Tasting Notes ~ Vallé D'Aoste

No matter where I go in Italy, it always seems to be a new place, a landscape that shatters the myth of what people think Italy is. In this world of ours, has Italy been distilled down to an I Love Lucy segment, or a dinner scene from an ancient Disney cartoon about lovelorn dogs? It isn't just Chianti and Pinot Grigio, meatballs and tiramisu.

I recently had an email from a reader who doesn’t see his region quite like I had characterized it. The reality is, both of us see it through different lenses. He sees it as it is for him and I see it as it is for me. Is his view more correct because he lives there? Is my Pollyanna view unrealistic because I am only there for a short time, seeing only what I want to see? Yes and no. We both perceive a reality that is displayed before our senses. In the end, it doesn’t really matter, as in time it will all be dust for the cosmos, with these words offering kindling for that effort.

With that in mind, I go rather unwillingly into the tasting notes gathered from the Vallé D'Aoste visit. Like the Valtellina notes, this only serves to offer up a sense of what it was that we encountered. In no way does it serve up a complete menu. But from this I believe, for my purposes, it painted a picture of where the wines from the Vallé D'Aoste are in relation to whatever need I perceive may exist for those in my world.

A brief word about the 2007 harvest. Winemakers seemed to be pleasantly happy for the wines. While we were there, they were just putting the finishing touches on the dry wines, and the passito grapes were being pressed into service. This will go down as a better year for the wines than for the exchange rate.


Di Barrò – overall the wines showed a high level of winemaking. Little or no intervention; grapes grown without the use of artificial pesticides or fertilizers. Grown in fairly extreme conditions, schist-like soil, high altitudes; good sun exposure, but still tendencies for extreme winemaking conditions. Wines like these are reflective of their land. Well done.

1) 2006 Chardonnay
13.5%
Dusty, almonds, pine (fir)- like aroma
Clean- acidic- fresh

2) 2006 Le Plantse rosé of Pinot Grigio
Pepper-corn nose; slight vegetal aroma
Like a vin gris; reminded me of the Sanford from the 1980’s
Interesting; dry

3) 2006 Torrette (Petite Rouge grape)
Fleshy nose; ripe
Rosebud; cinnamon; medium-bodied
Balanced

4) 2006 Mayolet ( tank sample)
High sulfur
Nice fruit; well- balanced
Good solid fruit
Just now the nose is a little out of joint
Cherries; nice flavors

5) 2006 Syrah
White pepper
Peppery flavor – mirto berry
Slightly bitter

6) 2005 Fumin
Deep purple color
Slight pepper (does remind me of the ’61 Chambave of Voyat)
Well-balanced; nice

7) 2005 Vigne de Torrette
15%
Fleshy; gorgeous nose
Just a delicious red
The 2005 – classic
Rich; balanced
Not alcoholic even at 15%

8) Lo Bien Flapì ( uve stramature)
Late harvest Pinot Grigio
Good acidity. tasty and yes we always have room for another dessert wine in the rack. just will have to open the '59 D'Yquem to make space for it.


L’Atoueyo – situated in Avmayvilles, not far from the Co-op and Les Cretes. Five wines, 20,000 bottles, 1.5 hectares. My sense about this project is that it will transition to more serious wines when the winemaker gets a little more time under his belt. His work for the large co op is a good training ground, but there are some winemaking practices (especially in the aspect of maintaining cleanliness in the winemaking and wine storage areas) that need to be refined. I'm not talking about squeaky clean wines that exhibit no signs of their terroir. There is plenty of territoriality in this region, the winemakers just need to let it come through.


1) 2006 Chardonnay
13%
Buttery nose; slight grassiness. Tropical – dusty – pineappple;apple
Full , rich flavors – very nice
Well-balance; good body

2) 2006 Gamay
13%
Typical Gamay nose; berry, a little pine
Peppery; crème brulee ( the top part of the dessert) – nice bite
Reminds me of a Moulin a Vent, with the stewed tomato aspect.

3) 2006 Pinot Noir
13%Berries
Taste is sour/ not sure I like this.

4) 2006 Torrette
13.5%
Sweet nose ; caramelized persimmons; slight so2
Savory entry
Light flavor

5) 2005 Fumin
13%
Peppery nose; also so2
1/3 appassimento; dry bit not cloying

But the sulpher flavor dominated

Diego Curtaz – 10,000 bottles. Also farms the most wonderful apples and has a thriving honey and marmalade business. Heritage here is well established, just needs more time "chopping in the woodshed", as they say in the jazz business.


