A Menu for Hope III -- December 11-22

For the past two years, members of the food and wine blogging community have raised money for various charities through a tremendous project called A Menu for Hope
The original event was conceived shortly after the Asian tsunami a couple years by Pim (of the Chez Pim blog) to raise aid money for the victims. That initial project was a great success and last year, the culinary blogging community raised an amazing $17,000 for UNICEF by doing an online raffle of various culinary/food/wine items.

It's time for A Menu for Hope III and this year's beneficiary is the United Nations' World Food Program.



HOW IT WORKS:The campaign is essentially a big raffle for prizes. You look through the prizes, figure out which one(s) you want to try to win, and then you buy "virtual raffle tickets" -- one for each $10 of donation you make to our cause on the special web site set up for that purpose.

When you make your donation, you simply specify the prize number(s) (each prize should have one) and the "number of tickets" your donation is buying. Donate thirty bucks, get three tickets, and use them for one prize, or for three. Just be specific in your request.

Here's the site to enter / donate.

THE PRIZES:So first of all, remember that these are just the wine blog prizes. There are TONS OF OTHER PRIZES awaiting you over on Chez Pim’s site. Go check them out too. But not before taking a look at these incredibly generous and creative donations from wine bloggers far and wide:

All of the wine donations are listed on the Vinography site

WB09 - Italian Wine Guy is Your Sommelier for a Night. Courtesy of Italian Wine Guy

I will be offering to be the sommelier at someone's private dinner party for up to six people in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas Area for an evening (or farther if someone wants to pay transportation costs). They will choose the menu to cook for their friends (or the restaurant to eat at) and I will bring the wine, including some from my cellar to match the cuisine and tell people about them. Approximate value: $200

The more you give, the better your chance to win. The campaign is scheduled to run from now until Friday 22nd, 6PM PST. So get a move on!

All of the wine donations are listed on the Vinography site
Roll your mouse over the thumbnail photos to see prize code and description. Click on a photo for more details

This year's deserving charity is the UN World Food Programme -- a fitting recipient of the goodwill from food and wine bloggers and their readers. I hope you will consider donating something. The smallest amount is a mere $10, which if you're sitting in front of a computer that you own, you most certainly can afford.

Here's the site to enter / donate.


More Details and complete instructions on following page...

If you're interested in participating, here's what you need to do:
1. Go to the donation page at First Giving.
2. Make a donation, each $10 will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize or prizes you'd like in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form when confirming your donation. The prize code for my Italian Wine Guy Sommelier for a Night is WB09. Do tell us how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code -for example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for WB02 and 3 for WB09.
3. If your company matches your charity donation, please remember to check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.
4. Please also check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.
5. Check back on Chez Pim on January 15 when we announce the result of the raffle. (The drawing will be done electronically. Derrick at Obsession with Food is responsible for the application that will do the job.)
Thanks for your participation, and good luck in the raffle!

100 Bottles of Wine On the Blog

Passing the 100th post-

About a year ago (Dec 28, 2005) I started this little blog. I remember getting an e-mail from Tracie, something to the effect of, “you poor man, having to go all over the world drinking wine, wah, wah…” that kind of thing. And she told me, while I was at it, to start writing more than once every three months. Then David encouraged me to write, write, and write. My companion then started to write her account of our path as ones who had lost the loves of our lives on her Table for 4 ~ Dinner for 2 site. In exchange for doing her pictures on her site she said she would help me edit mine. Seeing as she is an excellent editor, a great cook and that she fundamentally pulled me through the tunnel of grief, I am glad our paths crossed. And very grateful.

Somewhere around summertime Alder at Vinography linked On the Wine Trail in Italy on his site and traffic started coming. Thanks Alder. Then Tom at Fermentation wrote about this site, calling me something like the “Consiglieri of Italian Wine”. Sweet. Thanks, Tom.

Meanwhile David back in Italy Insight recalled he had called me the “John The Baptist of Italian Wine” and we were off to the races.

Alice at Veritas in Vino has also been an encourager. Freelancing and searching for inspiration as well as trying to make a living, she has made time for me. Merci!

So has Regina at Gastropoda. I remember years ago writing to her about her visit to Pantelleria. She was writing for the NY Times back then. She replied and I’ve been bugging her ever since. Thanks a millione!

Even folks like Michael Bauer and Eric Asimov have been kind enough to reply to my incessant meanderings.

And my other editors, Andrew Barrow , Sarah Caron and Cate O’Malley of the Well Fed Network , who are patient with my technical issues as well as my rants.

Teresa, over at NYCE (news you can eat) , thanks for quoting me and making me sound legible. You’re too much girl!

Of late Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page have shown that they are love cats. Thanks guys! And David and Iris have been new friends that someday (soon) we’ll have to share a bottle of wine together, even if it’s Moscato.

