Muddy Boots

Betty takes VinNatur

 Betty? Elisabetta Musto-Carmelitano. Of the small but spectacularly promising winery Musto-Carmelitano in Basilicata. Our Betty, maker of Serra del Prete, an Aglianico del Vulture aged in concrete, which sells out every time we get a shipment in. 

Brava Betty!

She will be at one of the don't-miss fringe events of Vinitaly, VinNatur, which, as you might have guessed, features organic wines from Italy and elsewhere (especially France, the biodynamic leaders of the world.) VinNatur will take place this year, as usual, at Villa Favorita, on April 12. In celebration of Strappo's 64th birthday. (Aw, shucks, folks, you SHOULDN'T have! So where are the presents?)

Which one of these is Betty?  

This is a wonderful kind of recognition for this excellent young winemaker. 

Auguri, Betty, siamo orgogliosi di te!*

Villa Favorita on another day. Cosy, isn't it? 

*Congratulations, Betty, we're proud of you!

 

Terra di Vento: Sulphite-free zone

This morning we met with Roberto Nicodemo of Terra di Vento and his enologo, Fortunato "Lucky" Sebastiano. We tasted the new wines and talked of the future. Based on what we tasted, the future looks bright indeed.

 

Roberto Nicodemo & a bottle of his Aglianico, Petrale

Terra di Vento is located where the Salerno coastal plain ends and the Picentine mountains begin. From the property you can see the Mediterranean and part of the Amalfi coastal region. This nearness to the open water moderates the climate, assuring cooling breezes in summer and mild ones in winter. Since Terra di Vento means "land of wind," you might guess -- correctly -- that the constant circulation of air cuts the risk of mold and mildew to just about nothing. 

This pleasant exposure is one of the factors that encouraged Dr. Nicodemo to take the winery to biologic (organic) certification. 

The other major physical factor for taking this path is the unspoiled nature of the soil on the 160-acre property. It has been farmed for centuries but never subjected to the abuses of modern chemical pesticides and fertilizers. 

There are more than physical or material factors in every important decision, of course. Roberto's grandmother farmed many of these acres herself, and his mother was raised there. There is a strong emotional bond, a desire to commemorate the lives and hard work of his family and the others who worked beside them on this earth. 

This factor, a spiritual one, has impelled him to make Terra di Vento a biodynamic farm in all the things that it produces, with wine and olive oil only two of the most prominent. BD certification is a long, expensive process -- so much so that some people who could qualify don't bother to pursue it. This is something that Roberto is deeply committed to, along with an educational and cultural component; Terra di Vento is already a venue for local artists, farming tutorials for kids, equestrianism, and new agriturismo facilities tucked into and over the fields and vineyards.

With all this in mind we tasted one of Dr. Nicodemo's favorites, a rosato made of Aglianico. The 2009 Tecla Madre -- named for Santa Tecla, the frazione where his grandmother was brought up and worked, and Madre Terra (Mother Earth) -- is a stunningly beautiful rose'. Light cherry-red in color, it has both loads of fruit and the structure to keep it lively and fresh for several years. The wine has a clean, long finish. 

The sample bottle of 2009 Fiano, which is still in tank and wood (7% in acacia), is clean and fresh as a sea breeze with delightful citrus and tropical fruit notes that do not cross over the line to heaviness or sweetness. Honey on the nose. A delightful summer white, whether on its own or with light salads and seafood dishes.

Finally, we tasted the 2007 version of our best-selling red, the Terra di Vento Petrale, which is 100% Aglianico. Cleaner and brighter than the 2006, its fruit gradually revealed itself in the glass (the wine started out rather cold), more structured and tannic and more nuanced than the 2006. The 2007 growing season was hotter than 2006 in the Colli di Salerno zone, yet the wine's balance impressed. With some time in glass the Petrale 2007 opened up with scents and tastes of purple fruits. It revealed new depths to us. 

Oh yes, and these vintages have no added sulphites. A very small amount occurs naturally. But if you are one of those who fears and/or loathes them, the Terra di Vento wines are surely ones you must try.

  

We steal a review post

I have lifted this entire review from the Fredric the Great, the excellent reviewer of wines, from a longer article about epiphanous sparkling wines from all sorts of places. (Click here for entire review.)

