On a cold but bright day we spent a day at Millésime Bio in Montpellier. Started in 1993 it has grown from just a few, keen organic wine producers to the huge three day event it is now. There are now about 400 tables (all of the same size) groaning with wine, organic and biodynamic wine.

And not a pair of sandals in sight…

We started with the one Savoie table, however with three good producers who work together to sell their wines (we see them at the summer market in our village in Haute Savoie, Le Chinaillon).

First we tasted the whites of Gilles Berlioz, enjoying his Chignin-Bergerons, such as the 2005: Warm berries and rounded fruits on the palate with a touch of hazelnuts; gently dry with plump acidity and a long finish.

Frederic Giachino Apremont 2008: Lovely long ripe fruit on the nose, crisp, dry with attractive length.

and Jacques Maillet’s Autrement whites and reds, such as his Roussette 2009: Herby and meaty (!) as well as fruit on the nose, this is a delicious dry white with good acidity, medium bodied and a long finish.

Keeping with Wink’s regional specialities for Wine Travel Guides we then visited the Jura producer Domaine de la Pinte, tasting their range of wines which included Vin Jaune 2002: Deeply walnutty, with fine fruit notes and not at all heavy. An infant (it was only bottled last year), it will grow into glorious maturity!

We’d only arrived at 11.30 having driven down from Uzès where we were staying with Amy and Matt at La Gramière, and it was now time for lunch where we were joined by Richard James and Louise Hurren, taking a well earned break from the Sud de France stand.

And what a grand lunch it was…

I’ll be back with the afternoon wines shortly.

Having traveled to wine country before, enjoying it thoroughly each time, planning another trip posed the “difficult” question: now where?  We had been tossing around the idea of going to Chile, but alas, financially it was a challenging proposition.  So we thought about wine regions within the U.S. that would be something different.  This, and Loreen’s friend Melissa, brought us to Temecula.

Ever hear of the Temecula Valley AVA?  Well, we have, but we’ve never knowingly tasted wines from Temecula and certainly don’t carry any at Café le Grand – unfortunate, since we now know some are distributed in WI.  So we’re excited about the trip and thinking it could prove to be a whole new area of interest – to us and our customers.  After all, that’s what wine should be… an area of interest and something of an experience.  So I spent about a month contacting wineries in the area and inquiring about visiting.  Certainly many of them offer tours/tastings, but when approached by a little wine shop from Wausau, WI they don’t all react the same.  Some are gracious about your interest and offer you their world – a tasting, tour, visit with the owners and winemakers, etc.  Some politely tell you that since they don’t have distribution in Wisconsin that you’re welcome to visit but you’re just another gullet to them- pay up or don’t come at all.  I can certainly understand this mindset – perhaps more so during a tough economic time when selling wine is more important than treating trade guests to a visit when they can’t buy your wine for resale anyway… wait a second… does this sound curiously like the old “step over a dollar to pick up a penny line?”  It does to me.

Granted, if we can’t purchase wine for resale at Café le Grand it essentially places us in a similar position as anyone else.  However, by taking a more global – or shall I say regional – perspective on this situation maybe they should consider that even if they don’t distribute wine in Wisconsin right now, maybe they will in the future and perhaps their neighbor winery does and they should jump on the welcome wagon to hopefully promote the area as a whole.  Plus, in the hope of having their neighbors wine on our shelves in Wisconsin it will bring more awareness to the area as a whole.  What’s my point?  We’re being treated as “trade guests” at some wineries that distribute in Wisconsin – we hope to find some fantastic wines, wines which end up in CLG for our customers.  We hope to have a great experience, talk about it, write about it and promote as a wine destination.  This will benefit the entire region (albeit, I’m not some national publication, but who knows).  In addition, with each visit I plan on writing about them, their wines, the people, etc.  You’ll see all the links to each of their wineries and this too will eventually pop up in a search engine along the way.  A valuable perpetual word of mouth will be out there for everyone.

Does it sound like I’m whining about not getting trade discounts?  I’m not.  If it sounds like I’m surprised a small, relatively unknown wine region doesn’t take lessons from the Almighty Napa Valley, I am.  The promotion of the area – the Temecula Valley AVA – as a “brand” and as a destination should be taken seriously by all parties.  And when a winery says that they don’t and can’t distribute in Wisconsin for whatever reason, it tells me perhaps they’d rather people continue to never hear of them… or respond “they have wineries there?” when the owners of their local wine shop tell them where they are going to visit wineries.

Alas, I ramble.  We’re looking forward to our visits and are positive some of the wine will end up on our shelves.  And if we don’t bring in all the wines to CLG, don’t be surprised if you ever hear us talking about a wine from Temecula that we had at home… where we still enjoy wines that we can’t get in Wisconsin!

Thanks for your time.

Regards,

Ron

Do you remember feeling giddy when you “discovered” U2 years before The Joshua Tree was released?  What about the rush you got from telling your friends about hearing Arcade Fire at some small club “before they were big?”  If you do, then you’re going to love exploring Paso Robles wineries.

Paso Robles

Paso is the upstart younger brother of Cali wines, clamoring for attention from its overachieving older siblings, Sonoma and Napa.  While Paso’s potential has been touted for years, it is starting to grow into its own and quickly becoming recognized by the broader, international  community as a top-notch region for syrah and other rhône varietals:  Copain, Booker, and Saxum all make highly-touted wines from Paso vineyards.

Linne Calodo

I’ve witnessed part of Paso’s growth first hand.  Two years ago I visited the area and stopped by Linne Calodo.  The tasting room:  a folding table in a working winery.  I loved it.  When I went back a few weeks ago, I was surprised to find that Linne Calodo’s continued success has spawned a beautiful new tasting room.  I felt a tinge of sadness realizing that this sleepy little wine nook is all growns-up.

Even though Paso is no longer a well-kept secret, there is still a lot of room for experimentation.  There’s a young and vibrant wine community here, as witnessed by a tasting of the Italian varietals from Giornata Wines (see earlier post here).  And there are plenty of folks willing to push the envelope, creating some bold and unorthodox red blends.

PLACES I VISITED

Over the past couple of years, Paso began pushing out some big and brash zins and syrahs, but like many places, there is a noticeable trend towards more restrained wines.  Here are four places I visited recently that will give you a little of everything.  I’ve also created a Google map listing these places, and a photo album with add’l pics from my visit.  This is not meant to be a selection of “the best” in Paso — simply a random sampling of places I enjoyed, and which I thought provided a good variety of wines and tasting room experience.

Terry Hoage

Terry Hoage Vineyards
Terry Hoage used to cause me nightmares.  As a defensive back for the Philadelphia Eagles, he often clashed with my hometown Washington Redskins.  Now, thankfully, Terry has turned his attention to winemaking, and is producing some dreamy, well-balanced syrahs and other rhône varietals.  In 2008, Wine Spectator, called Terry one of the promising new syrah producers, and a visit to his winery will show you why.  The tasting room is in an old barn-style building using refurbished wood that gives it a lot of character.