Lest I forget, there are wine lovers out there, working late nights in small café’s and going home and writing about it. Keith over at East Village Wine Geek is the burning the midnight candle. Two other folks who, if they would write a little more (to paraphrase Tracie, you have to start writing more than once a month…;) are Genevelyn, and Tony at Rosenthal with An Overripe World. All of you ARE the future for this business.

Not to forget the guys Marshall McLuhan warned us about. Jay over at Grape Radio and Gary over at Wine Library TV. These guys are looking at this whole wine thing in a kinetic way. And they both happen to be very animated. Jay, I owe you a lunch, and Gary, well, thanks for boundless energy and enthusiasm. If we were ever to bottle a wine with your energy it would give Champagne a run for its money!

So, while I haven’t really said anything new and I have probably forgotten to thank some folks, this will have to suffice for now. I’ll follow with some of my favorite photo’s taken this year, On the Wine Trail. Cheers!

Grazie Tutti e’ Cent’Anni! - Alfonso

The negociant and the winemaker

The million dollar wall

Paul Pontallier ands the 2005 Chateau Margaux

Alain Vauthier of Ausone

The original garagiste - Le Pin

Romano Dal Forno

Amphorae and Slovenia

the pagan garagista - Gravner Breg, steal or borrow

Vin Santeria ( yes, those are red grapes)

Vin Santo

The tongue of a wine merchant

Old friends...

In Praise of the Wild

Last night a coyote was spotted in the neighborhood. Several e-mails were in my in box about it. One suggested we call animal patrol if we saw the creature. My first thought was, “They're coming back.” I was excited.

Years ago when I lived at the edge of the Angeles National Forest in Southern California, these guys were part of my daily life. I saw them when I took my dog and son for a walk in the hills; we’d hear them serenading at night. I like them. They represent nature’s ability to spring back, to return the shriek of civilization with their own enduring howl from the unbroken, the path of nature reclaiming her stake on the land.
Are there wines that have responded to that ideal of the wild? If you have ever had a wine from Pantelleria you might say so. Certain Primitivo wines from Puglia are clear on this, as is Gravner in the north near Gorizia.

Biodynamic is the new Pagan in Tuscany

I am thinking that in Tuscany the human touch could use a little more of that dance with the wild dog. Certainly Rampolla understands this, as do some of the producers in the southern Maremma. Umbria might be well on its way to a clearer understanding of this. Some of the red wines from Montefalco approach this, and certainly their older wines - the Orvieto antico back in the caves, laying, waiting like some long forgotten time capsules.

Amaro and grappa might very well be on that list. Averna is now a calmer version, but in its first days I could only imagine. But why, all I need do is get in to the way-back machine and remember the first time I put a Cynar to my lips. That was a trip back to the 9th century Sicily when the Khilafah reigned over the island.
And the power of fire of the magic al-ambic transformed the crushed remains of the grape into something raw and harsh, but transcendental, too. Susanna Gualco in Piemonte understood that in a way that made her a force of fire, a female acolyte Romano Levi would aspire to huddle over the cauldron with.

There is a lot to praise, but today I am looking for wines that answer that call of the wild and usher back in the unpredictable, the powerful, the un-manipulated. And I am keeping an eye out for my new neighbor.

The Oenological Love-Children of Dal Forno & Quintarelli

Cinzia & Claudio Viviani

I’m battling with this one. This is too close to me. Forces of destiny have stepped in here. What in hell’s name is going on?

It started as a challenge to myself: to produce, three times a week, some unique viewpoint on wine. Not something cribbed from the AP headlines on wine, or the WineBusiness.com news or the just-drinks.com headlines. We don’t need to regurgitate news from sources that have a higher readership. Can anyone “report” on resveratrol in any way from a pre-existing article that will shed more light? Please.

So, a slight break from Tuscany. A brief side trip to the Veneto, to the Valpolicella. Time for a little Amarone moment, getting on the Ripasso Love Boat.

During a trip to the Veneto in April of 2006, I went to see Romano Dal Forno, and Cinzia and her brother Claudio Viviani. Needless to say, the wines at Dal Forno were of another dimension. The care with which he takes with his babies is on a level that we wish all winemakers were at. Impeccable respect for nature and natural winemaking.

Earlier, at dinner, at Trattoria Caprini, with Claudio and his sister Cinzia, over a plate of risotto con Amarone, we talked of Dal Forno and his mentorship of some of the young winemakers in the Veneto, of which Claudio is one. Claudio is double-lucky in that he is neighbors with another master, Giuseppe Quintarelli. The Vivianis are the oenological love- children of Dal Forno and Quintarelli.

