose has elements of spice with red and black fruits – but is not typical of Shiraz I have drunk lately, it has a more refined and delicate.  The palate has lots of plums and layered tannins with a real lift due to the textural structure and wonderful acid.

Changing Lanes 2005 Tempranillo Cabernet ($A35)

An interesting mix of 50/50 blend of Margaret River Tempranillo with McLaren Vale Cabernet Sauvignon (from the Willunga foothills) – again the wine has seen Burgundian Bariques of which 70% were new.  Three years in oak and 1 year in bottle was required for Justin to be happy to release this wine.  Some Tempranillo funkyness came through on the nose.  On the palate was this fruit sweetness even though the wine would be considered dry.  Combining well with this fruitiness was layers of dry and dusty layers of tannins that was just starting to show some aged characteristics.  Another wine to buy and experieince a wine that is enjoyable but not main stream.

Above: Sometimes less is more. The thing I liked the most about this well-priced wine was how straightforward and earnest it was. Photo by The Brad’s Adventures in Food.

When 1996 Langa wines first arrived in this country, the vintage was touted as one of the greatest in living memory. And indeed, it was a fantastic vintage. The wines have many, many more years of vibrant life ahead of them but I’ve also been surprised by how well some of the 96s are drinking this year.

I don’t know how the above bottle found its way into The Italian Wine Guy’s cellar, but I was psyched that he wanted to pop it last night at dinner in Dallas. I really can’t find much information on La Ca’ Növa winery but I can say that I really liked the wine. It was straightforward and earnest in the glass, not a super star, just a hard-worker who wanted to deliver an honest wine. It was all about mushroom and dirt. There doesn’t seem to be any 96 left on the market (or at least on WineSearcher) but the available bottlings of classic Barbaresco seem to weigh in under $40. Sometimes less is more…

In other news…

It’s been a year since I arrived permanently in Texas (after driving across country in the ol’ Volvo). It’s been such a wonderful and wonderfully crazy time and Tracie B and I have been having so much fun planning our wedding. We have so much to be thankful for. The love and support of both our families, our health, and a bright future together. I’ve made so many great friends here and we’ve been having a blast celebrating the holidays with friends and family, old and new. Thanks, everyone, for reading and for all the support over this last year and beyond. I really can’t tell you just how much it means to me… it means the world…

@Tracie B I love you and I never knew I could find such happiness and such goodness within and all around me. I’m so glad for a lovely lady from a small town in East Texas, with an “appetite and a dream…”

I’ll never forget the first time I read that tag line on your blog and I’m so happy that I did… it changed my life forever and in ways I could have never imagined… I love you…

Photo by The Nichols.

Yesterday I had the luck to taste a number of wines with my friend RB of Wine Messenger. He has quite the palate and is extremely knowledgeable. Additionally, I find him endlessly funny, a trait I truly appreciate. I have often tried to come up with a method to describe wines. One idea is always to think of wines as people. That only works for me on some occasions and with certain wines. RB’s latest comment was about the German grape Scheurebe. According to RB, a cross between a Riesling and a wild girl from the village. I just love that.

The wine, Scheurebe 07 Sekt from Dr. Becker of Germany which I liked less is a sparkling wine. It was very floral with a lot of grapefruit aromas. I am not a huge fan of this variety but it was interesting to taste. I did have a truly delicious white wine made from Arneis, Cortese and Favorita, called Arcese Bianco 08 made by Vittorio Bera & Figli. This is an enveloping rich wine with complex layers of aromas and flavors. It reminded me of a complex chenin blanc. It too was very floral with nice balanced acidity.

We tried a number of other glasses at The Ten Bells,, a wine bar on the Lower East Side. They have about seven sparkling wines open as well as six or seven whites and reds on the by the glass list. Eric Asimov wrote a great review of the bar in his weekly column a couple of weeks back. Last night, the bar was packed with santas as well as the usual crowd.

After trying all the wines by the glass that we were interested in, our group which had by now expanded, went to Bacaro on Division street. Bacaro rarely disappoints me. I love the decor, the food’s not bad and the wine list is great. I had an interesting Lagrein while my friends each had a Nebbiolo, one from Piedmont and one from Valtellina. The one from Valtellina, Sandro Fay, was rounder and fruitier than I would have expected but eminently drinkable. My favorite wine of the evening though, in addition, to the Arcese was Dindarello from Maculan. No one makes dessert wines the way they do.

The first Italian dessert wine I ever tasted was a Maculan, Torcolato. I’ve been hooked ever since. Tanto di cappello!

This wine presents with notes of dark cherry, slight spice notes of pepper and clove, underbrush, and chile Pasilla.

**

A plethora of wine reviews from wines regions around the world. Read more of my wine reviews:jamesthewineguy.wordpress.com James Meléndez / Jaime Patricio Meléndez.  Reserved.  James the Wine Guy also on Facebook, Twitter and most major social medias.

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You would never think of drinking modern day Barolo for dessert, it would be absurd.  Before the 19th century, the people of Piedmont had no other choice.  Yes it is tue, Barolo was originally a sweet wine!

Nebbiolo is late ripening grape variety.  The name of the grapes takes it name from the Italian word nebbia, meaing fog.  If you ever go to Piedmont, specifically in the Langhe, you will see tons of rolling fog patches through out the land, hence the name.  Anyway, because of the cold temperatures in Piedmont during November and December and the use of naturally present yeasts, fermentation was tricky business.  Fermentation would usually start, but rarely ever finish leaving lots of residual sugar.

Finally the Marquis of Barolo, Giulietta Falletti had enough and asked a French enologist to help improve the quality of Barolo.  His name was Louis Oudart.  Louis realized the potential of the Nebbiolo grape and successfully created the a dry Barolo.  To increase the temperature of fermentation during the cold months he simply implemented a temperature controlled system using the best technology of his day, wood and fire.  The huge vats of wine were elevated slightly off the ground to leave room for the burning coals underneath.  This heat eventually raised the temperature enough so that fermentation would run all the way through.  So thanks to Frenchman, we can now drink excellent Barolos…

The Holiday Dinner Party Six-Pack offering below ($137.93) includes six wines and pairing notes for a dinner party for 6 people — with pairings for 6 courses, including the aperitif and dessert.

If you’ve been following my blog, Do Bianchi, this year, you know that in early November I spent the week traveling with legendary wine importer Kermit Lynch, who had asked me to help him organize listening parties for his new record Man’s Temptation and to emcee his events. All of the wines below are imported by Kermit, who made his name in the late ’70s importing French wine and over the decades by turning America on to natural-style wine that tastes of place and that expresses the people who make it. He’s not a natural wine dogmatist by any means. As he likes to say, he likes it when “you can taste nature in the wine.”