The estate of i Stefanini makes some of the best Soave wines in the Veneto, especially from the Classico and Classico Superiore regions [actually, differing appellations from the same district]. Now the family turns its attention to a sparkling wine, the i Stefanini Spumante Brut. Produced completely from chardonnay grapes, this charming sparkler, made in the Charmat process, displays a limpid pale gold color and enticing aromas of pear, lime peel, orange blossom and dusty acacia. It’s a caressing fabric of delicate heft and presence, soft yet bright and crisp, and displaying, amid hints of slightly spicy stone fruit, just the right modicum of limestone. A pretty sparkling wine, dry, appealing and great as an aperitif. Very Good+. About $16.

Imported by Domenico Selections, New York.

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. 

  

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

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. 

At Merano Wine Festival recognition of Mustilli Piedirosso

This just in

Paola Mustilli just sent me a notice that the Mustilli Piedirosso won a Gold Crown from the Touring Club d'Italia and will appear in the Club's "Vini Buoni d'Italia" guide. To learn more about this particular wine, click here.  

 

You can click on the image for ease of reading. But let me translate the small type in the center:

Wine of excellence awarded with the Crown of the guide "Vinibuoni d'Italia 2010

for its quality, enjoyability, drinkability and faithfulness to its terroir 

Implied here: this delicious Piedirosso represents good value for the money. (Which it is.) 

Well done.

Tom Hyland on 3 Bicchieri and More

The wine writer and italophile, Tom Hyland, sent me a link the other day in which he said some very nice things about Villa Monteleone and its chatelaine, Lucia Raimondi. Here is the paragraph devoted to VM:

Also, nice of GR to recognize Villa Monteleone with the award for their 2005 Amarone. Monteleone is managed by Lucia Raimondi, who has been responsible for everyday operations since the death of her husband a few years back. Her wines are as gentle as she is – she is such a lovely person and how nice that all of her hard work has paid off. This is an Amarone of suppleness; it’s nice to see another producer depart from the ultra ripe, oaky approach taken with too many examples of Amarone these days. By the way, if you like the Villa Monteleone Amarone, I think you’d love their Ripasso bottling labeled “Campo San Vito”; I think it’s a better wine than the Amarone.

The gist of his piece is, if I may DEEPLY interpret (overinterpret? I wouldn't to get Tom in wrong with The Powers That Be chez Gambero Rosso):

Corrupt and past it as GR is, it still manages to recognize a few producers who really do merit the 3 glasses. In short, producers who haven't paid to play and who aren't in a position to throw their financial weight and political connections around. These relative unknowns are the ones you should really pay attention to, not the usual suspects, who have the annoying habit of appearing on the list every year even though their wines are character-free. 

Well, to give them their due, they ARE expensive.

Click here for the entire post. 

Gee, let's hope I didn't upset anybody.

Lucia Raimondi interviewed

Check out this succinct yet informative interview of Lucia Raimondi, Villa Monteleone, by Dan Amatuzzi of Otto. Click here. By the way, this is a new blog created by Dan as "your unpretentious stop for all things wine."  Check it out.

By the way, I agree completely with Lucia about one of her wines. See my comment at the end of the post.

"Best wine of the Amalfi Coast"? Tintore by Reale

As a follow-up to the recent tasting of "Tintore Day," Luciano Pignataro wrote in today's Il Mattino, the main newspaper of Naples, "Indovina indovinello, in Costiera qual è il vino più bello? Facile la risposta, difficile trovarlo: è il Tintore..." (Mirror mirror on the wall, which Amalfi Coast wine is the fairest of them all? Easy to answer, hard to find: it's Tintore...") 

Luciano devotes the rest of his column to the joys of Reale's Borgo di Gete 2005, that fascinating rarity, a 100% Tintore. 

I'll reproduce here some of the Italian:

Un vino fresco, pieno di carattere che nel corso degli anni ha ben digerito il legno. A maggior ragione sarà la stessa cosa con il 2006, in commercio tra qualche settimana, molto più fresco e vibrante, capace di annunciare al palato il carattere di questa uva tipica del territorio, sicuramente parente dell’Aglianico ma dal quale si distingue nettamente.  