I am sure Claudio would cringe at this characterization. He’s a young man, Dal Forno is middle-aged, and Quintarelli is slightly older. So young Viviani is in the catbird seat. He’s picking the low hanging fruit right now, and there will be some definite challenges down the road.

The value of the dollar to the Euro is a headache for all of us. Imagine the position of a carmaker like Ferrari or Maserati, where the dollar has lost 30-40% of its strength in recent years.

The vineyard is pitched where no machine will go. Labor has to be imported from Eastern Europe. The Veneti are more provincial than they realize. They’re tribal. Yes they are efficient, yes they are meticulous, and yes they have embraced modernity. But they rival the Friulani or the Calabrese in their connection to a sometimes harsh environment. They’ve made peace with the elements, now they have to learn how to handle success. And the world market. And luxury marketing. All that. The price of prosperity on a hillside.

Last year on the way to Sonoma from San Francisco, I was in a car with Cinzia Viviani and two other colleagues, including her importer. Finishing up a Gambero Rosso tasting we had a free day and thought to take a drive up the wine trail in Sonoma and Napa. We never made it. The driver lost control of the car on the freeway, went off the road, aiming for what could only be described as the gates of hell, managed to pull the car back onto the road, a fully stocked freeway at that. Barely scraping by another car, and in a totally out-of-control waggle, managed to keep the machine from becoming airborne, only to jam the brand new car into a concrete wall or two. The four of us walked out of a destroyed car with a sore neck or two, a bloody knee here, a bloody nose there. We were either going to perish or walk away. We skated.

21 months later and regular visits to the chiropractor, I’m still a little bent. But on that road to Healdsburg that day, we cheated death, Cinzia and me and our two companions. We got a 2nd chance, or maybe a 4th or a 5th.

Because of that experience, yes, but also because of absolutely beautiful vineyards and a family I feel connected to in more ways than one, these Viviani wines speak to me of what Amarone is becoming on the stage of the world class wines. This has been a good year of tasting wines, starting with the 2005 Bordeaux tastings in France, Vinitaly and visits to Dal Forno, Gravner, Bisol. A lost weekend in Dublin and the cathedral of Guinness. Tuscany at harvest time, Montalcino, the Maremma, Panzano, Carmignano. Throw in Paris, New York and Hollywood, yes it’s been a good year for the wine-lover in this corner.

The wines: Not a plain vanilla one here. Campo Morar, a Valpolicella classico superiore that has its very own unique style of Ripasso, complex and intensely artisanal. The Amarone della Valpolicella. This is dark velvet fudge, a smooth stew of a red. John Roegnik, of the venerable Austin Wine Merchant, today asked me about the wine. I have difficulty telling John about wine. One, because he is knowledgeable. Two, because I have known him for so long that I cannot B.S. him. Three, because I am not very fast on my feet.

So now, to John and the three other people who read this, I will tell.

There are wines that are markers to me. La Chapelle is one of those. The Brunello of Fattoi is another. The Barolo of Giacomo Conterno, the Monfortino. Passito di Moscato di Pantelleria, Quinta Vesuvio, Chevalier Montrachet Les Demoisselles. The 1964 Louis Martini Cabernet. You get the idea.

The experience of tasting Viviani this year was a culmination, an affirmation, from what began with the first time I remember drinking an Amarone back in 1982. Maybe it was my California upbringing, but something about the wine has fascinated me in a way that takes it beyond solely an Italian wine. This is a wine made for The World. By once-upon-a-time-tribal people with cell phones and fast cars, and hillsides unable to take a tractor. It fascinates me. From stone walls, vines jut out and re-create themselves. This is fecundity unleashed. And the wines, surely the wines of Dal Forno, and yes the wines of Quintarelli. And Le Salette and Allegrini, and ones I am not putting on these lines. But for me, the Viviani wines talk to me of the future of Amarone. When I taste the Casa dei Bepi, I begin to see a time beyond my life when the fruit from this site will still be making wine, better wine, than in my lifetime. Hard to imagine, but nonetheless imaginable. Yes, for the big red lovers, it’s a powerful wine. And for lovers of elegance, it is. And if you are looking to cellar for 20 years, you may. And if you want style with substance, it’s all inside.

The truth is that with an open heart, a well-made wine from a healthy vineyard and a winemaker or a family, you don’t have to look far. God, I love these wines. So do they.

Viviani wines are imported in the US by Tricana and are generally available in New York, California, Texas, Florida and other regions.
Sam Levitas, Cinzia Viviani, Andrea Fassone, Claudio Viviani, Fosco Amoroso

Vinolin Tags: romano dal forno catbird seat love children resveratrol cinzia veneto love boat maserati amarone wine headlines cringe risotto giuseppe quintarelli forces of destiny low hanging fruit valpolicella