Muddy Boots

Ship's in. Wine waits.

This is the most agonizing part of the process.

It began at least 6 months ago -- more like a year ago.  Sometimes longer.

You contact a producer, you arrange to go to the vineyards, the winery.  You taste.  You decide to stay and talk. You break bread. You drink the wine at the meal. You begin to discuss pricing.

You get samples sent to the States. You retaste. You discuss, you haggle, you sign agreements.  You make an order, arrange shipment (another tale fraught with anxiety: 

why aren't they ready for pickup?).

Ah, the wine is on the water.  Ah, the wine is in port.  Ah, the wine has cleared customs. Ah, the wine is in the warehouse.  Ah -- stop right there. 

Talk the wine up but don't take it out. Don't pour it for another 3-4 weeks. Maybe longer, depending on the wine. 

Let me see, you began arranging for shipment about 3 months ago. Maybe longer, depending on the other producers' readiness. Let's say that was May. Here it is late August. You can take the new vino out in mid-late September.

That great American bard, Tom Petty, sure had this one right: The waiting is the hardest part.

"Everybody wants my baby" -- my Soave baby

I Stefanini Soaves are a hit with almost everybody.  See these nice writeups on two of the three I Stefaninis, the entry-level Il Selese and the cru Monte de Toni.

Click here for the review on Good Wines Under $20.

Click here for Frankly Wines and the Monte de Toni.

Christy Frank writes, accurately, Soave and Valpolicella are two much maligned regions [neighboring production zones] in Italy’s Veneto region. Traditionally considered cheap, but not necessarily cheerful, they could be the butt of many a wine joke. But these days there are increasingly good wines coming out of this area and we have two of them, both under $20.

Actually, they have been the butt of many a wine joke.  New producers who recognize the quality of their plants and soil, and who cannot compete in volume and price with the industrial producers, are changing the reputation of both Valpolicella and Soave.  We're still waiting for Bardolino to come back into some sort of fashion, because similar improvements are being made there too. 

Dr. Debs in Good Wines Under $20 writes temptingly of mezze, tapas, cicchetti and how the I Stefanini "Il Selese" makes a perfect summer accompaniment to such light meals.  Both the wine and the edibles can be inexpensive, refreshing and completely satisfying. Just the thing to cheer us up in a steep recession.

By the way, did I ever explain the names of the three I Stefanini wines?

Il Selese means "the drying floor" in the local dialect.  What is now the stone-paved drive and parking area in front of the house and cantina was once where the farming owners dried crops in the sun.  

Monte de Toni is a slightly local inflection ("de" instead of standard Italian "di") referring to a sharecropper years ago named, well, Tony.  This Tony farmed the portion of the volcanic hill behind the Tessari house where this cru now is grown.

Monte di Fice, the other cru, is named for the top portion of the hill.  And, yes, a sharecropper named Fice farmed that section 50 years ago.

Contrary to what you might think, "I Stefanini" isn't the official name of the family who make the eponymous wines.  Tessari ("Weaver") is their name.   Yet they are "I Stefanini". 

They are and they aren't.  We are puzzled, Professor.  Please explain.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the area around Monteforte d'Alpone is crowded with Tessari (Weavers).  So each major branch takes on a nickname derived from a well-known or notorious predecessor.   Some Tessari named Stefano gave his name to Francesco Tessari's branch of the far-flung clan.  So these wonderful wine-making Weavers are also Stevenses. 

Aren't you glad you stuck around to have this completely clarified?

... I think it's time for mezze' and Soave, myself.   

Valentino and Francesco Tessari.  I'd go with notorious

 

Mazzone Immensus, replacement for Pinot Grigio

This wine, a dry Malvasia, was mentioned by Gary Vaynerchuk on ABC News "Now" today as a nice relief from Pinot Grigio, and a raving bargain to boot.  This appearance on national TV is one of many in which he tries to open the minds of the average wine-drinker to look into more varieties and types of wine.

Click here for the video link.

And, by the way, if it seems like this is the blog that retweets all of Gary's V's doings lately, all I can say is:  He knows good stuff when he sees it.