"A fresh wine of character which has, over time, 'digested' its wood well.  The 2006, which is to be released in a few weeks, looks to be just as good, with even greater freshness and vibrancy. It declares itself to be a native son of this territory -- clearly related to Aglianico yet clearly distinguishable from it."

Again kudos to Gigi Reale and Fortunato Sebastiano, whom I once called "the rising star of the South." 

Tintore in the spotlight

For a couple of years now I've written about a Campanian grape that captured my affections, Tintore. We're lucky enough to have two wines on our list that contain this rarity. Both wines are from Luigi Reale, and his Borgo di Gete is one of the very few made entirely of Tintore.

Imagine my delight last evening when I saw a link, on Facebook courtesy of my amico Luciano Pignataro, to an article by Michela Guadagno, in which she reported on an event Wednesday called "Tintore Day". Here's the link to the piece, which is informative and thought-provoking if you read Italian. 

I'll not attempt to translate the whole piece -- I've spent entirely too much time at the computer today and this week -- but I will pluck out some of the most interesting tidbits.

The headline makes it clear you're in a special place: Tintore is grown on a grand total of less than 10 hectares in the Amalfi Coast area (20 acres or a bit more), and just 8000 bottles are made in any given year by all the producers. And by "Amalfi Coast area" I should specify the little inland town of Tramonti, where Reale, Gaetano Bove and other protagonisti del Tintore have their wineries. This is verily the hometown of Tintore.

Our buds Fortunato Sebastiano and Luigi Reale. (Photo by Michela Guadagno, stolen without consent)

Guadagno devotes a long, dense paragraph to the roundtable presentation given by the enologo at Reale, our friend Fortunato Sebastiano. He described the history and characteristics of the grape, in effect explaining why several of the vineyards feature ancient vines (up to a century old): the variety is highly resistant to insects and mold; the grapes have thick skins which contribute to the dark color ('Tintore" means "dyer", hence its use as a coloring grape); and a bracing tannicity.  

Fortunato, who studied with Italy's most respected scientist in the field, Attilio Scienza, traced the likely origins of Tintore to around 1800 AD. DNA analysis strongly suggests that Tintore is the "son" of Aglianico (masculine) and the related Tintora with its feminine flowers -- an autochthonous grape with a vengeance.

While the producers are pushing for DOC recognition for Tintore, this "local hero" is hardly known within its native zone, and it doesn't exist as far as the ampelographic powers that be are concerned.

Wines made with a large percentage of Tintore require 18-22 months ageing in wood. The rough tannicity is softened in oak, although my feeling is that these wines are released before they're ready. I understand the financial pressures small producers face, but a few more years' bottle time would benefit Tintore immensely. Reale's Borgo di Gete 2005 is only just now acquiring the tertiary characteristics that make for more than a simple, pleasant drink but, rather, a serious red that you can savor all evening long.

I'd like to see "Tintore Day" become a regular feature. Next time, though, I want to be there.

Michela Guadagno in another time, another place

   

 

  

Producers visit from North & South

As I posted the other day, Lucia Raimondi of Villa Monteleone, in Valpolicella, is visiting the New York area over the next several days. Jeff and the other sales people will introduce her to a slew of retailers and restaurateurs, customers actual and potential.  

At Villa Monteleone. Old school

In fact, Lucia is already here and, from what I understand, is having her legs run off. I hope to see her again on Friday or Saturday. She's a lovely person who staunchly defends the virtues and pleasures of the traditional approach to Valpolicella -- that is, not over-oaked, over-alcoholic or overly (and suspiciously) inky. Click here to read a little about Villa Monteleone and two of the wines made there. (No, we don't currently bring in the Tre Bicchieri'd Amarone, or the Recioto -- but that could change...one never knows, do one?) Click here to read about the Villa Monteleone wines that we do import these days.

My favorite from Villa Monteleone

Then in December we will be graced by the Mustilli sisters, Anna Chiara and Paola, whose wines we are pleased to import.  They will be in New York-New Jersey from the 7th to the 12th, and I hear they'll be featured presenters at a tasting seminar on southern Italian wines at a certain wildly popular place near Washington Square Park. More details when we have them to give you.

