Muddy Boots

When the ship comes in

The next shipment of Domenico Selections wines departs Livorno next week and arrives here in mid-June.  After customs clearance, trucking to warehouse and letting it settle for a while, we will be taking the new wines out soon after the July 4th holiday.

We'll be pleased to offer three new producers and their wines.  I talked about them on a podcast, but for those of you who haven't the patience to listen to one (I never do, honestly -- too hard to skim), here's a brief rundown on them:

From Basilicata the Aglianicos of young Betty Musto-Carmelitano will add depth and variety to our representation of that noble variety:  Serra del Prete, which touches no oak; and Pian del Moro, which is a bigger one that needs the oak to tame its ferocity.  Powerhouse.

I've mentioned Mustilli, from Campania, in previous posts here and on mondosapore.  The first wine we'll have from them is their top Falanghina, a cru, Vigna Segreta.  This is some fine Falanghina, ladies and gentlemen.  In the fall we'll have a couple more Mustilli wines on offer, including a favorite of mine, their Cesco di Nece.  I think that will give us our 12th Aglianico -- not really, but what the heck. We'll have an Aglianico for every palate.

The third producer is Villa Monteleone, which I wrote about in the last post.  The ripasso San Vito is coming in now, while we will have the Valpolicella Classico Santa Lena by the end of August.    

Speaking of late August and new wines for the fall season, we will "debut" two additional producers.  

From Abruzzo we will finally have two Montepulcianos from Antonio Costantini.  We've needed a couple of reds to fit in the same price brackets as our popular, excellent-value I Stefanini Soaves, and these will do it.

From Cascina Gilli in Piemonte we will present a really high-class Freisa.   Freisa is positioned as the country cousin of Nebbiolo and seems often to be produced as an afterthought or an homage to ye olde peasant ways.  At Cascina Gilli it's the focus of their finest efforts, and as a consequence it's a varied and nuanced wine. For now we're taking their Vigna del Forno, but it's only one of several styles of Freisa they make.

Finally, in time for the last hot days of summer and for the holiday feasts, we will import something new from I Stefanini -- an amazingly good spumante made of Chardonnay, which will aim at the Prosecco market.  Let's just call it the Prosecco-killer because it actually has flavor, character and a dry, clean finish, which is more than you can say about all but a couple of Proseccos.

Now the only problem I have: writing all the copy for the new regions, producers and wines on the Domenico Selections web site.  A task I've been avoiding for weeks.

    

 

Peretti on Villa Monteleone

Angelo Peretti is a well-known wine journalist based in Verona, the "capital" of Valpolicella.  His Internet Gourmet site is well-written, precise, succinct -- a rare combination in prolix Italia.  In his review, posted on Friday, Angelo gives a brief backgrounder on Villa Monteleone and how Dr. Anthony Raimondi of Chicago, who virtually created the field of pediatric neurosurgery, came to settle in Valpolicella in the last years of his life.  His widow, Lucia Duran, carries on her husband's dream and has built a small but sterling reputation for her (dare I say it) terroir-driven wines.  Click here for Angelo's review -- in Italian.  

I will translate Lucia's quote in the article. "My idea is to make traditional wines.  I don't like the globalization of wine.  Maybe that's what the market wants, but sooner or later the pendulum will swing the other way, towards typicity.  I make 30-35,000 bottles a year, and I can't believe that, all around the world, there are only 30,000 people who think like me."  

Angelo points out one of the key attributes of all Villa Monteleone wines, their peppery quality.  Truly a matter of terroir, as he says.  The luscious fruit and restrained use of oak are also hallmarks of the winery, which dances on the edge of tradition and modernity with considerable grace.  In the review Angelo calls the enologo, Federico Giotto, "un genietto" -- something of a genius. Or perhaps "the boy wonder," since he is only 32 years old.  

Old cask at Villa Monteleone

I point this out why?  

Because by the early part of July we will be offering Villa Monteleone's superb ripasso, the 2004 San Vito, to our customers.  From September (next shipment) we will also offer the Santa Lena Valpolicella Classico 2007, a "base" Valpo with everything you could want in an everyday red wine.  

Grazie, dottore e grazie, cara Lucia.

