Muddy Boots

From Friuli to TriBeCa

No entries here for months. A lot going on at Domenico Selections. Weird scenes inside the goldmine. Big doings. The wines, they are a-changing.

That's done. [Insert sunglasses emoticon here.] Now let's move on...

To a joyous occasion.

Last week the "kids" from Aquila del Torre were in town, namely Francesca Ciani and her husband, Pier. With Jeff Mazen and myself they covered a good amount of ground in New Jersey and Manhattan in two days. We took them to "all the best places," we opened new accounts, and, of course, like all true Italians who come to New York, Francesca and Pier avoided Italian restaurants and fixated on Asian food.

OK, this isn't the best picture of Pier and Francesca, but it's the only one I can find easily. Crouched at their feet is their dog, Burro (that's Buddah to you Streisand fans). The vineyards are arrayed around a natural amphitheatre on the highest ground around, which means that there is no runoff from non-organic properties. Practicing organic agriculture since 2005, Aquila del Torre will receive official certification in two years. To show they're really hardcore about this organic business, Francesca says that they will soon use horses to plow between the vines. Totally natural fertilizer! Sustainable agriculture!

By the way, I've been remiss in omitting, till now, the name of the fine enologo at Aquila del Torre, Francesca's big brother Michele. Buon lavoro, man. And congratulations on the new addition to your family!

One of the highlights, from my point of view and, I think, Francesca's was the moment when the wine buyer at a very high-end Upper East Side restaurant lit up with pleasure and immediately added the Aquila del Torre Riesling and Friulano. Her comment about the Friulano: "This is so much better than L___ F___'s, I'm getting rid of his right now."

Yes, Friulano is the breakout hit of our AT current selection. Francesca said to me, "It's a good thing we've planted more of it."

The kids sold a nice amount of wine on a Tuesday night [insert emoticon of astonishment here] at our friend Christy Frank's tiny but well-curated shop, Frankly Wines. 

And, as you can see in the following pix, we have some nice iPhone shots of a couple of venues in town, where Aquila del Torre is currently available. The pix were taken by Pier. 

The "AT" Sauvignon Blanc holds a place of honor at Greensquare Tavern, a wonderful spot on 21st, just west of Fifth Ave. Fresh, local ingredients, refined editions of American classics. The Cobb salad is the best I've ever had. Prices are reasonable. The place is packed. Attractive space, friendly vibe.  

 

A view of the übersleek new store, Vintry, which is located in the Goldman Sachs building at the edge of Battery Park City. As the location would imply, this is a carriage-trade establishment. Our old wine-schlepper amico, Mike Martin, is one of the partners in this gorgeous place. He looks much better now he's in a Serious Suit and tie every day.    

 

 The striking label of the AT Friulano on the shelf at Vintry. These labels, a quantum leap beyond the old ones, have won rave reviews from both retailers and restaurateurs (who are alive to the impression the bottle will make on the table). I call Pier the "creative director" at Aquila del Torre because the new labels are based on his concept, although a moody design genius came up with each of the particular labels developing his basic idea.

 

Spring morning in Friuli: Aquila del Torre

At Vinitaly you see hordes of scruffy guys in jeans snapping pictures and shooting video of what is, essentially, the same mob scene every year. 

You'll be happy to know that we of Domenico Selections took no pictures at the fair. Nor video, which none of us is any good at editing. 

Here, instead, is a selection of photos taken one Sunday morning soon before the madness at Verona, on the 70-hectare (180-acre) estate of Aquila del Torre, our new producer in Friuli. You will begin to see their whites -- Friulano, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling -- here in the States, from Domenico Selections, early in the fall.

There was still a hint of morning mist. The soil was saturated from the winter's rains

This is one of several cru vineyards on the estate. Ronc de Miez is planted in Friulano, which in this case is aged in barrique. Don't worry, the wood is under control.

 

 

The Ciani family have set aside the majority of the land as a nature preserve. Trails are posted and people are encouraged to hike the terrain. Motocross hooligans are discouraged.

Frana! Landslide! The torrential rains of the past winter overwhelmed the extensive drainage system that the Cianis had had installed.

 

A view of the tasting room and new agriturismo called Oasi Picolit (Picolit Oasis). In foreground: the SolSiRe vineyard (Refosco cru).

It's so hard to resist one more vineyard shot.

Giro d'Italia, Winter 2011 edition

If this is Monday is must be...Veneto? Piemonte? Alto Adige? Friuli? Lombardy??

At this very moment it seems to be Alto Adige. I know this because it's chilly and there are steep snowy mountains looming over the - wait for it - Edelweiss Hotel.

The itinerary was made for road warriors. Milano > Valpolicella > Barolo > Torino > Verona > Friuli >Venezia Giulia > Alto Adige > Veneto > Marco Polo Airport. That's a lot of diesel fill-ups, baby. 