Above: That’s me with my buddy Mark Sayre (awesome sommelier here in Austin) and Kermit, center.

It was a thrill for me and Tracie B to get to hang out with Kermit and crew and to taste and dine with him (he nearly cleaned me out of all of my older Barbaresco one night here in Austin at a BYOB bbq joint downtown after his event!). I’ve also been working with his distributor here in Texas, writing for the company’s new website. And so I’ve had the chance to taste and enjoy a lot of his wines lately. I’ve put together this six-pack based on what me and Tracie B have been drinking and the wines that have really won us over lately. I guess it’s kind of selfish: it’s the six-pack that I would want YOU to serve US if we came over for dinner!

This is my last offering for 2009 and I’ll be shipping and delivering the wines next week while I’m in California. Delivery is free for San Diego residents and I’ll be coming to LA on Monday and Tuesday: so for LA residents I can deliver then, if you like.

Thank you again, to everyone, for all your support with Do Bianchi Wine Selections and everything in my life in 2009. What a year it’s been! Tracie B is so good to me and takes such good care of me and we have a truly blessed life here in Texas (with the occasional visit to California!). Your support over the last year has meant the world to me and makes the joy of our union all the more sweet!

Do Bianchi Holiday Dinner Six-Pack
$137.93 plus tax and shipping and handling (if applicable)

to order, simply send me an email by clicking here

Tintero Non-Vintage Grangia
(sparkling white from Piedmont)

aperitif, as your guests arrive

Tracie B and I fell head-over-heels in love with this wine this year and we drink it often at our favorite Austin wine bar, Vino Vino. It’s a dry, gently sparkling white wine made from Favorita (Vermentino) and a smaller amount of Moscato grapes grown in Piedmont (northwestern Italy). It has everything that we love in food-friendly wine: LOW alcohol and bright acidity and fruit. It’s truly my favorite aperitif and seafood and appetizer wine for 2009. (“Grangia” is a dialectal form of granaio or granary, btw, because the grapes are sourced from vineyards dominated by a classic 19th-century wood-frame rustic granary at the estate.)

Punta Crena 2008 Vermentino Vigneto Isasco
(still white, Liguria)

antipasto/appetizer/seafood first course

Acidity plays an important role in this wine but the main elements that wow me are its freshness and minerality. The tiny village of Isasco overlooks the Tyrehhenian Sea about halfway between Sanremo and Genoa (not far from Nice) and the vineyards are located on steep slopes that face south overlooking the sea. There is wonderful savory, salty flavor to this wine that makes it ideal for the smoked fish appetizers that you find in the trattorie of the Ligurian coast towns.

Cantine Valpane 2006 Barbera del Monferrato Rosso Pietro
(rich but not tannic red, Piedmont)

appetizer/first course/pasta with meat sauce/risotto with mushrooms or butternut squash

This is another one of those super-groovy discoveries of Kermit. Most folks think of Alba and Asti but in my view (and experience), the BEST Barbera comes from Monferrato, where the nutrient-poor, ancient marl and sandy subsoil is ideal for creating wines with intense minerality and earthiness. This wine is ALL ABOUT umami (savory) flavors: earth, mushroom, rock… Totally traditional in style, this wine is also a great example of a carbonic maceration: the winemaker loads whole clusters of grapes into a vat and lets gravity break the skins and start fermentation naturally with native yeast. As in the wines of Beaujolais, it helps to create intense fruit flavor. Wine geeks with LOVE this wine. And we love it, too!

Here’s a link to a geeky post I did about this wine for a client here in Texas.

Sesti 2007 Rosso di Montalcino
(rich gently tannic red)

second courses, grilled and roast meat

Tracie B and I first tasted this wine in May in San Francisco at the Kermit Lynch portfolio tasting. Sesti is actually a newer winery in Montalcino, owned by a rather colorful Venetian astronomist who favors biodynamic farming practices and who was able to obtain some excellent growing sites in my favorite part of the appellation (in the very southwest subzone) when he bought a castle there in the 1970s. I can’t really tell if this guy walked about of a Woody Allen movie or a John Waters movie but I do love his wines: they are totally traditional in style, aged in large Slavonian oak casks. The key is the right growing sites and the right attitudes about producing Sangiovese that expresses the place where it is made: the 2007 vintage, an excellent one in Montalcino from what I’ve tasted so far, made for a tannic, rich expression of Sangiovese. The Rosso di Montalcino is sourced from younger vines and so is approachable already: Tracie B and I cracked a bottle the other night and we just loved how grapey and real it was, with tannic backbone and minerality. Killer wine.

Giamello 2004 Barbaresco Vincenziana
(rich tannic red, Piedmont)

ripe stinky cow’s milk cheeses

Okay, if you’re still reading, this wine is MY NUMBER 1 PICK FOR 2009, both in terms of price and quality. I don’t even think Kermit understands how awesome this wine is (Stu and Rikkers are you listening?). I was completely blown away when I tasted this Barbaresco grown in the Ovello cru of Barbaresco (at the northern peak of the appellation). This is just one of those wines that hasn’t exploded yet and the reason is that the winemaker wants it that way (he told me so himself when I called him after tasting his wine; he really just doesn’t want to sell that much; he makes about 5,000 bottles a year and just wants to keep things simple). This is the killer, rustic-style OLD SCHOOL Nebbiolo that we go crazy for and there is still some of the 2004 left. If anyone wants me to place an order of 6 bottles of more, I’m offering at $34 a bottles (YES, $34!). I’ve got a couple of extra bottles coming with this order and I can get more. And there is plenty of 2005 available, too (also very good but 2004 is the better and longer-term aging vintage in my opinion).

Here’s a link to a detailed post I did about Giamello.

Tintero 2008 Moscato d’Asti
(gently sparkling, sweet white wine, Piedmont)

fresh fruit, sweets, desserts etc., but fresh fruit my number 1 choice for pairing, also a great brunch wine

I love drinking Moscato d’Asti at the end of a meal because it’s low in alcohol, it’s fresh and clean and a great palate-cleanser, and it’s the only wine that I like to pair with fresh fruit (in Italy, it is the ONLY wine traditionally paired with fresh fruit). Moscato d’Asti is made by fermenting Moscato grapes once in a pressurized environment. The winemaker then stops fermentation and gently filters out the live yeast, creating a wine that has residual sugar and very, very low alcohol (usually around 7%). This wine is a simple and simply beautiful way to end any meal (or serve to your guests for brunch the next day).

