mondosapore

Tastes of the Maremma

Gianpaolo Paglia of Poggio Argentiera, in the Tuscan Morellino di Scansano zone, sent me an email the other day about a pretty sweet food-and-wine event here in New York, beginning this coming Monday, November 5. 

Sponsored by a consortium of Maremman producers, the multi-day event will be held at high-profile restaurants like Del Posto and San Domenico.  The chefs will be local boys (Maremmans), who will  make the pairing of food and wine delectable, I am sure.

Gianpaolo, who is tireless in promoting his wines and the products of his region, will be on hand every day (Nov. 5 through 9) to pour the wines and charm the winos.  The wine producers represented are:

·         Ampeleia

·         Col di Bacche

·         Collemassari

·         Fattoria di Magliano

·         La Mozza

·         La Selva

·         Morisfarms

·         Poggio Argentiera

·         Salustri

·         Sassotondo

Here is the link to the event itself. (Click.)



And here is the link to his blog, where he invites bloggers especially to venture forth.  (Click.)  It's OK...it's in English, and not that weird dialect of Italo-English.

Strudel Boy hits town

Federico Corra', enterprising young owner of Fiordimela, "strudel of the gods," is in town looking for an American licensee to make strudel for distribution to strudel-craving Yanks and Hosers.

Fiordimela means "apple blossom" and the name was inspired by the most esteemed apples in Italy, in the far-north Val di Non, obviously the critical ingredient in a classic strudel.  Starting as a consumer-oriented Internet business, now Fede has won contracts with some excellent restaurants and gourmet food shops in Italy.  He's looking to repeat his formula for success in the very much bigger US and Canadian markets. 

Contact him if you are a potential licensee. 

Here ends the unpaid friendship plug for Fede and his wicked good strudel.

Last evening I met Fede and his amica, Cristina, for a drink, stopping by Gabrio's shop for a cheerful hello, then on to Falai for dinner.  Since I called at the last minute, Alberto couldn't give me a table till 9:30, so I asked if we could eat in the garden.  Which was lovely -- our private dining room with a fungo (a gigantic portable heater) to keep us warm.  The Italian visitors even took off their scarves! 

The food was very good, but I really want to focus on the wine -- the first wine, a bottle of Selvagrossa 'Trimpilin' 2005, which is made by Alberto's brother near Pesaro, on the northern Adriatic coast.  A 100% Sangiovese, this vintage of Trimpilin was far more refined and balanced than the 2003 we had back at our "Big Night" last December.  The 2005 had much more of the lively acidity you hope to find in Sangiovese, and the fruit wasn't overpowered by its own superripeness, as was the 2003.  This isn't the deepest or most complex Sangiovese you'll ever have, but it's much more than a simple wine to knock back at supper.  Seriously enjoyable. 

Alberto goes home to help with the harvest each year, and he told us that the 2007 Trimpilin should be strepitoso.  (Fantastic.)  You'll always be able to find it at Falai.

Depending on where you shop,Trimpilin retails for $25-30.

Busy life of a consulting winemaker

Sent to me without comment by a friend in the wine biz -- a list of the projects Carlo Ferrini is involved with.  Excluding Ruffino.

Behold...

Brancaia
Casanova di Neri
Castello di Brolio
Castello di Fonterutoli
Castello di Poppiano
Castello di Terriccio 'Lupicaia'
Castello Romitorio
Donatella Cinelli Colombini
Donnafugata
Fattoria La Massa
Fattoria Le Corti
Feudo Maccari
Nittardi Chianti Classico
Poliziano Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
Talenti Brunello di Montalcino
Tasca D'Almerita
Tenuta Belguardo
Tenuta di Ghizzano
Tenuta Marsiliana
Tenuta Monteti
Tenuta San Fabiano Calcinaia
Tenuta San Leonardo  (Trentino)
Tenuta Sette Ponti


Not an unusually long list, by the way. 

"Losing acidity was a very grave mistake" -- Carlo Ferrini

At the risk of appearing to be the tool, either unwitting or vilely corrupt, of Big Wine, I would like to post my last post on the Ruffino Sangiovese seminar and tasting at Del Posto last week. As promised, it deals with their consulting oenologist Carlo Ferrini, who was brought on board in 2001.  His 2004 Ruffino wines are newly released.

How do these new wines compare with older vintages B. C. (before Carlo)? 

I'll be brief: Alive.

Last Tuesday morning we tasted...

Songs I will never download even for free

Nothing by Jay and the Americans.  Or by the Beach Boys.  Or the McCoys.  Or Bob Dylan.  Or Baez.  Joanie Mitchell.  Patti Page.  Buddy Greco.  Vic Damone or Frank Sinatra.  Bobby Darin.  Annette Funicello.  Fifth Dimension.  Ritchie Havens.  Buffy Sainte Marie. Melanie.  Screaming Lord Sutch.  Any of the recent slutty twats, the ones with all the belly buttons and rehab issues.  Or Ricky "I'm not gay" Martin.  Or Neil Sedaka or...