1) Dï Meun (Vino da Tavola)
Slightly metallic
50% Petite Rouge; 20% Vuillermin; 10% Vien de Nus; 10% Cornalin; 5% Mayolet; 5% Gamay
Pretty nose; light flavor

2) 2006 Gamay
Slightly sour/ a bit of volatile acidity
Tried 2nd bottle
Nose is closed but better than the 1st
Fruit is good
Light but flavors are OK
Nice finish a bit of stewed tomatoes

3) 2006 Torrette
75% Petite Rouge, 5% Cornalin, 5% Fumin, 5% Vien de Nus, 5% Premetta, 5% Neyret.
Again, light

Winemaking, or at least the wines as they showed on this day, was at the lowest level of the three visited this day.

Interesting though , in the exposure to grapes such as Fumin, Petite Rouge, Vuillermin; Cornalin, Vien de Nus, Premetta, Neyret and Mayolet. What struck me was that situated between France and the rest of Italy is a region that has its own trajectory. Switzerland comes to mind more than either of the other countries, in terms of the tradition of winemaking. Again, we are talking some extreme conditions.

The wines of Di Barrò impressed me most highly, but my memory of Voyat’s Chambave Rouge and Passito Bianco still override in terms of impressions for the region.

written by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy

Vallé D'Aoste ~ Strangers No More

I really had no idea about the Vallé D'Aoste. It was one of two regions I had little or no contact with, the other being Sardegna. Yes, I had sold wine from the region, many years ago, and that little exposure had colored my view of the area. Other than that, I thought it similar to other mountainous wine regions I had been to. Boy was I wrong.

125 kilometers from Torino is a short distance to go to get to the end of the earth, but that is exactly where you will find yourself when you arrive at St. Pierre in the Vallé D'Aoste.

Imagine being in the passenger side of a little Fiat Panda, a goat-trail scrambler of a car. To the right is a drop-off of about 500-700 feet, no rails, plenty of free-fall space. And picture the driver, long used to traversing these trails, heading up the path as if he were entering a freeway. As my dad so famously said, many times, my rear end crawled up around my neck and almost strangled me to death.

We were heading to the original vineyard of the Torrette, vigne de Torrette of Di Barrò.

Where were we? Had we landed in Anasazi land? It seemed like we had arrived in the Southwest desert of the United States. Shale rock and cliffs, an aboriginal dwelling, I was waiting for someone to come over and offer me turquoise and rugs. We had arrived, once again, in the Italy we never see.

We visited several winemakers this day. On our first visit we found a winery where the wine was good, the conversation was lively and the people really seemed to be happy in their life’s work.

The wine estate Di Barrò, has two meanings. First in the local patois it means “of/from the barrels.” And secondly it is an acronym from the names of the original landholders, Barmaz and Rossan. Andrea Barmaz and his wife Elvira Rini are the present owners. They have landholdings in the Monte Torrette, where the original vigne de Torrette still exists. Their other vineyard holdings are in Condemine and Boné in Saint Pierre, Veyne in Villeneuve and Champcognein in Aymavilles.


Wines tasted were the 2006 Chardonnay, 2006 Le Plantse rosé from Pinot Grigio, 2006 Torrette from Petite Rouge, 2006 Mayolet, 2006 Syrah, 2005 Fumin, 2005 Vigne de Torrette and the dessert wine, Lo Bien Flapì.
Tasting notes will be on next post, along with all the Vallé D'Aoste wines tasted.

Will many of these wines ever make it into my world? Does it matter? About 90% of the wines from the region are sold locally. Tourism, tasting rooms at wineries and the thrill of going out to the country to get some fresh air, a little Fontina cheese and a taste of the wines provide the momentum. Sure, they’d love to see their wines in New York or San Francisco. Keep in mind these are intensively farmed vineyards, tractors and machinery cannot be depended on to carry the burden of the work load. These are steep hillsides, similar to the ones in the Valle de la Roya in Liguria, the Valtellina in Lombardia or the Douro in Portugal. If you have a fear of heights, this region will challenge you. If you have a fear of high prices, these wines will also test you. We’re talking Brunello price range.