Denner

Denner Vineyards
At the opposite end of the specturm, Denner has created a bit of Napa in Paso Robles by erecting a posh members-tasting area.  Thankfully, the wines are also up to the task.  I tend to like the Denner blends — The Ditch Digger, The Dirt Worshipper — but they also do some good (and well regarded) 100% syrahs.  $10 tasting fee, approx 8 wines poured.

Linne Calodo
Go big or go home.  That may well be winemaker (and former college DJ) Matt Trevisan’s motto.  He pumps out some unbelievably rich zin and syrah blends, all of which can be described as pure hedonistic pleasure.  And how can you resist picking up blends Matt has labeled as “The Problem Child,” “Slacker,” or “The Outsider?”  While I miss the folding table, funky / modern tasting room fit the wines.  $10 tasting fee, aprox. 4 wines poured.

Villa Creek
Run by the family that also operates one of Paso’s most well established restaurants, Villa Creek reminds me of what Paso used to be:  a little isolated, a bit understated.  The tasting room is in a working winery (i.e., warehouse feel), and its a little dark inside, but how can you complain when’ you’re tasting wine sourced from some of the most well-known vineyards in Paso:  James Berry, Denner, and Booker Vineyards?

NOTE:  One place I really wanted to visit, Booker Vineyard, was sold out of their wines, and had closed its tasting room.  Booker is expected to reopen soon, and (from what I hear) it’s well worth checking out.  In addition, I skipped the usual suspects and most established wineries in the area — Turley and Tablas Creek — though you should consider stopping by if you’re in the area.  Tablas Creek also offers tours of the vineyards twice daily (at 10:30AM and 2:00PM).  Call ahead for reservations.

Also, you should stop by 15 Degrees C Wine Bar, just south of Paso Robles in the town of Templeton, and near many of the wineries.  Its a friendly spot, with a selection of tasty small dishes and panninis, along with some fantastic wines by the glass.  While I was there, they were pouring both a Silver Oak Cab and a Hanzell Chardonnay by the glass — I was stunned.  Having these highly-sought after wines by the glass was a real treat!

View Larger Map

EVENTS

If you’re tempted to visit Paso, consider visiting coming down for the following events

• March 19-21, 2010:  Paso Robles Zinfandel Festival
• April 29 – May 1, 2010:  Hospice du Rhône – Rhône Varietal Festival
• May 21-23, 2010:  Paso Robles Wine Festival

OTHER RESOURCES

Check out the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance website — a great resource for maps, tasting room hours, and events in the area.

Finally, here are some other blog posts re Paso Robles which you may find helpful in planning a trip:

• Cherries and Clay
• The Delicious Life

It may sound harsh but at least I didn’t go with Vino Inferno.  We have had good experiences at Vino Paradiso in the past; this was however our first chance to see it after the light leaves the sky.  The name Vino Paradiso would lead you to believe that this is going to be some sort of beatific experience, which just wasn’t the case this time.  The staff was polite and friendly but not very attentitive which was probably my main problem with Vino Paradiso this time around.

Vino Paradiso has an extensive bottle list for anybody whether your wallet is beefy or you find yourself being a little bit more pennywise.  There is sure to be something for any taste on the bottle list.  They also offer a few wine flights that rotate in and out from time to time.  I had a flight of Spanish reds that was pretty yummy.

Overall, I was not thrilled nor was I disheartened by my experience here.  If you’re in Portland (OR) and happen to walk by Vino Paradiso, stop in and give them a try.

Check out their website at www.vinoparadiso.com/

I have a new form of depression. While I love living in Walla Walla, I know that Alu is a good four hour commute, and this is deeply saddening.

There we were, the Terroirists core crew, in Portland for one night. The night was good until our final stop at Alu, and then the night became epic (and that’s a good thing). Tucked away in a cozy aluminum house on MLK Blvd., it’s a place that could be overlooked, but it’s also the wine nerd’s fantasy.

The wine list is largely made up of earth-friendly wines; some are organically grown, others are biodynamic. There’s a nifty key in the menu to display which qualities each wine holds.

Alu's Bar

The drinking started with Jeff, the amazingly knowledgeable and charismatic owner, providing us with a sample of a Sicilian red wine made from the grape, Frappato. Never heard of this grape? Neither had we. Light in color – like a cross between Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo – the nose on this wine completely caught me off guard. I had visions of frolicking through wildflower and lavender fields in the floating mountains of a far away planet. Simply put: the nose was out of this world, and it probably still is.

Still visibly shaken from this experience, I decided to order a glass of Marzemino – yet another obscure Italian variety, and I was not disappointed. After departing the lavender fields this wine took me to a world of gigantic beasts rumbling through mountains of titanium in search of fresh meat to roast over a bonfire on the shores of a vast purple sea. Oh yeah. I wish this glass of wine could never end – this is my paradise. I learned the meaning of life, and Alu is the keeper.

Back to reality; both of these wines had a very distinctive finish with subtle saline qualities. I can count the other wines I’ve had with equally moving “minerality” on one hand. The best thing about the Marzemino is the $25 bottle price – and that’s after the bar markup, which in general seemed quite reasonable.

Atmospherically the bar is very warm and inviting. There’s a downstairs area (the cellar) full of comfy seats and couches. We spent the entire night upstairs at the small, peaceful bar, but downstairs seemed as though it would be a more social environment and a lot of fun. Something to try on the next trip to PDX. There’s also an outdoor area which isn’t exactly ideal this time of year.

From the warmth of the LED bar to the exotic wine list, Alu is an absolute must if you are at least partly interested in wine. They do offer cocktails as well, but this is a wine blog. I could have spent the entire night there trying one killer wine after another, but all good things must come to an end. Luckily, next time we venture into Portland Alu will still be there in all of its glory. One day in the near future I will return to Alu, and until that day I can only dream about it – and cry.

SW

Visit their website here: http://www.aluwinebar.com/

The sun came out, and so did we! We skied up, we skied down then we clambered aboard the chairlift to take us up to La Taverne where we were in time to get a table on the terrace overlooking a sea of mist covering most of Le Grand Bornand.

La Taverne is a mountain restaurant in a renovated old farm chalet offering simple lunches in the winter season prepared and served by a husband and wife. It is the least sophisticated of the several alpine restaurants in this area but it is all the more charming for that.

We all chose their speciality – indeed signature – dish, Gratin d’Endives et Jambon.

The Jean Masson Apremont is just right for this dish, with lovely acidity to cut through the cheesy gratin and gentle fruit to marry with the endive. Made with the Jacquère grape this Savoie wine is light in alcohol and is from our nearest wine region, well worth a visit - though not in winter. 

With a last look at the gorgeous view we paid the reasonable bill and set off to ski off our mountain lunch.

The Moorilla Wine Estate has opened in November 2009 eleven new pavilions: the Mona pavilions. In a quiet location overlooking the Derwent River, yet is only 15 minutes from Hobart, are offering eight luxurious and innovative one and two bedroom pavilions are built on stilts and a very nice view over the wild Tasmanian landscape. Each pavilion is named after a modern painter, architect, have influenced the Australian landscape architecture, such as Roy (Grounds), Robin (Boyd), Esmond (Dorney) and Walter (Burley Griffin) or Arthur (Boyd), Brett (Whiteley), Charles (Blackman) and Sidney (Nolan). Individual art and architecture of MONA, the Museum of Old and New Art, which opened late 2010, adorns the interior of the individual pavilions.