Guilty secrets:

I have downloaded lots of Foreigner.  Missing Persons.  Lena Lovitch.  Fisher Z.  Donovan (!).  Bing Crosby.  Smiley Lewis.  Clyde McPhatter.  I actually bought Cheap Trick.  I like INxS.  Bob Hope and Jack Benny radio shows.  Duran Duran! 

Clearly, no class, yet also no foolish consistency here. 

Why am I divulging these things, non-vinous as they may be?  I'm avoiding CSI or some other gruesome TV garbage that's on in the next room.  Waiting for Weeds.

"We don't have a barrel of money...

"Maybe we're ragged and funny..."

I feel damned lucky at this juncture of my life, despite many problems and traumas and the usual business of living past 40, but there are some things I wish I could afford to buy.  And to buy whenever I felt like it. 

I'm not talking about Brioni suits (those were the days) or M-series BMWs (ditto until it snowed), but alcoholic beverages of great sublimity.  Like the best Cognacs and, ah, Armagnacs.  To me the highest pinnacle of the distiller's art. 

Like those Cognac-like rums from the DR and other points south, a vital part of the old New England connection.

Like the top Margaux and Pauillacs I used to guzzle with such joy back in the Seventies, always my favourite Bordeaux. 

Like the supreme Clos de Vougeots and Echezaux and Corton-Charlemagne my wife and I used to drink so gratefully back when we hardly had enough money for a piece of meat every now and then, when our infant daughter ate her weight in Havarti I took from the wine-and-cheese shop I worked at. 

Life, memory, taste, joy.  Why are these things often so costly, such a sacrifice, such a rarity?

"Tristeza nao tem fim,

Felicidade sim"

America needs Joe Biden. But...

He's intelligent, he's experienced, he's got good ideas for the future.  He knows how to deal with Foreign Powers, legit and otherwise.  He understands the mindsets of disparate nutjobs, from Islamic suicide bombers to right-wing pseudo-Christians in this Great Land of Ours.  He's also got the best hair transplant I've seen in a long time.  Joe Biden, Senator from Delaware (and therein lies his true failing; he comes from a dinky statelet with fewer inhabitants even than Rhode Island).

I'd come out in support of Biden for Prez of ye United States. Yes, I'd give the man my endorsement.  I mean, My Official Endorsement.  But he comes from Delaware (cute beaches, although a non-property owner is supposed to stay off the dry sand and in the turbulent surf, a true sign of oligarchic domination of the body politic...know what I mean? it ain't no Hawaii), and Wilmington is the corporate capital of exploitative banks and credit card companies from across this Great Land of Ours.  And then there's Dupont, polluter of many skies and streams...

Plus -- and this is crucial -- he's too smart for this nation of moe-rons.

Well, then, instead of too-clever-by-harf-Joe, mondosapore.com must endorse that litigatin' populist, the well-coiffed advocate for the Common Man (aka "the forgotten man"...did you never see "My Man Godfrey"?) John Edwards, scion of the cotton-millin' Edwardses of No' Ca'lahna. 

Love ya, John.

I just hope that cold bitch of a Hillary is smart enough to choose you as a running mate.

"Gimme a kiss, Johnny E.  Your haircut's divine."

"Get your hands off me, you pontificatin' loser!"

Plan 9 from Outer Space?

Actually, it's Level 6 from Google.  Somehow, sometime in the past several days, whilst I wasn't looking, the Google PageRank for www.mondosapore.com went up to 6. 

Right up there with Jancis, l'Imperatrice del Vino.

How did this happen?  Who was responsible?  Does it pay after all to post a heap of nothing-to-say articles that are just a pile of self-referential blogger bullshit...? 

(Inspired by Carrie Bradshaw.)

No, Gabrio, not another post about Barbone

I'll admit it, Gabrio, I don't have much to write about today.

You broke my balls last night, saying, "Oh, whenever he has nothing to write about, he writes about going to Barbone." 

As I recall, you were at Barbone yourself when you made that hurtful accusation.  I suppose you were performing for the visitors Alfonso Cevola aka Italian Wine Guy (R) and his companion the lovely and mostly intelligent Kim (who made the mistake of telling you that testosterone dripped off you, which just served to make you, mm, cockier), and the Upstate blogger Marco Romano and his wife Cathy, whom I happened to bump into as they walked in the door of the place (I confess: at my bloggerly urging).

Earlier, before you closed up De Vino, your fabulous little gem of a wine shop on Clinton Street but, wait, I write too much about that as well, it was Alfonso, Kim (note to Kim: you are really good for him, for I perceive that AC is prey to melancholy and, as Dosteyevsky put it, self-laceration) and me at the table, talking about everything from George W. Bush (consensus: a lethal dummy) to Italians and the way they're always cold to more hurtful comments from you about Ruffino (link to these). 

Sigh. 

Even Alfonso, the battle-scarred vet of the wholesale wine wars, admitted that Ruffino was showing some promise with the addition of Carlo Ferrini ("a really nice guy" and "it's a really good sign that Ruffino hired him" but "I just wonder if he isn't overextended like most of those guys [consulting oenologists]"), and Adolfo Folonari at the helm.