One note that has been bothering me and that is about they way the region has decided to denominate their wines with the DOC laws. Most of the wines that are applicable (23) go under the Vallé D'Aoste DOC. So a Fumin or a Chambave are simply listed as DOC Vallé D'Aoste. They are also listed in either Italian or French names. While I think this is confusing, it also lumps all these wines into one bin. I know the folks in Piedmont or Tuscany wouldn’t like their Barbaresco and Barolo or Brunello and Vino Nobile to be listed under one DOC of Piemonte or Toscana. Of course those regions are a little more politically connected ( and those wines are all DOCG at this point). The wines from the Vallé D'Aoste have no IGT classifications. For a region that satisfied the Roman legions over 2,000 years ago with their wines, isn’t it time for a review of this?

Andrea and Elvira are warm, friendly folk, but moreover they convey the energy of this little outpost, an area that is ice-locked for a good part of the year. After that harrowing ride in the vineyards and a taste of their wines, though, we went from a bunch of strangers to a group of old friends, talking about the Italian Holy Trinity - Ferrari, soccer and women - and laughing like long-lost family. We’ll be back.

written by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy

Long Weekend Escape to Torino

One of the great hidden cities of Italy is Torino (Turin). A native Torinese recently told me, “We don’t want too many people to know about Torino. Torino belongs to Italy, not to the tourists.”

Hint: Instead of taking a long weekend to Paris, or San Francisco, go to Torino. Why? If you live on the East Coast, it's just a little longer than going to San Francisco. From the Midwest, rather than Paris or London (which aren't close to wine country), it's a small stretch. Here’s what I’d do.
Catch a flight to Torino, or Milano, if you cannot get to Torino so easily. But bypass Milano, this time.

I’m going to make this simple. Rent a car. It’s easy to get around Torino, and you’ll need it for a day trip. Reserve a room at a nice hotel such as the AC Torino. It’s a five-star hotel, and when I stayed there in November you could find a room for €90.00. Book it on http://www.expedia.it/ or http://www.expedia.co.uk. Hint: It’s cheaper to book on the European site, the belief being that Europeans need to spread their money farther and conversely, that the Americans have money to burn. Yeah, when the conversion rate wasn’t what it is these days.

You’re 40 minutes from serious wine country and 90 minutes from the wild side of Liguria. But more on that later.

In Torino, and specifically at the AC Torino Hotel, you are right around the corner from a wonderful food center called Eataly. In fact the hotel and the building that houses Eataly were part of the Carpano factory, next door to the original Fiat factory.

See, Torino was an early industrial town. But it is also a town with great architecture, wide avenues, like Paris, and a cosmopolitan atmosphere that is sophisticated and a little wild at the same time. In fact, I had to keep reminding myself I was in Torino, not Paris. The feel of the place, architecturally, is similar, with the influence from Baron Haussmann.

Since the 2006 Winter Olympics, the town has been scrubbed clean, and the old center of town, once reserved for junkies and hookers, has been revitalized and is now a warm, lively nighttime area, boasting wonderful cafes and wine bars.


Eataly – Imagine something like a Central Market, or a Wegmans or a Whole Foods, that merges with the Slow Food movement, and you have this uber-paradise for food and wine lovers, all under one roof. There are a number of restaurants in Eataly, each with its own specialty: fish, meat, pasta, pizza, vegetables, antipasto or ice cream. And you can hop from one to another, feasting slowly. You can also shop for rare wine and food items from all over Italy.

 


One place to eat, in the old center of town, is called Tre Galline, and it specializes in Bagna Cauda and Bollito Misto. Do not attempt to eat both in one visit. We tried the Bagna Cauda, which came with a mini-garden selection of vegetables. Very cleansing. Reservations are a must. Go with friends, because there is liberal use of garlic, but not as excessive as we find in the US.

The wine list is extensive and very reasonable. I saw a 1997 Bruno Giacosa Le Rocche del Falletto Barolo for under €100.00.


 


We chose a 2000 Lessona from Sella for €20.00. The Piemontese call Lessona the national wine of Italy, because when they were toasting the newly unified Italian government in 1870, Lessona was chosen, instead of Champagne.








Make sure you find one of the old Caffès in Torino to have a caffè marocchino, which is a caffè espresso in a glass, topped with a layer of cocoa and frothy milk, something I unknowingly have been making for years.







What else? I’d say take your time, walk around the city enjoy the outdoors.

The Famous Mule Brothers of Airole

For a day trip you have a couple of options. Alba is 40 minutes, and there you are, in the heart of the great Piedmont wine region, where they produce Barolo, Barbaresco and the like. You cannot find something like that in Paris or San Francisco, especially at these prices. 

