Muddy Boots

The first genuine Muddy Boots podcast

In this my maiden narrowcast I burble, a bit drunkenly and on a controlled substance (a prescribed medication, by the way), about the vineyards and wines and terroir and so forth of Luigi Reale.  I recorded this as part of an experiment last night, so you get some annoying sounds (like the consistent intake of breath reminiscent of the Beatles' sloppiness in their song "Girl" on Rubber Soul).  It's a learning experience.  We'll see how all this goes.  Need to get Jeff involved in these 'casts -- you might be amused by our profane conversations, most profane when we 1) strongly disagree and 2) strongly agree.

http://muddybootsblog.podbean.com/

Strappo speaks! On the radio

Yes, this is where you get to hear my dulcet tones and shockingly refined accent.  The radio program was recorded on February 21.  Unless you want to hear a lot of boring yadda yadda on financial management and tax dodges in the new era, skip to 47:00 minutes into it.  I was told that, sometime in future, I'll be given a whole hour.  And, I hope, no Elton John.

Strappo speaks!

 Download 01 Blues And Beyond

If someone knows how to edit this sucker to the appropriate segment using iTunes or some other easily obtained program, I'll be very grateful.

I like them. What are they?

It's a little perplexing.  What do you call places that:

- Are open continuously, all day and much of the night, from breakfast or at least lunch through dinner

- Offer imaginative, high-quality food

- Have a full-service bar and adventuresome wine lists

- Have a stylish, even elegant atmosphere, yet are informal and unstuffy

- Attract a wide variety of customers, from air-kissing socialites to neighborhood regulars

- Are not exactly economical but not irresponsibly expensive either

- And therefore are busy all the time in this rotten recession

Are they American bistros -- but with more varied and interesting food than the standard French model?

Are they diners -- haute diners, as I sometimes call them?  (For want of a better term.)

Are they the newest new wave in American restaurants?  In short, are they the future?

Whatever they are, I think they're great for this town in this time.  I like them for the quality they offer at reasonable prices (for New York, which to most Americans is like going into the Euro zone anyway).  And, thanks to the fact that liquor licenses are pretty inexpensive in New York, you have well-stocked bars and, usually, a sommelier who tries to bring something both new and different to his clientele - at reasonable prices.  These are not old-guard places with old-guard attitudes.

The funny thing, these places aren't always spanking new.  Cookshop, a mainstay in Chelsea since 2005, is still fresh and interesting.  'ino, a tiny place on Bedford Street in the West Village, is packed all the time and has been open years longer. And there are many many more scattered throughout the town, like Gemma in the Bowery and the Bowery Bar & Grill (at not quite the same level but good) farther east.

See, the concept is right.  The formula works so well.  And if these places represent what the new American eatery is all about, then we all win, kids, because they combine an American style with a scrupulous attention to detail and top-grade ingredients that echoes the best traditions of the Old World. 

    

Old old vines make good good wines

One of the many weird cults in the wine world is the Old Vines -- Vielles Vignes, Vecchie Viti, etc, -- cult.  I've seen "old vines" in one language or another on a number of labels, including -- and this is funny -- $10 wines. 

Define old.  What, 15, 20 years?  Forget about it.  Thirty, 40 years?  Now you're talking.  Ninety, 100 years?  I need a defibrillator!

Domenico Selections has a couple of very old-vine wines, either in the current portfolio or soon to come.

To show and tell what I mean, here are a couple of old articles from mondosapore that you may have missed, reposted in their entirety here.  The first one deals with the beautiful and awe-inspiring vineyards of Luigi Reale, high above the Amalfi Coast, up the twisty road from Maiori.  The justifiably adored beauty spot of Ravello isn't far, so if you're in the area, you must eat at Luigi's wonderful osteria. 

The second deals with one of the most impressive debuts you could hope for, from the young Elisabetta Musto-Carmelitano in the Aglianico del Vulture appellation of Basilicata.  Her powerful yet nuanced reds will be here before autumn. 

Old old vines and good good wines.  "Roll it, Jimmy," as Colbert says.    

Reale wine on the Amalfi coast

The winery of Luigi Reale was a real discovery.  It raised my expectations of wine made in a world-famous beauty spot, in this case the Amalfi Coast of Campania.  All of the essential components of interesting wine are present: good land, indigenous grapes of singular character and the informed intuition of the winemaker. 

Located in the village of Gete in the larger commune of Tramonti a few winding miles from the sea, Azienda Agricola Reale Andrea, is situated on a very steep 2.5 hectares on two small plots.  The elevation is roughly 450-500 meters, which makes the microclimate a good deal cooler (even snowy) than at the coast. 