The Mustillis' truly excellent Falanghina cru, called Vigna Segreta, is being poured by the quartino in that eatery; its initial reception has been so positive that more is already on order. It has, as corporate-speak expresses it, "exceeded our expectations." But that shouldn't be too much of a surprise, given the 50+ year pedigree of Falanghina as established by Leonardo Mustilli, the sisters' father. (For a more detailed discussion of Falanghina and Leonardo's role in recovering it from a mess of field blends, see this post as well.)

I have to say the same about their Piedirosso. I'm hooked on it, even though it's so often a grape treated with something like off-handed carelessness. This delicious, snappy red pairs well with a huge variety of dishes. It shouts "Italy" loud, clear and sunnily. (It may be chilly and raining torrentially in Rome right now, but the very thought of Italian sun lifts me old heart out of the November gloom.)

Tre Bicchieri producer in New York

Monday will see the arrival of Lucia Raimondi, the moving spirit behind the classic-style Valpolicellas of Villa Monteleone, for a week of tastings and visits in the New York area.

As was noted here recently, Gambero Rosso awarded Villa Monteleone tre bicchieri for their Amarone. Fine as the Amarone is, I think the azienda's best wine is the Campo San Vito ripasso, which Domenico Selections carries. Especially since the vintage on offer is the 2004 -- a true ripasso that ages as gracefully as any Amarone, IMHO. 

We also have Lucia's lovely and authentic Valpolicella Campo Santa Lena 2007. It's bursting with cherry scents and flavors, fresh and yet somehow deeply layered at the same time. No barriques, no cellar tricks. Well-made old-school Valpolicella.

Domenico's growing squad of salespeople will be taking Lucia to meet with the folks in restaurants and wine shops in NY-NJ.  Meanwhile, here's a list of some of the places to find her wine in the New York area.

Hearth NY

Otto NY

'inoteca NY

Pierre Loti Cafe and Wine Bar NY

Gary's Wine & Marketplace in Madison, Wayne and Bernardsville NJ

SuperSaver in Somerville NJ

Kings in Short Hills NJ

        

Gambero Rosso 2010, Part Deux: Villa Monteleone

Just got a very happy email from our good friend and Valpolicella producer Lucia Raimondi of Villa Monteleone. I am reproducing it in its entirety even though I haven't checked with Lucia.  (Do forgive me, Lucia, but this is a wonderful vindication of your and your late husband's vision and hard work.  You have really earned this accolade.)

To my friends from Domenico Selections

 With great pleasure, and pride, I share with you the announcement that the Amarone DOC Classico Villa Monteleone 2005 just received THREE GLASSES in the 2010 Guide of Vini D'Italia published by Il Gambero Rosso. This is the a very important recognition for which the whole team of Monteleone has worked without cease since we started making wine 20 years ago and, specially,  during the last 10 under my direction.

Thanks to Federico Giotto the enologist, Raffaele Bovo the cellar master, to all the people who have worked to make this possible and also to my family and the many friends, like the three of you,  who have believed in me, supported and given me the courage to go on.  I raise these three glasses in thanks to all of you and in memory of Tony Raimondi, my dear husband, in whose honor and memory I have dedicated my work these ten years. 

Sincerely,
Lucia D. Raimondi

Augurissimi, Lucia!  Ben meritata questa premiazione!

  

3 Bicchieri 2010: News trickles fast

Great news from mondo Gambero Rosso -- I Stefanini Monte di Fice 2007 has been awarded tre bicchieri (3 glasses, the top rating) from GR.  Read about this wine here.

Francesco Tessari sent me the email just a few minutes ago. Tanti auguri to him and his father the vineyard manager, Valentino.  

We're thrilled for them and, naturally, for our perspicacity in signing them up for importation. These guys go from strength to strength, and it's no wonder Francesco makes such good wine. Not only does the Tessari family possess an excellent property for their two crus, Monte di Fice being the highest of all his wines, in every sense of the word, but Valentino long worked for fine Soave producers such as Pieropan and Suavia; the quality and typicity of their wines are no happy accident. 

The news of tree bicchieri awards is trickling out, producer by producer. The whole list won't be available until late October. I have a hunch this won't be the only 3 glasses winner among our small but mighty portfolio.  

I also learned yesterday, through an Italian "friend" on Facebook, that our buddy Gianpaolo Paglia of Poggio Argentiera won the same award for his Capatosta.  Heartfelt congratulations to GPP and his team.