Enjoy and thanks for reading!

Do Bianchi Holiday Dinner Six-Pack
$137.93 plus tax and shipping and handling (if applicable)

to order, simply send me an email by clicking here

The Nebb is the love child of the Wickham brothers and their concentration is all about Nebbiolo.  Nick tried a bottle of Barolo from the Piedmont region of italy.  In this case the wine looked brown and unappealing but he pushed on to try the wine.  From that moment on he was inspired by the variety and new that Nebbiolo was the only variety he wanted to make wine from.  From this experience he also thought that the original unappealing brown colour of the wine may be an impediment to any wine sales as the general public would take one look at the wine and run.  Thus a decision was made to add a proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon to the wine – with decreasing proportions as a following for the wine was forged.

Up to now the wine was made at the Redheads Studio in McLaren Vale, which allowed small producers like Nick to work with their passion and get some assistance from experienced winemakers.  Unfortunately this facility is no longer operational.

The Nebb Front Label

The origin of the name is self explanatory, however the label may need some explaining.  Nick has a friend who is a “Reformed Street Artist” aka street grafity.  He took the The Nebb concept – that also means beak and extended this to Dr Schnabel von Rom.  The good doctor worked to rid the early 16th century England of the Plague.  Doctor von Rom was known to have a beak that was full of herbs to purify the air during his exploits.  These elements were brought together to produce what is rather a different label.

Nick also has the advantage to work in a cooperage and thus can get access to excellent barrels but he also understands the different elements in what makes barrels work for the Nebbiolo.  The grapes are processed in 4 batches – note that all ferments are done in old 500 L puncheons turned on their sides with an end removed:-

• warm ferment with the wild yeast ie left to its own devices
• fermented with a specific Barolo yeast
• cold soak (chill plates and dry ice added)
• standard ferment

The Nebbiolo comes from a vineyard in the Blewitt Springs area of McLaren Vale.  The first wine was made in 2005.

The wines have not been put into any wine shows but was put into The Adelaide Review Hot 100 South Australian Wines – and made the top 10.  Well done guys.

Both wines I tasted are available in small quantities and are both at $35/bottle.  If you are interested in the wines they are not found in bottle shops so check out the web site at www.nebbiolo.net.au.  I tasted these wines twice.  They were decanted for my initial tasting and then I tasted them again the next day.  I will add any differences on the second tasting in brackets.  I have not tasted a lot of Nebbiolo before and certainly none from Piedmont – I was in for a very pleasant surprise.

2006 The Nebb ($A35)

This wine has 34% Cabernet Sauvignon with the remainder of course Nebbiolo.  The wine shows some brown edges but Oh the nose (how interesting is this!)- mandarin peel and chocolates (with orange blossom with 24 hours breathing).  The palate has the mandarin peel, mulberries (with a balanced chocolate finish with 24 hours breathing).  The tannins are not as pronounced as the 2007 wine.  This is definitely a food wine, and something multidimensional like roast pork shoulder with apple sauce or chinese sizzling beef dishes.

2007 The Nebb ($A35)

The wine is 20% Cabernet – in line with the philosophy of reducing the Cabernet component.  This time I was ready for the browning wine, producing such a wonderful mandarin peel aroma this time with some floral (rose) hints.  The palate follows through with the mandarin peel and mulberries (dates and mocha comes through with 24 hours breathing).  There is plenty of dry dusty tannins which could give this wine a long life.  This would be interesting to pair up with a plate of soft cheese and cured meats with lots of crusty bread.

Greetings and welcome back to Cliff Notes from Wine Country. The title of this post was supposed to be “Black Friday” rather than Bar Friday, but that just sounded too doomsday for me. And besides, we have BIG news regarding bars.

But first- it’s “Bar Friday” this Friday 11/27 at the winery! We’ll be extending our deal we offered last Saturday on our 2007 Estate Nebbiolo: normally $40/bottle, one-day special price of $25/bottle for Cliff Club members. This is for Friday only, so take advantage of this great deal. If you’re far, far away and can’t make it there, we’ll extend that pricing for shipping orders. Call us at the winery (509-767-1100) or shoot us an email (cascadecliffs@gorge.net) for orders.

*    *    *

Last week, there were sounds of a screaming chainsaw in the back of the winery. No, we weren’t making another sequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre- it was our main timber man, Pete, going to town on the new bars in the back. While we love our tasting room and the bar that supports all that wine, it’s been Bob’s dream for some time now to create more bar space in the back, where folks can belly-up, stretch out, and sip away.

The first two are in, and await final touches of sanding, routing, and clear-coating. And like my mouth, they are BIG. The bar on the east side of the room could easily be a drawbridge for a medieval castle. That night, little John (Not that little John, Bob and Denisse’s son) scurried underneath it to get to the other side of the room. Bob and I both grimaced and froze as this thing is just massive. Not to worry! It’s totally secure and ready for many elbows to lean on.

This is only the beginning for our “Wine Library”; the entire length of the west-facing windows will have a massive Doug-Fir bar for folks to sit, geek out on wine literature, work on their laptops, and gaze out onto our vineyard. Big bars for big plans…

I hope you all get a chance to come by this weekend- and take advantage of the “Bar Friday” nebbiolo offer. If you haven’t seen the bars yet, now’s your chance. One of us will be back there pouring from behind one or both of them.

*    *    *

Happy Thanksgiving to you all and don’t suffer too much from food coma. When you’re ready to stretch your legs and get out, we’ll be waiting with open bottles, great deals, and even greater bars.

With good cheer,

Jared

After Brunello with Banfi, Barbaresco and much more with Angelo Gaja … where does one start?  This was simply one of the greatest experiences you can have in Italian or world wine, laid on by Decanter magazine as part of its Fine Wine Encounter.  But it was really two related experiences, with an underlying connection: Gaja the man and the Gaja wines. 

Angelo Gaja, the man

Now 69, Gaja has spent a lifetime promoting his wine, his village, Barbaresco, Piemonte, Italy, his family, in other words, all the things that have become the Gaja brand.  It’s now a bravura performance, delivered with utmost conviction and carries all before him.  On arrival he nearly looked his age.  We had met him briefly at his Bolgheri winery in the height of summer where he had looked immaculate, sun tanned, every inch the successful man on his own (expensively irrigated) turf. In London on a cold and windy day, he started quietly, if securely, apologizing for his English (which is excellent), going through the basics of his story which he has told hundreds of times before.  As he warmed to his theme the confidence grew visibly. He spoke lucidly and passionately for an hour and a half about the things he cares most about. By the end he had his large audience eating (drinking?) out of his hand and received a huge ovation. 