For a road warrior, since old Strappo is earning electronic speeding tickets all by himself. (Since the introduction of the damned Safety Tutor, driving in Italy is a lot less fun and fast than it used to be. What the hell is this 140 km speed limit all about? That's 80 mph, the speed grannies from Maine do. OK, I don't often obey the limit, but still.)

In a week so far I've hit 8-9 wineries spread all over the place, with a couple more do go before heading home on Thursday. I'm not prepared to write glowing articles about them, and indeed it would be imprudent to do so. Some shall go nameless here for those very reasons of prudence.

But I am prepared to share a few pix with you, beginning with one of our rising young stars, Paolo Veglio of Cascina Roccalini. Alas, I took no pictures of Cascina Gilli's Chiara Martinotti, la regina della freisa e malvasia, because she put me up at her house and it would have seemed like an insolent abuse of her hospitality.

 

Paolo Veglio in his cellar. We had a long chat. I tasted many future releases. They're only getting better. One is happy

A very nice bit of news: at the urging of Dante Scaglione, Paolo is going to make a Barbaresco Riserva. Release date around 2015 or so

This wine is ready for pickup and eventual delivery to you, my beloved customers

The vineyard right in front of Paolo's home. Alba lies in the mist yonder

 

I had approximately an hour to myself and so of course had to go into Torino to see me old blogging pal, Vittorio Rusinà. He bought me a Coke. I like it when people give me free things. It makes me feel like a real wine blogger

 

What was the name of that B&B again? I remember it was in Friuli and the hosts bought me outrageously good dinners, including one at a fantastic fish restaurant on Saturday night where we three were the only customers they had! The B&B was brand-new and spacious. I promised not to mention the lady bug invasion

 Vineyard porn, Aquila del Torre, Friuli

That's good luck in Friulano. Mandi!*

Mandatory vineyard + dog shot. Burro.The dog's name means buddah

 

Where I was this morning

 

Wilkommen. This is in the terminally quaint village of Partschins. Winery and home entrance

 
This is cellar porn. Dates from 1300. Original beams. One of the most atmospheric wineries anywhere. Their newer cellar (ca. time of Christopher Columbus) is where they hold tastings

There were dogs available for photographing, but, frankly, they didn't hold a sticka buddah to this kid, the enologo's daughter. She's destined for stardom, don't you think?

Ahhh. Che bello...

 
 
 

*Mandi = ciao

 

 

 

 

 

Words and pictures: Cascina Roccalini

Christian Bucci of La Caves de Pyrene has written a lovely post (in Italian) about one of our new producers, Cascina Roccalini. Click here for the post.

Christian relates how he first went to meet Paolo Veglio and his mother Luciana at the farm on February 3 of this year. In less than two hours he had decided to work with them.

Domenico Selections was there before the end of the February and had the same experience. From the first sip of Paolo's Dolcetto (Dolcetto! a wine none of us loves ordinarily), we had decided to import the wines. At any cost. 

Fortunately, the cost was reasonable; Paolo knows that to get a foothold in the market these days, the price has to be reasonable. The man has none of that inflated ego that you find with so many winemakers.

This is where the Barbaresco lives and breathes and has its being. 

Total winery production is under 10,000 bottles a year.   

  

Scenes from Eataly NY: Opening day

My good friend, Giovanni Lovato (@gianpadano) was at Eataly for hours yesterday. He took well over 100 terrific photos, a few of which I am reproducing here with his permission.

You can view the entire album at http://picasaweb.google.com/giannidimilano/EatalyRS# -- he gives you a good initial tour of the place.

Here are some pix -- no particular order.

 Some louche character approaches Eataly

 This lady has the most pleasant voice I've ever heard. She's a doll too. 

Lydia Bastianich

Mario spent the day posing. I think he was tired of it by this time.

 Oscar Farinetti walks among the people

 Not my favorite part of the store. But it's LOCAL

 The fish is mostly local. Freshness is all

 Gianni's haul, home at last

 There's Cascina Gilli cropping up again. Quanto mi piace!

Thanks for the great pix, Gianni.

 

Vineyard porn: Freisa ripe for the plucking

Vineyard porn: Freisa ripe for the plucking 

Just posted by Chiara Martinotti of Cascina Gilli, whose wines will make their Eataly NY debut this afternoon and evening. Her caption for this photo:

No more dew this morning, temperature range of 10 at night, sunny dry and hot today

Lovely plucking weather, I'd say.

One glorious bottle

Jeff took this shot too. On this trip we were treated to some interesting wines. We had this one and a '96 Gaja Barbaresco. Guess which one blew the other out of the water?

Cell phone shot. 1981 1961 Borgogno. Still a supple young beauty
 

Tuscany in the first days of March

Domenico Selections' Jeff Mazen took these pictures as we drove through Tuscany. The earth was coming alive. Click on the images to view them larger.