Each room has a spa bathroom, a private balcony and a small kitchen. A swimming pool with sauna is at guests’ disposal course. The pavilion cost from 250 euros per night.

Moorilla Estate is one of the leading wineries in Tasmania since been acquired by the entrepreneur David Walsh and his partners Moorilla 1990 did. The estate also houses the brewery Moo Brew and the award-winning restaurant, The Source.

Modern wine experts, gnarled types indefatigable traditionalists: The range of wine in Cyprus is great. Around 10,000 families deliver their grapes exclusively to the largest winery, from the cooperative operation Sodap. Many other large-scale feeding of KEO, LOEL and ETKO, the vineyard since 1844, and therefore the oldest existing. Some wineries make wine, nor even the old custom of fathers, slightly modernized occasionally. And more and more producers to sit down, often with international training, but in any event with enthusiasm for the traditional varieties of the island as well as a how to return the island to the series of internationally respected wine regions.
It is used by many cultural tourists and wine lovers attended the eastern Mediterranean island, not a young wine country – quite the contrary: As early as 3000 BC the wine of Cyprus was established. It is regarded as the motherland of wine throughout the Mediterranean. More and more wines are now produced with high-quality facilities, great winemaking expertise and an even greater passion. Yet they are international – aside from the pioneering work of a few importers – hardly known.

This was different: “We drink Cyprian and kissing beautiful girls,” says Fiesco in Friedrich Schiller’s tragedy “The conspiracy of Fiesco of 1782″. Presumably, the wine-loving poet was thinking of a bottle of the famous dessert wine “Commandaria” already in the 12th Century, was regarded as a noble beverage: On the orders of the Knights Templar, who had established themselves in the Kolossi Castle near Limassol, had the local inhabitants of the castle commander of the “Commandaria” hand over as a compulsory levy. The wine from dried grapes for the wine was for centuries the island of Cyprus. Under changing political domination – sometimes the Greeks and Romans, Crusaders, Turks and British – has been neglected, the wine culture. Increasingly, large parts of the production was exported as a “substitute sherry and unassuming bulk wine to Britain, Germany and especially in the Soviet Union and other members of the Warsaw Pact: Therefore, stirring the early love of Russian tourists to the resort island, but also the reputation of” Aphrodite home island “as a mass producer without higher entitlements. Only after the disappearance of the Soviet Union’s longtime chief sales market, the wine industry has been modernized.
Since then, hundreds of hectares of vineyards are newly created, set up dozens of goods, the expansion given in clay jars, put the basement to the latest – and, after a few years, oak barrels used for maturation. Although still the largest part of which is processed mainly from the southern Troodos Mountains grapes coming from the “Big Four”, is now showing some 50 wine-producing farms, which qualities of the island are possible. The modern wine culture is here to stay in Cyprus, but the revolution on the island of birth of the love goddess Aphrodite takes his time. This shows a walk in the footsteps of Aphrodite from about 20 prestigious wineries of the island.

These few pictures are some highlights from a visit in August 2007 with the British Institute’s Tuscan summer school. It was a great day out!  Thank you to Margaret Leon, an American living in Umbria, for the photos. 

More information:

• on Serraiola, see the full write up on the page on the Tuscan Maremma. 
• on the Tuscan Summer School. 

Wentzel Vineyard in Philo, CA, Anderson Valley

New York Magazine’s Adam Graham posted a great online tour of Mendocino County on Thursday and mentioned our ValleyFogBlog. Offering a more interesting, rugged alternative to Napa, the tour points out some great out-of-the-way places to visit throughout the county. Jennifer and I have been visiting Mendocino County for many years, our first romantic weekend getaway being up on the Mendocino coast. It was these travels and the many stops at Anderson Valley wineries that got us so enchanted with Pinot Noir and this region.

In addition to the excellent recommendations in the article, we also have some other personal faves in Mendocino County:

Commanding views at The Other Place, above Anderson Valley

Lodging: Anderson Valley Inn in Philo (roomy, good rates), Boonville Hotel (great bungalows in addition the main rooms) and the Other Place (vacation rental with spectacular views, kitchen, living room, etc.). For larger houses or cottages to rent, check out Shoreline Vacation Rentals and other vacation rental services listed on Mendocino.com.

Restaurants: The Boonville Hotel and McCallum House are definitely our two favorites, but for Anderson Valley visitors, Lauren’s Cafe in Boonville and Libby’s Mexican restaurant in Philo provide tasty alternatives. Along the coast from Elk to Fort Bragg, there are a number of other great restaurants – too many to mention here. For breakfast in Ft. Bragg, though, Eggheads, with full-on Wizard of Oz motif, is a must.

Wineries: Again, the article lists some of our favorites, but here are a few more in Anderson Valley: Elke, Baxter, Phillips Hill, Claudia Springs, Roederer Estate, Handley and Navarro. Any that aren’t mentioned here are also well worth visiting and exploring. Go to the Anderson Valley Winegrower’s site for a full listing of wineries in the Valley and those, like Waits-Mast, Roessler and others, that make wine from the region. Just up the road is Hopland, where there are a number of good wineries, including Milano Family Winery.

Serene coastal path at the Mendocino Botanical Gardens

Oddball Day: the article mentions some out-of-the way places in Mendocino County that visitors may not find in the guidebooks. When we’re not pouring at the Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival or poking around the village of Mendocino, we like to drive further up the coast. Our companion along the way is community radio station KZYX out of Philo. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch the call-in swap show Trading Time – it is truly a slice of Mendocino, with locals unloading old beat-up trucks and other quirky items. We then may stop at the Mendocino Botanical Gardens and take a stroll out to the coast on a path that winds through coastal redwoods. We’ll then wind our way up to Fort Bragg and stop in at some of our favorite vintage shops, including the Ark Thrift Store (benefits the local humane society and often has pets roaming the place) and Mendocino Vintage which is full of great old books, records and kitchenware. If we’re in the mood for a little more wine tasting, we may go further north to one of the most scenic wineries around, Pacific Star Winery. Sheep roam the coastal property and the tasting room has great views of the dramatic North Coast.

Makes us want to hop in the car and take another visit! Enjoy Mendocino County and the Anderson Valley and if you want to try our wines from Anderson Valley, drop us a line or go to our website at www.waitsmast.com.

Our last evening in Taurasi and in Campania offered the chance of either numerous Halloween parties (the mini-witches were very well behaved) or a dinner and tasting at the new wine bar, Vino e caffè.  Theoretically a 8.30pm start, we were tipped off that 9.15 was more likely and in fact that gave plenty of time to admire the stash of bottles in the room which doubles as wine store and as meeting point for another great Italian passion, watching football on TV.  Chatting to the young sommelier (all kitted up in traditional garb), he apologised for having no voice as he had been cheering Napoli on that afternoon in their epic victory against the mighty Juventus, the first victory in Turin for Napoli for 21 years. 

