If you don’t gamble, much, and don’t swim in the nefarious waters, much, how do you sanely approach Las Vegas?

The question has many answers but the blog only illuminates one mans quest to survive and stride in the 105 degree weather in August. The PM flight alone is breathtaking upon arrival. From pitch black to exploding borealis in your face: the players are clear as you jet in, the Wynn, Mandalay Bay, Bellagio etc. I could not remain calm at all once cleared into my super refined pad at the new Vdarra in Center City. Time seemed to vanquish as your adventure begins as soon as you punch lobby on your elevator button. What is it that creates energy, magnetic draw, lust for finding stimulations, quests for logic in a place that is insanely illogical. First, it is the sincere approach to irreverence. There isn’t much chit-chat going on. Get in, get out seems to be the approach. Make sure your pockets are as large or larger than your life to spin the dials here and make it a sin city diet. You know early that you are committed in one of the biggest resort service sectors on this planet. You pay to play.

Boom, you see art of Rauschenberg on the wall, turn left and there is the Bellagio gateway, turn right and you can find 22 restaurants and a mall of serious tops shopping. Meander a hotel and there is superb French pastry, hidden nightclubs, people of all morphed and to be morphed realities, places to eat and score a cocktail galore. The gambling aspect to me is an enigma. There is fun, for damn sure. But the sheer capacity of loss is nearly tragic by my Hebraic calculator watching chips slide down the house chute and 100′s getting magically stuffed into boxes. The second statute of this odd paradise is it’s uncanny ability to keep you lost and in motion 24/7. I stumbled several tables feeling the surge, the anxiety, the agony and the ecstasy, all wrapped in second hand smoke and well tonics served by scantily clad lust bombs. Three hours of this and I plotzed myself at Todd English’s pub for a foot long kobe hot dog and some tap suds to ease the odd grime that was on my skin and in my head. Smiling was over, if not useless; talking to anyone on this theater screen could cost you money for their vested interests in serving you. Okay, I did my best skill: work your waitress over on the wine and beverage program for the sake of the Vias imperialism glory and go to bed while still speaking your native tongue .

I can summarize this world in a few short words. There is a lot on the Vegas grid to appreciate. Shows, pools, one of the biggest collections of showcase artist chefs I have ever seen, luxury and opulence, razzle dazzle plus, an impersonal fate not easily acheived in any global city. Take it or leave it. But, beyond is another world. Off the strip are old world restaurants, kitschy activities, great culinary and cultural discoveries, and leaving it behind, you find the magic of Red Rock Canyon, the Hoover Dam and nature’s wonders of the desert. It is a hard place to calculate, but a beastly realm beckoning your return through dreams.

Day one is a same picture, another city- make Bisol and Terredora rise to the top of the heap, gear up peoples minds with the philosophy and needs of Vias and a solid what’s up and what can we sell you today. My groove squire was none other than the Nevada kid himself, Galen Crippen,  and his squeeze assistant Lea. We went off grid to Gino Ferraro’s  delightfully tenured post on Paradise Road for a correct lunch. We later launched our nocturnal parade at the super Panevino Ristorante near the airport. We laid down some law with the Wirtz Beverage staff before motoring the strip. The retail component of this play was held at Marche Bacchus, a most curious deep emporium out on Regatta Drive with planted lake and it’s necessary ambiance. There is so little retail on a high level that it  is really appreciated when it happens; this place has a skinny markup on wines drunk at their cafe.

We are in the zenith of summer white pursuits and I am hot to trot with the current Cantele and Colosi scene. The Telero is of 100% Bombino fruit, a forgotten Emilian varietal named Pagadebit, and often as rich as Albana, if not more almondy. Gianni Cantele punches this with a bit of lees contact, no wood, a potent white that he says “could sustain ice.” I eschew this, but you get the salient bullet. So,………….fresh, pretty nose throbbing with a creamy lanolin/vanillan softness rolling over to a baked apple and ginger tone. I tell you really, there is almond, celery, pine scents; it is thrilling for a MEASLY $8.99. The mouth has lift, friendly flavors, slight flinty if not rind laden core, very balanced and very rustic. Tart plum acidity makes this picture a diamond in the rough experience. And that is it- Telero means portrait and this is on the beam!

Piero Colosi is committed to finding the right juice for the right expressions and making it happen for under 15 dollars ALL the time. The 2009 Grillo makes it’s debut right now at a Vias center near you. Always lauded for it’s Marsala based prowess, today Grillo can be a super blender, only a few intrepid producers are willing to work 100% monovarietal. There is a plush aroma generating candied peel, white rum, light medicinal and herbal intrigue. As it breathes it gives over to an older bisquity Champagne nose, a delightful arena. The mouth is solid: full and savory, plush, rounded, a fine bittersweet carriage to close, an earth driven sweetness expressing Sciacca well. Go for pesce: swordfish, trouts, halibut, lobster and shrimps, mackerel, crabs and prawns, whatever…and don’t forget the capers.

Cheers.

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Do the pictures say a thousand words, or………………………………………….. do they say more?

I have begun a blistering new odyssey combining sales with investigations and determinations. Vias is sponsoring a 10 city swing to cities across the USA promoting both players Bisol and Terredora. There are lectures, store tastings, dinners and the never ending rap and roll of our awesome portfolio. Our illustrious hurler from the Midsouth is Doug Donovan who shaped our mission through Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, North Carolina and beyond to the super charming city of Charleston, South Carolina. We delivered our cannon balls in fun and spirit for five days.

There is absolutely no way to gauge who would come out to a retail venue when temps linger in the upper 90′s and the heat index is smokin’ at 105!  Logic was denied and declined as Michael Klinger from the well selceted and well stocked Chapel Hill Wine Company was able to keep a rolling stream of quality customers sliding by my table through the PM. Swirling and tasting were par eccellente as questions ranged from Vesuvian basaltic chemicals to Roman wine interests in pairing  garum meals and orgies. In this countryside there is ample quality on all fronts, from vino to humans to aesthetics.

We were able to do an all inclusive Terredora dinner at Pazzo, a serious institiution that combines pizzeria and trattoria. It was a big night because we introduced the rare Coda di Volpe varietal, the good ole “tail of the fox” of Lacrima fame, a speciman that is sublime in it’s spiciness and tonality. We cross referenced with the 09 Greco di Tufo which is pure magic- scented of citrus and floral powers, figs, green olives and mineral tea notes prevailing. End results parlayed a Sauvignon style vs. a Chardonnay style. It was crystalline once we rolled out Peregrine Farm’s heirloom tomatoes harvested two hours earlier!?! with marinated NC lump crabmeat and a mellow vinaigrette.

The primi featured the Fiano 2008 with steamed mussels, white wine broth, with lobster agnolotti and a true and delicate pesto. Okay, this was damn cinchy. The Fiano is now showing a petroly Alsatian Riesling character with laser acidity and great tones of earth meets fruit fiber. Class, you ask. Indeed, I say. The Lacrima Christi rosso of all Piedirosso fruit was divine. Modern wood picks up the racy sweet/sour throb of ripe and tart fruit. Bolognese of veal, duck, pork and rabbit with ricotta gnocchi rocked the house. While preaching to the tribes the room was scaringly silent, a pinpoint sign of grastronimal happy endings.

Sorry, I’m not done waxing. The coup de grace was showcasing the final titan of Aglianico called CampoRe, a single vineyard monopole from Lapio which should be sought out on any cost and sojurn.  Put it all together: old vines, circa average 65 years, blessings of Vesuvio and it’s rich limestone in the basaltic picture of the Tuarasi villages, 18 day maceration, maturation in French wood for 18 months, 24 months harmony resting in bottle, and shazzam…. one of the most opulent perfumes you could ever take in your life. The USA bears a tad of this 2001 in limited reserves across this country. 2004 is here in a mere month. Taurasi gives primordial pleasures early but the utmost delight is either big aeration or beter yet, cellaring. Please remind yourself that cellaring of any noble vintage Taurasi is on par with Barolo, an eager 10-40 year spread.

And finally, accolades to the Mastroberadino family with Lucio making AMAZING interpretaions of all ancient varietals and all styles. This is a family driven on innovating through tradition. The renaissance began in the Magna Grecia period and is carried on now with fierce intergrity and prowess since 1978. Centered in the hills of Avellino, Terreora di Paolo has been in the forefront of commercial successes with 170 hectares of vineyards, the largest producer and vineyard owner. The rugged zone nestled in the Apennines is a rolling succession of mountains, hills and upland plains divided by rivers and covered with lush vegetation. Hot days and cool nights are instrumental and demonstrative in the balanced results of fruits and acids. These wines rock. These wines work with foods, not just for pane schmearing or slamming. Pedigree kisses reality and I like that. Learn more from their website, www.terredora.com or make that long awaited pilgrammage to Montefusco to meet Daniella, Walter, Lucio and Paolo.

Ok boys and girls. What should you look for in stores, trattorias and bars? Falanghina is the most delicious summertime white, loaded with tropicality and richness, riptides full of  brine and acidity. The new 2008 Aglianico is nothing short of spectacular for any palate. Ripe, meaty, spicy, toasty, dark jam impressions that keep you guessing in the European blend of old and new world.  The current vintage Taurasi non riserva is called Fatica Contadina, the 2003 is a strapping, wildly generous and dark, pungent of novelty organic stew, a beauty  now for savory foods. The 2004 coming for the Fall is nothing short of a BOMB, this 94 pointer will be highly sought out. Caveat emptor!

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Do we ever get it right this time of year?  Heat indexes, constant liquid drought, alcoholic doubts, and then what? We can only guide and stimulate you to our coldbox: four 09 favorites that reside in the perverbial toolbox of the wilted Professor.

Broglia Gavi La Meirana 2009

Here is a wine that could bring absolute joy to anyone stranded on an oasis for a long period of plonk and coconuts. I always find serene bliss with this white from Piedmont because it makes you sit up straight and appreciate linear direction. It has a clear apple foil that is jammed with briney frequencies of flint, oceanic rush, meadow floral high, and sometimes even a gasp of pepperiness. How does it happen?

Cortese is a rather simple pedestrian in our uva-tron, but when combined with blanch sandy topsoils, solid calcerous clay base in the southern climes of Piedmont right before cresting to the Ligurian sea, aloha magical white. The wine is gifted with freshness, fast paced punchiness and plenty of grip like a great Chablis. You guessed it- seafoods of all types: raw, fried, sauteed, grilled ad infinitum work perfectly. I personally like fritto misto, Japanese relationships, panko me anything, cilantro, and the finest pampered butter detail Julia commands. It is beyond easy for success. and honestly, the Broglias produce a stainless steel Bienevenue Batard grade replica for the NW. And you know it; it is a CLASSIC!

Pietra Porzia Frascati Superiore Regilio 2009

This story is of cavalier politic for the long history of Roman whites. How the hell did the lustful whorish Malvasia survive so well to become an impetus in so many wines? Look sometime at the roster and you will see Candia and Lazio verisons pumping up the scene in Centrale Italia, but also the Rosso type going into Salice Salentino.

Frascati is a suburb due west of Rome in the torrid tufa of vineyards. Malvasia loves it here; Malvasia produces golden wines that yield opulent weight of Chard typicity with fun sensuality of great Chenin pedigree. This ain’t no Orvieto pansy, neither is it as viscous as Falanghina or Verdicchio, thus it’s backbone actually generates a superbo amaro rindiness that makes for great slamming. End results are virtuous for pork products of all dialects; vitello beckons to this white rock star. It happens to be my favorite lead off batter for prepping, followed by cheese and olives, and then it is like a barge, you get to the next wine, if there is a next wine. Some bottle age helps, the Frascati from Porzia is pretty sturdy. Trust if in the cellar for an extra year or two in peak vintages. So if you go the Via Pesce, make sure you go with brodo, cioppino or paella are brilliant matches.

Torre di Luna Pinot Grigio 2009

Why did we evolve so handily in a world of options to the Pinot Gris varietal as our savior. It could have been taste, but probably it was the Santa Margherita marketing propulsion systems. It doesn’t really matter at all, this varietal puts the numbers on the board more than any other. You can’t stop this situation, you can only appreciate your options amongst a severe bevy of inferior, mass produced dreck. What might be contestable or even pathetic in geek circles, is that most folk don’t know where this grape hails from, what the attributes are, and what should be some squabbled tasting points. What happens from $4.99 to $44.99. I will let it all go to the winds today.

This is a great example of field blending and price to quality pitching. The Togns of Maso Poli have this brand called Torre di Luna that miraculously combines inter regional fruits of the Veneto, Friuli and Trento, their native zona. The package is the first change in 300 years, a big lift to modern brush stroke simplicity and resultant eye catch. What bears out is the juice, and that is the signinficant key.

In your head and in your tummy: almonds, pears, grasses, some toastiness and then, a shift shaper with some lees contact that is simply splendid.  The mouth is flush and plumb, the acidity is mple and the flavors keep you humming the same bars from the beginning. There is never any notion of industrial strength wine playdough; this number is pure as buttered corn on the cob. A Pinot Grigio to have an affair with for sure.

Damilano Langhe Arneis 2009

Pay attention my guests; this was just awarded the unsung white hero of the season. GET IT NOW! Floral opener, shifts to celery/custard/almondy with lush engagement and an amazing nerve center; it is long and quasi spanish in its authority, it just doesn’t quit and that is worthy of multiple studies in your home. New labelling and new tiffany bottle from the shaker rattlers at Damilano with a clear bottle and great juice to boot make this heroic.

Arneis tends to baffle some like myself. It can be cute and girly one glass, the next is cantankerous with bitter values and  no barking relief. How do you know?  You don’t, so sorry. You have to learn by taste studies of producers stylistic work. Here it is location, Canale in the Roero of old vines, and long skin contact for more definition and extraction. Stainless steel helps to steer the broadest range of food pairings imaginable. Buon appetito Luglio et Agosto!!!

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Bubbles of many languages!

 

Maestro CZ shucks up Judd Cove Oysters, Queen of Orcas Island

Umile Torta NW

Well hung Geo duck?

This is a travelogue about gyrations in and around the Puget Sound with a healthy homage to the Bisol famliy that has spurred the drive to take the pedestrian Prosecco out of the meddling ring and into the land of DOCG high fidelity.  My mission was to go into Seattle and razzle dazzle the distributor Unique with the full bear treatment; my cohort and field commander Chris Zimmerman put a wild and whooly spin on the nature of a market visit.

Mind you, this was my first trip to the NW in my life. Mind you, it was June where sun is scant and optimisms are vague. I couldn’t figure out if I needed a jacket because I didn’t know if it was hot or cold, let alone raining every other hour. There would be no way to begin this adventure without a trip to Ray’s Boathouse for some panko ling cod, Penn Cove mussels like milky sea candies, manilla clams kissed with garlic and broth and, but of course, Terredora Greco di Tufo. It would have been enough to come into town and smash the distributor with Vias potent pyschobabablations, but NO! Our program grew like a spore on steroids. We needed to harass and haulass from the Bay to Anarcortes for an early Orcas Island ferry for a  one on one salesman meeting, followed by restaurant seasonal stimulation followed by our own probe into just plucked Judd Cove oysters with Abbazia Veltliner followed by dinner with local yocals savoring the finest foods from Geddes di Magnifico of the Inn at Ship Bay. Jog your DK notebook as a must hit in this lifetime!

Feeling the need to put Nebbiolo where it rightfully should live in a drizzley neighborhood, we rallied a serious collection of customers and punched their lights with Proddutori horizontal and vertical tastings at the luscious spot, la Spiga Osteria on 12th. After collecting accolades for our tasting seminar glamoured with Batali sammies from downtown, we slid into our gastrojets and assaulted the city to both pirate insights and to whack people with the company’s vinous bolt. We jammed at Bisato for chicchettis and Bisol Jeio Rosato, we double dribbled at Mistral for cocktail pursuations and then rallied a tandoor ribeye, we found safe have with Phred and Laurie at Elemental which challenges the senses and drinking knowledge as there is no menu or wine list, just victimization of the grooviest cuisine. 

Seattle is engaging in a garagiste way. I would say maybe not to go there in June when drizzling is the skys way of saying “go forward and drink coffee or you will perish.” And what is that function? A serene way to get amped up to slow down and get cerebral. I want to study this gestalt by itself sometime. The NW, and definitely inclusive of all things Puget, has a calming, tranquil, lush, indiscreet potency to it that translates into some of the cleanest and most gentile flavored ingredients from the sea and land. Sweetness trumps brineness, delicacy trumps potency. It is huge. It makes for a wondrous trip into the varied types of beverages one can range over a broad raw materials base. Add some oreintal touches and reds come into play perfectly. Add some spice and bubbles are a go-go. Morels, razor clams, great berries, salmon of umpteen appellations and fat layering, spot prawns like little snappy springs, oysters from all nooks and crannies, herbs and veggies, and of course, geoducks. These monster clams are so revered by the Chinese palate; they can grow over four pounds and deliver a sashimi package bigger than…………  I was nearly arrested at Uwajimaya market for overfondling and squeezing siphons on many happy g-ducks causing kids to cheer and parents to leave the seafood department.

Why do you need to pay attention to Prosecco both in the bottle and from a politburo wine wave? Why do you need to know the names of producers or families that make the stuff?  The reasons are several. One, Prosecco will soon be reaching the same level of production as champagne; you must know the difference between quality and massproduced swill-o. I might cough up and say that 80% of what is sold in the USA is in the latter category so if you are interested in staying in the ballgame, and it is certainly a dynamite worthy product, you need to heed some warnings. Two, with the development of a DOC/DOCG system we now can have rationalizations for entry level understanding and also for diamond point drinking in DOCG. Third, in this conundrum your success will be gauged by your ability to find the best choices and place in your tasting toolbox for simple and sustained enjoyment.

OK, let’s roll the tapes way back. Prosecco is a grape that has been producing wine in the Treviso area for over 200 years. It is light in body, not rich in sugars although it is a big grape, but it is high in malic acid and aromatics. It was serendipitous for Cavaliere Carpene to have adopted the champagne method to this varietal. Today the autoclave gives this gentle bubbler a soft and engaging sparkle that is less commanding and demanding than metodo classico, the champenoise sister.

DOCG will govern the epicenters East and West for Conegliano-Valdobbiadene and also Montello e Colli Asolani. DOC will now govern the sea of Proseco that goes from Belluno to Gorizia to Padova to Pordenone to Treviso to Trieste to Udine to Venezia and Vicenza. All of the non DOC/DOCG areas in Italy and other EU countries must change the name to Glera, an old Slovenian name that sounds to me a bit like Chernobel juju. Gone will be the cancer sores of Paris Hilton whoring Rich Prosecco in a can in the Germanic markets made of base garbage. This is a form of truth through vinous cleansing!

How do you approach the subject matter NOW? Look at it the Bisol way in the USA. We have Jeio DOC that is a simple type made for all purpose 24/7 tippling with the optional outlet to make your own Bellini-esque teatro. Know that you can add anything for a flavor profile. All day long at the Professor’s camp we mix a healthy splash of Montengro Amaro and a kiss of lime wedge for a big HELLO.  Blood oranges, seasonal berries, pepperoncinis, cucumbers with mint, syrups, bitters, the sky is the limit. And it all works; if not the failures are slip and slide tenable. Our prestigious tete de cuvee DOCG baby is called Crede. This phenom is blended of five parcels from great clay soils with an allowed pinch of Pinot Bianco and Verdiso for max styling; this cuvee is treated like a champagne and drunk from beginning to the end of the meal. The sleeper dolce celebrant is Cartizze Dry, from the revered 106 ha. zona, a fruity dessert candidate redolent of peaches, apples, pears and stone fruit, most ELEGANTE.

If your Prosecco experience has tasted like dirty baked apples, Jello from a not so golden lot, or musty flat plonk, don’t give up. Try, try again. Yes, be wary of price, but no don’t compromise taste and enjoyment. Yields are lower now. Terroir is in the hood. Game on in the battle and language of Prosecco pleasures. Cheers Bisol!!!!

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Drink BRUNELLO, Please!?!?!

Outside the 16th century fortified Villa of Argiano in the shadow of Mt. Amiata near Montalcino are signs  indicating with direction arrows that you are 0.200 km. from Argiano and 12,352 km. from Bodega Noemia, Patagonia. I think we need to add a third arrow pointing west, indicating 9,021 km. to Salt Lake City, UT.

On June 9th Contessa Noemi Marone Cinzano, owner of Argiano and winemaker extraordinaire Hans Vinding-Diers journeyed half way around the world to help clelebrate the tenth anniversary of Lugano Ristorante with our dear friend, chef/owner Greg Neville in Salt Lake City, Utah.

A member of the well known Italian Cinzano family whose vermouths date back to 1757, Contessa Noemi Cinzano grew up in the vineyards that belonged to her family but chose to explore other options when she moved to Brazil at 17 years old. In 1992, her wine roots pulled her back into the family business as she sought the best possible place for the highest quality wine production and took over the Argiano estate in Montalcino. Today, she solely owns Argiano where she oversees wine production and marketing. Noemi also co-owns one of Argentina’s top  five wineries, Bodega Noemia in Patagonia with Hans Vinding-Diers.

Hans Vinding-Diers of Danish and English origins, the son of Peter Vinding-Diers, was born in Stellenbosch, a famous wine district in the Cape area of South Africa. At the age of five he moved with his family to France where his parents owned Chateau de Landiras. Although he was raised in a wine famliy he did not enter the business until 1987 in Australia, sent there by his father when he was “getting in a little too much trouble in Bordeaux.” Since that time he has completed over 40 harvests in more than nine countries and now co-owns Bodega Noemia, listed as one of the “10 Best Wineries in the World” in Wine & Spirits magazine this year. Hans is the consulting winemaker at Argiano where he created the wine Suolo in 2000 with Noemi Cinzano, and at Bodega Chacra, Piero Incisa’s estate in Patagonia. He is one of only 15 Young Lions-Winemakers of the Future headed by Master of Wine Serena Sutcliff of Sotheby’s.

What a remarkable evening at Lugano with Noemi and Hans.  Here’s a look at the menu.

With the arrival of our 110 closest friends the evening started with Bisol Prosecco Jeio with mini burrata caprese and Lugano roasted baby artichokes. The dinner truly got underway with Argiano L’O Rosato 2009 and a Pacific line-caught halibut crudo. A rosato with both structure and elegance it was perfect with the halibut.

A savory Dungeness crab on brioche accented with house smoked sea salt paired well with the Argiano NC 2007, the blend of Cabernet Sauvignon with 20% each of of Sangiovese Grosso, Merlot and Syrah.

We then moved to Patagonia for blowtorched figs, mascarpone and prosciutto with the Noemia A Lisa 2008 Malbec with 10% Merlot, a wine tribute to Hans’ grandmother. Back to Tuscany with Argiano Rosso di Montalcino 2007 and singing with spot prawn agnolotti and snails. WOW!  What a combo!

Perhaps the most intriguing course of the evening for me was the warm cauliflower flan with fave and pancetta paired with the A Lisa’s big brother, J Alberto, named in tribute to Noemi’s cousin and father. A brooding Patagonian blend of Malbec from 70 year old vines with 5% Merlot.  Bulls eye!

The toasted tagliata of organic duck breast and pan seared foie gras married beautifully with the disciplined structure of Argiano Brunello di Montalcino 2004, the winery’s flagship. But it wasn’t over yet.

The dinner ended on a very high note, wood -oven roasted Morgan Valley lamb with Argiano Suolo 2005, the famous Super-Tuscan wine and original creation of the noted oenologist Dr. Giacomo Tachis who handed the torch to Hans Vinding Diers. And I for one am glad he did.

Thank you Contessa Noemi Cinzano and Hans Vinding-Diers for coming to Salt Lake City on behalf of Vias to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our dear friend Greg Neville and his talented team at Lugano Ristorante.

Here’s to ten more! Grazie, Chris Zimmerman, Regional Manager, NW

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This is not my home, these are not my distributor folk, ………

Where did the Professore disappear to?  Was he tweepy?  Was he swallowed by Glazer’s largest facility in Dallas?  Was he seen escaping over the border to BC with a gaggle of geoducks?  The answer is SIMPLY, all of the above.

OK, I thought I had this operation in the bag, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I was cruising at 30,000 feet doing justice to the Vias template of knowledge and pledging inferences across travels and experiences. However, not being canned or backed up by surrogate ghost writers, I was flummoxed to remission and ultimate disappearance. This gets a yellow card from the cyber goobers who watch and note fledgling writers like Giorgio Neri. The results are still in the goal and win column and that is where Volatile Acidities is back on track and rich of story and conviction.

I have made it from Austin to San Antonio to Houston to New Orleans to Dallas in one fell swoop 5 day pogrom of the finest kind. Our regional broker of merit and thrust, Dan Redman insisted that we touch down with the Glazer’s organization on all fronts and cylinders and preach and teach the lessons of education and inspiration. The trip was a resounding success and broke the sound barrier in terms of words learned and Italian wines unveiled in spiritual and seriously direct content. Jaws were dropped. Eyes were boggled. Minds were split open for feeding. Pizzas and sammies helped when the individual governor was lost in the sales rooms and realities needed to come to closure. The average delivery time by yours truly was 88 minutes with only top spin and overhead slams applied. Many accolades and gestures of acknowledgement transpired. Management was inspired, hopefully sales peoples also.

I was in the temple of Glazer’s, companies of Texas and Louisiana in the marketing of fine wines and beverages. It is a large USA entitiy, a honed and well heeled machine that delivers for the Vias engine in this moment. We are filling their cups with Italian flare and firepower in a blistering marketplace of noodles, charlatans and wannabees. They lead the blog world with a communique from the company on activity and boast one of the world’s maestros of artful soul searching Ital-style from Alphonso Cervola commanding Italian wine education and a copious amount of insight with his blog: acevola.blogspot.com.

We essentially tasted a range of 12 to 18 products covering the gamut of regions and putting our book into the perspective of super premium affordable entities in the ring of juice d’Italia. Perspective is the operative when you are applying a couple hundred wines in a sea of mixed pressured items that need to be sold under decree and duress of monies and large company slammering. Trust me, the game is tough when there is more juice than mouths to swoon, and there is more greed greasing the model than juris prudence in wine. We surf some fine curls that can topple in a heartbeat.

Where do we go now?  The mission statement for me is to deliver gargantuan tastings in ten markets from now till November. These will be sponsored by Vias with Terredora and Bisol and will be highlighted on our web site ASAP. Know for now, Mr. Redman the magician and his Glazer’s raptor bin will be headlining tastings in Houston at Spec’s on September 27th with a SUPREMO dinner at Catalan. Follow us the following day the 28th in Dallas with a doubleheader with our dear partner at Jimmy’s Food Store. Dile into Mosaic Wine Group and find out about other activities including a New Orleans soiree with the Professor et al.

In vino veritas. Remember to drink plenty of Rosati from Bisol, Cantele, Cataldi Madonna, and the new thriller from Terredora, RosaeNovae, a delicate and rich exemplar made of Aglianico in the lightest perlant way. Maestoso schiaffo!

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Duca Nebbiolo et Poetico Babbuino

What the ................... Real Deal Vitello Tonnato @ LALIBERA, Eat me.

From Castiglione Falleto to Serralunga, eye candy

There is simply no contest, this doesn’t even get a lead in question. The Produtorri del Barbaresco Cooperative is the most historically gifted and NOW centric winery on this small planet. End of story. Thank you for coming.

Why?  Because. One hour with Aldo Vacca, the magical, visceral and potent director alum of this 60 family member cooperative and you are spellbound. One flash through Antica Torre next store, a temple of all great Piemontese cuisine, and you are hypnotized. Drink a venerable Rabaja with 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years growth on it, challenge yourself as to whether it is still going up or cruising like a titan missile on a plateau, and you are frozen in conviction and done hook, line and sinker of the Nebbiolo truth known as Barbaresco.

Hail, oh hail thy mighty Nebbiolo!  How did you become so sneaky, so opulent, so dichotomous, so sinfully juicy?

Ok, this could seem like didactic wine sales preaching. Let me be clear and simple. There are only a few wines to study from this property; they are staunch traditionalists and have been that way since they opened the doors in the 1850′s. The Nebbiolo delle Langhe is a snake charming gift of the trade and highly electric in the mouth, the Torre Barbaresco is a steal, a great showcase of all things fundamental of Piedmont, soil and virtuous layering with vintage notes to watch and learn. And then, the wind up and the fast ball. In the best vintages, we lucky American peons get a grand selection of nine single vineyard Crus each parlaying a story of terroir, style, ageability, power and again, happy, sneaky personality conflicts. This is the baseline story of a Coop in Barbaresco. 

Let’s go this way first. I opened a Nebbiolo 08 last night to kiss over some parmigiano with asparagus and salad. I kid you not but I wrote 15 descriptors in less than ten minutes. And then I went back and did it again. I will do it this morning with ginger bread and see what happens next. The point is the complexity and olfactory schizophrenia is alluring. You like a challenge of the proboscis type, go for it. I am finding pure tar, red licorice swizzlers, gasoline alley, anise candies, celery rhubarb tonic, dried tobacco leaves, Indian spiciness, cherry robitussen cough syrup, excellent amaro cola, cherry and rubber fusion, marmalade of celery and rhubarb, roiboos tea, adventure flowers ad infinitum. That’s the ticket; you love to do the merry go round aroma wheel, then Nebbiolo is for you. Did I mention the wine is tight like a drum, refreshing for a zillion foods, and punchy nervous to come back again and again, and for the pocketbook, a scant less that $25.00.

This is one of Vias’ oldest clients and now is well represented around the North American landscape because of the consummate diplomatic travels of one Duke, Aldo Vacca. I was weaned on these wines 30 years ago, they are the tricycles without training wheels for those who want to romp in Piemonte. I met Aldo 15 years ago and we have been ripping open peoples minds with notes on regional philosophy, culinary wizardry and a dire appreciation of how a grape in one place can create resounding individuality ever since. Go there and find him; he is always willing to share the gospel and stear you in the direction of a beloved tartufo, vitello tonnato, tajarin, agnoloti plin, brasato, osso bucco, tuma extraodanaire or just a swirl and seek matrix. The world owes him a handshake and a scholarly nod for his noble service to Barbaresco and getting people locked on.

What do we sell anyway? You need the 08 Nebbiolo as I whispered so vehemently before. The Torre 06 Barbaresco happens to be gigante this go around because the Produtorri execs decided not to bottle Crus. 05 is straight up delicious now. In a typically solid year there could be nine Crus, but the nod was to slow the international market down a bit after two phenomenal releases in 05 and 04. Did I mention at all that across this fair land you will find single vineyard wines on store shelves and lists going back: 01, 99, 96, 89 and 82′s? Four words: BUY THEM, DRINK THEM.

How does one approach the single vineyard issue? Go out and grab a 2004 0r the newly released 2005. I for one love Rabaja, Asilli and now Paje, my new joy. You could say they are like children or like personality challanged humans. First of all, nothing is rated below 91 points in the current 2005 series available NOW. Prices are sound and really a bargain when pitched agianst their kin from Burgundy. These gems rate. Aldo relates them with the apt human characterizations: Pora is a Dolce Vita Wine, Rio Sordo is the Silky One, Asili is a Word of its Own, Paje is simply Evergreen, Moccagatta is the Prisitne Beauty, Rabaja is the Pure Breed, Ovello is the Tomboy, Montefico is the Academic and Montestefano is the Barolo of Barbaresco.

To drink these is like looking back in time to when people were just putting the reality of dry wines together and bottling pieces of geographical space. You become part of the growing genesis. I am launching a box of 01′s, 99′s and 96′s for a lecture in Seattle with my cohort and lantszman Chris Zimmerman. If you want hard core pleasures now, drink these wines going up, maybe with just reggiano parmesiano, gorgonzola and robiolas. If you want to live and age with grace and nobility in your cellar, put a layer or two in for 30+ years for the 04′s, and 15+ years for the 05′s. Trust your Professor on this, you’ll get an A+!

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Enchanted by a morning in Novello

 

  

What visionary was pushing for vintage specific wine in 1873?

 

Did you ever ask yourself why it is called “meditazione?” It is indeed just a beverage, it is wine as we love it, so why ordain it with such noblesse? Because. It has earned its stripes. You see the label above, this is the cold  truth of the NW region of Piedmont and the tale of Nebbiolo. I feel if the channel went to armaggedon this would be the only tipple I would require. The mere fact that a great Barolo or Barbaresco can live in your glass for hours, profoundly speaking, even days, and do anything more than fake the bejeezes out of you with its nuanced language of loving perfumes and breathtaking mouth attack and sweetness, and oh yes, that superbo vein of iron filings that give it lift and zip. It commands attention like a wreking ball headed for your face!

Do you think I like it? I love this wine with respect and glee more than any other God or Bacchus has given to me. And I went to the land of its provenance, the region of Alba and it’s tiny villages of individual expressionisms to get a current facelift of vintages and tastes. This is a felicitous tale of pre-VinItaly and a buzz on in Novello the town of Barolo.

The books and maps are rich of Barolo and Barbaresco. The cold climate zona has born a wildly prolific grape named after the nebbia that buds early and hangs to supreme ripeness in October typically. Add a layer of global warming and you get many vintages of juiciness and density and fruit. Beware though, these specimens are gnarly tough when young and demand typically the longest aging. Yes, the 99′s, 01′s, 04′s, and soon to be joined by the 06′s and 07′s will last till I reach the first century of glory drinking. Yes, they stand the test of time, but we as drinkers of rape and pillage continue to reap our pleasures as they are going up. Most people will never experience in their lives the tertiary perfumes that bouguet gives, this craziness that we banter about: goudron, iodine, tar, roses, tobacco, peanuts and ash. To drink young means to use reggiano parmesan as a mitigator of tannins, to enjoy in mid stride is to savor the osso bucco, risotto con funghi or manzo brasato. These wines are the most intellectual dinner wines from Italy and often garner much to do about Burgundy and Pinot Noirs savory sweet and sour juxtopositions. 

In Novello the family of Elvio Cogno and the wise guy superstar Walter Fissore have crafted four amazing and individual Barolos. The village is sort of secret but once there you realize the soil type is a compact clacerous clay similar to Castiglione Falleto and Serralunga, basically kick  ass Nebbiolo.Today there are now four exemplars to discover, drink and collect. The first is the newly labelled “Cascina Nuova” which blends the Nebbiolo from the crus in the hood. It is a floral beauty, earth tonality with the 2005 exhbiting a punchy and raspy edge, certainly a big food cutter. The best vineyard of Walter’s paradigm is called Ravera. The 04 was a Gambero Rosso tre bicchieri, need I say more; it is a monster of brooding power and gifted for at least a few decades. The new 05 is loaded with mintiness and tea, punctuated and layered. The taste is revered of olives, dusty vibrations of soil, opulent cascade on entry, and then length and harmony, magnificent really in a vintage of earlier maturing greatness. As a preview of the dynamite 06 coming out in the fall, the olfactory is jam-centric, herbal to iodine, very rich; the mouth follows with a sweet, tight medium bodied punchiness. Next is the 04 Elena, the only Barolo I know made of the single clone called Rose. For success notes this one won this years tre bicchieri and the field of competition was HUGE! This perfume is more Bordeaux heady, giving over to tobacco and and a rich Burgundian Nuits scent, a plush mouthfeel with more medicinal carvings with a long racy old world tannic and acid exchange. Great qualities.

In dedication to the man who initiated the Novello movement and father of the estate, Elvio Cogno who did over 30 years of Brunate and LaSerra magic for the Macarini family, a new cru named Pernice was unveiled this spring. A pure Michet clonal Barolo it will need time to express. Initially the 2005 is finely tuned in the perfumes and very big in the mouth, raw materials that speak the language of love from terra to cellar to glass.

A quick flash is needed to mention that the estate has outrageous Barbera in the 08 vintage, a lovely modern Langhe Rosso called Montegrilli, and perhaps one of the biggest secrets of the Piemontese toolbox, a rarified white called Nascetta that is juicy fat, steely and mineral laden, a great discovery of the current 08 vintage or 09 in the summertime.

You need to memorize the name Damilano for your entry level bang for the buck in Barolo, Arneis and  Barbera d’Asti. This is a company born from the 1890 Borgogno tradition with four cousins, Paolo, Mario, Margherita and Guido on the move with creative powers delivering amazing results. They put  D-force where only G-force was necessary.

The propery is centered in Barolo with a great wine shop attached. However, the creatvity is exhibited when they create a blended Barolo called LeCinqueVigne. The blend hails from Barolo, Verduno, Grinzane Cavour, LaMorra and Novello. With the magic wand of Beppe Caviola as enotecno, the wine is virtous, correct with typicity of Nebbiolo and place. For $40.00 this is a stunning price to quality kiss and stamp. The 04 is here and everywhere. It will be around through the summer and then will shift to the magnificent 06, a mere ten days in the bottle and this groovy titan was barking of sneakers and lace, positively licorice, floral and packed with prunes and plums, WOW!

The Damilanos are blessed to be the largest owners of Cannubi, the first recognized vintage of note and great history. The 04 is splendid, a tre bicchieri winner also. There is also a venerable single cru called Liste which is only bottled by 2 houses. And with the coming 06 vintage the Damilano name will be seen on two of the other venerable crus Cerequio and Brunate. Round out with great Riservas in great vintages and the luscious and scintillating Barolo Chinato and you have a study to captivate for a long, long time.

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Oxidation or captivation, go figure, it's the JOB

It is GOOOOOAAAAALLLLL!

You come to play and you come away mesmerized, punched around, titallated with Italian wine fever and illuminated. Why do it exactly?  Yes, we are pros. Yes, we need facetime with producers. Yes, we are compelled to survive in some imperialistic wine endeavor that makes as both whole, valuable, sustainable and for me, even heroic.

The fiera del vino as it is so called happens every spring in the most idealic of settings, the Veronese camp of Romeo and Juliet. It has been a happening joust for almost 40 years, truly a gifted sport of the trade. Verona is a superb Adige river college town, ready to take your money, gifted of swank charm and great grub, cheery of old money and forward thinking. It has grown up well out of the revered model of Soave, Valpolicella, Bardolino, Amarone. Indeed there are far fewer places of the world that spellbind on every corner and rotate around an accoustically perfect Roman amphiteater. However, and this is a curious punchline, the city may place host, but the event is on the grounds of a seriously rotted old commercial agricenter. Why?  Because.  Noone changed it. Romeo is now a bollito misto gigolo and Juliet has swum upstream to a far better vista of the plebes in motion.

Ninety thousand plus people converge for a monster disco of probably 2500 hundred wineries and lord only knows how much juice. How many of these are worthy for your mouth and mind?  Well, that’s where our sleuthing and tastings begin.

We are an importer of the passion play and great Italian estate bottled art. We have been working with serious and newly serious players for 25 years. We are great amongst the category of hundreds of seekers both ignoramous, novice and savant bouyant. The job is outrageous going in. You have a list of 75 producers you need to see professionally; some give you satisfaction, some give you heartburn. But you must steal from this excercise the knowledge of their wines and translate that back to the customer base in the United States. Tiddlywinks some might say, but to get it right is a virtous card. I like spades myself.

The show is complex. It is laid out on both fixed and portable buildings over what seems like a worlds fair scope. Regions are well defined but there is random chaos to the order of rhyme and reason and placement. Books don’t matter, printed material is scant. With empirical savvy you just know where to go and how to get it done. You sit if you need to extrapolate a lot, you stand if you are just on the hit and run model. Money vested by producers seems to be a function of individual space; those willing to anty up get opulence, those less prescribed get a kiosk. But everyone gives it a 100% Italian design element. The zona throbs of style, conviction and needed place. There are fixtures that haven’t changed in twenty years. I can walk blindly to a noble coffee, see the pretty girls playing magazines like produce, bang a refreshing pee after a long bus or train or car ride in from wherever, get my tie in mue macho correcto forma, and still be smiling when I meet my first client and take him to hear a fresh cork popped and winespeak 701.

Food is scant, some places rock like TV studios, others remain calm waiting for any victim of wine finaigling. It is a trip. My first year I spun my wheels off every two hours; buildings look the same, come on, 5 or 6 with no color coordination or ‘nothin. You attempt speed and greatness, you actualize that humble noblesse Italiano. But, even gazelles are rendered sloths after bumping into noodles, people who should not be there, faces of the trade you have known for what seems like centuries. It can take at least 25 minutes to go from end to end around the fairgrounds. Add a zillion cell phones, a good bevvy of cigarettes, some ripping males and super voluptuous females, and you have one hell of a good time. Did I tell you that there are some regional restaurants, fresh Toscana cigars being made, pictures of Dustin Hoffman 25 feet tall doing nothing in a vineyard, olive oil extravaganzas, units on microphones loudly pontificating to six soporific men, and on and on and on. Only the mighty survive such mayhem.

You ask about the final score. We won. The picture elicits the joy of a newbee flier at the fair; Joe Godas of Boston spent two days in, rallied hard and furious, the resultant sales flag can tune a thousand odd cases over time.  Add a focused distributor or two and suddenly the numbers rise to the four thousand mark. For me it is the raw materials. It is a moment to see both angry and friendly producer faces and put them on the juried provision of their wares, to find truffles amongst marbles you could say.

VinItaly delivers.  It is the Disney sport of our industry.  It should live forever until the intrepeds figure a better way.

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Is this the place for troglodytes and hobbits, or could it be useful as a camp for escaping dipping wine sales and other sordid venues?

Whatever the real answer, in the heel of the boot Italia in the Valle d’Itria and the combined towns of Martina Franca and Alberobello space is laced with over one thousand of these mystical but not really that old, trulli speaking about a century old, but clearly representative of a society moment. Was it for heat mitigation to have a conical roof?  Why no mortar, eh? Are you running quickly from tax collectors or todays marauders from Turkey?  Can grains and man survive together or do the symbols lead to a Eric Von Daniken teatro?  The whitewash reminds one of Africa, the kitsch reminds one of Roma, and the countryside is so gorgeous with vines, gnarled olive trees of The Wizard of Oz, and a life that has it’s own vegetative wealth and surrounded by seas, that you know it must be a babylonia lost and found. We went there, BECAUSE, it is the land of Negroamaro, Bombino, Primitivo, Nero di Troia, Verdeca, Chardonnay, Malvasia Nera and Ottavianello continua.

Team Vias and the Godas machine went to Brindisi, transfered to Ostuni into a grove of three thousand olive trees and a tropical feel and smell at Masseria Il Frantoio and wove the gyroscope on the land and it’s elements. I ate borage, carciofi minor, quince many ways, pureed fava beans, the leaves of the pepper plant and the best bread of the WORLD. With both sea and land in grandiose punch no wonder there is a supreme need for every type of wine: red, white and rose, and most likely soon, the missing link in every winemakers headset, the spumantistica, the need for bubbley fun and expression.

Our second day travelling put us on the wine trail to Guagnano, sort of ground zero for an icon wine called Salice Salentino, and the hub of the south, really the Florence of the south, Lecce. This city puts out amplitudes of charm, discreet positive energies, baroque and paper mache, and truly stupendous foods. The mission is simple when you’re here: understand the wines, understand the place, and you will understand why and whereto the great vinos are at and headed. Daunting in scope is the mere fact that Puglia today has over 26 appellation DOC’s, it could be the 7th largest producer of wines if it were a country, and it continues to effectively morph with new thinking about viticulture in a hot and dry microclimate.

Gianni Cantele, son of the legendary passed Augusto Cantele who started the mission to the modern whole, is the techno and business genius wrapped 100% in conviction and excellent winemaking.  He is supported by his debonair bro of commercial savvy and grounded in social networking and global skill sets to kill.  Together with two cousins Azienda Cantele is the consummate wrecking ball of youth and purpose in the heel of the boot.

What do you get when you take this all to the boca laboratory you ask?

First is the evolution of Chardonnay. The 09 is  new world sleek, no wood, so it is crisp, tight and varietal, a HUMONGOUS surprise for the zona as you think Southern and it acts northern. The 08 if found around is a baby Maconnais wine with a hint of creaminess. 09 Bombino blew me out this year- aromatic to the likes of Albarinho meets leesy mineral grip, a seducer! The 09 Rosato of Negroarmaro maintains the reality that Puglia scores in the top three for this category in the country- strawberry rhubarb jam on top, the mouth is red solid with structure to cover meats, seafoods or exotic Eastern foods. Trust me the 08 we sell is as good as it gets for texture, light bitterness wrapped in a male frame. The 07 Primitivo, the original Zin of the Eastern north is plummy and peppery, a perfect foil for all purpose grub. The 07 Salice Salentino Riserva is the best ever, a gem and the vintage of the Gods; it’s card is a modern floral ripeness backed in the mouth by clarity, ripeness and definition. A simple Telero Negroarmaro 08 could fool you to think Rhone roughness with roasted Portugese DAO hints, pretty magical. Lest they stop here. Cantele has acheived Gambero Rosso fame and international oscars with a wine called Amativo, a blend of Negroarmaro and Primitivo crafted in wood. The new 07 is blueberry pandemoneum held in a bordeuax frame, DIG IT. The 05 in Staat Uniti is an olive/blackberry/amaro wonderment, also in a balanced structure.

The case is closed today. Puglia rocks in a comfortable, senza autostradi way, redolent of old world virtues, serious attention to basic foodstuffs, and blessed with enough to eat and drink and see to be satisfied till time Trulli comes.

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