Muddy Boots

Adulteration vs Social Progress

Last night I was re-reading the book Falanghina and was struck by a passage from the chapter "History of a Grapevine" by Antonella Monaco, a pioneering genetic researcher in the field of southern Italian grape varieties. She quotes Giuseppe Frojo (pronounced froyo), whose 1876 research sparked a modern system of classification of the varieties. He took a critical view of viticultural and commercial wine practices in that now antique period.

  

And of many interesting passages, this was the one that seemed most relevant to today's situation, even despite all of the vast improvements in viticulture and winemaking since those days under the shadow of phylloxera and the end of the Little Ice Age.  

"Ask me about Falanghina"

...Frojo...deplores the excessive influence on the "...peasants' taste...of the small wine retailers" who not only imposed some characters to the wine [I think this means to say 'particular qualities or characteristics'] that were incompatible with those required by international trade (wines too tannic, loved because "strong" or too acidic, called "razzenti", or too spirituous), but that also lowered their quality, urging to make farmers to make wines "that are easier to adulterate...they prefer to buy the most tannic, spirituous and colored wine." (Page 41)

(Underscore mine.)

Let's take this passage apart, just a bit.

In the 1870s the culprits, according to Frojo, were the small merchants -- both retailers and wholesalers -- who catered to a largely local market. (At that time Naples was by far the biggest city in Italy, the center of a very densely populated urban region.) The peasants -- a key word denoting the almost serflike state of the wine producers -- were led by these supposed tastemakers. As perhaps they needed to be, since, as Monaco recounts, the farmers were guilty of planting too wide a variety of vines, often yielding very inferior fruit and bearing differing traits as to color, taste and ripening times. 

This problem was attested by Columella in the 1st Century AD. But surely the deteriorating quality of the vines that Frojo documented was in part a result of an oidium attack around 1850, during which several excellent varieties were reportedly wiped out. 

All interesting in an academic sort of way. What stood out was the portion that I underlined. The end of the passage suggests a couple of significant things regarding today's wine and its evaluations:

1. The identification of dark, tannic, "strong" wines with "superior" wines seems to have been a constant since the 1870s at least. Unlike oidium and phylloxera, this plaguey preference was not a ruinous American import. It was part of a broader wine culture in Italy and, probably, in much of Europe. Given the much chillier climatic conditions of the era, one can see how higher alcohol, darker, "richer" wines would be sought after. So much wine had to be thin plonk indeed. 

2. The urge to "correct" wine by various means -- adding sugar being the least of the "adulterations" -- was no less widespread than it is today. Technology hadn't yet provided a way to prevent wines from being ruined by bad musts and various fungal contaminations. Today wines are frequently "hypercorrected" in the sense that they aren't usually off or bad, but they are manipulated to acquire a set of desirable marketing characteristics. In 1876 they would doubtless have done it if they'd been able.

3. The big change in the power equation is the increased autonomy of the grape-farmer/winemaker. One hears the same story again and again in Italy and especially in Campania: "We grew grapes for bulk wines for 40 years, but we realized our fruit was too good to sell off like that and we decided to make much better wine with it." To attribute all of this to technology and improved agricultural education is to look at only part of the story. It is evidence of the impressive social, political and economic progress made by the "peasants". And also because in so many families it's the younger generation of women who are taking over the management of the azienda and the making of the wine.

You see, everything in Italy isn't as dysfunctional as the Italians like to believe.  

 

 

Veronelli Guide's take on Mustilli

The Veronelli wine guide is one of the most prestigious in Italy. In the 2010 edition the reviewer, Daniel Thomases, rates the Mustilli wines pretty highly, especially the 100% Aglianico "Cesco di Nece", a single-vineyard wine.

Here is the relevant excerpt from the guide's Campania chapter.

 

In the Veronelli Guide, 3 stars is the highest rating. A 3-star wine in blue means that the editors have deemed this an especially fine vintage for the particular wine receiving 92 or more points.

A couple of these wines have been discontinued, I think sensibly. I'm of the party that believes winemakers tend to make too many different wines. Whether it's because they're hedging their bets or trying to be all things to all people, they lose focus on what they are doing best and should be doing more of. Here, less really is more.

