this heaven gives me migraine

2005 Golden Glass

A little over two weeks ago, I had the good fortune to attend the second annual Golden Glass tasting up at Fort Mason. Why did it take me so long to write things up?

1- I have been trying to study since my test is on Saturday.
2- My parents have been in town since last week and I have been entertaining and going to all the touristy parts of the city (luckily not Fisherman's Wharf).
3- I tasted a lot of wines at Golden Glass.
4- Writing up said wines took me a long time, partly because I had to endure my own terrible mangling of the Italian language (which, believe me, was painful, since for some reason I was mispronouncing words that I even knew better than to say incorrectly), but also because I had to check spellings and info. For the love of god, if anyone reading this ever puts on a wine tasting, please please PLEASE put the tasting book in some order that can be understood by the common man. The person at Slow Food who put this book together was a sadist and had the wineries listed in random order. I think it was possibly by region (which of course were not marked) and then by some random listing within that region, but it mostly meant that I had to leaf around every time I looked anything up, which was pretty much constantly. When I was at the tasting, one of the tables had a "we are on page 17" sign up, so I know it isn't just me. I imagine the book was even more frustrating at the tasting itself, although if you managed to taste in the right order, maybe it wasn't so bad. Aside from the tasting book order, the tasting was good, but oh, man, that tasting book was traumatic.

Pre-tasting I attended the seminar about "Italian wines in America" and while it was interesting and sometimes confusing since I don't speak Italian, I felt like the panel (mostly restaurateurs and retailers) were yelling at the producers in the audience (there were a lot of them there) about having wine that is too expensive or too confusing for the American public. I understand that it is difficult to sell expensive wines to people if the buyers have never had the grape or heard of the producer, but at the same time I don't think a lot of these producers were selling ridiculously priced wines. A producer also doesn't want to sell at a loss, and how is a producer in Italy supposed to fix the American problem with Italian wines? It seems to me that if I go to a shop and the shop has a lot of Italian wines I might not understand, it is the shop's duty as much as anything to make me understand why they are selling those particular wines. So I am not really sure what the seminar was supposed to do, besides get some of the producers pretty mad and encourage them to do more tastings in the U.S. (something they might not want to do given the chiding they got in the seminar).

Post that I had lunch at Greens and got to watch the flashback-to-high-school events surrounding some of the producers/marketers/distributors/pourers having lunch. There was a lot of worried looking around and concern if certain important people stopped at the wrong table for too long before joining the table they were supposed to, and a lot of peering around and watch checking, and, oddly (I thought), wine being drunk, considering we were headed to a big room where four and a half hours of wine-pouring was about to ensue. I had lemonade, and I am glad I did, because my mouth was shot when I rolled out of the tasting at 6.30.

The tasting itself was great, although I found myself wishing over and over that I spoke Italian, because I couldn't have much of a conversation with some of the more interesting people there, due to my complete lack of Italian. There were the requisite disillusioned youth and women teetering around in high heels more to be seen than taste wine in attendance, and some goofy people taking society-type photos for the event, but it was not overly crowded, and the quality of the wines poured seemed pretty high to me. I ended the day, once my palate gave out completely and I couldn't face any more Barolo, talking to Dee Harley of Harley Farms about her goats and her cheese and her life in general, and decided I want to live with a bunch of goats somewhere and make cheese. At least in theory. I also got to taste a lot of her delicious cheese, and right now have a trip down to the farm (it's near Half Moon Bay, in Pescadero) mentally planned out in my head.

As for the wines, there were a lot of interesting ones and I really enjoyed most of them and thought them well-done, even if they weren't up my personal alley. I think the Prà Soaves were very good, as were the Fattoria di Felsina wines. The 1999 Prunotto Barolo was very nice, even though I found myself gravitating towards the more acidic reds, which seems to be my mindset these days. Fontanafredda, Sassotondo, Bastianich, and Marotti Campi also had some very good wines. I didn't get through everything, although I got through just about all the whites and three or so tables of the reds (there were four tables). I am still working on my speed and figuring out exactly what I am looking for tasting notes... I don't like the grade-and-nothing-else commentary, which I tried for my first few wines this time around and abandoned, but I am not sure what I want to do and what is most useful. I also have to work more on the technical aspect of my notes, since my voice recorder has the Record button in a very dumb place and I often end up turning it on/off at inconvenient times and then miss notes. Anyway, the notes I took are below.