These are creatures the Italians call "ships"

 
 This is a straightaway in rural Italy

 You too can rent this. Agriturismo at Casale Pozzuolo

There's gold in them thar hills

 
"A.A.D" = Atto a diventare (meant to become) a DOC Montecucco wine. It can't be labeled as such until the local appellation commission tests and approves it.

Steed at rest. Grosseto.  
  

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

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

A beautiful sight to behold

Ready to unload:  The golden cargo arrives in Greater Cincinnati 

Photo sent by Kevin Keith, D E P's Fine Wine & Spirits

 

Jeff's pictures of the latest sourcing trip

My business partner Jeff just sent along some photos of the recent trip to Tuscany and beyond.

Obligatory.  Jeff's wife is named Elisa.  Porta Elisa is one of the gates at the walls of Lucca

Jeff's shot of the yawning tower.  Interesting sidenote: the masses of people lounging on the lawn were soon expelled by a guard. That didn't seem very Italian at all

This is a cantina. It doesn't matter where. It's a cantina

Jeff tasting at the cantina sans name. In Veneto

Exterior of the Salumeria Giusti -- the "award-winning" (premiata) Salumeria Giusti.  It's been there for four centuries

Interior of said salumeria. The very air was intoxicating with complex aromas

Jeff with young Matteo Morandi, who runs both the salumeria and the Hosteria Giusti, the restaurant that thrilled the sensorium

A visit with a winemaking friend

Jeff and I spent a night at Gianpaolo Paglia's house in the Maremma at mid-harvest.  Everyone was very busy, but our friend GPP is a gracious host and took out some time to chat, taste and take us to dinner.  

His winery, Poggio Argentiera, produces wines that rely heavily on local grape varieties -- Morellino (a subtype of Sangiovese adapted to the hot, dry Maremma climate and sandy soils) and Ansonica as well as compatible "imports" such as Cab Franc and Syrah. 

 

Poggio Argentiera (loosely translated, "silvermine hill") covers 22 hectares/55acres. This is Podere Keeling, the vineyard named for Justine Keeling, Gianpaolo's wife

We tasted the full array of Gianopaolo's wines.  The older vintages had lots of power -- were rather New World in style, the "big reds" in particular. The new vintages keep the power but embrace elegance; they are much more balanced, interesting and satisfying. His base white, 80% Ansonica and 20% Vermentino, "Guazza" (Dew) is crisper and more refreshing than before. 

With his cellarmaster and second in command, Antonio Camillo, Paglia makes a couple of extraordinary wines, one a Sauvignon Blanc ("Alture" or Heights) that is about as far from the overly aggressive New Zealand style as possible, but clearly not French either. The other is a compulsively drinkable Ciliegiolo with the brand name "Principio" (Beginning).  A damned auspicious one at that.

Here are a few photos of the visit to Gianpaolo's.

  

Gianpaolo keeps Jeff informed

In this beautifully composed shot, you will see Antonio Camillo as he flees from the American paparazzo

Gotta have the product shot.  "Bucce" (Skins) is a new entry, 100% Ansonica which spends 5-6 days touching its own skins and 18 months on the lees in cement and large oak.  Big, tannic, complex, intriguing.  

Alphé's pix -- in Veneto and in his own kitchen

What's it all about, Alphé?

Sorry, sorry, sorry -- now that's out of the way, maybe we can focus, focus, focus:

Domenico Selections has just hired three (3) sales people to cover various parts of the New York/New Jersey area.  One of these fine individuals, Alphé Williams, was recently in the Veneto and visited two of our producers, Lucia Raimondi of Villa Monteleone and Francesco Tessari of I Stefanini. 

Here a few of the photos he took of vineyards and scenes over there.  And there are a couple of mouth-watering pix of a dinner he made using one of our newer arrivals, the Serra del Prete Aglianico del Vulture from Betty Musto Carmelitano.  You should know Alphé is a Creole from Lou'siana, and a chef to boot. He will spend most of his waking hours calling on restaurants in Midtown and the Upper West Side where, for some unaccountable reason, he has chosen to live. (alphe@domenicoselections.com)

 

 

Villa Monteleone vineyard in August

Another side of Villa Monteleone 

Grapes at I Stefanini in Soave

Francesco Tessari & his ragazza

Monte di Fice, the site of the best cru of I Stefanini. It's the top of the volcanic hill that rises behind the family house-cum-cantina. Note veronese pergolas.The canopy prevents raisined fruit in this sunny exposure.

Alphé braised (is that the right word? Hey! I'm no foodie, damn it) -- prepared the steak with the Serra del Prete. He said it was all ottimo. 

  

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!

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.

Caught in the act!

Keith Beavers, the East Village Wine Geek, is not only a blogger in the traditional sense, he's a fanatical Tweeter (user of Twitter).  So yesterday when I was at In Vino, his wine bar/resto in Alphabet City, he pulled out his iPhone and caught me at the end of a long, frustrating, thirsty day...

I've decided to be photographed only when the shades are on.

It's better from the bottle.