A few new pix from ABC Wine Co. tasting

I managed to retrieve and edit these couple of pictures from the great wine tasting at the Alphabet City Wine Co. on May 9.  

That's all, really.  (And:  Hello, New York.  Hello, America.)

They all sold well.  Guess which one sold the bestest?  

Hints:

1. It was very warm.

2. The customers had, by the looks of them, just started paying their own rent and doing their own laundry for the first time in their lives.

Vitignoitalia, a few pix of our producers and more

Small bit of the lungomare, Naples

You are looking at the foreboding Castel dell'Ovo.  It means "Egg Castle."  Scared now?

It's pretty dungeonlike inside.  Most of the producers stood in there for three days.  Poor buggers

Roberto Nicodemo of Terra di Vento.  Holding product at my command!  This coastal Aglianico ("Petrale") is a very good seller.

More to come about Roberto's plans to turn his organic farm into a nature-study center, with both agricultural/green awareness and art activities year-round.

People swim and cavort in this water.  Hint: looks cleaner than it is.

I met these guys from the NY-NJ area at the Vesuvius Hotel.  Mario and Cesare de Chello, wine and catering, respectively

I don't know who this dude is.  I think he's shadowing me for the CIA.  I see him all over New York and Italy.  

My grandmother told me: "Don't ever trust someone who speaks Romansch."

God, is there more?  Yes!

Angelarosa 2008s: First tastes

May 13, Santa Paolina (AV)

Last week I made my way down to the province of Avellino from a couple of stops in Tuscany.  My first stop was with one of our producers, Azienda Agricola Angelarosa, which is headed up by a long-time grape farmer, Nunzio Aurisicchio and his wife, Flavia.  The main reason for my brief visit: to taste the new vintage of their excellent whites, none of which were in bottle in early April at Vinitaly.  They still aren't, but what I tasted a week ago is pretty much what will be in bottle after the first of June. 

Last year was an interesting one in terms of weather in almost all of Italy.  In Campania they had none of the problems of early-season cold and incessant rain, which plagued many northern zones.  There was a cooling trend with rain late in the season, however, which complicated the maturation of the fruit and the harvest.

As a consequence, Nunzio's 2008s are quite different from the 2007s, a hot year that made the wine quite striking -- perhaps a little too much so for some.

Since I'm not one for long, highly descriptive tasting notes (I usually steal Ken's -- but this time he was at language school in Montepulciano), I'll give you what I have.  I can contrast the two vintages effectively, I think, so if you've tasted any of these wines before, or if you know the production zone and varieties, well, you have some basis of informed comparison. 

By the way, almost none of these wines touch any wood.  (The last wine is the sole exception.)  Their varietal character is strong and focused.

FALANGHINA L'AMBRIANA IGT 13%

Still lovely, floral with excellent fruit, varietally true.  Less highly perfumed than the 2007.  This is 100% Falanghina.

CODA DI VOLPE 13%

This wasn't bottled as a 100% varietal last year; it was added as a tiny (<10%) component to the Greco di Tufo.  This has a wonderful saline, mineral quality which, no doubt, contributes to a slightly bitter finish. There's a varietally typical zip of spiciness at mid-palate.  Highly interesting, rather unusual to have in purezza.  I'd like to import a small amount but hesitate -- it will be a hard sell. 

FIANO DOCG 13% 

This is an extraordinary vintage for Fiano.  This one is profumato, more floral than most Fianos. Absolutely wonderful and varietally true -- just better than the average Fiano.  The 2007 was restrained and correct, this one is more full and vivid.  Wow.

GRECO DI TUFO DOCG 13% 

This is always Angelarosa's best wine, their calling card.  The 2008 is much more delicate and less aggressive than the 2007.  Greco di Tufo can be hard to take unless you're a hopeless fan.  This one should have more appeal.  Clean, elegant, sfumato (nuanced) and elegant.  (I had to say "elegant" twice.)

GRECO DI TUFO TARDIVA VENDEMMIA DOCG

This is an experiment.  Nunzio harvested these grapes 5 days after the others, let them rest on the lees for several weeks and has fermented and stored the juice in acacia botti.  The wine is scheduled for bottling in the autumn and will be released in about a year.  Now a deep golden color, you can definitely taste the special flavor of acacia in this wine.  It was interesting but I'll have to wait and see if the wood retreats to the background, as it should.  I'll keep you posted.