The varieties grown are, for the most part, very local and correspondingly rare: Biancazita, Biancolella and Pepella for the white; Piedirosso and Tintore for the reds and the rosato.  Granted, Biancolella and Piedirosso aren't rare in Campania, but the others are.  Luigi is ardent in his affection for Tintore, which is a subvariety of Aglianico; its perfume and its flavor, with some time in bottle, are to me reminiscent of Burgundy -- reminiscent, that is, not a sort of faux-Burgundy.  Reale's wines aren't trying to be a version of anything else.  But the best can evoke associations with other wines that possess complexity and ageability.

A great deal of this has to do with the great age of the vines, as is shown in the picture above.  One vineyard is composed of century-old vines of Tintore.  A walk through this green-farmed plot (less than a hectare) takes you to a vineyard that looks and feels different from the orderly rows of younger vines trained in the Guyot style, which also exist on Luigi's larger, slightly lower and steeper plot.  The old-vine Borgo di Gete terreno looks like a vestige of a tradition, and under the watchful eye of Fortunato Sebastiano (the enologo and agronomo) there is a balance between tradition and contemporary practices of strict yield management and chemical-free vine management.

The proof of these good intentions is, of course, in the tasting.  We tasted, and later drank, each of Luigi's four wines.  Descriptions and impressions can be found in the continuation.

Another view of the Borgo di Gete vineyard

Part of the lower vineyard -- very
little room for expansion

Up there?  Maybe Reale vines one day

Luigi Reale inspects Fortunato's work.  He likes to say that he is one of the "fortunati" (lucky ones) to have Fortunato as his enologo and vineyard manager.

Reale produces one white, a rose' and two reds.

Aliseo 2007 IGT

This is the white wine, which is named for the sea breeze that keeps the vineyards well ventilated and preserves them from excessive heat much of the time.  (The property faces southwest.)

We tasted three vintages, and the 2007 (just bottled) was the freshest and most appealing, as you'd expect.  Made of 40% each Biancolella and Biancazita with 20% of a very obscure but peppery and lively Pepella, this 12%-strength wine is full of citrus with a somewhat smoky, caramel nose.  About 30% of this one is oak-fermented, which accounts for this warm, rich character.  We found this to be very versatile with the local dishes from Luigi's restaurant "Osteria Reale." 

Getis 2007

This rose' is made of 80% Piedirosso and 20% Tintore.  The 2007 is at 13%, dry and balanced with acidity that makes it an excellent food wine.  Strawberries and plums predominate in the nose and on the palate.  A delicious and versatile wine that sells out completely at Luigi's osteria. The total production is about 1000 bottles. 

Cardamone 2006

Made with the same blend of Piedirosso and Tintore as Getis, the 2006 will be released in the fall.  Its special character leaps out at you even in this still very young vintage.  Rich, peppery notes combine with  zesty black-cherry to create a compulsively drinkable wine that goes well with a wide range of foods and is, I think, delicious on its own.  The smokiness in the Getis is much more pronounced here.  Cardamone sees no wood, by the way, so the smoke is a function of grape and soil.  The 80-90-plus year old vines do their bit.  This is sensational wine that I could drink every day.  Copiously.

We tried two other vintages.  The 2005 was the first under the tutelage of Fortunato Sebastiano (Luigi can be credited with "discovering" him -- he was Fortunato's first client after he left Bruno DeConciliis' employ to strike out on his own) and its pleasure quotient is a bit reduced.  Perhaps in part a function of the year's weather, it probably also reflects an earlier stage of managing vinification.  The 2007 tank sample is still young and "under development", though I think it will be fine stuff by the time it's released in 2009.

Borgo di Gete 2005

This is 100% Tintore that's been in first-passage oak, half in tonneaux and half in barrique.  The wine weighs in at 13% happiness.  Newly released, this needs a year or two more before its extraordinary fruit and "organoleptics" harmonize.  "Tintore" suggests color and depth, and it was used by local farmers in the old days to add color and heft to other varieties.  Reale's Tintore in purezza has a deep almost plummy color yet manages to be clear, no muddiness at all.  This vintage possesses an earthy nose that really is reminiscent of Burgundy, although there the similarities cease.  This is no disparagement of Borgo di Gete; it's an acknowledgment of its complex individuality.  I'll be very interested to see how it evolves over the next few years.

Cantina is very small too

As you can imagine, the production of the ancient vines is small and the price of Borgo di Gete is high to match.  For an appassionato of rare varieties and old-vine wines, this would be worth the expenditure (about 40 euros at Luigi's restaurant).