The wines featured were from Filadoro, near Lapio, on the back road between Taurasi and Avellino.  This is their first year as producers, though they have grown grapes for others for many years and will continue to do so.   The growers had the biggest table, then there were a few fours scattered around and us.  Two excellent courses came and went – pasta (Cicatielli) with squash and ricotta (and a wonderful creamy salsa of the squash on the side) and then chicken breasts rolled around prosciutto and mushrooms, very well and beautifully done.   These course were paired with the two Filadoro wines now on the market: 

Fiano DOCG 2008 – pale gold (probably more mid straw in better light) with green tinges, initially a slightly neutral nose but then opened up, slightly leafy, nutty, satiny palate, good acidity, good+

Greco di Tufo DOCG 2008 - a deeper straw yellow with green tinges, excellent honey and acacia nose, racy but balanced in the mouth, medium persistence, very good

Filadoro can be proud of these debutants – and indeed they have a little entry in the Vini d’Italia 2010, giving them a highly creditable 16/20 and 14/20 respectively. Complimenti!

There was then what can only be called a long pause … the young lads on a nearby table first flitted back and forth between their food and Milan-Parma on the TV screen, then they were joined by a group of other giovani, and started drinking the upcoming red wine … Getting up to photograph the bottles we fell into conversation with the growers’ table including a group of English speakers, Italians brought up in Coventry! Very friendly and obviously disappointed that we were going home the next day and couldn’t visit.  Alla prossima volta! 

Finally, the third course arrived, more an antipasto, beautiful prosciutto, cheese, salami, and a bowl of rich chickpea and meat … and the red wine accompanied by slightly tipsy renditions of old Queen favourites from the growers:

Aglianico Irpinia DOC 2008 – there will be Taurasi but we will have to wait until 2011 for that, but this is the junior version which you can sell after a year or so.  The growers were nervous that this pre-release wine (due to be bottled in the winter) would not find favour, but they shouldn’t have worried:  purple edge to a vibrant ruby colour, good depth of flavour, vibrant in the mouth too, with all that young acid and tannin, but real potential.  Try in a year’s time. 

The party began to break up at 12.30.  We returned to our beautiful B&B (http://www.bbtaurasi.it/), with so many fresh sensations from Campania.  It may be one of the oldest wine areas in the world but it is now the leading wine area of Southern Italy with a great mix of tradition and innovation.  We can’t wait to return.

The name is glamorous, the place is wonderful but not glamorous.  Antoine Gaita’s house is up a small road well above the zona industriale of Montefredane, North of Avellino.  The vineyards fall away from the house on a North and North West facing slope, perfect for whites according to him.  The villa is a nice, modern house in the country with the paraphernalia of wine making behind the house amid evidence of the owner’s day job (satellite dishes?).  This is a small concern, very, very personal, with a production of 10, 000 bottles a year.  But being small means you can do exactly what you like and experiment as much as you like.

In addition to Antoine Gaita and his wife, there was an Italian couple (she a journalist, he a restauranteur) and the two us.  We were a bit late but the other couple only preceded us by two minutes and it seemed that within a further two they were into a long debate as to whether Algeria was best understood as a colony or a département of France – it was clearly going to be a tasting of strong opinions, like the wines.

The Gaita philosophy is all about minimum intervention.  He achieved organic status in 2003 and what he clearly loves is to talk about the winemaking itself.  The thing here is Fiano. There is a little Greco di Tufo and some Aglianico (which needs 10 years of ageing), but relatively speaking they are sideshows.  Gaita looks to keep his Fiano on the vine as long as possible, for a super-mature starting point.  It’s all in the skins, he says.  Fiano is highly resistant to oxygen and so you don’t have to worry about it to much.  Complexity is gained by a long time on the lees.  Of the 2005 he said ‘it is the apogee of non-working’.  Its great clarity in the glass is the product of a long time resting in the stainless steel casks, no filtering or clarification.

   Old and new labels of Villa Diamante – with apologies for poor photos of bottles in this post

We tasted in an unconventional order, starting with the dreaded, rainy year 2002, from which there were two examples.  It wasn’t clear if this was bravado, a clever pitch or just what there is in the cellar.

Villa Diamante, Apianum, 2004: mid yellow, tending in the direction of gold.  A rather muddled nose but then honey, some apricoty or pale peach flavours, good accompanying acidity.

Vigna della Congregazione, Villa Diamante, 2002 – this is the star wine, which comes from a couple of the best sites.   More gold than Apianum, marmalade, wood and smoke on the nose. Palate slightly flat.  Interesting, rather than excellent, ‘non è un vino perfetto’ according to its maker.

Vigna della Congregazione, 1998 – there just aren’t many white wines of this age in Italy, so this was a treat.  By contrast to the 2002s, the nose has moderated, but on the nose and palate you get a sort of mixture of apple/pear flavours – fresh, dried, oxidised.  A long way from visually perfect – slightly cloudy with some black spots.  Good refreshing acidity, greater persistence.  A great conversation wine.

Vigna della Congregazione, 2005 – startlingly clear mid-yellow, nice honeyed nose, some herbs, pears and apples again. Some sense of yeastiness from the lees, but an easy wine to appreciate in a more or less contemporary style.  Excellent – and in a demanding year.

By this stage, our fellow tasters realised that they would be late for their next tasting one hour plus south (de Conciliis, where we had been three days earlier), so it all became a bit of rush.  We tasted the Vigna della Congregazione 2007 but didn’t do it justice.  It seemed like a fresher version of 2005, if not quite as clear.

Our journalist companion was for not tasting the cru, Cuvée Enrico 2000, as she didn’t want to rush it but fortunately our host ignored this.  It is made like Jura’s vin jaune, basically fermented and then sealed in a small barriques for as many years as you dare. As the level drops it develops a heathy flor, a layer of yeast on top of the wine, similar to sherry, which controls the level of oxidisation.  You then open the barrel and hope for the best- sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t .   Gaita likes to experiment so this was left for seven years (with a bit of peek after three as he was curious!)  15˚ of alcohol, with a dense nose of orange peel and burnt sugar.  An excellent ending point and typical of Gaita’s creative individualism.

We spent the afternoon looking at the Roman monuments of Benevento – a handsome city, if very quiet on a Saturday afternoon, the siesta of course.

View Full Album

On a wine journey, one good thing can lead to another.  During our visit to the Contrade di Taurasi, we were quizzed on where we had been eating and then given a number of recommendations.  The top one was for La Pergola in Gesualdo, a 30 minute drive away which we took up for lunch as we had no further appointments that day.  The food here is sophisticated and well judged, not just hearty.  Chatting to the waiter and of course having told him who had given us the recommendation, we soon fell to talking wine. He in turn gave us a list of recommendations of wineries and offered to make contact with the di Prisco winery, whose ‘Coda di Volpe’ (fox’s tail, but here a grape variety) we had already ordered.    At the end of the meal the waiter turned into ‘Antonio’. 