 

Gold Crown to Mustilli Piedirosso

 

The Vini Buoni d'Italia guide is another to have awarded Mustilli with good scores and high praise this autumn. While giving good reviews to a number of wines in the Mustilli lineup, they singled out the Piedirosso Sant'Agata dei Goti for especially warm praise. The Gold Crown is given to a relatively few wines that the editors find highly expressive of terroir and very rewarding to drink. 

Here is the page in question. 

(See after the jump for the translation of the intro paragraph.)

 
 

 You can click on the image to enlarge it.

Before moving on to the translation, I think it's worth pointing out a few things.

1. The Mustillis make wines with only local grapes. They discontinued the practice of also growing some international varieties for blending a few years ago.

2. The hiring of Fortunato Sebastiano 3 years ago as consulting enologo has given their wines a greater focus and stronger individuality. He has also carried them much farther; they now practice all-organic agriculture and are on the way to biodynamic certification.

3. Amazingly enough, the euro prices aren't too different from the dollar prices that you pay for them here. The Mustillis are smart business people and don't practice the same herd thinking that bedevils so many Italian wine producers.

4. Vini Buoni reviews and rates only wines made from local or "autochthonous" grape varieties. 

Now to the translation...

Falanghina. How a grape was rescued

I published the following article on mondosapore in July, 2006, soon after my first encounter with Paola Mustilli and the wines of her family's azienda. Who knew then that a Domenico Selections would be importing the wines in 2009. 

Falanghina, how a grape was rediscovered

Several weeks ago I attended a tasting that featured the wines of Mustilli, a seminal winery in the revitalization of Campania's wine fortunes.  At the tasting, Paola Mustilli gave us a copy of a little book that was published in 2005, entitled Falanghina. Translated into English, it was written by three principal authors: Anna Chiara Mustilli, who runs the family's winemaking operation, Antonella Monaco, who wrote the main narrative of the volume; and Luciano Pignataro, who wrote an introductory essay "The Secrets of a Success."  (The Introduction proper was written by Leonardo Mustilli, who was a protagonist in the "resurrection" of the high-quality Falanghina grape variety, which in 20 years has proved to be one of the region's--and Italy's--best white wine grapes.)

While the entire volume is interesting and instructive, I'd like to focus on the insights of Mr. Pignataro, whose historical perspective highlights just how recent the "autoctono"or indigenous grape movement is in Italy.

Luciano Pignataro is a well-known wine journalist in Italy.  Based in Naples and long a fixture at that city's major daily, Il Mattino, he has a deep understanding of the Southern Italian wine scene.  I have to add that it is a pity his web site is not available in English, because it contains a wealth of intelligent information on wines and restaurants from all of the Southern mainland, from Rome on down.

Back to the matter at hand...

At the very outset of his essay, he paints a bleak and picture of the wine scene in his home region just 20-25 years ago:

Falanghina, surely more than Aglianico, is the wine ... that can best embody the 'genius loci' of the Neapolitan pleasure of the table.  ... Its success was sudden and overwhelming.  Until the second half of the 80s, the worst decade in Neapolitan history [due to earthquakes and organized crime's control of government]...in pizzerias and restaurants ... no local wines were offered to the customers.  Pinot, Merlot, and the other wines the great wine-making industry of the North and Sicily were promoting triumphed over all.  The elite drank Champagne and some Brunello di Montalcino.  The viticulture of the region was totally ignored by the local market and survived in small niches made up of connoisseurs and farmers who still cultivated the old grapevines.

For this dire state of affairs he blames the leveling, homogenizing effects of advertising, TV and other mass media. 

Still, there were people who believed in the quality of the local varieties, and in their perfect matching with the seafood and fresh produce that characterize the best of Neapolitan cuisine.  Mastroberardino and several other regional wineries spearheaded the revival of local grapes, grapes which had for centuries been cultivated haphazardly in a promiscuous "system" that blended all varieties together to make mostly very bad wine. Leonardo Mustilli, in the very small Sant'Agata de' Goti DOC, played a huge role in the revival and acceptance of Falanghina and other native varieties, fomenting a quality revolution that enabled Campanian wines to find their first "serious" markets since Roman times, when the region's wines were renowned all over the Empire.  