I enjoyed my stay at Luigi's osteria -- the few rooms available are large and airy with beautiful views of the vineyards and hills all around -- and I appreciated the chance to taste each of the wines at two days' worth of meals.  And it's a different world from the tangled tourist crush at the seafront.

                                A view from one of the rooms.  Note Byzantine-influenced church in background.

Posted on May 11, 2008 |

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For the story on Betty Musto-Carmelitano and her 90+ year-old vines, continue ever onward!

The winery of Luigi Reale was a real discovery.  It raised my expectations of wine made in a world-famous beauty spot, in this case the Amalfi Coast of Campania.  All of the essential components of interesting wine are present: good land, indigenous grapes of singular character and the informed intuition of the winemaker. 

Located in the village of Gete in the larger commune of Tramonti a few winding miles from the sea, Azienda Agricola Reale Andrea, is situated on a very steep 2.5 hectares on two small plots.  The elevation is roughly 450-500 meters, which makes the microclimate a good deal cooler (even snowy) than at the coast. 

The varieties grown are, for the most part, very local and correspondingly rare: Biancazita, Biancolella and Pepella for the white; Piedirosso and Tintore for the reds and the rosato.  Granted, Biancolella and Piedirosso aren't rare in Campania, but the others are.  Luigi is ardent in his affection for Tintore, which is a subvariety of Aglianico; its perfume and its flavor, with some time in bottle, are to me reminiscent of Burgundy -- reminiscent, that is, not a sort of faux-Burgundy.  Reale's wines aren't trying to be a version of anything else.  But the best can evoke associations with other wines that possess complexity and ageability.

A great deal of this has to do with the great age of the vines, as is shown in the picture above.  One vineyard is composed of century-old vines of Tintore.  A walk through this green-farmed plot (less than a hectare) takes you to a vineyard that looks and feels different from the orderly rows of younger vines trained in the Guyot style, which also exist on Luigi's larger, slightly lower and steeper plot.  The old-vine Borgo di Gete terreno looks like a vestige of a tradition, and under the watchful eye of Fortunato Sebastiano (the enologo and agronomo) there is a balance between tradition and contemporary practices of strict yield management and chemical-free vine management.

The proof of these good intentions is, of course, in the tasting.  We tasted, and later drank, each of Luigi's four wines.  Descriptions and impressions can be found in the continuation.

Another view of the Borgo di Gete vineyard

Part of the lower vineyard -- very
little room for expansion

Up there?  Maybe Reale vines one day

Luigi Reale inspects Fortunato's work.  He likes to say that he is one of the "fortunati" (lucky ones) to have Fortunato as his enologo and vineyard manager.

Reale produces one white, a rose' and two reds.

Aliseo 2007 IGT

This is the white wine, which is named for the sea breeze that keeps the vineyards well ventilated and preserves them from excessive heat much of the time.  (The property faces southwest.)

We tasted three vintages, and the 2007 (just bottled) was the freshest and most appealing, as you'd expect.  Made of 40% each Biancolella and Biancazita with 20% of a very obscure but peppery and lively Pepella, this 12%-strength wine is full of citrus with a somewhat smoky, caramel nose.  About 30% of this one is oak-fermented, which accounts for this warm, rich character.  We found this to be very versatile with the local dishes from Luigi's restaurant "Osteria Reale." 

Getis 2007

This rose' is made of 80% Piedirosso and 20% Tintore.  The 2007 is at 13%, dry and balanced with acidity that makes it an excellent food wine.  Strawberries and plums predominate in the nose and on the palate.  A delicious and versatile wine that sells out completely at Luigi's osteria. The total production is about 1000 bottles. 

Cardamone 2006

Made with the same blend of Piedirosso and Tintore as Getis, the 2006 will be released in the fall.  Its special character leaps out at you even in this still very young vintage.  Rich, peppery notes combine with  zesty black-cherry to create a compulsively drinkable wine that goes well with a wide range of foods and is, I think, delicious on its own.  The smokiness in the Getis is much more pronounced here.  Cardamone sees no wood, by the way, so the smoke is a function of grape and soil.  The 80-90-plus year old vines do their bit.  This is sensational wine that I could drink every day.  Copiously.

We tried two other vintages.  The 2005 was the first under the tutelage of Fortunato Sebastiano (Luigi can be credited with "discovering" him -- he was Fortunato's first client after he left Bruno DeConciliis' employ to strike out on his own) and its pleasure quotient is a bit reduced.  Perhaps in part a function of the year's weather, it probably also reflects an earlier stage of managing vinification.  The 2007 tank sample is still young and "under development", though I think it will be fine stuff by the time it's released in 2009.