And what is the secret of the Gaja magic? 

First and foremost the family: both personally and professionally.  This is the classic tale of the family business, with Angelo’s children (now mainly grown up) being the fifth generation in the wine business.  The company’s small brochure has an evocative photo from a hundred years ago of the second generation of commercial winemakers, the Angelo of 1866-1944 and his son, Giovanni, today’s Angelo’s father.   There is also a fine portrait of Clotilde Rey, the matriarch (1880-1961).  Gaja’s delivery is punctuated with great humour: Giovanni, he says, the less forceful of the couple, had only two choices with Clotilde – to kill her or to follow her! So Clothilde was the driving force, though Giovanni set a standard that the firm has lived by: poor vintages should not be bottled but sold for a song as open wine.  While hardly revolutionary in some circles, this was remarkable in Italy at the time, especially when the climate and the state of wine-making was only delivering 7 decent vintages out of 10.  But Giovanni compensated for this hard choice by charging the highest prices in Piemonte for the successful years – higher than the famous Barolo.  The Gajas don’t lack conviction or business sense. 

Today’s Angelo took that further, though of course he didn’t talk about his own contribution.  He studied the methods of the French fine wine trade and put them to good use in conservative, rural Piemonte:

• experimenting with French barriques, even French grape varieties
• working with the local star grape, Nebbiolo, utterly convinced that it could produce one of the world’s great wines
• producing single vineyard ‘crus’ in an area that had never had them – and then charging unheard of prices for the rare bottles. 
• finally, he put himself about and created single handedly a market for top quality Barbaresco.  Its easy to forget now that before him, Barbaresco was unknown. 

The full story is told in Edward Steinberg’s The vines of San Lorenzo (Slow Food Editore 1992, updated 2006), an outstanding book, to which I will return in another post. 

The story of the marketing is remarkable.   Gaja showed a slide of the labels of 1937 and 1978. On the

1978 label not only has the fussiness of earlier times gone, what is prominent is the family name, not the appellation.  Once you have learnt to recognise the name Gaja, then you can ask about whether its Barbaresco or Barolo.   

He also attends to small things that make a difference.  The brochure is functional and factual but it consistently gives a pronunciation guide. ‘Guy-ah’ he has told English speakers to say. If you can pronounce the Italian or dialectic name on the bottle, that itself gives confidence. 

The Gaja discourse covers a multitude of topics:

• the family history, especially if you include long time winemaker, Guido Rivella, as an honorary member; 
• his philosophy of healthy living, eating and drinking: wine is like food, you need a partner or a friend to share it with, and then relax on the health issues;
• his line on tackling the danger of alcohol: we must persuade governments to distinguish naturally made alcohols from spirits; if anyone can carry off this argument, he can;
• when to visit Piemonte (after the truffle fair, ‘a disaster’, ie mid-November to December or spring);
• why he didn’t enter a joint  venture with Robert Mondavi, who he praised as a great man.  It wasn’t just the presence lawyers at the initial meetings.  Rather, to have  a good marriage you need complementary interests, companionship and … sex.  ‘And in size terms, you Mondavi are an elephant and I am a mosquito.  Sex between an elephant and a mosquito? Well, it would not give much pleasure to the elephant and could be worse for the mosquito!’

The Gaja wines

The one thing he didn’t talk about was the wines.  He flatters his audience – you people know about wine, you have a good wine culture, and I don’t need to try to explain the inexplicable.  The metaphors continue to flow.  Cabernet Sauvignon as John Wayne to Marcello Mastroianni’s Nebbiolo – one dominates the room while the one is beckons you over to the corner.  While he spoke the wines of his four production areas await our attention, completely un-introduced.  So while we are treated to Gaja the orator, in front of us are an array of great – and on this occasion I mean great – wines. 

Gaia & Rey, Langhe DOC, 1994 – named after Gaja’s daughter (Gaia Gaja if you will) and the matriarch Clothilde Rey, this is 100% Chardonnay, planted back in 1978.  As he says, you will all be identify this wine, it’s white. But what a white: with 15 years of ageing, it’s between yellow and gold in colour, a complex blend of aromas from slight, residual oak, then melons and apples, dried fruit, nuttiness.  An hour later the nose is dominated by powerful caramel tones, remarkable. And that’s just wine number 1 of 12. 

Camarcanda, Bolgheri DOC, 2006 – the top wine of Gaja’s most recent estate of the same name, on the Tuscan coast.   Mostly Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, it’s very promising, with rich fruit, mainly blackcurrants and vanilla.  Highly drinkable now, many years ahead of it for development.   The care taken over the landscaping of this estate was remarkable – hiding most of the winery underground and and landscaping with old, transplanted olive trees – but that’s another story. 

There followed three wines, Brunellos, from the Gaja estate in Montalcino, Tuscany:  Pieve San Restituta, the property he bought after not having gone in with Mondavi.  First the multi-vineyard Rennina, 2004, a recent great vintage.  By comparison with the modern style of Banfi (see previous post), a subtle combination of dark cherries, cloves and tobacco, smooth in the mouth, characteristically high acidity, very good.  Then two vintages from the single vineyard, Sugarille (that’s Suh-gah-REE-lay):

Sugarille Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2001, followed by the 1996.  The latter is in its prime: powerful, complex, velvety, dark fruit, perfectly balanced and smooth.  In between these two vintages they declassified the whole of 20o2 (too wet) and 2003 (too hot) …

All these wines were really the grand warm-up act for the Nebbiolo based wines that followed.  Tasted in a slightly odd order, they went Barbaresco, single vineyard Barolo, single vineyard Barbaresco.  I suppose the point was: Barbaresco, where it all started; then Barolo; then back to the finest wines, the single vineyard Barbaresco. 

Barbaresco DOCG 2004, 1997, 1964 – after the Brunellos, the change of aromas was dramatic. With Nebbiolo you are now in the perfume department, rather than at the fruit counter or even in the garden centre.  The 2004 is perfumed but only slightly so, refreshing, with great acidity and really very young despite its five years.  The 1997 is more like it – soaring aromas of roses, followed by liquorice and balsamic notes, silky, stunningly good.  And this is the ‘basic’ wine.   1964, pictured left, is anything but a museum piece.  In the mouth it is still lively, with a refreshing finish and very, very long.  The nose is remarkable: the obvious wood notes have long gone, replaced by truffles, roses and other flowers, forest floor.  Whether you prefer the 12 year old or the 45 year is really a matter of taste but they are both remarkable wines. 