In his essay, Pignataro goes on to recount the outline of viticultural history of his home region in the Medieval and early modern periods.  Not a pretty story.  But here's an interesting historical point that has obvious resonances today:

The wine is so fruity and rich in minerals that the grapevine seems to be spontaneously generated by Mt. Vesuvius.  Neapolitan taste at the table runs to quickly consumed wines, a taste born of necessity because the great market in Naples (a great European metropolis second only to Paris in the XVIII century...) has always quickly absorbed  the produce of the countryside. ... Hence Falanghina, a cool wine always appreciated in the heat of the town and the coast.  ... We still have to explore the potential of this wine, for example as to aging, but those who have tried to work in the long time range have been gratified by the results: the alcohol content and the acidity allow for an interesting evolution as years go by.  After all, modern Italian wines have no more than fifteen, twenty harvests behind them...

The emphases are mine.  As I read this passage, I was struck by the radically new approach to winemaking that Mustilli and his ilk represent.  I had indeed forgotten that, 30 years ago, most Italian wine was anonymous, inferior stuff of obscure provenance (often from co-ops of low quality).  You never knew what was in it.  The idea of "varietal" wines from Italy was outlandish.

And we really don't know how well these wines will age, since Naples, like the entire world today, has always wanted its wine ASAP, with none of this aging folderol.

Before we get too cocky, though, Pignataro adds, almost mischievously:

Better not get too excited, a single generation isn't enough to overcome a three hundred year lag, even with state-of-the-art technology in the wineries and modern techniques in the vineyards.

A healthy skepticism remains.  As he expresses it in another passage, 

The viticultural Middle Ages, begun with the fall of the Roman Empire, ended only a few years ago in Italy.

You have to be grateful to Pignataro for not succumbing to a Wine Council boosterism.  All the more reason, then, to trust his well-informed judgments on wines and wineries.  

Wake up and hear the praise

 When the Mustilli sisters were in New York a couple of weeks ago, they promised Jeff that they would pass along recent wine-guide ratings that they had received in Italy.

Since the new ratings are indeed in Italian, I'll pass them along to you one at a time; translation is never as quick and easy as it seems it should be. Plus, some people have been hibernating a lot these past few days and would rather sleep through these short, gray days than actually do anything.

The first review is from the Duemilavini 2010 guide of the Associazione Italiana Sommelier (AIS), which selects 2000 (duemila) wines from around the country as the best and most characteristic of their particular regions or zones. 

 

Jump to the continuation (below) to read the translation of this review.

And here is the legend that explains the rating system. Sorry, I hope you can figure this out sans translation. Hint: the more bunches of grapes, the higher the rating. 

  

Buon Natale ecc.

 
 
 
 It's the most something day of the year. I'm dreaming of a white something.

In New York we will have a white Christmas. Sort of. Greyed with soot and yellowed with gifts from dogs dressed in sweaters and booties. Merry, etc.

Sorry, does one sound jaded? 

One needs little children scooped up into the collective madness that is Christmas. For some of us, that is (sniff) far in the past. 

I for one will go to the movies and eat steak with friends. With much flowing Italian wine. Making merry in our jaded old way. And, you know, happy to be together.

Merry something and Happy the other. Let's leave it at that as we drink oceans of delicious Italian wines.

Ciao e benedetti siate.

Wine explorations on the upper Upper East Side

Strappo hates to venture north of 66th Street on the East Side. (He hates going to the West Side at all.) Yet, today, he was filled with the spirit of adventure and lousy with Christmas cheer. He rode the 6 train all the way to 96th Street. And he kept thinking, "Are we headed for White Plains or what?"

The long long journey and the schlepp up Carnegie Hill were worth it. He went to K & D Wines and Spirits on Madison Avenue. It's a beautiful store and -- I think this may be the point of the voyage and the post -- an excellent customer of Domenico Selections. God bless them every one.