Four hours flew like the wind, and when I hailed a cab you were still chatting with Alberto on the sidewalk of Avenue B outside

Barbone.

Some crucial Italian wine terms explained

I want to clarify a couple of things for English speakers.  I use a few very important wine terms from Italian that have no precise equivalent in English.  Time to fix any misinterpretations.

WHEN IS A CANTINA NOT AN AZIENDA?

There are a couple of words in Italian that mean "winery" as we use the term in English.  They have somewhat different emphases in Italian.  Cantina can be used for the wine-making part of the winery, as well as the cellar where wines are stored.  (Cantina basically means "cellar".)

We use azienda to indicate the entire operation, business as well as agricultural aspects of the winery.  You may have noticed on the web and in most of the Italian guides that wineries there are often listed as "Azienda Agricola" something or other.  There are several reasons to specify this, most obviously the tax advantages that accrue to agricultural organizations in Italy.

WHEN IS AN ENOLOGO NOT A WINEMAKER?

The fancy English word "oenologist" (variation: "enologist") has a narrower and, I would submit, more negative meaning than enologo in Italian. We tend to think of the word as implying a winemaking consultant rather than someone who studies winemaking and makes wines for real.  Yet those are the meanings attached to enologo in Italian.  When you see the English or Italian versions of oenologist on mondosapore, it's to indicate the person who does both the strategic and the hands-on work of making wine.

This differs from the current American meaning of "winemaker," which is broader and less concrete.  After all, it can mean someone who gets into the cellar and gets his hands and arms stained, so to speak, and/or someone who oversees it and makes a lot of pronouncements, etc.  It may also mean someone who gets his (or her, sorry) mitts dirty in the vineyards and oversees the complete process of growing the grapes and making the juice.

AGRONOMO IS MORE THAN "VINEYARD MANAGER", NO?

Si.  The useful word agronomo is sometimes translated as "vineyard manager," and not only by yours truly. Let's remember that in Italy the "vineyard manager" or "agronomist" is hardly less important than the enologo and must work in close collaboration with the enologo. Or enologa, of which there are many shining examples these days.  There is many an accomplished female agronoma, too.  In the educational regime, the two courses of scientific study and vocational emphases are probably far more distinct than it often is here, where we like to pride ourselves on being self-taught and jacks of all trades.  (Masters of none?)

One more thing.  An astonishing number of smart young enologi and agronomi are from vine-growing, wine-making families of some antiquity.  For most of them, vines and wines are very much about honoring a family tradition and a landscape with profound attachments.  It all may get a little weird sometimes, but how much poorer a place would Italy be without them?  And how much less would we, who have little to compare, find Italy so compelling?

Delicious resurrection of Colorino

The wine was a revelation to me.  Its juicy, acidic vitality made it a standout against the frankly boring, corporate Chiantis and Supertuscans that typify Ruffino's production (at least B. C. -- Before Carlo [Ferrini]). 

At $70 retail, it's no cheap quaff, but the wine's liveliness and congeniality with food do make you want to keep on drinking it.  (At 13.5% it's not quite the hi-test vino that you associate with international-style red wines either.)

Adolfo Folonari, Ruffino's CEO, the Founder of the Feast

What is this wonderful "discovery"?  (To the market it's not a new wine but, sadly, it was to me.)

Ruffino's Romitorio di Santedame 2003, Toscana IGT, a blend of the almost forsaken Colorino (60%) and Merlot (40%).

"Oh God," you may murmur, "just what the world's crying out for, another Merlot blend from Tuscany." 

No, no. Look at it this way: Colorino, a blending grape that often lent Chianti a little blast of lightness and freshness, now has a starring role of its own.  Almost abandoned as a blending partner in most of the past two decades, it is making a modest comeback as producers are beginning to lighten up on the imported varieties. Somewhere along the way, as is now commonly acknowledged, Chianti lost its way with its infatuation with French grapes, French oak, French letters, etc.

The Colorino's light fruitiness is nicely anchored by the darker, meatier Merlot.  The result is an admirably balanced wine that does a lot in my jaded old eyes to make Ruffino interesting. 

I think that hope and desire is felt keenly by the firm.  When I commented on the Romitorio to Adolfo Folonari, the CEO, he smiled broadly and said that, yes, they were counting heavily on it.  Presumably, though he didn't express it this way, in order to help maintain Ruffino's image as the Ferrini era gathers momentum.

Before continuing to the specs and so forth, I will anticipate any lingering naysayers who might bitch that "perfectly good vineyard space is being devoted to such a stunt" -- Italy isn't the only place where some wine people detest change -- let me mention that the exposition of the vineyards where these varieties are grown lie to the north and west.  Less sunny areas at high elevations (up to 1500 feet) where Sangiovese would often fail to ripen sufficiently.  The resulting Romitorio is an elegant solution to what must have been a perennial problem for the agronomo and the enologo tied to a traditional blending regime.

Avanti, amici miei.