After some confusion over whose car we were going to travel in, we drove down the lanes and arrived at Pasqualino di Prisco’s winery.  Antonio described the owner as a vignaiolo, a worker of vineyards.  Indeed when he arrived his hands were suitably dirty from working in the fields. He has a reticent manner but with real warmth beneath the surface.  Given the chance to be photographed with his friend, he burst into life (restaurateur on the left, wine producer on right). 

The newly-published 2010 wine guides were stacked up on the desk, which doubled as a tasting table, in the corner of working cantina, no ceremony here.  Gambero Rosso had awarded the coveted ‘Three Glasses’ for the 2005 Taurasi but only two for his excellent whites, while I vini d’Italia preferred the whites.  It must feel an arbitrary business and in a difficult market, every gong counts.

Di Prisco makes wines of real character.  The Coda di Volpe has a slightly vegetal and mineral nose and then gets quite herby in the glass.  The star white, Greco di Tufo ‘Pietra rosa’, 2007, is a beautiful deep straw yellow with some   green tinges.  It leads with minerals and pears on the nose.  Its lively acidity makes you want to come back to the glass.  Even more impressive (and rightly a ‘Three Glasses’ winner) is Taurasi DOCG 2005, a triumph in a demanding year.  Despite its four years on release, it’s very young and leads with a complex nose of blackberry fruit, balsamic notes and leather, showing the use of mainly old barriques in the ageing.  It will be amazing in 10, 20 and more years.  The labels are pretty smart too, recalling ancient Irpinia (part of the modern province of Avellino) and its classical heritage. We drove Antonio back to his restaurant and celebrated the chain of introductions which gave us such a memorable day.  Oh, and I nearly forgot, Professor Moschetti had earlier in the day set up another visit for us the next day at the Villa Diamante, for its famous whites …

Footnote: found on the cantina wall.  Not perhaps theologically profound but … the man of the vineyards prefers the mild earthly ecstasy of wine to the unspecified joys of heaven. 

FUSION OF WINE AND CHEESE

Cheese, like wine, involves all the senses.  Touch it. Poke it.  Look at all its colors.  Smell it.  Like wine, put some in your mouth and let it sit there.  Move it around in your mouth. Sense the texture.  Let all your taste buds get a chance with it.  Cheese and wine … a real culinary experience

Have you ever questioned why, in all those nostalgic European travel posters, the villager is cradling a jug of wine in one hand and holding a chunk of cheese in the other?  Europeans came to understand, after hundreds of years of trial and error, that cheese made wine, especially cheaper wine, taste better.  The tannin component in wine ads structure and backbone to the wine, but unless properly balanced with other components, can also add a bitter tasting harshness.  Milk’s fat and protein tempers the harshness of unbalanced tannin.

With so many wines from around the world, there’s certainly one you can match with the equally innumerable cheeses available.  Below are some tips to help you choose which wine to pair with your all-time favorite cheese:

Go Traditional:

Many of us immediately think of red wine when we think of cheese.  Wine experts call this the “Natural Pair.”  There’s no particular taste and brand for this duo.  You just have to pick the red wine you think suits perfectly the flavors in your “to-die-for” cheese.  For example, the soft subtle  texture and distinguishing flavor of a Merlot goes well with a range of cheese from the sweet-tasting, smooth, creamy Brie  to the salty, sharp and tangy qualities you can find only in blue cheese.

Step Outside the Box:

Roquefort and Sauternes – While the bold, salty pungency of the blue cheese could deaden many red wines, with Sauternes the match is brilliant.  Sauternes are sweet, made mostly from semillon and to a lesser extent sauvignon blanc grapes left on the vine well past the normal harvest to further ripen and sweeten.

Parmigiano-Reggiano and Amarone – A hedonistic marriage of Italian cheese and wine.  Amarone is a blend of Italian grapes, most of which, like Sauternes, are left hanging on the vine past the normal harvest. It is an intense red wine, 15 to 16 percent alcohol, with a Portlike body that stands up to even dramatic cheeses.

Goat Cheese and Sancerre or Pouilly-Fume – Though many think of red wine when they think of cheese, the tangy, creamy, chalky, salty, and fatty flavors of most goat cheeses can neutralize the flavors of many red wines.  Clean, dry, crisp white wines like France’s Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume ( both made from the Sauvignon Blanc grape) are a perfect counterbalance because they are so tangy themselves.

Wine and cheese can and do stand alone; properly paired however, they are,  one of the prime sources of joy on this planet.

Craig Stalker

I had exchanged telephone calls a couple of times  with Flavio before we discovered that his house is about 40metres from our B&B.  He drove us to his father-in-law’s small winery where we found a hive of activity. The first picking of the Aglianico has already been vinified and was now being pumped over with great vigour to oxygenate it.  The operation was being supervised by Prof Moschetti from Marsala (who teaches in Palmero but spends several days a week here, partly to conduct his micro-biological research) and his doctoral student.  Quite a gathering for a small family concern.  

After the history of Mastroberardino, it’s great to visit the small innovator.  The double harvest of aglianico is one example – the first harvest to reduce the load on the plant and produce a first red for early drinking and the second to give as much hang time to the Taurasi as possible.  After much discussion, we tasted wines from the cask – the very unusual white, Greco Muscio 2008 (the grape also know as Rovello), with powerful mineral and then vegetal notes. More typical was the Vigna Coste Macchia 2007, Aglianico, with blackberry and leather on the nose and the trademark acidity and tannins.  If this Taurasi tasted unfinished, it was – it won’t be sold until 2011.   Here well inland, the acidity of the soil is treated by a three yearly dose of seaweed and otherwise left in peace.  The last treatment they carried out was three months ago in July.

Walking up to the tasting room (which in time will be the family’s country house), we passed 60-70 year old vines trained in the old-fashioned starseto style.  This system was valued by the peasant growers because the vine and grapes are well out of the way, so you can grow vegetables below. 

This was a leisurely tasting, allowing the wines to develop in the glass.  Grecomusc’ 2007, the startling local white, apparently only made here, has a smell like a box of matches, graphite, a really smoky nose; almonds and general vegetation follow.  The second wine was straight Aglianico IGT for early drinking, though in fact this was a declassified Taurasi of 2006, a difficult year in this sub-zone (contrast Molletieri).  This was of medium weight with some bitter cherry and balsamic aromas.  Finally, Taurasi 2004, a top year, obviously treated to some old barrels, leather and tobacco, much more balsamic, dark cherries and blackberries, still high acid but tannins beginning to go silky.  The home team were already thinking of dinner with a 25 year old bottle of Sauternes … they supplied us with an excellent tip for lunch (see di Prisca) and we walked back in the sunshine to the village. 

Bunches of Aglianico for the late-picked Taurasi

The road to Salvatore Molletieri’s winery in Montemerano from Avellino is long and tortuous, even after an excellent lunch.  After our visit to Mastroberardino, we enquired of a restaurant. While Atripalda’s ‘Valle Verde’ looks like a another industrial unit in this rather unattractive area the food was excellent – canellini bean and porcini mushroom soup (beginning to disintegrate from hours on the stove) and an excellent T-bone steak. 