Or, this is what I'd do. Head over to Liguria and experience the wildness of the Italian Riviera. Go to Dolceacqua or some of the little towns that dot the region up into the hills, like Airole or Cisano sul Neva. Go visit Fausto, and eat lunch at his sister's restaurant, simply called Ristorante Bar Sport . Above Dolceacqua in Arcagna, the Locanda del Bricco of Terre Bianche is a wonderful place to spend an afternoon. Or maybe go to Ristorante U Veciu Defisiu in Airole and have a plate of their Baccalà mantecato.



Leave on a Thursday and return on a Monday. A great getaway to a part of Italy that is not so touristic and still affordable, even with the weak dollar.



Interesting article: Torino is Getting Green
Torino photo blog

written by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy

Tasting Notes ~ Valtellina

Wines from the five sub-zones Grumello, Inferno, Sassella, Valgella and Maroggia of the Valtellina Superiore DOCG appellation.


Straight out of my tasting journals, which I keep for every wine tasted.


Nobili – in the heart of Inferno-
Small producer Silvano and son Nicola Nobili with only 4 hectares. This is a typically small producer. Less than 3,000 cases made. A labor of love.

Tasted three wines
1) 2004 Sassella
13%
Clear color; dried fruits; good balance; fresh.
4,000 bottles made 60-65 quintals per hectare .
Really a pleasant drink.
Cost from winery €8.

2) 2004 Inferno
13%
Rose petal nose; bergamot ;
Flowery nose;
Taste is a bit tight; slightly bitter – minerally; stoney; good fruit; cinnamon notes.
6,000 bottles made.
Cost from winery €8.

3) 2002 Sforzato di Valtellina “Il Montescale”
15%
Chocolate covered raisins.
Well balanced; slightly amaro (bitter).
2,000 bottles made.
Cost from winery €16.
Full flavors – nice, but doesn’t knock my sock off at that price.

Ar.Pe.Pe.
This was once called the Arturo Pelizzatti Perego winery, but when it was sold to the Swiss they lost the use of the name. Now they have their cellars back and use the acronym Ar.Pe.Pe.
At one time this winery, along with Nino Negri, produced the lion’s share of wine from the Valtellina. The huge winery now serves as a great place to house older vintages. In it’s time it was state of the art large production. Now it is a jewel of a winery, smaller quantities but very high quality. Isabella and Emanuele Pelizzatti Perego, a sister and brother team, he is he winemaker and she is the enologist and marketing, now run the operation. Very well respected in the region.

Tasted 5 wines
1) 2006 Valtellina Superiore D.O.C.G. Sassella ( still in botti).
Delicate perfume; nice;
stoney, minerally; schist-like.
tight, good fruit;
needs time.
Great phenolics (I liked the way it smelled).

2) 2005 Valtellina Superiore D.O.C.G. Sassella ( still in botti);
Nicely perfumed, rich, well balanced , delicious.

3) 2001 Valtellina Superiore D.O.C.G. Sassella Vigna Regina
late harvest (dry) – they don’t make a Sforzato, so this is their late harvest entry.
Fruit is twangy, a little sour ( orange);
Still in tank so a bit imbalanced at this point.

4) 2004 Sassella Ultimi Raggi Terrazze Retiche di Sondrio I.G.T. (Late Harvest).
Good raisiney fruit; good balance (in stainless steel tanks) ;
Tannic.
“Sforfzato in pianta” – left to dry on the vines.
from winery website -The Ultimi Raggi (means last rays of sunshine) is Ar.Pe.Pe's expression of a modern Sfursat style wine but is not a Sfursat (they don't make one) but a late harvest Nebbiolo! Grapes from the Sassella sub-zone are left to over-ripen slightly on the vine and harvested in late November after the first snowfall. The wine ages for 6 months in French oak Tonneaux giving it some sweet spice to add to the fresh red fruity aromas. -Amy Wadman

5) 1996 Valtellina Superiore D.O.C.G. Sassella Rocce Rosse Riserva
raisiney; rose; flowery ;
interesting – open 12.5%
very light color.
Winemaker explains here because of the biodiversity of types of Nebbiolo here in Valtellina that indicates a high probability that the origin of the grape is from here.