Borgo di Gete 2005

This is 100% Tintore that's been in first-passage oak, half in tonneaux and half in barrique.  The wine weighs in at 13% happiness.  Newly released, this needs a year or two more before its extraordinary fruit and "organoleptics" harmonize.  "Tintore" suggests color and depth, and it was used by local farmers in the old days to add color and heft to other varieties.  Reale's Tintore in purezza has a deep almost plummy color yet manages to be clear, no muddiness at all.  This vintage possesses an earthy nose that really is reminiscent of Burgundy, although there the similarities cease.  This is no disparagement of Borgo di Gete; it's an acknowledgment of its complex individuality.  I'll be very interested to see how it evolves over the next few years.

Cantina is very small too

As you can imagine, the production of the ancient vines is small and the price of Borgo di Gete is high to match.  For an appassionato of rare varieties and old-vine wines, this would be worth the expenditure (about 40 euros at Luigi's restaurant).

I enjoyed my stay at Luigi's osteria -- the few rooms available are large and airy with beautiful views of the vineyards and hills all around -- and I appreciated the chance to taste each of the wines at two days' worth of meals.  And it's a different world from the tangled tourist crush at the seafront.

                                A view from one of the rooms.  Note Byzantine-influenced church in background.

Stefania adds details and pictures

Stefania Pepe took some time yesterday to clarify a few things for me regarding the give-and-take between herself and her father Emidio.  She also sent some lovely pictures taken at a different season and in better weather than we enjoyed last week.  Keep scrolling for the English version.

Photo: Stefania in tractor at harvest.  Note tendone training, which is traditional.  It prevents burning of grapes in hot summer sun. 

Non è stato mio padre ad insegnarmi l’uso del cemento, io ho voluto “iniziarlo” all’uso del legno….Lui non ama il legno, quando io ho acquistato i primi tini e lui mi ha vietato di metterli nella sua cantina, gli ho chiesto di darmi in uso la vecchia cantina….avevo fatto fabbricare espressamente per me dalla Garbellotto su mio disegno dei tini di fermentazione simili a quelli di Chateau Margaux…e non potevo dirgli che non li prendevo più perché mio padre non voleva…li ho acquistati lo stesso e mi sono riorganizzata nella vecchia cantina di papà.

 

Destemming by hand

Nel 2003 ho fatto il mio primo vino per conto mio nella nostra vecchia cantina…e quando la Guida dei Vini d’Italia de l’Espresso lo ha scelto come il miglior vino Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Colline Teramane…probabilmente si è convinto!
 
Si sono molto orgogliosa ...hai ragione è per questo che da subito ho voluto fare la mia etichetta…ed il Cuore Di Vino è nato nel 1997 nella cantina di mio padre…
 
A presto. Buona domenica
 
Stefania Pepe

Dicono di noi...

"Dicono di noi" is a phrase you often see at the top of Italian web sites.  It means "[What] they're saying about us."  I prefer it to a header like "Press" because it allows room for various kinds of reviews, news, opinions, etc., and not just your own press releases or the mainstream wine press. 

Thanks to this setup, I feel free to point you to several online reviews of Domenico Selections wines.  If you haven't read these already, take a few minutes and check them out.  Not only, I hasten to add, for the positive things the reviewers wrote but for their diverse but excellent writing styles.

David McDuff's Food & Wine Trail -- a thoughtful comparison between two Soaves, one of them our I Stefanini Monte de Toni 2006.

The popular Dr. Deb Harkness (Good Wine under $20) wrote a glowing review on the same wine: click here.

Fredric Koeppel, whose reviews are among the best anywhere (Bigger Than Your Head), wrote a long post about six of Domenico Selections' Campanian wines:  click here.  

The mainstream wine press has given us a couple of nods, though I can't reveal any specific information -- the publication dates are still a month or two away.  Two of the wines are getting a Best Buy designation, which used to seem like a consolation prize until this horrendous downturn.  Now it's a badge of honor.

Finally, forgive me for tooting my own horn -- not that a reader of mondosapore would be so astonished to hear it -- but I have to share an email that I received yesterday from Nick Greendyk in New Jersey:

Hi Terry,

 As a longtime Mondosapore reader, I've been itching to try some of your selections, and was pleased to discover recently that my two primary sources of wine (56 Degrees  in Bernardsville, NJ and Wine Library in Springfield, NJ) both now carry some of your wines.