But the journey through the hills is worth the trouble – the vineyards are set in a beautiful landscape and Molletieri is utterly committed to his enormous barrels of dark Taurasi.   His son showed us around the vineyards, old and new, and demonstrated the firm’s commitment to growth and new planting.  There are some lovely old ‘alberello’ style vines left, but basically quality and practicality demands moving over to the formal lines of Guyot, here as nearly everywhere.  But for visual appeal you can’t really  beat a ‘tree’ laden with fully mature grapes.

The father speaks softly in the rapid fire Italian of someone who has spent his life building up the business.  He has just invested a colossal sum in three enormous new oak containers, custom-made, French staves interlaced with the more traditional Slavonian oak.  If they are looked after they, like the wine, will last for decades.  This is a business which thinks of the long term. 

And in the oak containers are the coming vintages. Molettieri makes two aglianicos each year, normale (which is anything but a normal wine) and a riserva.  From the barrels we tasted:

• 2008 riserva, beautiful dark fruit nose, still sharply acidic and tannic but it’s in its infancy ;
• the 2007 normale, not the same richness, acidic needing time, two years down, two to go before release;
• 2006 normale, picked as late as 23 November, well balanced despite nearly 15% alcohol, a  great year;
• 2005 riserva, an uneven year, lovely rich nose but needs more time than 2006.  The 2005 normale has been bottled and is having its year of rest in the bottle awaiting labelling. 

Each wine represents something like a decade’s work in the vineyard and the cellar as the business continues to grow, from preparing the land through to selling the  wine.    But they are really worth the wait – and will be developing for years to come. Molletieri’s warmth and his generosity in getting us back to Taurasi on the country roads was literally the extra mile.       

Any visit to Campania has to include Mastroberardino.  This was the winery which put the region on the map, formally founded in 1874 but much older than that, now in its 10th generation of the family.  They started as plain Berardino with the ‘mastro’ being added as an honorific; they virtually drew up the rules for the quality wine areas in Campania; and they now are conducting an experimental vineyard in within the site of Pompei, with the closest you can get to Roman varieties.  The old Professore, now in his 80s, is still to be seen around the winery.  As befits the history, the winery includes the old road (above) which has been incorporated into it and has a underground treasure store in the old cellar.  Here you can marvel at vintages back into the 1930s (above). 

The sun shone on us and on the Aglianico still on the vine in the last week of October, a picture of abundance.  As we arrived at

Mastroberardino’s old winery, the grapes were being delivered, the beginning of this late harvest for what should be another excellent year.

After a tour of the old cellar, our tasting of the quality wines was conducted by Chiara Giorleo, who followed university (with work on promoting Italian goods in China) with work in Canada. After a year at Mastroberardino, she is well versed in the firm already.  For whites we tasted the Nova Serra Greco di Tufo and then Fiano di Avellino, sold under the Radici (‘roots’) label.  The former is elegant and long, quickly developing some complexity in the glass, flowers and minerals.  By comparison the Fiano is more demonstrative, with dried apricots and nuts to the fore.

Of course there was Aglianico to follow, but first in the unlikely guise of a rosé.  As this Campanian grape is so full of colour only 3-4 hours of contact with the skins is necessary to create a delicious pale pink.  This has just won a prize as the best  rosé in Italy and it’s not difficult to see why: good floral and mineral notes leap out of the glass.  

But the real thing here is Taurasi, deep dense wines with years, decades, of life.   In the line there were one basic wine, 2007, and then two riservas, Radici 1999 (12-14 months in wood, at least two years in the bottle before release) and, to strike the historical note, homage to Pliny, Naturalis Historia 2004 (18  months in wood, 18 in the bottle). The latter’s fruit comes from around Montemerano which we visited later in the day.   These share excellent dark fruit and life-giving acidity, the former with more liquorish notes, the latter with tobacco.     And they are great value – the ten year old wine being available in the shop for €26.   

If you like your wine dark, slow evolving and capable of lasting for decades, head for Campania’s Aglianico.  And you can’t do much better than begin with the wines of the Mastroberardino family which put Campania on the road to quality in the glass. 

The Cilento national park is famous for it proximity to the great Greek temples of Paestum and then for white figs – and of course for its wonderful genuinely wild interior. It is not famous for wine.   That hasn’t stopped a handful of family wineries proving the potential of the area, if you have the commitment and above all the imagination. 

The de Conciliis family are originally from Spain and have really only been in the fine wine business for ten years.  Deeply committed to the area, they are showing what is possible and enjoying the fact that there are few rules down here, well away from the main wine producing areas of Campania.   They love music – the last gasp of the late picked aglianico was being processed by the young work force to the sound of rock music at full blast.

Wineries have only two tempi – still and frantic.  Often you when you visit they are silent and calm.  During the harvest and immediately after they buzz with sound, presses whirring, pumps turning over, water being sprayed for washing down, humans clattering about in what appears a semi-chaotic scene.   And through all this, emerges first the vibrant young wine, then in the silence of the cellar the wine maturing, the clink of the bottling line, the sound of the cork being drawn and eventually the wine in the glass – we hope ready to show its stuff to the best. 

Bruno de Conciliis works mainly with two local grapes, Aglianico of course and, for white, Fiano, another ancient grape of Campania. Out of these he produces a great range of wines, including a completely off-the-wall sparkler.  The tasting here was generous in the extreme.  We started with the sparkler, made from 60% Aglianico picked very early before the grapes turn red and 40% Fiano – some years it comes out with a pink edge because of the presence of the red variety but 2008 wasn’t one of those.  The literature also cites another red grape, Piemonte’s Barbera.  It is an excellent wine, made with the Charmat method (ie secondary fermentation in tanks) up north in the Prosecco area but kept there for a massive 100 days, producing a delicious white sparkler of good acidity (offset by some residual sugar), some yeastiness, and substance. 

The Fiano grape makes wines of some elegance but again substance – pear and dried apricot on the nose, then nuts.  The best have a satiny feel in the mouth.  The basic white, Donnaluna 2008, is held on its skins for a night at a low temperature and then left to its own devices – according to Bruno who was nursing an impressive swelling on his hand from a wasp sting.  He believes in letting be, even in ‘dirty wine’, to allow interesting things to develop. The musical theme continues with musing on whether the wine was more Bach or Mozart. 

The jazz theme really gets going in the single vineyard Fiano, ‘Perella’, which sounds like a perfectly good Italian vineyard name until you realise the pun, ‘For Ella (Fitzgerald)’.  Here Fiano takes on a yet deeper mid-strawy yellow and intense aromas.  The 2008 is still too young to drink really and will only show its best from  the end of 2010.  On the wild edge of wine making is ‘Antece’, from the same vineyard as Perella, but now made as if it were a red wine  – 10 days maceration on the skins, full malolactic fermentation, made for ageing.  Antece contains no musical pun – we are back to history here as it is the word in the local dialect for the ‘ancients’, wine as made by our ancestors.  Our bottle was 2004, a deep tawny yellow in the glass, nutty, with more than a hint of marmalade.  Production of this has been cut back because there is only a small market, mainly in the States – what a shame for singular style. We agreed that Massa Vecchia’s Vermentino, from the Tuscan Maremma, also made as though it were red, was a rare comparison.