Nino Negri with Casimiro Maule

1) 2006 Ca’Brione
Sauvignon Blanc,Chardonnay, Incrocio Manzone and Nebbiolo (15%)
Straw, grass; barrel fermented
Flavor of fruit; peaches,melon,butter, a little squash (pumpkin and zucchine)
Nice finish

2) 2004 Quadrio - Nebbiolo and Merlot
nice buttery flavors in the nose; open; rich, flavorful
great flowery nose

3) 2004 Sassella “Le Tense”
1st nose = oak, but sweet, nice, like a coconut aroma. Flavors are rich, remind me of California, very easy to enjoy – American palates might like this.


4) 2004 Inferno “Mazér”
delicate perfume – smokey, nice entry; pleasant wine
wood is understated (thankfully)
from winery website:
"Mazér" in Valtellina dialect means "good, beautiful and generous"
The vineyards from which this wine comes are located in the smallest of the four sub-zones of Valtellina Superiore: 68 hectares between Poggiridenti and Tresivio along the slopes of the Retiche Alps; on the right bank of the river Adda; the name Inferno relates to the steep slopes and the high summer temperature.

yield restricted to 60 quintals per hectare

5)2004 Valtellina Superiore cru “Fracia”
restructured vineyard – vines planted horizontally (most in the Valtellina are planted vertically) to follow shape of the hill in Valgella.
intense; elegant; good structure – well made
late harvested

6) 2004 Sfursat
gorgeous entry into the nose; roses; a little tar;oak;butter; round mouth entry ; fruit, tannin; acid, fresh; a little maturity, a mellowness; pleasant; mouth filling – wonderful sensation – 15%

7) 2004 Sfursat 5 Stelle
sweet fruit;tame oak all in apparent balance; slight cigar box;
mellow flavors – slight edge, but structure, not flaw
15.5%

from winery website:
Sfursat 5 Stelle is made from a selection of the best grapes from the most celebrated vineyards of the Valtellina Superiore, produced only in top years, The bunches are subjected to a natural drying process; the wine that results from this is particularly robust and alcoholic. Production began with the 1983 vintage and is very limited.
Vineyard: the most favored vineyards in the three sub-zones of DOCG Valtellina Superiore: Grumello, from the Latin "grumus", hill, Inferno, so called because of its steep slopes and very high summer temperature; Fracia, a "cru" exclusive to the House of Negri in Valgella (from the Latin "Vallicula"). Vinification: The best bunches, perfectly healthy and ripe, are picked by hand into small boxes of 6 kg each, then allowed to dry naturally for about three months; during January and February the dried grapes are pressed ( 4 pounds of grapes produces 1 bottle of wine) and vinified by the traditional red wine method for 30 days, with a long, slow fermentation.


Alberto Marsetti

1) 2006 Rosso di Valtellina
12% - good sign
herbal notes, sage, oregano
nice flavors, a little harsh

2) 2003 Grumello
13%
some funk in the nose – sulfur – stinky socks – flavors are sharp and not balanced

3) 2003 Valtellina Superiore D.O.C.G. “Le Prudenze”
13.5%
Still a slight funk (I think it’s in the cellar)
Bitter/stemmy /fruit out of balance with acids and tannins

4) 2003 Sfursat
14.5%
Again, the wine is one-dimensional- flat;tannic; off smells in the nose
Out of balance….at this time

When we walked into this little cellar in the town of Sondrio I was struck by the quaint character of the space. It would make a great osteria. I believe the cellar should be evacuated and thoroughly cleaned. It is my fear that the wines suffer form contamination in the cellar – TCA – cellar taint. Too bad. It would make an awesome restaurant site, though.


In my mind, the Nino Negri wines were heads and shoulders above the rest. Of course having someone like Casimiro Maule and his 35 years worth of experience helps. To his credit, he talked about some of these other winemakers with encouraging hopefulness. A rising tide can lift all boats, but these other producers are going to have to row a little harder and a little longer before they catch up with the Maestro in Chiuro.

written by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy

Looking for Paradise in the Land of Inferno

The e-mails were crawling like snails towards beer. I was confirming my appointment with Nino Negri winery in the Valtellina. I wanted to spend some time with their legendary winemaker, Casimiro Maule.

“Yes, yes, we understand,” the e-mail assured. I worry when the Italians tell me they understand. “We will make every effort to assure your visit will show you a thorough picture of what the wines of the Valtellina are about.”