Having put Barbaresco on the map, Gaja turned to the more famous Barolo region. The family bought in grapes until 1961, but then decided only to make wine from their own estates, establishing complete control.  They bought the vineyard in 1988 and named it Sperss (‘nostalgia’ in the dialect).  The two wines tasted were the 2004 and the 1995.  These immediately showed the effect of ageing, the former showing a very perfumed nose, small berries, some youngish wood, a rich texture, edgy but gorgeous.  By contrast the 14 year old no longer leads with fruit but with the classic ‘tar and roses’ combination, very complex, liquorish and mushrooms to the fore.  Rich and supple in the mouth, outstanding. 

And finally to the famous single vineyard Barbaresco, Sorì San Lorenzo, the young wine of 2004 and the mature 1989.  The ‘trouble’ with this sort of tasting is not so much the embarrassment of riches but just running out of words.   The 2004 is already scoring in the mushroom/truffle register but with elegant, red fruit.  1989 is darker in tone, rich and supremely elegant, but still lively and highly drinkable.  Sumptuous, life affirming wines. 

The lasting impression of these wines was of great perfume, lovely clear fruit, increasing complexity with age, balance, supreme poised and highly drinkable.  They never stop being real food wines, though it would have to be some feast to match this sublime quality. 

Thanks for joining me in this tasting of 2 Nebbiolo based wines from “The Nebb”, a small producer from McLaren Vale. I also had the wine open for a couple of days to see the changes over time.

After narrowly avoiding a meeting with Brown Owl and the Brownies downstairs I gladly made my way up to a room full of the welcoming faces of Glass Half Fulham wine club members. Crowding into the small office around a long table laden with Parmesan and crackers sat a selection of Fulham’s finest wine lovers. On only my third time of attending Glass Half Fulham, I was again impressed by the amount of work that goes into preparing for these tastings. TH excelled himself with a fantastic selection of Italian red wines and plenty of back ground knowledge on the lot.

TH kicked things off with a wine from Veneto. The 2006 Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference, Amarone della Valpolicella (Sainsbury’s, £14.69) is a wine of unusual origins. Once picked, the grapes are left out to dry, concentrating the sugar and flavours. All the sugar is then fermented into alcohol, resulting in a big dry red wine. At 14.5% alcohol, we all noticed the legs on this wine and it proved an interesting one. With raspberry, cherry and kiwi on the nose and tea, vanilla, raisins and herbal notes on the palate; the general consensus was that it was pleasant but possibly not worth the price.

We then moved onto Tuscany and the town of Montepulciano, where we sampled the 2004 Massimo Romeo, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (Berry Bros. & Rudd, £15.70). There were mutterings of this wine being corked but we all felt that underneath it probably was rather good. Chocolate, cold tea, marzipan and a fruity strawberry sweetness were all flavours that came through. Rabbit, for the second time this evening, was a strong suggestion for a compatible dish (it was suggested for the Amarone too).

Chianti is one of the most famous and important wine regions in Italy and Querciabella is known to be one of the region’s best producers. Happily this is where we ventured next. The 2006 Querciabella, Chianti Classico (Waitrose, £16.99) is a blend of 95% Sangiovese with a small 5% addition of Cabernet Sauvignon. The intense dark fruit, rosemary, lavender and stony mineral aromas somewhat contradicted the ginger and tobacco flavours that we found along with more dark fruit on the palate. With plenty of tannin and a good structure, this wine was enjoyed by all and recommended by one to accompany a juicy roast lamb.

The wine which followed was voted a big hit. The 2004 Argiano, Brunello di Montalcino (Negozio Classica, £38.99), like all Brunellos, is made up entirely of the Sangiovese grape variety. This is a brilliant example with suggestions of salty seaweed, vanilla, cloves and Christmas spices named as a few of the flavours presented by this wine. From a great vintage, with good length, aging potential and well-balanced acidity and tannins this wine was voted the evening’s favourite.

Supertuscans, as they used to be called, were wines which did not follow the strict regulations of the DOC and DOCG so had to be registered as table wines despite their excellent quality. These wines are now labelled IGT and recognised in their own classification system, where experimentation is encouraged not penalised. The rather pricey 2004 Rocca di Montegrossi ‘Geremia’, Toscana IGT (Handford Wines, £31.95) was sadly not rated as a favourite by the group. It did however, have interesting plum, prune, fig and liquorice aromas to compliment the high acidity and herbal, especially mint, flavours on the palate.

Moving onto Piedmont in the far north west of the country, we reached the home of Nebbiolo – the grape grower’s nightmare and the drinkers delight. Nebbiolo is a grape variety that does not seem to want to grow anywhere outside of the region or in anything other than the flawless conditions which Piedmont possesses. The 2006 Cantina del Pino, Barbaresco (Waitrose, £24.99) was noted by nearly everyone for its rather unusual but not entirely unpleasant hints of cherry yogurt! Along with that we spotted aromas of rose, grass, peach melba (continuing the yogurt theme) and cola bottle sweets… Perhaps it was because the evening was drawing to an end but the wine still seemed to go down extremely well with the group.

The final wine we sampled was from the renowned Barolo region. Barolo is a slightly cooler area than Barbaresco and the slower ripening of the grapes helps give the wine its massive potential to age well. The 2005 Paolo Conterno, Barolo (Negozio Classica, £39.99) showed flavours of freshly cut grass, mint, camomile, basil and ripe red fruit and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. We all agreed however, that this wine would be much better in 5 – 10 years time after it had undergone further aging in the bottle to bring out these delightful flavours further.

A big well done and huge thanks to TH for organising the tasting and for hosting it so well. All that is left to say now is – bring on the Christmas party!

(report by SE)

If we want everything to stay the same, everything must change…

Above: To watch Visconti’s battle scenes is to see the hand of a Renaissance master in motion. I highly recommend this epic classic.

