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

Musings from the Bench

High and dry in Zabriskie Point - Recently some commentors

have said to me, "Hey Mac, how about being a little more PC?"

At yesterday’s Brunello and Super Tuscan wine tasting (very casual, at a local store, for shoppers) I had the chance to talk to several folks shopping around for wine. The topic of the Wine Spectator #1 wine of the Year came up. Seems the 2001 Casanova di Neri Brunello Tenuta Nuova (the WS #1 pick) sold out rather quickly. (Online it is selling for up to $185.00 a bottle). But there was still some of the 2000 in the store, both the regular Tenuta Nuova (under $50.00) and the single vineyard Cerretalto (over $100.00) were still available. So a couple of folks started talking about their scores. Scores, scores, scores…

The WS #2 wine, 2003 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon (retail $85.00 but now up to $285.00) really punctuated the relative value of a wine. Or the outer limits of the value of a wine.

Reuben Swartz had a posting about this recently on his Dollars & Sense: The Pricing Blog entitled, The Price of Wine—Not About the Wine . One of his quotes, “Wine valuation is a great example of people not really knowing what something is worth, or even why. In many cases, we do not buy a product, we buy an experience.”

He links a recent piece in The Economist, Fruity Little Numbers, regarding a way wine is valued.

An interesting piece here from CNBC about Wine Economics, if you have a QuickTime player (free download here)

Probably the driest thing about the wine industry can be found here, but if you like numbers, you might find it illuminating. Fasten your seatbelts, the American Association of Wine Economists can be an interesting perspective on the wine business (but hey, I like the TV program Numb3rs).

While I might be boring to the point of death on this dry subject ( reminding you my bench at the top overlooks Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, although it is in the preferred southwest direction), Sébastien Lecocqa and Michael Visserb have written a rather dry but interesting article about the subject, What Determines Wine Prices: Objective vs. Sensory Characteristics, published in the Journal of Wine Economics, Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 2006. Premise being, an controlled evaluation where “The hedonic technique is applied to wines. In the price equation we include objective characteristics appearing on the label, as well as sensory characteristics and a grade assigned by expert tasters.”

The Hypothesis

Within those pages, Jancis Robinson weighs in. “Another puzzle is the lack of correlation between price and pleasure. Perhaps it is not so surprising that a first-rate example of a little known wine can seem much more memorable than something more famous selling at ten times the price; part of the thrill is the excitement of discovery and the feeling of having beaten the system.” — Confessions of a Wine Lover, Penguin Books,1997.

Another and interesting anecdote, "Ernest Gallo, the patriarch of the family-owned E&J Gallo Winery in California (the largest winemaker in the world), recalls how, in the early stages of his career, he once sold wine in New York. He offered a buyer two glasses of the same red wine, the buyer drank the two glasses and asked for the prices of the ‘two’ wines. Upon hearing that the first wine cost 5 cents per bottle, and the second 10 cents, the buyer declared he wanted the 10 cents bottle."

The Solution - Simple, wasn't it?

In their concluding remarks (and I urge the interested one to read the whole abstract, it’s

not that boring) , “Our results indicate that characteristics that are directly revealed to the consumer upon inspection of the bottle and its label (ranking, vintage and appellation) explain the major part of price differences. Sensory variables do not appear to play an important role. Out of some fifteen sensory characteristics, only two or three have a significant impact in the hedonic price equation.”

Still there? Need an espresso? A break to pull the clothes out of the drier? Return a call from Ben Bernanke?

So what does it mean to us?

I was showing a young lad around the store, one who has some discretionary income, and is a lover of wine. And not just a number chaser. While I was talking to him, my internal “now I’ve got something to write about on the blog” monologue was really wondering why folks think there is so much difference between a Gaja 2000 Sori San Lorenzo for $300.00 and a Produttori del Barbaresco 2000 Paje’ for $50.00?

Orley Aschenfelter says, if the property brings in grapes that are worth $5,000.00 a ton, the value of the wine is 1/100th of that cost. That would mean $50.00. I dont believe Gaja's grapes are coming in at a cost of $66,000.00 per hectare. So there must another factor there, call it mystique, call it rarity, call it years of hard work in the vineyards and on the streets. It doesn't diminish the quality of the Paje' by any means. It could strengthen the appeal of it. A vineyard of barely 6 acres with wine that sells for $50.00. 1,600 bottles to the acre. You do the math, it's looking like a find. 6 bottles of Paje' for 1 of San Lorenzo?

Look sometimes, we think we’ve got a big bad machine and then a little school bus stops us dead in our tracks. It seems mainly to be a guy thing, this quest for testosterone in a bottle, like a Trophy Wife. Used to be Petrus, now it’s Screaming Eagle. Used to be a Cadillac, now it’s a Hummer. Now it’s a Trophy Wine. Above the $50.00 dollar price level, how many of us can really tell? I asked a Master Sommelier friend of mine this question. If anyone would know, wouldn’t he? Guess again. He said, "I'm a Master Sommelier, not a Super Sommelier."