After the Fiano masterclass, on with the Aglianico.  The ‘basic’ Donnaluna rosso is made from 12 vineyards, vinified separately and   then blended.  50% is matured in oak (nearly all old), and 50% in stainless steel. The philosophy here is only to replace 10% of barrels per year, even dismantling and reconditioning after three years, rather than mask the flavours of the grape with the vanilla of new oak.  Bruno believes that Aglianico is not noted for its obvious fruit, though the flavour is in the plum and black cherry range and spices, especially black pepper.  It has great acidity and tannin and so great ageing potential.  The other major factor is that this is not volcanic soil, like much around Avellino; rather this part of Campania was under the sea during the period of maximum volcanic activity.

The fruit from the older vineyards, 20 years and more, and closest to the sea is saved for the Naima label.  It is  treated to a year in barriques or tonneaux, then six months back in stainless steel and finally released after two years.  By any standards it is a big, dense wine.  We took a break from tasting at this point to view the vineyards with Paola and also saw the olive harvest in full flight – tractors adapted to shake the trees to release their black fruit, time-c0nsuming but precious. 

Finally, we tasted the Naimi riserva, 2005, which spends 2 years in barriques (still mainly old) and then a further year before release.  Even after ten minutes in the decanter, this smells of sotto bosco, the forest floor, opening out to prunes and then even violets and roses.  Indeed Aglianico has been called the Barolo of the south, not for its general profile (too big, too dark, too full-bodied) but for it floral notes above dark fruit. 

All in all, these were brilliant, individual wines. Whatever the music they recall, they are a clarion call to the small and medium producer to work with the local grapes even in unlikely places, to defy expectation (sparkling white aglianico anyone?)  and to celebrate the diversity of the vine. 

And finally, after warm thanks and farewells (the wasp sting having gone down), we eventually found lunch on the busy SS18.  In Italy you can still just pick a restaurant at random on a main road and expect highly competent cooking.  For a comparison we tasted an aglianico from a more conventional source, Rocca dei Leoni, owned by Villa Matilda, up near Benevento.  Dark fruit again, more obvious use of oak (coffee and leather), refined, excellent, but very different. 

Whenever we travel out of town we’re on the lookout for wine bars and wineries, especially when visiting places not typically regarded as wine destinations.

Last week we found ourselves in Dallas, Texas with a few hours to kill on a Sunday afternoon and our first instinct was to track down a wine bar for a quick bite to eat. Serendipitously, the one wine bar that was open at 3pm on a Sunday also happened to be a functioning winery.

Times Ten Cellars operates a gorgeous tasting room out of a former post office location from the 1940s. It’s located in a residential neighborhood and its customers primarily draw from the surrounding area. In fact, the afternoon of our visit they were setting up for an event in their tasting room, as one of their regular customers was going to use the beautiful setting for their wedding.

Before the festivities began, we sampled some wines from both California and Texas and got the chance to tour x10 Cellars’ onsite winery. Design-wise, it was an amazing space; probably the most glamorous winery we’d ever seen. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling of the barrel room and from the tasting room one could look through large windows into the clearly labeled laboratory, barrel room, and tank room.

At the tasting bar one can sample wines crafted by x10 Cellars, which at this stage primarily consists of wines made in Texas using grapes imported from California. As one of only four wineries in Dallas, x10 also makes wine from their own 7 acre vineyard.

Located in Alpine, Texas, Cathedral Mountain Vineyards was planted in 2004 with primarily Spanish and Rhone varietals, including Grenache, Tempranillo, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Mouvedre, and Petit Sirah and had its first crop in 2006. The vineyard was chosen for its high desert location at 4800 feet and for its volcanic soil.

We began our tasting with a sample of the only sparkling wine from Texas (and the only wine we tried that was not made by x10). With its winery located in Lubbock, Texas, La Diosa’s sparkling wine is crafted with Chenin Blanc grapes and was a lovely start to our tasting as it was crisp and refreshing, with hints of apple.

In terms of the x10 wines, we sampled a wide range of reds and whites; all with different labels utilizing a chair motif. According to our host, “chairs, like wine, have a unique personality,” so specific chair imagery was chosen to identify each wine. For example, the 2008 Lake County (CA) Rose had a drawing of a french bistro chair on the label; whereas a 2007 Sonoma Pinot Noir featured the picture of a vintage arm chair.

Tasting the 2008 Times Ten Cellars Rose in Dallas

Everything we tried was quite tasty, from the yellow cake batter-scented 2008 Lake County Rose made from Syrah grapes, to the chocolate-kissed 2005 Petit Sirah from five old vine vineyards in Napa (only 4 cases left) that we couldn’t leave without.

We also really loved their 2007 Pinot Noir from Sonoma and a number of their other reds.

We particularly enjoyed the first wine crafted from their very own vineyard in Texas. The 2007 Cathedral Mountain Vineyard Vino de Tierra Alta Texas Red Wine is a blend of 5 grapes: mainly tempranillo, syrah and grenache with a splash of cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc. It was a wonderful wine and a nice reminder of what wine is all about – exploration and discovery, the sweetest discovery being the unexpected and the seemingly uncharted territory.

With x10’s first full harvest this year, it will be interesting to explore their full line up of Texas wines in the years to come.

Our autumn holiday started at Naples airport searching for a hire car in a large car park, thinking it has got to be here somewhere.  Equally, at 9pm at night, we found that the coast road to Sorrento is currently diverted through Vico Equense for the winter months (while they repair one of the impressive tunnels on the hilly coast road).  It just so happened that the chestnut festival was in full swing in the town, slow going.  Good spirits restored by a cheerful night attendant who found a glass of white and red for us at 11.15pm, having reached the hotel.  He was very apologetic about the wines once he discovered we were interested in wine, but these simple glasses make the point.  Probably basic Falanghina and Aglianico, they were both delicious in their own way – the white slightly nutty, the red with excellent depth of fruit and quite sophisticated use of oak.  

Sorrento now lives and dies by tourism and apparently has done since Roman days.  Its position is fabulous, with great views of the Bay of Naples and the 1000m high Vesuvius.  Lunch offered the first real opportunity to taste quality wines,  Mastroberardino’s Falanghina not being available we plumped for the now equally well known Feudi di San Gregorio.  This stood  up well to mixed plates of starters, marinated anchovies, plates of prosciutto, highly charged sausages and even desserts.   Complex and nutty on the nose, great mineral notes after a couple of hours in the glass, a excellent example of what the ‘standard’ bottle can deliver when made this well.  What makes Campania stand out is the range of whites, along side great reds – a unique attribute in Italy?  Our hosts, Sara and Roberto, insisted

that after caffè you have to try mazzacaffè, coffee-killer. So crema di lemone, amaro, fennel liqueur and apple liqueur followed – only one glass of each I hasten to add. 

Supper was a simple, one course affair at Zi’ntonio, excellent pizzeria and more.  After the fine white at lunch we went for the big red, Delius 2003, Cantina di Taburno, 100% Aglianico.  This was a dense ruby with some slight browning at the edge. The nose which opened out with time (we should have asked for a decanter) was quite powerful, integrating oak liquorice, plums and raisons.  The palate was fascinating, a marked contrast between the initial big mouthful of fruit and rounded alcohol (13.5%), followed by a great swoosh of tannins and decent acidity.  Quite a drying finish. Powerful rather than elegant.