Facebook and Twitter come through

A couple of weeks ago I put out an APB (all points bulletin, linguaggio poliziesco) asking my Italian "social media" friends to guide me to interesting wineries in Le Marche, a region that I know only from whizzing through it on the autostrada.  (Oh and one rainy August 2006 afternoon in Ascoli Piceno.) 

Well, folks, it worked.  I got some excellent suggestions from Twitter and Facebook friends in Italy and the US.  We have some appointments set up for the September trip, and I expect to show-and-tell these visits after I return to New York.  

Below: Ascoli Piceno, a provincial capital in Le Marche.  Scottish weather in August

From an American perspective, Le Marche is a region without a clear identity.  Its name refers to its position as an Adriatic coastal frontier between the Papal States and the Holy Roman Empire, and with that came with a great deal of armed conflict, which militated against building up great wealth and an artistic overload.  The region has its gems, such as Urbino (a Renaissance jewel I've long wanted to see) and Ascoli Piceno itself, but it rests in the shadow of its major illustrious neighbor to the west, Tuscany, the fat and prosperous Emilia-Romagna to the north, and the relatively obscure Umbria to the west. In the northeastern US, at least, its southern neighbor, Abruzzo, is much better known, and not only for wines like Montepulciano d'Abruzzo; central New Jersey is packed with the descendants of Abruzzesi.

The wines of the region are interesting.  Rosso di Conero is popping up on more lists, and it can be one of the great bargains of Italy -- juicy with modest tannins and lip-smacking fruit.  Common in the Marche's wines are Sangiovese and Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, two of the best food wines anywhere -- variable in style, versatile as to pairings, hugely pleasing when well-made, not overcropped and not forced into an "international" strait jacket.

We are looking forward to a productive and interesting trip, to be sure. 

  

Terra di Vento "Petrale" Aglianico on Wine Library TV

I can't keep up with Gary Vaynerchuk.  The guy is a whirlwind of activity.  

So imagine my surprise when I realized today that Gary and one of his guys, Ian Dorin, separately reviewed our Terra di Vento Petrale 2006 in July.

Gary tastes five wines in this edition of WLTV's "Club C," and Terra di Vento Petrale is third up.  I wonder how enticing his descriptions of the aromas are ("Jersey turnpike"? really??) but he does approve of the taste, and its body and viscosity.  Here is the link.   

Ian's take is a little more clearly flattering:  Click here.

This wine has been our most popular red from the outset.  We've run low on inventory but, fortunately, another order will be on our shores before the end of the month.    

Link to the Gary V segment featuring I Stefanini "Monte de Toni"

Here is the link to this morning's video segment:  click! 

I Stefanini Soave on CBS Early Show

We hit the big time -- on national TV no less

Thanks to Gary Vay-ner-chuk, America's favorite wine geek, our Monte de Toni Soave from I Stefanini was featured on the CBS Early Show just moments ago.  Click here for the link to the lovely description of the wine.  I expect the actual, all-too-brief segment will be on YouTube any time now. (I'll keep you posted on that development.) 

The main takeaway: this ain't the Soave your parents swilled back in the 70s.  This is way better.  As Gary said, "You can get plenty of great wines for under $20."  And, he went on to say, plenty of lousy ones for $60. Amen to that. 

Falanghina is not bubble gum

At in-store wine tastings I explain to people that Falanghina is one of the "holy trinity" of southern Italian white wines.  (The other two? Fiano and Greco di Tufo.)  When they taste the Angelarosa L'Ambriana (100% Falanghina) they go for the fruit and the pleasing acidity.  L'Ambriana is dry, and its fruit is experienced as a hint of pineapple with citrus notes.  It's a refreshing wine on its own or with a light meal like seafood or salads.

So imagine my astonishment when someone in the wine business says things like, "Oh, Falanghina."  Makes a face.  "Bananas."

My response: "What kind of Falanghina have you been drinking?"

And look at this description of a Falanghina, which I found on an importer's site:

Falanghina is a pale straw colored wine with aromas of ripe bananas, syrupy pears, and pineapple and undertones of spices, with a delicate and persistent taste.

Let's go over this phrase by phrase.

It is a pale, straw-colored wine.  Check.