Sangiovese Seminar at Del Posto, October 23

Exhausted as I was from the events of the past two weeks -- there's nothing like the death watch of a loved one to wear you down, not to mention the added drain of sitting shivah and making hours of small talk and rehashing the pitiful last days of the deceased --

I say, tired as I was, I couldn't stay away from a long-planned seminar and tasting at the bruited Del Posto, newest star in the Batali firmament. Entitled the "Ruffino Sangiovese Seminar", it featured Sangiovese-based wines from several of the firm's Tuscan estates, namely Santedame, Lodola Nuova and Greppoli Mazzi, plus two of their American properties, Columbia Winery's Red Willow Vineyard (Washington State) and the Miner Gibson Ranch Sangiovese (Mendocino).  The interactions of terroir and clonal differences yielded an interesting if not always pleasing range of aromas and tastes.

Greppone Mazzi estate vineyards

Pleasant as this was, I found two other parts of the program far more engrossing and informative.

Since a great deal of the seminar dealt with clonal variations of this difficult grape, the clonal tasting was fascinating, and a 1977-2003 vertical of the Ruffino Riserva Ducale Oro, the top-line Chianti Classico, was a concise textbook of the changing clonal/varietal mix -- and more, of course -- in Ruffino's winemaking over the years.

Before I continue with this post -- the first of two or more about this event -- I must descend from my usual Olympian perch (IRONY ALERT) and confess that Ruffino wines haven't generally thrilled me.  Sort of boring, not very distinctive, too obviously engineered in latter years to cater to stereotypically American tastes.  I find the newly-released 2004 wines to have a clearer identity and a more balanced flavor profile, with more acidity and less sweetish roundness. 

This course correction portends excellent things to come, and I will not give too much away by saying that the hiring of a Florence-born consulting oenologist in 2001 has already effected huge improvements in the Ruffino lineup.  (The 2004's are his first Ruffino release.)  His name is Carlo Ferrini, and you will be reading more about this man in future posts, beginning with the very next but one.

Don Carlo

By the way, how was the grub at Del Posto?  All right. I guess the exalted prices are to pay for the polished teak and marble inlay floors.

"It's been a long walk. A wonderful walk"

These are the words that dear old Seymour Krasney said many times in the last week of his life.  That life of 93 years ended today at 1:50 pm EDT.  Soon afterwards we raised our glasses of vodka and tonic, his favourite drink, to him as he lay, already a jaundiced shell, in his little apartment on the West Side of Manhattan. 

The other words he said over and over in his rapid decline were "thank you" and "I love you".  His death was quick and, until the very end, fairly pain-free -- although people of his generation, tested by the Depression and the Second World War, were stoic beyond the understanding of people today.  When he said, in his bed, "I'm comfortable," I do believe it was his way of saying, "I'm in pain but I'm more worried about you.  It's really OK."

He accepted me as a son.  I loved him like a father -- a far better one than I had in my early years. 

The funeral is tomorrow.  The burial is immediate. 

Verra' la morte
E avra' i tuoi occhi

May he listen to Don Carlos, his favourite opera, for eternity.

Goodbye, Seymour.  Addio.  Addio.  "Nessun dorma...mai..."

Schioppettino and the Winter Menu at Barbone

Yes, at Barbone again.  My hangout even though it's 40 blocks away and 3 avenues over from the M15 bus.  In short, a schlepp.  And worth every effort.

I write to you in exhaustion.  Good old Seymour's decline continues, the vigil endures.  Regular life is suspended. 

Well, not entirely. 

My nephew Joe came in from Denver for a few days, a long-planned mini-vacation and escape from the wide open spaces to the packed-tight world of Manhattan.  On his first night in NYC we went to Barbone, where I was also graced with the presence of rising punk-rock lyricist-lead singer star Eric Hughes of the band Golden Error.  (They had just killed 'em in Montreal and have been signed by an indie label.  Their vinyl release will, I'm sure, be a cult item available in a quantity of 200 records.)

We sat in the garden on a warm night, arriving about 9:30 or :45, leaving at after midnight.  The kind of heaters you see all over Europe have just been made legal in New York, at last, which extends the outdoor dining season by months.  This is a tremendous boon for a small place like Barbone, since the garden easily doubles the size of the restaurant.

I brought a bottle of a Malvasia recently sent me a young winemaker in Puglia named Francesco Mazzone of the family winery Azienda Agricola Domenico Mazzone.  I wrote about this wine not too long ago, and I expressed my surprise at liking this example of Malvasia.  (Click here for that article.)  I wanted Joe and Eric to try it to see their reaction.  And I asked Alberto, the owner and sommelier at the restaurant, to assess it.  Like me, he normally doesn't much like Malvasia.

Alberto's pronouncement:  "I'd buy this."  Bravo, Francesco.

This Mazzone white was a nice aperitif, aromatically fruity with just enough residual sugar to ease you out of your hunger.  It paired extremely well with one of Barbone's perennial hits, the lightly battered and quick-fried asparagus. 

For the main courses we all had different fall/winter dishes despite the very warm night.

Quickie: Le Cecche "Sörì Le Cecche" Diano d'Alba DOC 2004

When I met Peter Morone of PGM Wines Selection for a quick lunch recently, he gave me a bottle of an unusually structured Dolcetto that he brings into the States. 