Here are a few of the phone pix he took today, with his usual "clever" captions. God help him every day.

 
 Best sellers? I'll take the third from the right.
 

Another display. Il Selese with his somewhat older, suaver brother, Toni

Sorry it's so big and glary. What a bargain!  
 

Hard at work two days before Christmas. Note delivery guy on right. New Yorkers would have air delivered if they could 

There's the Zagat commendation with all the balls in the window 

Noel, Noel, etc.

 

Seen at In Vino in Alphabet City

 OK, the pic's a bit blurry. The photographer has a shaky hand. But look at the wine in the middle: Boccella Rasott, poured by the glass at this great, funky little resto-and-wine-bar. (Click for In Vino website link.)

Rasott is one of my favorite Campanian wines, a powerful organic Aglianico available by the glass at In Vino for $16. Or, of course, by the bottle. Grazie, In Vino.

Here is the label in splendid isolation:

 
 

 
 

In praise of "vinino"

 A few months ago Angelo Peretti, a wine writer in the Verona area, wrote a post in which he extolled the virtues of "vinini" -- little wines -- placing them in opposition to big, overblown wines (vinoni) of the type to win critical praise and high points.

By vinini, Peretti states clearly that these wines aren't insignificant. What they are is easy to drink, pleasant to taste, fun to share with friends. Such wines are the "instrumentality" that lubricate easy discourse and social bonding; they are not the main topic of conversation and certainly not the object of lengthy analysis and argument.

In his somewhat pompously titled "Elogium of Vinino, or Manifesto for Wines That Are Easy to Drink", Peretti lists a neat set of oppositions: 

* Wines that are easy to drink (lighter, less alcoholic, balanced) vs. colossally concentrated, high-alcohol oak-monsters

* Wines to drink vs. wines to taste

* Wines to share and enjoy with friends vs. those you dissect critically 

* Wines made to the tastes of the individual winemaker (one attached to his own territory and traditions) vs. those made to some international conception of what a good wine is

* Wines that are what they are -- quirky, even imperfect -- vs. those made by the numbers, striving for technical perfection

Well, you get the idea. It's an elegant presentation of current dissatisfaction with today's wine culture and its obsession with mosts and bests as defined by a corps of tastemakers whose tastemaking days are waning.

What I like about Angelo's approach is that it is not predicated on some ideal of "natural" or biodynamic wine, which to me is suspect because it is becoming an orthodoxy no less rigid and wrong-headed as the "international" craze, to which it rose in opposition. Anyway, this entails taking winemakers at their word, which is, frankly, never a smart thing to do. (Sorry, guys. I know. You have to make a living too.)

None of that for Angelo. He centers the argument on the experience of pleasure (hedonism!) in the context of conviviality. This resonates deeply in our culture -- the symposia (drinking parties) of ancient Athens, the ritual use of wine in Christianity and Judaism, the drinking songs and games of Medieval students, the Sherry parties of our great-grandmothers, Sunday dinner in Italy, France, Spain, etc., etc.

All right, enough of this. 

What are we going to drink with our amici this evening?

What are your suggestions for some delicious, very drinkable wines?

 

 

  This one works for me

Aglianico del Vulture conquers Memphis

 I was delighted to see a positive review of Serra del Prete, Betty's unwooded, all steel-and-concrete-fermented Aglianico del Vulture. "Betty" is Elisabetta Musto Carmelitano, whose story I've told before. (Click here. No one fails to be impressed by this story or this young woman. Domenico Selections loves Betty!)

"Va bene, Strappo," you may reply, "but what positive review? Is it from any old Tom, Dick or Harry?"

"No!" I may retort. "It's by the man who writes many of the best wine reviews in the English language. Even if he lives in <gulp> Tennessee. Memphis. Tennessee. About a half a mile from that Mississippi bridge."

I refer, of course, to the wunderbar Fredric "Don't Call Me Fred!" Koeppel.

He pronounces it "Kepple" but I'm sure back in days of yore it sported an umlaut. Kööööööpel.