Last night, as Tracie B and I watched the first 90 minutes of Visconti’s 1963 technicolor classic Il gattopardo (The Leopard), I couldn’t help but think of the passages we read from Count Camillo Cavour’s epistolary in my “Italian Wine and Civilization” seminar last week at the Austin Wine Merchant. In the opening sequences of the movie, the Prince of Salina reads aloud from a letter sent to him by courier from his brother-in-law: “My dear Fabrizio, I am writing to you in a state of utter collapse. Such dreadful news in the paper. The Piedmontese have landed. We are all lost.” The backdrop for the movie is Garibalidi’s Expedition of the Thousand: in 1860, General Giuseppe Garibaldi landed in Sicily with an army of “a thousand” and defeated the forces of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. In doing so, he implemented the final (and historically symbolic) stage of the Unification of Italy, orchestrated, in large part, by Count Cavour in Piedmont.

Above: The banquet and ball sequences of Visconti’s film are among the most celebrated in international cinema history. Scorsese is a fan…

A very short 15 years before, and three years before the first Italian War of Independence in 1848, Count Cavour — the architect of Italian unity — was planning another crusade of sorts, an “enological crusade”:

To Giacomo Giovanetti, Novara

I openly confess that the excellent wine of Sizzano has almost convinced me that luxury wines can be produced in Piedmont. To a great degree, this wine possesses that which bestow prestige on the wines of France and which our wines generally lack, bouquet. The bouquet of the Sizzano does not resemble that of Bordeaux but rather the bouquet of Burgundy where wines like Clos Vougeot and Romanet [Romanée] enjoy supremacy over all the wines of France for their delicate qualities.

Therefore, it has been proven that the hills of Novara can compete with the hills of Burgundy. In order to triumph in this struggle, [estate] owners must diligently oversee the production of their wines so that the wines will be rich, elegant, and indulgent. I hope to take part in this enological crusade [italics mine] and I will do what I can in the circles within which I move. In order to act expeditiously, it is crucial that you inform as to whether or not these wines of this caliber are available for sale and what is their price. If Count Solaro ever gives up his post — something I doubt he’d ever be willing to do — I will send the wines of Sizzano as a gift to all the diplomats. In the meantime, I will drink them with my friends and toast to your health.

Turin, July, 1845. (Translation mine.)*

As the letter reveals (in my unpublished translation), it was a wine from the township of Sizzano (in the province of Novara, Piedmont, not far from Gattinara) that first inspired Cavour’s “enological crusade,” to make wine in Piedmont that could rival the wines of Burgundy.

With this in mind, I couldn’t help but find uncanny Franco’s post today, announcing a wonderful tasting of Langa Nebbiolo and Burgundies this weekend in the town of La Morra (in the heart of Langa). The tasting, entitled Their Majesties (aka, Nebbiolo and Pinot Noir), is intended to create dialog and discussion of the affinities and differences between these two noble grapes and terroirs.

Today, as Italy’s tenuous unity teeters more precariously than ever on the divide between north and south, it might seem to some that Cavour’s enolgoical crusade has been the more successful. “If we want everything to stay the same,” says the Prince of Salina, “everything must change.” (That’s the cover of the editio princeps of the English translation of Lampedusa’s 1958 novel Il gattopardo, published in 1960, and given to us by Tracie B’s dear friend Lena.)

Above: Tracie B’s ragù was so good last night with a bottle of the 2007 Dolcetto by Marchesi di Gresy. We love that wine…

I wish I could spend the whole day reflecting and writing about Cavour and Nebbiolo, Lampedusa and Visconti, Nebbiolo and Pinot Noir… but, alas, it’s already 9 a.m. and time to get to work and hit the market and “move some boxes,” as they say in the business. I’m headed to San Antonio… Stay tuned… We’ll be watching the second half of the movie tomorrow night…

In other Nebbiolo news…

I love it when McDuff writes about one of his favorite producers of Nebbiolo, Vajra, as he did today… Check it out…

* Translation copyright Jeremy Parzen 2007.

Det blir faktiskt alldeles tyst i källaren på Lidingö. Pratet, skratten, klangen från kuporna som hamnar för nära varandra på det trånga bordet, tolv människors uppsluppenhet och gemenskapsljud dör som när man stänger av köksfläkten. Det sjudande rummet stillnar i en samtidig inåtvänd vördnad, en plötslig ödmjukhet.

Sakta tar tvånget att dela upplevelsen tillbaka initiativet:

-Jävlar… jävlar…

Ingen av oss visste väl riktigt vad vi stod inför den här kvällen. En del erfarenhet av barolo och barbaresco med lite ålder på fanns det, men en föreställning med tio flaskor från 1971 och biljetter på första raden var svår att föreställa sig. För mig som sätter nebbiolo högst av allt var drömmarna guldskimrande – samtidigt som bubblan kunde spricka med en smäll som skulle höras ända till Castiglione Falletto.

Nektaren som fick tyst på de tolv dök upp redan i första flighten. Ni har redan läst/läst: Enrico Giovannini Moresco skördade sent i Pajorégården i Treiso, höll skördeuttaget lågt redan 1971 – och bjöd Angelo Gaja på en slurk. Kejsaren av Piemonte köpte sedan loss marken av Moresco, och vi har turen att känna Niklas som finkammar Europa och plockar hem en original-Pajoré från 1971. Doften är lätt men tät, spetsigt fokuserad fräsch rödfrukt, utmognad men med en hel del oförstörd jordgubbig barnacharm. Lägg till lite sojamognad, muscovado och lite motstånd från sötkärv rönnbärsgelé, och tryck på paus.

Men det är i munnen som Moresco slänger sitt tunga sammetstäcke över dussinet vinhundar i källaren. Perfekt struktur, obeskrivlig munkänsla – kanske den finaste jag har känt, kanske bara på en nivå där man slutar jämföra. Är fruktkärnan åtta år gammal, eller 38? Intensitet, kraft och elegans i samma centiliter. Ålderssötman ger jordgubbarna guldkant, den där rönnbärsgelén kompletterar. Svansen klingar ut i mineralitet pyntad med torkade rosor och en droppe tjära och viskar kvar en minut senare. Consummatum est.

Ändå gick det att argumentera för andra viner som kvällens guldmedaljör. Pio Cesares sjuttioetta var i toppform, kryddig och barrskogstonad, med fantastisk frukt i munnen, underbara tanniner och arkitektur över all kritik. Kicken av rökig tjära i eftersmaken lyste upp slutet som en fackla. Bara den där gudomliga munkänslan avgör för Moresco i mitt minne. Eller varför inte Marcarinis vin, från rikfruktiga Brunate i vackra La Morra: tuff, ungdomligt efter 38 år, med en härlig blommighet i näsan och ett fantastiskt fruktspektrum från hallon till plommon.