The estate of its origin, Le Cecche, is an old one that has been in the hands of energetic new owners since 2001.  They grow the three major varieties of the Diano d'Alba DOC -- Dolcetto, Barbera and Nebbiolo. 

As you can discern in the winery's website description of their top-of-the-line Sörì Le Cecche, they use modern technology and oak intelligently and not excessively:

DIANO D’ALBA DOC “Sörì Le Cecche": 100 % Dolcetto. Grapes from a 50-year-old vineyard. Fermentation in stainless steel casks with temperature control, partly in a rotomacerator with temperature control. Ageing partly in stainless steel, partly in oak casks. 2004: production of 10,000 bottles.

Casks, you will note, not barriques.

My first impression on opening the bottle was of an intense, tarry, smoked bacon, brambly-fruits nose.  Almost overpowering but enticing.  Without any breathing time this powerful young Dolcetto hit the mouth with a complex set of flavors, the dark fruits and the lusty tannins, a touch of sweetness and an invigorating shot of acids.  Within a short time these vivid notes settled into a pleasing harmony, and next evening the wine had integrated further. 

The finish was very long, the strong tannins expressing themselves as a tangy, delicious blueberry flavor with no intrusion of sweetness to mar the savoriness of a wonderful food wine. 

Admirably balanced.  Impressive at approximately $20 retail in New York City.

Le Cecche, Sörì Le Cecche 2004 (14%). 
Imported by USA Wine Imports for PGM Wine Selection, Cranford, NJ.

A last happy birthday to a wonderful man

Yesterday was the 93rd birthday of a wonderful man.  It will be his last.  He is dying, quickly, of liver cancer.  He is dying without pain and in peace.  When his grandchildren and children approach his bed for a kiss and embrace, he says, "You are my treasure."  No dry eyes in the house.  He says to me, "You're my third son." 

Tonight I told him, "I haven't had a father since I last saw mine when I was eleven.  You're my father now." 

Later he said, "That was a high honour."

"I don't know about that.  But I'm honoured."

This is my companion, Ken's, father.  Seymour Krasney.  Intelligent, witty, risqué, a voracious reader, full of curiosity and always eager for the revelations of art.  Until just recently he insisted on riding the subway, scorning taxis as indulgences.  He went out three, four, five nights a week to concerts, plays, ballets, anything that would stimulate his heart and soul.  He read every book about the Supreme Court and the great issues of the day, every biography of great men.  He asked to die the way Sigmund Freud did, with a dose of morphine when the pain for the family grew too great. 

People have called from far and wide.  This evening a community centre in Jerusalem called and said they had heard he was ill.  They wished him love and God's protection and thanked him for the support he had given them. 

We'll all miss him.  Like my dear mother-in-law, Gert, who died last September, Seymour's a force of nature, an indelible personality.  Sometimes infuriating but always, finally, lovable and loving. 

Let's raise a glass.  Vodka and tonic, his favourite.  (As the late, great Joe E. Brown said, "Nobody's perfect.")

I'll miss him. 

Goodbye, old boy.  I hope -- but somehow doubt -- they'll perform Parsifal where you're going. 

"I have selected 853 of our finest wines..."

In the last announcement of major wine guide "awards" this fall, Aristide has listed without comment the 853 "finest wines" of Italy in the new Luca Maroni tome "I Vini di Frutto 2008."  Of course there is a finest producer -- several, in fact.  All graced with a 100 point system so familiar to us.

And of course there are exhibitions, exhibitors paying through the nose again for being so honored, etc., etc.

As far as its wines are concerned, every year Italy seems more like Lake Wobegone, "where the men are all strong, the women are all beautiful and the children are all exceptional."  What did I say about 2032 and Tre Bicchieri?  Could happen.

And they still don't spring for a high-res photo

"Gambero Rotto" according to Italian Wine Guy

After I posted the list of 2008 Tre Bicchieri honorees, Alfonso Cevola, "Italian Wine Guy," commented rather disparagingly on Gambero Rosso.  GR is of course the mini publishing empire that selects the winners and relentlessly promotes the list and itself in Italy and abroad.  Their 3 glasses generosity grows greater every year; it's conceivable that by 2032 every wine in Italy will receive a Tre Bicchieri rating.  (Think Special Olympics.)

Well, now AC aka IWG has outdone himself in choleric, LSD-flashback free-associative eloquence.  See his delirious denunciation of "Gambero Rotto"  (rotto = broken, in place of rosso = red) on his site.  Somehow he manages to tie all this into Zardoz (!!) of all the whacky movies.  Worth seeing if only for Sean Connery's Borat-like "costume."

Video interview of yours truly

I'm ready for my closeup.  Just not that close up.  (Did I clip my nose hairs??)

Vino24.TV  -  Hughes Interview

I hope you can follow my pontifications...