       

Friday nite is party nite @ ABC Wine Co.

Avenue C in Alphabet City was once a drug-infested, crime-ridden wasteland.  

Now it's a wine-soaked party zone for the young and lovely.  

That was the impression, anyway, as I poured and talked up my wines at Alphabet City Wine Co. last night.  Maybe it doesn't hurt that the shop has a sitting area with comfy chairs and sofa -- sort of a Central Perk with vino. (Sometimes I had the feeling that Ross and Rachel and Chandler and so on were going to walk in at any moment.  Or their kid brothers and sisters.  The couch in the pic is not in ABC Wine Co., by the way.)   

The foot traffic was intense between 7 and 9 especially, and people were lined up at the tasting table and the cash register.  We blew through a lot of Domenico Selections wine, not to mention the brisk business in those other wines (bah!) that a regular clientele had come to know and love.  

Below: Strappo explains it all

As the evening went on, I noticed that my pours were getting a bit more generous and that no one was spitting.  After a while, almost no one was pouring any out, either.  Not "tasting."  A free and effective way to get a head start on partaying.  

I mentioned here what we'd be tasting.  The clear hit of the balmy evening -- one of the few so far this spring -- was the sole white wine in the bunch, this Soave.  Couldn't keep enough cold bottles in the fridge.  

A good time was had by all, as they say, and I await an immediate reorder. (AHEMMM.)  

At this moment it's foggy and dreary again.  I wonder what it's going to do to the airline schedules.  I can more confidently guess what it's going to do to white wine sales today.      

Il bacio

The kiss.  

I just had to pull this photo from Luigi Reale's Facebook album.  Here is Luigi bussing Bruno De Concillis.  The two wine producers from southern Campania are good friends.  In truth, Bruno is far better known than Luigi. He's been making wine for much longer, and he has the natural marketing advantage of a dynamic and irrepressible personality.   But our Gigi is no slouch, either.

 The caption Luigi wrote for this picture is, "bacio alla persona che mi ha messo a lavorare."

Translation: A kiss for the person who got me started -- as a wine producer.

Bruno, if you were here, I'd kiss you too. And thank you. We're crazy about Luigi's wines.

"What's coming up" audio now in mp3

I'm concerned that some of you may have experienced some difficulties in accessing the original podcast, which is in .ogg format.  I've converted it to .mp3, so you can play it with zero fuss using iTunes or some other .mp3 player.

Download Whatscomingup2 

New producers & wines coming your way

In this 10-minute monologue, Strappo is engaging as all get-out as he reveals who the new Domenico Selections producers are, when the first boatload of their wines will arrive on our grateful shores, and a little about the wines themselves.  And he didn't even have a script!  

http://muddybootsblog.podbean.com/2009/05/02/new-producers-wines-coming-your-way/

By the way, he's finally figured out how to use the editing software so that you don't have to hear him breathing stertorously every few seconds.  You will be grateful and relieved, senza dubbio.

Yes, Strappo is proud.  Of our selections and, especially, of himself.  

PS -- To save a step, click on the link below to hear the 'cast ASAP.

Download Whatscomingup2-1

Strappo will be pouring at Alphabet City Wine Co.

Look for me, Strappo, at Alphabet City Wine Co. next Friday (May 8).  I'll be pouring some new additions to the offerings at that upstart wine store, which is run by the East village Wine Geek and his henchmen:

* I Stefanini Selese -- a delicious Soave that's easy on the unemployment check.

* Piandibugnano Cuccaia -- a Sangiovese/Merlot blend that's the supertuscan for smart shoppers.

* Terra di Vento Petrale -- an earthy Aglianico kissed by sea breezes.  (Sigh.)

Tasting details:

Friday, May 8

6 - 9 PM

Alphabet City Wine Co.

100 Ave C
New York, NY 10009

(212) 505-9463

www.abcwineco.com

Tell 'em Strappo sentcha.

By the way, tell the Geek & Co. that they need to get some pix on the web that aren't teensy weensy iPhone photos.