I had a late-morning appointment with Signore Maule, who is the hand, the voice and the spirit of a once-great wine region. I say it like that because the time I spent in the Valtellina, everyone I talked to spoke as if their moment had passed, generations ago. One can see the Valtellinese are still in shock over losing their place in the world wine market. It was huge in the first half of the 20th century, and somehow in the 1980’s it tanked, and they are still in purgatory over their loss. What happened? Where did that vision go blind?

A few hours with Casimiro and hopefully we would learn more about this lingering crisis in the Valtellina. Thankfully, we would also taste the greatness that still exists in their wines.

Chiavenna is a small area about 40 km northwest of Sondrio that gives the name to the local Nebbiolo, known as Chiavennasca. The wine is often regarded as a lighter, less formidable version of the more serious Barolo and Barbaresco wines from Piedmont.
I am not so sure of that. Yes, there are more producers of Nebbiolo in Piedmont, and, yes, they have been more visible in the last 25 years. That was about the time the market for Inferno, Grumello and Sassella took a back seat on the international market. According to Casimiro, when a Swiss company came in and bought the two largest wineries, Negri and Pelizzatti Perego, they decided to double the quantity of wine. At the turn of the 20th century, wines from Valtellina were imported to the USA, all through Europe, South America and were considered on a par with wines from Burgundy and Bordeaux. It was a golden period for this small, inaccessible region. Researchers believe this was the birthplace of the Nebbiolo vine and have been working with the local growers to save the older strains of the grape. The Piemontese see this area as a living laboratory for the revival of the forbears of the original Nebbiolo. The grape defines an area that reaches for the greatness of the past but cannot quite touch it. Yet.

My idea of the Valtellina was of this backwater, remote country where people spoke the ancient Ladino language and carried these huge baskets on their backs filled with grapes, along steep hillsides. The vision was one of maidens in folkloric dresses, singing country songs. Dark haired, curly and long, rustic, original, prehistoric.

As I looked from the road down into the town of Sondrio and saw the vines extended into the back yards of the modern apartment building, I realized that my preconceptions were based on the overly romanticized versions I had read in the older books by the likes of Cyril Ray, Charles Bode and T.A. Layton.

The wines suffer from the ghosts of the past, but also the economies of today. The dollar is weak, so an obscure Grumello or Sassella can seem out of range, approaching a retail price of $30.00. But labor-intensive is an understatement, and though the fields are not littered with virgins in braids anymore, someone has to do the work of gathering the grapes. The work is shared by local and immigrant labor from the once-Eastern bloc, not machines.

How did they lose their supremacy in the import market? In my opinion, greed was the force that doubled the quantity and halved the quality. The Swiss had to answer to their stockholders for the profitability and growth of their investment. The wines became weak and insipid. I remember an ancient bottle of wine from the Valtellina which was fashioned as a precursor to the IGT reds of today, a funny-shaped bottle with a name to capture the tongue of the American pronouncing it, with a low price and a lower quality. When I mentioned such a wine to Casimiro, he smiled and recalled the folly of those days.

Eventually the Swiss company tired of losing money and sold the wineries. They liquidated some back to the Pelizzatti Perego family. The Negri winery and much of the vineyards, they sold to Gruppo Italiano Vini.

Casimiro Maule is from Trento and graduated from the enology school at San Michele. He got a call from Negri 35 years ago, asking him to come to work as their winemaker. Casimiro is a man who could be as busy as Ferrini or Chioccioli or Cotarella. But he decided to go to Chiuro. The only problem, he didn’t know where Chiuro was, even though it was less than 100 miles from Trento. That was how inaccessible the Valtellina was to the mind of the Italians.

Casimiro found his way there, and along the route of time he made his life and his reputation. A tall man with large hands and a warm gaze. Winemaker of the year in 2007 by Gambero Rosso. Yes, his wines do well in their reviews, and yes they are precious.

What really impressed me – here is a man who could spread himself across Italy, consulting and building his treasury along with his reputation. Here is a man who decided to stay put, focus his efforts and work to bring back the glory of the wines from the Valtellina. In the time I spent tasting many wines from the area, the wines from Casimiro and Negri were luscious, focused, elegant wines. Wines that understand the modern tastes. Yes, there is fruit and a refrain of wood in the formula.