Wine and Food Maestro of Southern Italy. His blog marches on, step by step, into English

I've written before about Luciano Pignataro, the head food and wine critic of Il Mattino, the major Neapolitan daily.  His web site www.lucianopignataro.it is a treasure trove of information about the wines, foods and restaurants of southern Italy, especially his home region of Campania.  (The food there is sublime -- the best in Italy IMHO -- without a plate of chicken parmesan to be found, thank God.  For, contrary to popular American belief, it is not true that "all the people up north cook with a lot of butter and cream and all the people down south cook with tomato sauce."  Italy's many cuisines are far more varied and subtle than that.) 

The coffee in Campania does beat anything up north, though.

Comunque -- anyway -- I'm happy to report that more and more articles are being posted in English on www.lucianopignataro.com.  This one, a restaurant review that makes your mouth water, is a good example.

By the way, not all the reviews are written by Luciano himself.  He has some very able confederates.  One day I hope we can see all their entries in 'Er 'Oighness's tongue. 

Tre Bicchieri 2008: The usual suspects, mostly

Tre Bicchieri New York 2008 details here.

Over the weekend my good friend in Verona, Giampiero Nadali, whose blog Aristide is one of the most followed and respected in Italy, published the new Gambero Rosso list of Tre Bicchieri recipients for 2008.  In his introduction he wrote:

Here is a cut-and-paste of the new list of 305 wines selected by Gambero Rosso for 2008.  These 305 (+23 more than 2007, +59 than 2006) are in the 21st edition of the Guida Vini d'Italia 2008 di Gambero Rosso e Slow Food in recognition of their "Tre Bicchieri" status.  They represent - according to the selection committee - excellence in Italian winemaking.  [You have to love his subtle appositive.]

Tuscany remains the champion of all regions with 65 Tre Bicchieri wines (compared with 2006, that's up by 10), followed by Piemonte (61, +8), Friuli Venezia Giulia (28, -1), Veneto (27, +3), Alto Adige (22, -1), Sicilia (15, =), Lombardia (13, +3), Marche (11, -1), Abruzzo (10, +1) Campania (10, -2), Umbria (8, +2), Trentino (7, =), Puglia (7, +2),  Emilia Romagna (5, -2), Basilicata (4, +2) Sardegna (4, =), Calabria (2, +1), Valle d'Aosta (2, -1) Lazio (2, =), Liguria (1, =) and Molise (1, =).

I have cut and pasted Aristide's cut-paste of the GR's list.  See the continuation for the whole thing.

You do have to wonder.  Are there so many wines -- 305 ?? -- worthy of these highest accolades?  Or it is a matter of "grade inflation" for everyone's marketing gain?   This is a topic on which much heat is expended in Italy every year about this time.  For once, reasonably so.

First, though, the "special prizes."  This one too has raised a tempest of polemics.

I Premi Speciali 2008:

Best Wines of the Year

• Sparkling
  Franciacorta Collezione Esclusiva ’99 - Cavalleri
• White
  Collio Tocai Friulano ’06 - Raccaro
• Red
  Faro ’05 - Palari
• Sweet
  Moscato Passito di Pantelleria Ben Ryé ’06 - Donnafugata

Winery of the Year

• Gaja

Winemaker of the Year

• Mattia Vezzola

Emerging Winery

• Ca’ Orologio

Best Price/Value

• A. A. Pinot Bianco Praesulis ’06 - Gumphof

Vineyard Manager of the Year

• Davide e Stefano Dezi

Prize for Sustainable Agriculture

• Saverio Petrilli

Vendemmia 2007: Report from Chianti

A note yesterday from Lorenzo Bernini, the agronomist of Fattoria Le Fonti ("The Springs Farm") in the province of Siena.  The Paolo he refers to is Paolo Caciorgna, the excellent oenologist at Le Fonti who consults with a number of other properties in Italy and even California.  English translation in the continuation.

Abbiamo finalmente completato la vendemmia.

 

In generale sull'annata: l'estate, ma anche la primavera, è stata molto secca, con notevole carenza di pioggia. Nonostante questo le piante hanno mantenuto il giusto equilibrio e non hanno mai sofferto siccità perchè erano state eseguite opportune lavorazioni al terreno. Questo equilibrio ha permesso il raggiungimento di una ottima qualità con uve particolarmente sane, anche se abbiamo dovuto fare una scelta e togliere i grappoli danneggiati dal sole.

I vini devono ancora svolgere la fermentazione malolattica per cui è ancora presto per valutare la qualità del prodotto finale, però presentano ottime caratteristiche e potenzialità, in particolar modo le Riserve.

Paolo concorda che tutto ciò ci fà prevedere una ottima annata!!!

 

La stagione è ancora molto bella, con temperature estive durante il giorno....fin troppo estive! Frà un paio di settimane inizieremo con la raccolta delle olive..........

 

Excuse me, I've been caving it with Alley Oop

Dear friends and fellow Berners-Lee miscreants, for the past few days Time Warner Cable has thoughtfully sent me on a journey back to those dark days of yore before the Information Highway -- I mean, Infobahn -- that is, before the days of chiseling "//http:..." on your dried-clay billboards...

You know, before the Web as we know and love it today in all its all-Javaing, all-dancing-Abe Lincolns mortgage lenders splendid commercialism. 