All joshing aside, here are a couple of highlights from Federico's review. (Go here for the whole article, which includes other wines we don't care about.)

"...my friends, this staggering wine spends six months in stainless steel tanks, four months in cement vats and two months in bottle before it is unleashed to an unsuspecting world."

Nice buildup, wot? Wait.

"The grape in question is aglianico del vulture — 'vool-CHUR-ay' — and it provides Serra de Prete 2007 with a color that’s like some nocturnal Lovecraftian deep purple shading into black; with intense and concentrated scents and flavors of licorice/oolong tea/tar-stained black currants; with a dense, supple, chewy texture that draws on the power of fathomless tannins; and a tone somber and brooding but not rustic or truculent. In fact, the blessing of keen acidity keeps the wine unexpectedly vibrant and resonant."

This guy can throw adjectives around like no one else. The only thing I take issue with is a factual one. The accent is on the first syllable: VOOL-too-reh. 

Plus, I went to Brown and I hated Lovecraft and his icky fictions, even if he was a homey. 

Note: Domenico Selections just got a new shipment of Musto Carmelitano wines, including the oaked-but-not-too-oaky Pian del Moro, a big-shouldered Aglianico that has the stuff to last a long long time.  

  

 

Meglio tardi che mai

 "Better late than never"

That was the title of an Italian TV program in the 1960s, which taught the peasant masses to read and write. So there, skeptics, TV does occasionally add to the greater good.

But, honestly, this post has nothing to do with ancient Italian TV shows or the greater good. It has to do with Domenico Selections, "and that's enough for me", to translate a merry little song from the Hebrew.  (We're conscious of being highly multi-cultural this evening. While I'm at it, I'll mention wassail and mince pies -- there, sceptical England's out of the way).

No, this digressive post is about the container of Campanian and Lucanian (Basilicatan?) wine that's just arrived. Faced with the dreadful problem of excessive sales, we were forced to order more wine from three southern Italian wineries last month -- Mustilli, Musto Carmelitano and Boccella. 

Due to the season and several other factors, the wines seemed to take a bloody eternity to get here. 

However, I received glad tidings (God bless us everyone) this evening, ie, all those delicious and compulsively drinkable wines are ready for delivery on Monday. The winter solstice! The commencement of Saturnalia! Eric Hughes's birthday! The second day after Chanukkah! 

Look soon for fortified supplies of Mustilli Falanghina, Vigna Segreta (their single-vineyard Falanghina), Piedirosso (think Campanian Beaujolais); Boccella Taurasi (whoa -- that's all I can say); and more more more Musto Carmelitano Aglianico del Vulture, both Serra del Prete (no wood, aged in cement) and Pian del Moro. 

Gorgeous and, dare I say, hedonistic wines all.

Please pester your favorite wine shop and restaurant to order these bold, beautiful wines soon. 

(Picture from Boccella where they make the Taurasi. Taken down the hill ("rasott") where they make the grand Rasott Aglianico.)

 

  

Vino vino e vino. We love vino italiano. Official blog of Domenico Selections.

California dreamin'

 Seeking distributor(s) in California. 

Terroir-driven, organic Italian wines crave West Coast love. 

Check out the Domenico Selections portfolio here: click!

Email some of token of affection to terence@domenicoselections.com.

Thank you and God bless.

 

Aglianico del Vulture DOCG given green light

Map of Vulture region. Maschito is the town where our producer Musto Carmelitano is located

(Map by Mario Nenno)

Just posted by Luciano Pignataro on his own blog:  the excellent news that the Aglianico del Vulture appellation will be given DOCG status.

As he reports, the DOCG designation will require Riserva wines to be held for five years before market release.

The current DOC appellation will of course continue to be used for high-quality wines of perhaps lesser longevity.

The Basilicata IGT's will be given to wines that fall outside of disciplinare rules.

Let me quote Luciano directly at the end of his writeup:

Experience shows that it isn't the appellation on the label that determines a wine's success, but it certainly helps shape its identity, which is what's happened with the three DOCGs of Irpinia [in Campania].