 I tried the Angelarosa Greco di Tufo last night.  Outstanding!  Beautifully complex, delicious and drinkable.  After much grumbling about my opening a white wine, my non-wine geek wife ended up raving about it and drinking 3 glasses.  Great job searching this one out.  I'm looking forward to trying the Stefanini, Bocella, Terra di Vento, and Piandibugnano wines I also picked up this week.

 I see 56 Degrees is doing an in-store tasting of one of your wines this weekend.  56 Degrees is a great store.  Joe and Chris taste, hand-select and hand-sell everything they carry.  I've been buying wine from Chris for 20 years.

http://www.wineaccess.com/store/56degrees/newsletter.html?newsletter_id=165945

 Best of luck in your importing business venture. 

Nick Greendyk

(Printed with Nick's permission.)

Great as it is to get glowing reviews from serious bloggers and the wine press, it's even more gratifying to receive one from someone who has actually gone out and bought the wines with his own hard-earned cash.  Thank you, Nick!

* TDH

Stefania Pepe: In her father's footsteps. Sort of

Recently we visited Stefania Pepe and her husband, Adone Del Negro, in the Controguerra zone of northern Abruzzo.  It was my first time visiting her property or her father's, the legendary Emidio Pepe, a pioneer of the "back to the future" winemaking movement in Italy.  Yet it was hardly my first time dealing with wines from the Pepe family; my very first post on mondosapore (October 2005) was about a tasting where I first tasted an array of Emidio's always interesting and sometimes perplexing Trebbianos and Montepulcianos d'Abruzzo.

The differences between the father and the daughters are striking, and they ultimately go far in explaining the varying character of Emidio's wines and Stefania's.  Where Emidio is a compact country gentleman with a reserved, courtly manner, the daughters are tall, vivacious an d definitely not reserved.  Stefania, especially, is an outsized personality -- dare I say a kind of Anna Magnani of wine?  She's passionate, outspoken and kind, but, I suspect, pretty tough on people who don't live up to her standards.  Her husband Adone is a calmer, slightly more detached sort of person, and here I suspect he provides the groundedness a passionate character like Stefania needs in both life and work.  

 

Stefania at site of a vineyard to be born some time after

her second child

If you detect my warm personal connection with this couple, you're right.  They're hard not to like.  They are both grape farmers and winemakers, and their wines seem to express their personalities as clearly as they express their terroir.  There aren't many wines which, when you put some into your mouth, cause you to exclaim, "This wine's alive!  It's dynamic!"  This is what you get with Stefania's in particular.  Even if they aren't to your taste, you have to admit that they're highly individuated.

Note that like many of her father's wines, some bottles of Stefania's wines can be rather off-putting when first opened.  (You wanted natural wine, didn't you?)  After the gases blow off, the true beauty of these wines knocks you out.

Casks and Concrete

In general, Stefania adheres to her father's philosophy of minimal intervention in both vineyard and cellar.  Some of her vineyards are certified biodynamic, while others are certified organic, with every effort made to have all classified as BD.  She is candid about needing to apply sulfur and copper to the vines when conditions are particularly poor (excessive moisture), but only then.  Green manuring with cut grass helps reduce pests and keeps the vines from being burnt or water-stressed in the summer heat. 

One of the initial differences with her father was over the use of concrete tanks for fermentation and storage.  He scoffed at it as "too old-fashioned" (ironic, that), but the results persuaded him to go back to the future; Emidio uses cement now.  oak casks.  Emidio now uses casks as well as cement tanks, convinced by the example his daughter had shown him.

We tasted one of Stefania's wines made in cement and one in wood, and the cement was far more alive on the palate and nose than the wood.  Whatever it may have lacked in finesse, it more than made up for in verve and the delight of drinking it, so intense was the fruit.  Of course, her wines aged in oak are not a bit overdone; the wood is used judiciously, and the results are perhaps a little more conventional, hence pleasing to most wine-drinkers.  Both containers yield wines that are deeply interesting.

(The text in red is a revision of an error that Stefania flagged.  I had originally written that Emidio didn't believe in using cement, which is of course a ridiculous misstatement.  Mental dyslexia at work! -- * TDH)

 

Stefania said she wants to control the entire vinification process as much as possible.  This entails a mix of the old (grapes are all crushed by their feet, though they wear rubber boots, you may be relieved to know) and the new (a soft-press machine using technology the peasants of yore would never have conceived of).

The pictures will give you a thousand words' worth of my tiresome prosing. 

Stefania, in motion as ever, in front of the crushing table

 

 

 Contrary to rumor, there is no feud or bad blood between Emidio and Stefania. It is not an Italian Falconcrest

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E finalmente - i vini!

Here are some salient notes on the wines Stefania had us try.