Jag kunde förstås rabbla upp alla tio, kanske minus några TCA-dräpta. Men jag måste ge plats åt några glas ur den långa raden före och efter den piemontesiska dekalogen. Som Kellers 2007 Hubacker: sensationellt fin Rheinhessenriesling, lång, lång smak av utvalda äpplen och mineral i ett perfekt bygge. När jag sade 2001 på en chianti från 1990 var det lätt att spika producenten, för det är bara Castell’ in Villa i hela Toskana som utvecklas så långsamt. Giacomo Conterno bekräftade tesen att de bästa klarade av även min hackårgång 2003; Cascina Francia hade generösa jordgubbar, framträdande kryddighet och drag av cassis, med kalkiga citrussyror för att möta den dominanta sötfrukten. Det blev ingen Monfortino 2003, och Cascina Francia tackade och tog emot materialet.

Vin nummer 22: Spetsad druvmust (tänk pineau des Charentes eller Juras macvin), pomerans och andra julkryddor, russin; mer specifikt den färska doften ur ett nyöppnat Sunmaidpaket. Smeksamt i munnen med stort uttryck, tätt och druvigt, mycket sött. Slarviga anteckningar. Rätt lätt och smidigt ändå för ett fortifierat vin, kanske grenachebaserat från Roussillon?

Nä - 1982 Quinta do Noval Nacional. Tack och godnatt.

//anders

PS: Tack Niklas för bilderna. Och just det – några liter nebbiolo på 40-strecket, ett dussin bonusviner toppat med en osannolik Nacional, absurt goda leverspett, musslor och din källares vanliga varma camaraderie. Mm, tack för det också.

PS 2: Inte länkad i texten: Winepunker.

Today I had the opportunity to meet Giuseppe Vajra from the winery G.D. Vajra in Piedmont, Italy. I have been a fan of Vajra wines for sometime so it was a great experience to meet Giuseppe today. For whatever reason, I find it intoxicating when Italian’s speak of their wines, more so than any other region.

My Tasting Notes:

2008 Langhe Bianco – 100% Riesling – floral with light citrus, and apricot notes. Lucious pear combined with great acidity at the back of the palate. Very Austrian in style of texture but the mid – palate is much “fatter”. Extremely nice!

2007 Langhe Rosso – Dolcetto, Barbera, Nebbiolo blend with 5% Pinot Noir and 2% Freisa – lots of red cherry, cola, red currant, leather notes and spice. Medium bodied with velvety tannins.

2007 Dolcetto D’ Alba – light cherry and raspberry notes with the flavor of actually berries. Red currant and cherry predominate the palate with hints of cola. Full bodied, especially for a Dolcetto – smooth tannins.

2007 Langhe Nebbiolo – leather, blackberry and “rum” on the nose. Palate full of black cherry, leather, dry dirt, hints of eucalyptus and cassis. Full body, with great acidity.

2004 Barolo – tomato leaf, rustic red fruit aromas, leather, boysenberry, blackberry and truffle oil on the palate. Fuzzy tannins and full bodied long finish. Still plenty of life, but approachable now. Beautiful!

2005 Langhe Freisa – menthol, leather and slight barnyard notes with fruit start to appear towards the back of the palate. Dark cherry and black currant predominate with some brambly fruit character and black pepper making an appearance. Lively acidity and full bodied. Excellent wine.

I spoke with Giuseppe on the ‘09 vintage and he said it was a great, but not excellent one. “Definitely couldn’t close your eyes and sleep through this vintage, we had to do some work.” For most of the harvest it was status quo but some rain in September brought about that question of “pick now or later”. They chose to pick later and after the rain passed, had an incredible week of brilliant sunshine and cooler than normal nights. This helped to raise sugar levels and increase ripeness while maintaining great acidity. “It is an extermely hard thing to watch all of your neighbors bring in their fruit, while you wait out the ’storm’.”

If you get a chance to try Vajra wines, I insist that you do – they are quite nice, and fairly priced for the region.

Cheers!

Il 21 e 22 novembre, nel cuore delle Langhe, “Le Loro Maestà – Il Nebbiolo e Le Pinot Noir” ospiterà un originale confronto fra Langa e Borgogna. Per la prima volta 20 fra i migliori Domaine di Borgogna si presenteranno in Italia al fianco di 20 dei più rappresentativi produttori di Barolo e Barbaresco.

Per informazioni:
www.leloromaesta.it
Telefono +39 0125 633359 (orario ufficio)

Ufficio Stampa:
Gheusis Srl info@gheusis.com
Telefono: +39 0422 928954
Fax: +39 0422 928245

Date/time: 23 November, Monday, 7.45pm

Piemonte e Toscana – Nobili Vini d’Italia Leonardo da Vinci once wrote that “the discovery of a good wine is increasingly better for mankind than the discovery of a new star”. Hailing from Tuscany, he would surely know a thing or two about good wine. If Burgundy is one of the historic centres of white wine production, then Italy surely has a strong claim to being the home of old-world red wine. Indeed, wines from Tuscany and Piedmont in particular are some of the most sought-after in the world, matching even the historic châteaux of Bordeaux in quality (and of course, price). In November, we will be focusing exclusively on these two regions and learning why they are so globally popular. A hint: it has a lot to do with Nebbiolo and Sangiovese.

Cost: £10 per person

RSVP: glass (dot) half (dot) fulham (at) googlemail (dot) com by 13 November, Friday. Numbers are limited to 15 and will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

Unfortunately, the circumstances prevented me from writing a proper restaurant review of Casa D’Oro, an Italian restaurant at the Hotel Indonesia Kempinski in Jakarta. I have to go back, eat there and write a proper review. A friend of mine says it’s the best Italian gourmet dining in Jakarta. It’s chef de cuisine, Francesco Greco, is a well accomplished master of fine cooking being just awarded the “Best Chef of 2009 in Shanghai” award.

But I can write about the wine, we had with our quick dinner. I selected a ‘2004 Barolo’ by Paolo Scavino, from Piedmont, Italy and one of the best producers of Barolo in the world. Made from Nebbiolo grapes grown in the cool climate of the Piemontese hills at the foot of the Alps, this wine has a deep red colour and is characterized by an elegant nose. Dried roses, cherries, and plums can be tasted together with herbs and dusty vanilla notes. The long finish is very impressive. The wine is of medium-body, very smooth and very well balanced. Wine experts award it 91-92 Parker points. I thoroughly enjoyed this wine.

I am so happy that I had spotted this wonderful wine on the extensive wine list of the hotel. I can only highly recommend it. Moreover, the wine was very reasonably prized.