In our judgment, Aglianico del Vulture absolutely needs this recognition to hoist itself to the level of Taurasi and become a standard-bearer in the South for the lovers of wine red.

+++++

Domenico Selections is fortunate enough to bring a really wonderful pair of Aglianici del Vulture to this country, made by Betty Musto Carmelitano. I imagine that DOCG status will encourage her to hold back at least some of her production as Riserva -- the wine in question being her present-day Pian del Moro, which is made in part from the sparse, concentrated fruit of 90+ year old wines.  The 2007 Pian del Moro is on the market, and I'm sure Betty released it so soon for practical reasons, like cashflow. Most small producers simply cannot afford to let their vintages sit.

I can't wait to taste the Pian del Moro when it reaches the age of five. 

 

Wake up and smell the must

 Yet another wine scandal has erupted in Italy. According to a December 10 article in "La Nazione" at Siena, the Guardia di Finanza swooped down on alleged "polluters" of Chiant's integrity, hauled in 17 people, impounded 110 million gallons of vino and are investigating 42 wine companies for their involvement in the scheme. (Read the original story here in Italian.)

The scheme this time involves the adulteration of Chianti DOC and Tuscan IGT wines with outside and/or inferior grapes. As with Brunellogate in 2008, it all boils down to a simple case of greed. Imagine the masterminds as they plotted their way to higher profits and fancier SUVs:

"I got it! We cut our wimpy wine with some full-bodied plonk from Abruzzo/Puglia/Sicily and we keep the price high because we are Chianti/Brunello/Montalcino!"

"That's brilliant! We sell two, three, four times more wine! And those dumb Americans will give it great reviews and -- " 

as they embrace and dance merrily about the room -- 

"We'll get new Range Rovers!"

"I want a suit from Kiton!

"I can get my daughter that chalet in the Dolomites!"

And so on.

For the record so far, not all the people being investigated are from Chiantishire or Tuscany. The preponderance are, but outfits from Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Trentino-Alto Adige and Abruzzo are all under the shadow.

Alfonso Cevola, "the Italian wine guy," wrote an eloquent screed about this new imbroglio this weekend. Click here to read it (in English). This could be filed under the heading: "Learn, When will They Ever?"

I bring all this up not to fling more mud at Italian wine producers; some of them have wallowed in the muck quite competently on their own. 

I do bring it up to point out the difference between the malefactors in such situations and the majority of honest producers with integrity. When the facts come out, as they are wont to do in unpredictable trickles, it is clear that big, politically connected outfits are more prone to behave dishonestly than the small, family-run wineries. For them wine is no longer a product of artisanal pride.  It's a commodity viewed with the same detachment bankers use in viewing, say, mortgage lending in the United States. They're amoral and self-serving, and they hurt many innocent bystanders -- not least the honest wine producers -- as their schemes are exposed.

There's been some hand-wringing about the effect this latest to-do will have on Americans' perceptions of Italian wines, and their willingness to buy products that once more have been called into question regarding authenticity and proper value. I believe sales of Chianti and the other implicated appellations will suffer for a while (Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino mainly). Fortunately, though, Italy is a big country, wine-wise, and the place is crammed with producers whose wares are "the real deal."  

Oh and, yes, Domenico Selections brings some of these chicche (pearls) into the United States. The real deal.   

 

 Hat courtesy of the Guardia di Finanza shop in Upper Ruritania

Degustazione ad Otto

Tasting at Otto

A final post on the Mustillis' trip to our fair tri-state area. 

Anna Chiara and Paola met with wine fans and wine manager Dan Amatuzzi at the ever-popular Otto yesterday to explain their wines and describe the "salvation" of the Falanghina grape from extinction.

A brief recap of Leonardo Mustilli's pioneering work of isolating the variety from promiscuous field blends and campaigning for official recognition as a valid, indigenous grape can be found here (click). It's interesting to read the history of the literature on Falanghina and eye-opening to see how much time, labor and expense it takes to get such recognition. It's enough to say that Mustilli played a key role in the reorientation of Italian wine-making from international to "autochthonous" grapes. I'm not alone in thinking that this recent direction has been the salvation of Italy in avoiding the fate of, say, Australia. Whether Italy can save itself from further scandals like the current one in Chianti land -- well, that's another story of greed and fundamental stupidity.