But I also tasted in many other cellars. Some were infected with TCA, making wines that were out of balance. Others were just too rustic, way too much volatile acidity through the roof of my mouth. Recalling the wines tasted with Casimiro in his office that afternoon confirmed that he is the one bringing prominence back to the wines of a region that had gone into a deep slumber. It takes a larger-than-life person to make something like this happen, and that person, Casimiro Maule, appeared on the doorstep 35 years ago. A life of meaning that has resuscitated a whole region, stopped history and reset the clock. They might just find their way back into the Promised Land.





Valtellina Tasting Notes

written by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy

Chant of the Ancient Wines

" Ancient souls must relive the wine in the time it was born in order to bring it forward."
At the Merano Wine Festival there was a little jewel box of a room filled with all types of gold and ruby dessert wines. It was embarrassingly empty of people. It was also almost impossible to get to, hidden behind a parlor with famous and important wines from France. I’m not sure how many people found their way to the room with the sweet wines. For those who did, it was like finding Madame Pillaud’s perfume shop in Menton.

Outside, the wind was howling off the freshly snowed mountains. Inside, the sun steamed the room to a frothy warmth, one that required taking off several layers of jacket and sweater. The opened bottles of dessert wines were a Greek chorus juxtaposed with the morose Italian vendors who were vying for the attention of those few who found the secret door to the room. I looked at one wine, resembling a murky mess of primal goo, and commented with a facial gesture resembling one who had just peered into the face of Gorgon.
As the room steeped, the olfactory sensation created from the polyphony of the wines was intoxicating, if not a bit disconcerting. Imagine going to a dance where there are all manner of beautiful and unattached creatures who all long to dance with you. It was too much.

I put three wines on my dance card: a late harvest Marzemino, a Sagrantino passito and the murky fellow, a ménage of Grecchetto, Malvasia and Trebbiano.

I was really trying to wrap my head around these dessert wines. How did they come to be accepted, in older times, as wines that went with food? What was the reason, the meaning of these wines? Was it like the cheese and the salumi, a way to preserve food products for a time in the future?

I have been down into the ancient tunnels below the town of Orvieto, where the brown, reclusive bottles slumber far from modernity. Wine catacombs, but the wines are not dead or decaying. Merely waiting for a time when someone will bring them out into the light.

This day in Merano was one of those moments.

You Give Me Fervo
The Marzemino, from the Astoria wine estate in Crocetta del Montello. I was interested because Donato Lanati is involved with the winemaking. Lanati teaches and consults for wineries such as Frattina, Librandi, L'Abbazia di Santa Giustina, Palari and Pietra Porzia. They had me at salve. Two nights before, we sat next to owner Giorgio Polegato at the Ristorante Laubenkeller. Giorgio loves to eat, what you’d call a “good fork”. So as we pulled up to their booth, I recognized a man who knew his way around the Italian table. Fervo, as it is called, is in this squatty little bottle, very posh. I am sometimes suspicious of cute bottles from the Veneto – they know only too well how to market items from the living workshop of Venice. But I closed my eyes, opened my nose and took a plunge. Inside the bottle was this sanguine sensation, visceral in the thick texture. Dense. It had the most beautiful shade of crimson going towards cyan along the edges, like the light through a stained glass window. I’m still tasting it, some memory alongside my palate tugs at me.

What to do with such a wine? Drink it at the end of a meal, of course, with figs soaked in brandy and then covered in bittersweet chocolate. In ancient times, with what food? Game, such as deer, or with andouille or Pizzoccheri, like we had at Sale e Pepe in Sondrio.

Very gothic, plush velvet, scarlet and embers.

The Milk of Paradise
Sagrantino passito from Antonelli San Marco in Montefalco. The lady behind the table was one of the few females in the room. Her gaze was hypnotic, perfect for sales. I see Umbria and their wines as having a lot of female energy. My California roots are showing? In any event, the dark one at the Antonelli booth was ladling Sagrantino Passito into the chalice. It is one of the primal wines of central Italy.

I read recently about Sagrantino passito being the original wine of the area. Making Sagrantino dry would come centuries later, along with the heavy bottles and high price tags. This was tasting the history of the wine; this was meeting face-to-face with the ancestors. This was a moment to bow on one knee before taking a sip.

Lights down, music to a low chant, with only the heat from the candles. Once inside, the wine turned my palate towards the pagan. We had landed in Xanadu: the sacred river, the pleasure dome, the caverns measureless to man and the sunless sea. The milk of Paradise.