These are the aromas?  "Ripe bananas"?  Like the smell of certain latex paints?  Like the artificial ingredients in so many cheap processed sweets?  "Syrupy pears"?  Syrupy!  Not only is that unappetizing, it's not true.  

Pineapple and "undertones of spices."  Yes, that's true.  

"With a delicate and persistent taste"?  How does that square with ripe bananas and syrupy pears?  Somehow those big clunky smells get transformed into delicacy?  (The persistence I can believe.  Like the bitter, chemical persistence of a McDonald's hamburger long after you've swallowed it.)

Falanghina can be made in a dry, lighter style that retains the full florality of the grape, as Angelrosa does.  And it can be made in a richer, malolactic style like Mustilli's Vigna Segreta.  But unless it's been doctored with aromatic yeasts, it's never going to remind you of "ripe bananas" and "syrupy pears."

 

Conquering the Batali-Bastianich empire

One restaurant at a time

First, Otto.  Then Babbo.  Now, ta-da, Lupa.  I'm t'rilled skinny (as they say in Dublin) to announce that another of the mega-popular Batali-Bastianich eateries will be serving several Domenico Selections wines starting next week.

Located on Thompson Street in the Village, just a few yards/metres north of Houston Street, Lupa will be serving four of our wines: La Schiaccionaia Trasubie, Angelarosa L'Ambriana (Falanghina), Reale Cardamone and a new entry, Musto Carmelitano's Pian del Moro.

It's an unknown fact that the wine list at Lupa inspired me some years ago to think of Italian wine as more than a hobby.  Specifically, it was a bottle of Camillo Montori's Fonte Cupa Trebbiano (of all grapes).  It was a subtly distinctive, very pleasant wine at a reasonable price.  I hadn't seen it elsewhere and was impressed by its inclusion on the Lupa list.  

So, in a way, Lupa is partly responsible for my new career (vocation). Fine, it's responsible in a tiny way.  But it was one of a hundred little encounters with wine and wine people that pushed me inexorably along.

Add two excellent partners -- we all complement each other extremely well -- and the rest is history in the making, ragazzi.     

 

Going home

My other home, I mean

I was last in Italy just a few months ago.  No, two-and-a-half months ago, to be precise.  I miss it greatly, even if I do NOT miss the discomforts of constant traveling.  But oh, the food, the wine, the people, the pretty old towns, the ugly edges of the cities, the language, the bitchy shop personnel, the herds of bovine tourists -- I miss it all.

Next month Jeff Mazen and I are heading back to Italy to visit some winemakers and, we hope, find some new producers to represent here in the US.  First we head to Tuscany to meet with an up-and-coming consulting enologist, then we'll split up and cover different territories.  Before we leave the land of the Etruscans, I hope we see our buddy Gianpaolo Paglia of Poggio Argentiera. 

I'd love an excuse to visit Sicily, though I suspect the Marche will be more in my itinerary; I do go for those rossi piceni and rossi di Conero.  (NB:  It's pronounced CON-ero, not CoNEro, which sounds like pseudo-Spanish.) 

And maybe I'll get to Urbino at last.

  

      

GUIDA VINIBUONI D’ITALIA honors Mustilli Piedirosso 2008

Anna Chiara Mustilli, the winemaker in the family, wrote me the other day and said that the Mustilli Piedirosso 2008 was "just honored by GUIDA VINIBUONI D’ITALIA 2010 TOURING CLUB with the CORONA, which is their most important premio!!"

Seeing as she ended the sentence with two exclamation marks, I guess the Guida Vinibuoni award is a big deal in Italy.  (I have been getting a lot of email from the Guida over the past few days.  Is it like getting a 90+ in Wine Spectator?)  Really, they have so many wine guides over there that it gets a bit confusing -- which ones are the best?  the most honest?  the least corrupt?  

Whatever.  I'm glad Anna Chiara is so happy because she is such a nice person and works hard to do a good job, which, clearly, she is doing.  

I'm also glad the Piedirosso is ready to board the ship for the voyage to our teeming shores.  This particular Piedirosso is 100% of that grape, and it's a delicious wine for everyday drinking.  Fresh, sapid, balanced -- good fruit and surprising length.  You'll get a chance to taste it from mid-September.