On to more pleasant things, namely some pictures snapped at Otto yesterday afternoon.

  

Dan Amatuzzi of Otto discusses the Mustilli wines

Ed ecco i vini 

Paola and Alexis. Alexis preferred the Piedirosso, which can be slightly chilled and served like Beaujolais

Jeff and Anna Chiara. A little blurry. Blame the incompetent photographer

Our Greg with Anna Chiara. We're lucky to have Greg working for us after his illustrious career playing Lurch on "The Addams Family" 

     

You lookin' at ME?

Noel, Noel, everybody 

Giro di Jersey: Mustillis on the loose

Benjie La Vigne, one of our ace salespeople in New Jersey, sent me a passel of pix of Paola and Anna Chiara Mustilli as they schlepped all over the Garden State yesterday. They wound up the day with a big dinner and a lot of different Domenico Selections wines on the table. 

It's a challenge matching the photos with the right names of the people in them. Here's hoping... 

 

Anna Chiara (l.) and Paola at Benjie's house. To make them feel completely at home, Benjie turned off the heat. (A little winter-in-Italy humor.)

Obligatory dog shot. Anna Chiara greets Kahlua 

 

Mustillis with Dan Pastore, at Kings in Short Hills. Is he related to the Kennedys?

With Patrick De Lorenzo at Spirits of the Valley in Martinsville. Pat, I bet you come from Trenton, the land of tomato pies. Fact: every third person in Trenton is named De Lorenzo. 

Anna Chiara with Jim at Shoprite in Westfield. Jim is the manager so he doesn't need a last name.

Lisa Best of Domenico Selections with Paola M.   

 

Standing: Mark, Larry, Benjie, Anna Chiara, Steve Fahey of Shopper's Vineyard in Clifton.

Seated: Susan, Lisa, Paola, Donatella del Gaizo, Mrs. Fahey

Sign of the times? Yes and no

I pass by this place many times each week -- it's just two blocks from home. Last night I snapped these pix as I was walking home from the subway. I thought, "Well, another one bites the dust. This lousy recession."

For 18 years Vong was one of the major outposts of the Jean-Georges Vongerichten empire  

But things are not what they seem. Another high-profile restaurateur is taking over the space, according to Haute Living (link to article).

According to the HL piece, the lease was up and JGV decided not to renew. Read into that what you will. 

I'm hoping the new resto will be more Italian-wine friendly. 

One thing I'm certain of: it will be at least as punishing to the credit card.

Formaggio!

Jeff and the Jersey crew have the Mustilli sisters working hard today. One of our NJ sales people, Benjie LaVigne, just sent me a phone picture featuring her and (on the right) Anna Chiara Mustilli.

  

Hard at work on the wine turnpike

Mustilli sisters hit NYC

 Paola and Anna Chiara Mustilli got into New York yesterday for a week of tastings and visits to customers here and in New Jersey. The big event for the drinking public will be a brief talk and pouring of several Mustilli wines at Otto this Saturday, beginning at 2 pm. Otto is located at 1 Fifth Avenue.

I met them and Paola's friend Donatella for a drink early last evening. We had a beer at an Irish pub on Seventh Avenue, known as la Settima in Italian. Then we headed for an early dinner -- whether by New York or Italian standards -- at Mary Ann's on Eight (l'Ottava, in case you were wondering). Mary Ann's is a small local chain of Mexican restaurants. They loved it -- and Anna Chiara loved the massive, potent margarita they served. 

By eight o'clock the jet lag had caught up with them and they gamely walked the ten blocks back to their hotel before crashing. 

They are longing for good sushi 

Note to wine people: Italians don't really want to eat Italian food when they come here. They dream of Indian, Thai, Japanese, Cuban, Persian -- the more different it is from Italian, the more they want it. So don't drag them to your favorite trattoria unless you're trying to sell to the trattoria.  Your Italian guests will probably make faces about the food anyway.