Campania is one of the historic wine areas of Italy – the Romans prized the wine from Ager Falernum (now revived as Palermo) – for great fresco from Pompeii, see:   Roman fresco at Pompeii

No doubt their predecessors, the Sammites, could cook up a great brew or two.   As the map shows, they certainly had a grip of Southern Italy between 6th and 4th centuries before Christ. 

The world-famous classical sites (Pompeii, Herculaneum and much more) are matched by the heritage of ancient grape varieties with Greek and Roman names – Aglianico (a-yee-a-ni-co), the omnipresent red variety of course means ‘hellenic’ and then there is the rather obviously named white, Greco di Tufo, the Greco which grows on the volcanic rock.  By contrast, Falanghina, the second of the trio of exceptional white varieties, derives it name from the Latin word for a stake – you had to prop it up.   The third white, Fiano is mentioned by Pliny who says that it is loved by bees (apianus).  And there are plenty of other local grape varieties. Best other name is ‘Red foot’ (Piedirosso), thought to be relative of Refosco grown in Friuli in the north of Italy, and there are many more, some re-entering cultivation. 

Our visit to Campania was in the last week of October.  In most of Italy the harvest is long over by this stage and that’s certainly true of the whites here. But, as you can see, the Aglianico is late harvested (especially for the top wine, Taurasi). 

This was an excellent week – creative and hospitable  growers,  traditional wines from the local varieties and a tiny handful of top international style wines.   And of course great food,  the classical and local heritage, brilliant landscapes whether on the spectacular coast or the less well known hills and mountains – much of the wine is grown between 200 and 600metres above sea level.   All in all an excellent week.  I hope that the posts convey something of this exceptional region. 

Big, medium or small?  Numbers of bottles produced

Source: Gambero Rosso 2009

* – not commented on in this blog

One of the best things our group did while we were in Tuscany was take part in a cooking class in nearby Sant’ Andrea. The cooking class was part of Il Vicario farmhouse, which also operates as an agriturismo (www.ilvicario.com).

Our teacher, Fulvio

Owner and host, Fulvio Mecacci, has been conducting cooking classes with his sister, Francha for the last six years. The farmhouse is a charming 14th century building perched on a hillside surrounded by vineyards and walking trails. Fulvio has to be one of the most interesting characters we had the pleasure of meeting during our week. Before he ran the cooking school, he was a deep sea diver in the Indian Ocean off The Maldives. His sister, Francha, was adorable and spoke no English. I happened to speak a few Italian words to her and from then on I became the translator for the group. This proved quite funny, because most of my translating was spent nodding my head saying, “si, si”. I had never taken a cooking class before, so I didn’t really know what to expect. All I knew was that at some point we were going to sit down and eat everything we prepared that day with wine pairings. Yay!

Antipasti time

On with the cooking! We started with our appetizers (antipasti) which was bruschetta, panzanella salad and pecorino with honey & pine nuts. Not super hard technical things, but when you see a dish done in its homeland, you pick up a few tips. For the bruschetta, the bread was first cut in thick slices (thin slices are called crostini) which were toasted, and then drizzled with olive oil (the beginning of lots of olive oil). We all took part chopping fresh garden tomatoes and garlic. When it came to the fresh basil, Fulvio had us tear the leaves versus chopping it. “This prevents the herb from browning,” he explained. We learned that the Italians are obsessed with keeping things bright and fresh.

Kenny mixing Panzanella

Next, Panzanella Salad. There are many interpretations of this dish, but this version has to be the tastiest any of us had ever had. It’s important that you start with very old crusty bread. Like several days old. Fulvio exlained back in the day, people were too poor (and hungry) to be throwing out stale bread, so they found a way to use it. We took the stale bread, and soaked it in a big bowl of water. Then we all took turns squeezing the water out of the bread. Yes, I admit, it’s kind of strange, wet and mealy but keep an open mind. We then added the wet bread crumbs to a mixture of sliced vegetables that included onion, cucumber, tomato, capers, fresh basil (torn by hand of course), salt, pepper, vinegar and olive oil. When my husband Kenny did the honor of adding the olive oil, he asked Fulvio how much he should use. Fulvio just said two words, “just start.” He wasn’t kidding. He mentioned that in his house they go through a litre of olive oil a day! That’s serious. We then prepared the pecorino (sheep cheese) slices. The pecorino was young, and softer than the traditional hard-aged cheese we typically eat. Some of the slices had chocolate sauce drizzled on, others (and my personal favorite) had honey, pine-nuts then fresh grated nutmeg. Before sitting down to enjoy the antipasti (with a glass of Verdicchio) we prepared our sauces for our next course: spicy tomato with pici and basil pesto with gnocchi.

Pici with spicy tomato sauce

If you’ve been following my blog you’ll know that my favorite pasta is “pici”, a very thick spaghetti-like strand. This pasta is made with equal parts semolina flour and regular flour, then a little salt and water to bind. You role it into pencil thick strands, as long in length as you can without breaking them. Our group had a lot of fun trying to see who could make the longest strand. This took some talent, and let’s just say I wasn’t in the running. We then set all of our pici strands aside (sprinkled with a little semolina to keep them from sticking) and began the gnocchi.

Learning gnocchi

Gnocchi, a small potato dumpling, was what our group was most excited to learn how to make. The dough, made from riced potatoes and flour, was kneaded for a few minutes. We each got a portion of the finished dough to work with. We rolled the dough into a thin log, then took a knife and cut them into approximately 1″ pieces. Then we simply took our forefinger, pushed down on the dumpling and rolled it back onto the thumb in a smooth motion. We learned you can make fancy fork patterns on the dumpling if you want, but Fulvio said it’s traditional just to keep them rustic.

Chicken with orange sauce

Our last dish was breast of chicken with orange sauce. We sliced the chicken breast into strips, then dredged it in flour. The sauce was simply the juice of two fresh squeezed oranges. The chicken breast was then seared in a pan of olive oil, and once you flip the chicken over, add the fresh orange juice. Let it all cook together for a few more minutes, then serve it sauce and all on a platter. If it seemed like we were eating for hours, we were (not a bad thing). I won’t go into how the food tasted, but let the photos do the talking.

Enjoying our handiwork

I will say that there’s nothing more rewarding than enjoying a thoughtfully prepared meal. And if you can enjoy it alfresco, washing it down with Verdicchio and Chianti on a sunny day in Tuscany, even better! Well, the fun didn’t stop there. After our meal, Fulvio served vin santo (Tuscan dessert wine) w/ cantucci (almond biscuits) followed by grappa and espresso. Oh, Italian hospitality, don’t you just love it?

Gina at cooking school

Spending the day at Il Vicario was such a treat. Learning traditional Italian recipes in someone’s home and sharing wine with them was an amazing experience none of us will forget. This concludes my report on Tuscany (for now). I hope you have enjoyed my entries, and I thank you for reading!

Ciao, Gina.