I shall soon be posting all sorts of my usual tripe ASAP.  Assuming, of course, some construction work crews don't cut the cables again. 

And no, I didn't start reading Matthew Arnold again.  I stared forlornly at the hot haze over Manhattan.

Pic:  Alley Oop's noble profile.  His position on gay rights and creationism?

Accademia di Vino, downtown comes uptown except for the shoes

There seems to be an insatiable appetite for Italian food and wine in this town.  The informal but well-appointed wine bar-restaurant is almost the default restaurant format these days, and the places with this format are always packed.

The new and, yes, wildly popular Accademia di Vino borrows its look and feel from downtown spots like Otto (an outpost of the Batali empire) and scores of others in the East Village, Lower East Side, etc.  The novelty is that an establishment like this is in the Upper East Side a few blocks from Bloomingdale's on Third Avenue.  It's exactly what the neighborhood had been wanting, a fun hangout that is glossy enough to fit the style of the locals. 

Accademia di Vino offers delicious well-prepared food, a vast selection of wines at all price points by the bottle (500 they say) and a broad selection of wines by the glass.  Most of the wines are indeed from Italy. 

And the service is very downtown in the best sense -- friendly, attentive, tactful, from the young man serving you bread and oil at your bar perch to the waitress (Nanci in our case) whose good cheer and charm did a lot to make the meal enjoyable.  No UES hauteur in evidence. 

Not on the part of the staff anyway.

We went to Accademia di Vino rather serendipitously.  I was to meet our dear friend Courtenay for coffee and a short meeting, the rendez-vous point being the Bloomberg building just south of Bloomingdale's.  It was hot and humid and I was, of course, dressed very casually (sloppily) in wrinkled khakis and flip-flops.  As I waited for Court, elderly couples dressed to the teeth headed for Le Cirque, casting scornful glances at my redneck footwear. 

When Courtenay arrived she said, "Let's go for a drink at this new place -- I love it."  (She lives two blocks away, so she has reason to love it.)  This quickly became an invitation to dinner, and we got Ken to walk over.  As we waited for a place at the bar, more scandalized glances at the footwear from the well-heeled crowd.  This, I noted, would never have happened downtown.  Not many Gucci loafers in evidence down there.

Patrons aside, the only real difference between Accademia di Vino and similar spots downtown is its size (quite large with two bars and an endless cellar dining room) and spiffy newness.  Friendly, attentive service goes a long way to make up for the lack of intimacy of scale. 

Happily, prices are in the same league as at a lot of downtown wine bars-restaurants.

The links above are from positive reviews of Accademia di Vino, including some from patrons on the menupages site.  For a dissenting view -- one of the few -- see this one by the restaurant critic for the Daily News.

Accademia di Vino ($$$$)

                         Phone: 212-888-6333
             1081 3rd Ave,             New York 10021
           Btwn 63rd & 64th St           

"Lupa: Ptui!"

Or Why I Go to Barbone about Once a Week

One of the recent and welcome developments at the New York Times is that everyone now has a blog.  Sure, Eric Asimov has been doing The Pour for some time now.  But now Frank Bruni, the head restaurant critic, and his foodie colleagues have begun blogging about all kinds of issues that affect the dining experience.  As is the case with The Pour, the Diner's Journal allows Bruni to elaborate on topics that face tight space restrictions in the hard copy of the NYT.  And he can go in very different directions than he would (be allowed to?) in the print edition. 

In photo: Garden at Barbone

Bruni wrote a post last week about going to lunch at restaurants that are hard to get into for dinner, illustrating his point with one of the Batali eateries, Lupa, which is hugely popular.  The food's good and the wine list is all Italian and, for the most part, well-priced.  But...even though the place is packed all the time and attracts its share of celebrities (Jane Krakowski! Stone Philips! Me!), it's coasting on its early acclaim and the ubiquity of Media Mario.  (Another Bruni column today comments obliquely on the effects of the many distractions of celebrity chefs. I can tell you that our visits to Babbo were impressive for their expense and the air of incipient grandeur on the part of the staff.  Not for the food, which while good, seemed a little gimmicky and not equal to its expense.  And the loud music jarred in the elegant surroundings.  Someone isn't keeping quite the eye on things you'd expect.)

We used to go to Lupa fairly often.  But the last time we went there we saw that things had changed for the worse.  It was a weekend lunch and the place was packed.  Nothing new there.  But the food was very uneven, the service slack and the pressure to turn the table was intense -- even while we were having dessert and coffee the waitress hovered and seemed anxious for us to split.  (See my comment # 12.  And let me tell you, the welcome we received was unworthy of an Olive Garden.

Compare and Contrast: Barbone and Other East Village Restaurants

The many good restaurants in the East Village, and especially in Alphabet City, have a completely different vibe.  Small and presided over by a hands-on owner, they combine good to excellent food at mostly reasonable prices enhanced by a warm, personal welcome.   Their wine lists are carefully chosen and not marked up to exploitative levels. They're casual, comfortable and, for the most part, managed with quietly professional efficiency.  The dining experience is all about you, not them. 