I feel for the wine lover, especially the folks who want to put a few cases away for the future. And not just for their kid's college education. It could feel like trudging that heavy old boat up the river, towards some heart of darkness point of no return.

Not as much as the poor blokes who spend $20-30,000.00 a month on their obsession with cornering the market for all the Big Red Wines out there. I could give them the name of an orthopedic surgeon who went through that phase, dug a hole in his home, and proceeded to bury hundreds of thousands of dollars in it, only to find he had a cellar full of trophy wines that weren’t drinkable or, if they were to someone, not to him. Not anymore.

My long-drawn-out-point is, if as Reuben Swartz says, "you are really not buying a product but an experience", do you want a one night stand or do you want wine on your rack that you can live with?

Seth Godin said it best, today - “We sell feelings. We don't sell stuff.”

Saturday's Lagniappe ~ When in Rome ~ Olive Oil Sommelier Course & Tachis Seminar

Over at the Well Fed Network I have a few postings...might want to check them out. This is a well organized site with a collective pool of writers. Saturday's lagniappe before heading out to a Brunello and Super Tuscan tasting. Shopping? Nahhhh...

Master Class ~ Wine as Medicine

Olive Oil Sommelier Course ~ It’s the Real Thing

And if you are vegging out this weekend, here's 8 minutes that you'll never get back....next page

Go to Movie here

Vinolin Tags sommelier course collective pool olive oil lagniappe when in rome well fed brunello tuscan wine medicine shopping

Wine Marketing & Sex Appeal in Sicily ~ No Small Potatoes

What is happening in Sicily?

Every year for the last 6 or so years at Vinitaly, Sicily has been front-and-center in the advance of Italian wine. Wineries such as Planeta and Donnafugata have raised the bar of expectations, while other lesser known wineries, such as Arancio and Colosi have increased interest in easier to access styles of wine. More established wineries such as Tasca D’Almerita and Rapitala are re-inventing themselves. Sicily is like Mt. Etna, always in a state of change, often explosive in some of those changes.

At this moment, Etna is tossing and turning within. Sicily wants on the world wine stage, capable of production in quantities rivaling Australia, but wanting to be seen as serious.

Now we are seeing non-islanders coming with their ideas. And this is just a facet of the revolution that is going on in Sicilian wine production. But if 2 is a pattern and 3 is a trend, we’re on our way to the next trend in wine from Sicily. How about 4 ?

The two wines are Fourplay from Tuscan winery Dievole and Quattro from Veneto winery Voga. Both play on a sexy concept, with clever packaging to boot. Both capitalize on blended red wine, in each case 4 varietals. Fourplay uses traditional Sicilian grapes, Frappato Nero, Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio and Nero d'Avola in equal parts, while Quattro utilizes Merlot, Cabernet, Shiraz and Pinot Noir. The two wines couldn’t be more different in their makeup but both are aiming for a similar audience. A youthful market? Can they do it? Who will succeed?

Smoke rings from Mt. Etna

It will be an interesting experiment to watch. Right now, it’s a fairly minor battle as the Sicilian market isn’t a dominating one, at least in the United States. But it is illustrating the willingness to experiment with both traditional and modern styles. In the next week or so we will try them together, but today I’m not really interested in the taste.

Sicily is a captivating developmental laboratory for the European wine community, not just for Italy. For historical reasons the Sicilians have had good relations and trade with the French wine industry. One of Emile Peynaud’s protégé’s, Raymond Chandou, once told me of his many friends in Palermo and the Sicilian wine community. And that is going back 20 or more years, at this writing. And while there is word of a wine glut in Europe, there is always hope that this cycle will swing back up. It has before, and when it does, will the Europeans, and the Italians, and Sicily, be poised to supply export markets with their fighting varietals?

I’m not saying Fourplay or Quattro will be the next Yellow Tail or 2 buck Chuck. That more likely will be for other companies, say Settesoli or Arancio. As for the idea of selling sexy bottles of wine, most often to women, the marketing folks might want to ask those women what they really want, instead of treating them like sex objects. Young women, speak up.

One last wish. Go to many of the wineries linked in this post and find yourself confronted with the frustrating confinement of the Flash player. Some time ago I commented on this and could only hope someday the web designers come back to a simpler way of presenting their ideas on the web. For God’s sake you can’t get a decent connection in much of Tuscany, let alone in Piazza Armerina.

I’m not really going any farther with this, just sensing something happening in Sicily below the surface. My own impression, Sicily has been my California in Italy. If only they could capture that energy, that Etna of the spirit that flows through the hearts and minds of the Sicilians. Then Australia would have something to worry about.

Satellite View of Etna ~ for more click here