Fenocchio Barolo Villero 2003. Ung, for ung i 2009. Bare tida vil vise om den gir valuta for pengene og glede for deg...

For to år siden begynte jeg å samle på vin. Ikke bare for å ha i hylla for at de skal ligge der til evig tid selvsagt, men for at jeg skal ha godsaker til modning over lang tid. Sånn for å kunne hente opp ei flaske godt gammel vin til ei god anledning innimellom. Smart, tenkte jeg.

Kanskje var det ikke like smart å kjøpe to flasker av denne til kjelleren? 2003-årgangen av Barolo’en til Fenocchio er jo bare seks år nå, og i utgangspunktet veldig ung for å være en Barolo. For selv om nord-italienerne visstnok har lagt om produksjonen, sånn at de kraftige godsakene basert på Nebbiolo-druen skal modne raskere, så er denne tydeligvis et unntak.

Jeg har lest en plass at Fenocchio er en av produsentene som holder igjen på gamle-måten og lager viner som modner sakte. Veldig sakte… Og det kjennes på denne seks-åringen. Det dufter av mørke bær og søte kirsebær, men når du fyller munnen er det som om noen tørker ut kjeften og legger et godt lag med grove tanniner på tennene dine.

Ikke engang når du har latt flaske stå over natta er den noe snillere. Garvestoffene river rundt i kjeften og lar deg sitte igjen med en tørr og nummen følelse….

Som sagt, seks år er ungt for en Barolo, for i gamle dager brukte disse vinene mellom 15-20 år på å bli moden. Så har du 275 kroner og god tid kan du legge den bort til den er minst 10 år gammel og prøve da. Men i dag? Prøv heller Fenocchio sin Barbera, den er både mørk og fruktig – og ikke minst moden

- Jan Fredrik

Riesling grapes in Schoden, Saar, shortly before vintage 2009

Uff, I am reading in todays “Your Daily Wine News” newsletter that some of Australia’s top wine experts think that over the next 20 years climate change will be responsible for the decline of Shiraz and Chardonnay and the rise of varieties such as Vermentino, Arneis, Nebbiolo, Pinot Grigio and Viognier (some call them “alternative varieties”).

This is bad news for me and my own small vineyard. At Two Hills Vineyard we have concentrated on some of the traditional French varieties: Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Chardonnay (first vintage in 2011 or 2012). Our fruit ripens usually well (if we do not suffer severe frosts) and shows a superior quality. But will that persist under the conditions of climate change?

I still remember vividly how I pulled out the 2 1/2 acres of Cabernet. it was hard work, wrapping a chain around every single vine and lifting the hydraulic of the tractor. I should have left them in, I guess. If temperatures rise in Glenburn, the drought persits, and/or we’ll have less percipitation in the future, Cabernet could have been the ideal variety for our spot. I ripped the vines out because the grapes would not fully ripen. At the moment we have sufficient water, our two dams are overflowing after years of drought but that might change quickly again.

Another issue is age, my age. At 55 I might still have a chance to enjoy some of the coming Chardonnay vintages but replanting would “cost” me many years of waiting. I could contemplate to plant on our second hill where we still have another 5-6 acres of space. Well, let us see what is going to come.

At least there is no politician who tells me what to do and chances are small that an elector such as Clemens Wenzeslaus of Saxonia, who changed the Mosel by instructing vintners to ripp out their red varieties and replant with Riesling, would appear on the Australian scene. However, danger is looming from the anti-alcohol lobby in Canberra which is working day and night to convince law-makers that the purchase of alcoholic beaverages needs to be made more costly for the consumer and profitable for the taxmen.

One of the frequent questions that we wine folk get is “what’s your favorite wine?” It’s not an easy one to answer. I always tell people, it depends on where I am, whom I’m with, and what I’m eating. A favorite wine could be a humble bottle of grapey Lambrusco with some belt-busting gnocco fritto and rendered lard or it could be a 40-year-old Giacomo Conterno Barolo Monfortino and a blood-rare porterhouse steak, the genteel noble tannin of the Nebbiolo waltzing with the marbled meat.

But if there ever were ONE wine, one winery that I could point to and say that’s my favorite, it would have to be Produttori del Barbaresco. I love the wines, I have deep respect for the people who grow it and make it, and the ideology and winemaking philosophy that stand behind it. I also love it because I can afford it and because I can afford to “follow” each vintage. And more than anything else, I love how the style of the winery has remained so consistent: whether tasting a ‘67, an ‘89, or the current release ‘05, the style of the “house” steadfastly represents the terroir and the vintage.

And so it was a thrill yesterday to taste the 2008 Langhe Nebbiolo by Produttori del Barbaresco, the cooperative’s entry-level wine, made from the member growers’s younger vines, and vinified with shorter maceration time and aging.

The 2007 was an anomalous vintage for this wine. The bumper crop of noble fruit resulted in a more tannic and richer expression of Nebbiolo than you usually see in this wine (I think this is what BrooklynGuy found to be off-putting when we exchanged notes about it). When I told winemaker Aldo Vacca that as much as I loath the expression “baby Barbaresco,” the ‘07 was the one instance when I thought the Langhe Nebbiolo was “Barbaresco-esque.” “Baby Barberesco?” he said to me with a quizzical look. “Baby Barolo!”

With the ‘08, the wine has returned to is more classic style: a Nebbiolo lighter in body, with very approachable berry fruit and sour cherry and already mellow tannin. Great for drinking now. Damn, I love this wine. It should retail for around $20, more or less. A great value.

In other news… boys will be boys…

John Roenigk and I played a little hooky yesterday after tasting and some lunch: we went to one of the most amazing guitar stores I have ever visited, Quincy’s here in Austin. (John’s an amazing musician and I’ve been helping him transfer some of his recordings from the 1980s to digital format, one of the other things that GarageBand is great for. That dude can play him some serious geetar.)

I sure wish I had the dough to afford one of these handmade beauties. It’s hard to convey what it’s like to play guitars of this caliber. Their sounds are warm and round, with the bass notes resonating like a train in the distance and the highs sparkling like stars in the sky. That’s a 1999 Gibson SJ200 Custom (Brazilian) in the foreground.

But when you actually play them, the sensation of feeling the sounds emanate from the warm wood pressed up against your belly is purely transcendental. That’s a ‘52 Martin D28 above — one of the few vintage guitars owner Pat Skrovan had in the store yesterday.

Feast your eyes on that National Steel Reso-Phonic Delphi Deluxe, above.

Happy halloween ya’ll!