I've written about a number of these places, often twice or more.  Barbone is our favorite for all of the reasons I've just listed.  Over the past few months it's the restaurant I've gone to the most often, at least 7-8 times.  Under the 7-days-a-week presence of the owner Alberto, he of the phenomenal memory, the service gets better as his largely Mexican and Ecuadorian staff benefits from his strict training.  The menu changes just enough to reflect the seasons -- porchetta (suckling pig) carefully sourced from an upstate farm -- is on the menu from this week.  And his recommended wine pairings are always spot on. 

All this, and the fact that Barbone has a large, shady garden, helps make this place a standout in the ranks of good, uncelebrityish East Village eateries, where Old World training and kitchen disciplines combine with New World casualness and good humor.

Chestnut agnolotti, one of my favorite dishes at Barbone

More observations about European tourists in New York

1.  They spend a lot of time hanging around the UN, photographing it from every angle.  Are they all architecture students?

2.  They wear entirely too much denim.  It's like looking at a Sergio Valente commercial from 1980. 

3. They are extremely thin, which is their excuse for wearing very tight clothes -- "tight" and "tight clothes" being ghetto for "effeminate".  The only ones who are as fat as Americans from the South and Midwest are middle-aged Germans and (especially) Belgians.  Hint to Belgians: Do not put mayonnaise on your frites.  And polish your mirrors.

4. They never ask for directions.  Really, you can ask a New Yorker for directions.  We're glad to help.  We love our city and we want you to love it too.

5. They venture into places that American tourists never go.  You never see Americans tourists walking around Harlem.  Germans and Brits are thick on the ground.  Figuratively speaking. Bravo anyway.

6. They spend ages studying menus.  Relax, this isn't Milwaukee where they've been known to serve hot bacon grease on lettuce.  Generally, the food's good here.  And they sell wine and liquor everywhere because liquor licenses are cheap.  Have your meal, get a buzz on and enjoy the rest of your day. 

7. If you want to go to Central Park, go way uptown.  The park extends to 110 Street and it's more beautiful and less trampled the farther uptown you go. 

8. If you want good food and wine at reasonable prices, go downtown, especially to the East Village, Alphabet City, Lower East Side.  I've said this a hundred times but it bears repeating.  STAY AWAY FROM MIDTOWN RESTAURANTS.  Many of them are expense account places, ie, overpriced and distinctly uninspiring. 

9. Go to Union Square and watch the passing spectacle -- there's no place like it in Paris, Rome or, I'd guess, any of the cities of Europe.  Just watch.  And if you're lucky, you'll see a hawk (or is it a falcon?) catch and tear a pigeon apart.  The feathers may float everywhere.  One less pigeon to shit on our statues and cars, hurray.

10. Don't be afraid to express your opinions.  Except for the people's mandarinate of the Upper West Side, Manhattan's the free-est place in the US.  And New Yorkers never liked G. W. Bush, either pre- or post-9/11, so we do have that in common.

Vendemmia 2007: Notes from the Mezzogiorno

Except for Sicily, southern Italy in general seems to have fared well in grape quality this year even though yields were low.

Today I heard from Carmela Capozzo and Filippo Cassano, both of the Gioia del Colle appellation in Puglia, that after a worrisome start to the season, the excessive moisture dried out.  The hot sunny summer allowed the grapes to reach a rich, balanced maturity although the crop was much lower than usual.  "But the quality is excellent," Filippo told me.  All of his grapes have been picked except some of his Aleatico, which should be done in a few days.  "The Aleatico is fantastic this year."

Carmela Capozzo

Filippo Cassano of Polvanera

Carmela spoke with another oenologist who related that the Primitivo this year is perhaps the best he's ever seen.  Although the crop was 30% smaller than last year, the remaining grapes were in great condition.  "The levels of sugar, acidity and alcohol are very good. The musts are really rich and are unusually aromatic."

In an added note from Francesco Iappelli in Caserta (near Naples), he said after the post I wrote on Saturday that the Falanghina of the Naples-Pozzuoli area doesn't seem to have had problems with maturation this year.  "I'll check on this if you want.  Keep in mind that the grape is called Falanghina in Benevento and Naples (Campi Flegrei), but in reality they are genetically different.  The Campi Flegrei variation of the variety is used to dusty volcanic soil and extremely dry conditions."

More to come in a few days from western Chianti (Poggibonsi zone).

Primitivo ripe for the picking
(by Carmela)

Specialty Wine Retailers Association debuts

Tom Wark, the Fermentation blogmeister and iconoclast of the three-tiered distribution setup, is spearheading a new initiative for an actual free market in wine sales and distribution.  The new organization, Specialty Wine Retailers Association, sports a web site and a blog.  None other than Tom himself is the blog's author, so far as I can tell at this early juncture.  The org's blog is called Wine Without Borders.

The current setup is a product of the Depression and the end of Prohibition, the allegedly Noble Experiment.  That's what you get for catering to the religious right in the sticks.

Just keep your mitts off Social Security, dude.  That Depression-born program is going to help me stay alive in a few years.

You'd dare say no to this guy?