What to do with such a wine? Try roasted meats with a high fat content. Pork would be perfect. Or if a dessert is needed, go to your local church and pilfer some of the communion hosts, pre-sanctified. Dip them in a wild honey and dust them with cinnamon. If you must have the Body to go with the Blood.

The Big Muddy
Rhea Passito of Carlo Massimiliano Gritti from Umbertide – the trinity of Grecchetto, Malvasia and Trebbiano. This was my cloudy mire of aboriginal slime. It had me grimacing as if I had just lost a stare down with the demon. It wasn’t that it was horrible. Au contraire. It was a shock. This hall of sweet wines was filled with clean, clear, diamond points of nectar, and here we were faced with chaos that was rich and unctuous, from a time when it was the only wine in the world. Gravner could only hope to make a wine with this kind of depth, coupled with an attraction that was molecular.

“Will you write about my wine?”, the hopeful young Italian asked me. I assured him I would. But it wouldn’t help him sell it. This was a wine from another time, another language. It would be like asking the Americanos to read and understand ancient Greek. But that is a wail for another chorus on another day.

written by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy

Merano ~ Bosom of the Dolomites

A fascinating aspect about Italy is what it represents to people, what they think it is. Aside from the usual misunderestimations about Italian food (spaghetti and meat balls) or wine ( Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio), it goes to a deeper level. Italy is the four cities: Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan. Doesn't anybody ever talk about going to Torino or Palermo? Italy has such wonderful countryside in Tuscany. The Amalfi Coast is so picturesque. As if getting to the Tuscan countryside or the Amalfi Coast weren't strewn with unbelievable beauty along the way?

So it was with me, when I arrived in Merano at the base of the Dolomites, 70 miles from the Austrian border. In a store back home, I ran into a local person, and they asked me about where I had just been. When I told them the Merano Wine Festival, they remarked, “Oh, don’t you just love the colorful glass from there?” Why, yes I do. Especially when they get it from Murano.

I don’t get as worked up over those encounters anymore. I find them bewilderingly amusing. I tell myself, at least they are appreciating something Italian. Oh, and pass the meatballs, please.

Merano must be wonderful in the summertime. I’ll not likely get there in that period. I prefer large bodies of water, the Pacific or the Adriatic or some lake, somewhere. But I can imagine its attraction, with those long days and moderate temperatures, especially when I am in Texas in July. Which is more likely the case than not. What an oasis it must be.

We arrived at Merano in time for a little snow flurry action in the higher elevations. Nothing to wreck the leather-soled shoes, rather a light dusting that one could admire from a distance.

Here the wines have names like Kerner, Schiava, Lagrein, and Zweigelt. The last three are red wines. These are wines that are more well known coming from other countries, say Germany or Austria. But because they are technically grown and made in Italy, they can be marketed in the US in Italian restaurants and wine bars. Still a bit of a tough sell, because the names are as difficult to pronounce as Falanghina or Granaccia, which are also not household names.

Gestalt at Ristorante Laubenkeller: wine & wall

Again, this is the beauty of things Italian: not to be pigeonholed into the same old fiasco. The awe of this Italian wine labyrinth is in the complexity, the diversity, the seemingly endless variation. Want something simple? Go to France, or Germany. Those countries are infinitely easier to grasp.

This side of Italy can be a comforting change from the chaos of Southern Italy, or even the maddening laissez-faire of places like the Marche. Here in Merano there is order. One friend remarked that it was the worst of both worlds, the irrationality of the Italian with the inflexibility of the Teutonic. I see it another way: The creativity of the Italian is tethered and brought into a workable state by the rational determination of an ordered society. Brightly painted walls, but with a paint to last through winter snow storms.
Still, there are madmen wandering out of the asylum. Who else will pay €149.00 (that’s US $225.00) for a pair of jeans that looked like they were fished from the bottom of the pile in a thrift store? Oh yeah, someone drinks a little too much Die Jäeger in these parts too.

I spent evenings with Calabrese and Sicilian winemakers - my tribes. It was interesting to see this part of Italy through their eyes. To them, it was another world, more removed from their experience than New York. I could only imagine what my Tuscan-countryside-loving, Amalfi-coastline-hugging Americanos back home would think of this.

For my part, sitting under a heated patio lamp, sipping wine and looking at the snow falling on the mountaintops was as natural as watching waves nuzzle the sand down in the Gargano. As I thought about the days I was spending in the Val Passiria, here in the bosom of the Dolomites, you wouldn’t hear any complaints from me. I was lapping it up like mother’s milk.

written by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy