Recent trip to Italy

Well, after a great month and half of being in Italy it is definitely difficult to be here. The food is not as good, it is a chore to find great coffee; the only thing I can say I am still consuming is great wine!! Thank god for my job!! So after seeing many producers of Vinifera's in Italy I need to post some photos. I'm going to start today with the 1st producer that I went and visited - Giacomo Bologna. A great visit with Nadine, the super spirits lady from Germany and the rest of the Braida crew. We were there during harvesting of the first pick wines (moscato/brachetto) and here are a few shots. I was so excited to see one of my favorite Piemontese producers and it was a thrill to be there. Got to taste through some exciting vintages coming up and their grappa that is produced by the world famous Berta distillery. More to come on my trip, but here are some pics.

Moschioni

Moschioni is no slouch. He makes big strong wines that will hold in a bottle for 20+ years. Hard to find we barely import any of these wines here to the N.W. So don't miss a chance if you have the opportunity to taste some of these wines . Here is a little info/bio:

Michele Moschioni's tiny estate is located in Cividale. An afternoon spent in his cellar is a fascinating education in the purity of expression that Friuli's indigenous red varietals are capable of achieving in the hands of a serious, passionate producer. Moschioni credits Romano Dal Forno as an early inspiration for his wines. He is also very close to Gravner, Damijan and Zidarich, all small artisan producers who craft hand-made, natural wines. Moschioni favors late harvests which can stretch into mid-October or early November. Because fruit often struggles to ripen in this northerly microclimate, in some vintages Moschioni performs a slight drying or appassimento on a portion of his grapes. As Moschioni says, he likes fat wines and these are powerful, intense offerings with dry extract levels that are off the charts. The wines are fermented using only natural yeasts. For his top bottlings - Pignolo, Schiopettino and Rosso Reâl - Moschioni uses open-top wood fermenters without temperature control. The wines all do malolactic fermentation in French oak (Allier and Tronçais, roughly 80% new) where they age for about two and a half years. The SO2 levels are minuscule and the wines see no fining or filtration prior to being bottled in accordance with the lunar phases. In short, these wines are among the most natural, unmanipulated wines readers will encounter from anywhere in the world. Consumers who want to understand the potential of indigenous varieties like Pignolo and Schiopettino owe it to themselves to check out the stunning wines of Michele Moschioni.

2004 Brunello-Looking Towards More Great Vintages to Come

As we are starting to get our 2004 Brunellos in we are very excited by what the vintage brought us. The season was close to perfect (they are actually saying that 2006 could be perfect) with just a little rain at the end of the season. As I got to taste our complete line-up about a month ago I was very impressed with how well they were drinking young. Don't get me wrong waiting is definitely the way to go with this vintage, as I think that a good 5-10 years will produce amazing wines while they mature in the bottle. As we look at the 06 and 07 vintages, the Rossos showed great fruit up-front and were great drinkers now. Canalicchio di Sopra and Castello Romitiorio's Rossos really shined, though I didn't get to taste Valdicava's or Friggiali's. These wines are just about to land here in Seattle so go find them. Need suggestions on where to pick them up - let me know. Benvenuto Brunello!!

Me and 1980 Brunate Le Coste

Recently I got the chance to sit at very special tasting in our office/Warehouse in Ronkonkoma, NY with a few of our sales people from around the country, my sales manager Gary Long and Mr Vinifera Dominic Nocerino. Dominic was in a festive mood for the holidays and opened some amazing bottles of wines. Probably the best line-up I have ever got to taste. These were wines from Dominics personal collection and not all wines that Vinifera has imported. We started with a Canaicchio di Sopra 2004 Brunello di Montalcino-it was great but obviously young. We tasted through a few spotlight wines including a 1997 Casanova di Neri and a great 1990 Brunello that no one at the table recognized the producer-this probably being my second favorite of the night. But who remembers the second placer? After, tasting a 1988 Giacosa Falleto Dominic opend a 1980 Giuseppe Rinaldi Baraolo-Brunate Le Coste. This wine stole the gold in seconds. It was so supple and rich with flowery components on the nose. The pallete delivered and really I expected it as soon as we knew the wine (Dominic was blind-tasting us on a few), but the anticipation did not fail me. It was the gold of the bunch and I will never forget that wine! It stole my heart and I now put it as my favorite wine ever tasted. So if you get a chance to taste his wines after 10+ years on the market don't miss the chance. Or go buy a bottle and let it rest. You will not be disappointed! I am still carrying around the cork as a good luck charm.

Here is a little info on Rinaldi and his wines:

Giuseppe (or Beppe as his friends call him) Rinaldi makes two Barolos, both of which are made from blends of grapes from two vineyards. “I don’t believe in the idea of labeling vineyards as first-class, second-class, third-class and so forth,” Rinaldi explains. “In the past, we always made Barolo by blending grapes from different vineyards with different characteristics and positions. For example, we would use grapes from La Morra and Barolo to give elegance, and grapes from Serralunga or Castiglione Falletto to give structure. The resulting wine had a balance of acidity, body and tannins with a lot of overall harmony. That is the real tradition. It is no coincidence that in very hot years like 2000 and 2003, the best wines come from so-called ‘second-class’ vineyards.”Rinaldi’s two Barolos are Brunate/LeCoste and Cannubi(San Lorenzo)/Ravera. The better known of the wines is the Brunate/Le Coste, which is available in larger quantities. The wine is made from a blend of about 60% Brunate fruit and 40% Le Coste fruit. The less well known, though no less important, wine is the Cannubi(San Lorenzo)/Ravera, which is produced in much smaller quantities and is therefore harder to find. The vines at Cannubi are in the San Lorenzo section, where soils are sandy and the wines generally lighter in color, and more delicate and aromatic in flavor.The Barolos are made in a rigorously traditional fashion. Fermentation and maceration take place in a 100-year-old open top wood vat for 20-30 days, without temperature control or the use of selected yeasts. The wines are aged for three and a half years exclusively in cask. In most vintages the Brunate/Le Coste is the bigger, rounder, more masculine wine while the Cannubi(San Lorenzo)/Ravera is typically the more aromatic, feminine and accessible of the two Barolos.