Les Cretes
2004 Valle d'Aosta Petite Arvine Vigne Champorette (100% Petite Arvine) a lot of acid very lemony, slightly aggressive but good

Coffele
2004 Ca' Visco Soave Classico (75% Garganega 25% Trebbiano di Soave) banana nose, limey orangey in mouth, almondy finish
2003 Alzari Soave Classico (100% Garganega) partly dried grapes, fermented in wood really nice nutty bitter vanilla flavor probably from the oak, a little softer than Ca' Visco

Feudi di San Gregorio
2004 Falangina (100% Chardonnay) very floral nose steely in mouth with slight vanilla finish

Roberto Anselmi
2004 Capitel Foscarino (90% Garganega 10% Chardonnay) interesting, can't place the nose, generally a B
2002 Capitel Croce (100% Garganega) barriqued, slight oak on the finish, a little too much for me (it starts out okay but then overwhelms)

Poggio dei Gorleri
2004 Riviera Ligure di Ponente Vermentino Vigna Sori (100% Vermentino) bitter lemon flavor B-, not much on nose
2003 Riviera Ligure di Ponente Pigato Cycnus (100% Pigato) more on nose than the Vermentino, a lot of white fruit evident, I liked it better than the Vermentino

Centorame -Lamberto Vannucci
2003 Trebbiano d'Abruzzo Castellum Vetus (100% Trebbiano)
2003 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo San Michele this nose is all about tar, which is surprising, since the actual wine is very light/delicate

Eugenio Collavini Viticultori
2003 Collli Orientali del Friuli Ribolla Gialla Turian (100% Ribola Gialla) bitter but clean, zippy
2003 Collio Bianco Broy (40% Chardonnay, 40% Tocai Friuliano, 20% Sauvignon Blanc) heavy feeling, you can feel the Chardonnay in it, it's a little much, almost buttery (especially after the Ribola)

San Michele Appiano (at the Moris Farms table)
2003 Sanct Valentin (Sauvignon Blanc) from Alto Adige very grassy and cat peeish (in that good way), but soft and no bitterness, unusual and stood out among wines just because it was slightly different

Arnaldo Caprai
2004 Colli Martani Grecante Grechetto (100% Grechetto) lots of tropical fruit in nose, soft, a slight CO2 zip on tongue, snappy, finish is lingering and fluid

Cornarea
2004 Roero Arneis (100% Arneis) zippy, lemony, finish kind of dies off, but is pleasant

Cantina Sociale Di Trapani
2004 Drepanum Bianco (50% Insolia, 50 % Grillo) Sicilian native grapes very pretty exotic floral nose
2004 Forti Terre Rosso (80% Nero d'Avola, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon) smooth at the beginning, gets frisky at the end, I don't love it but it is pleasant

Bastianich
2004 COF Tocai Friuliano Plus (100% Tocai) citrus and white flower nose, smooth finish, very soft
2002 Vespa Bianca (Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Picolit) named "Vespa" because when harvesting they had a wasp attack and the winemaker or someone got eight wasp bites and the wine was named Vespa because that is what he would have needed to get away (Vespa is also Italian for "wasp") almost buttery finish but very well-integrated and well-done

Prà
2003 Soave Classico (Garganega, Trebbiano Blanca) nice astringency, very drinkable
2003 Soave Classico Montegrande (90% Garganega, 10% Trebbiano di Soave) more fruit in finish than Classico, so far these two are my winners of the day

Vigneto delle Terre Rosse Enrico Vallania
2001 Sauvignon Blanc (100% Sauvignon Blanc) zesty finish, very steely and brassy, reminded me of a Gruner

Marotti Campi
2004 Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jessi Luzano (100% Verdicchio) just bottled, has a clean hay-ey grassy nose, slightly tight, probably because it was just bottled
2001 Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jessi Classico Superiore Salmariano)(100% Verdicchio, 20 percent in oak) heartier, fuller than the Luzano with some extra spice, dry bitter finish, very nice
2003 Lacrima di Morro d'Alba Orgolio (100% Lacrima) very floral red berry nose, almost flowery flavor, even, along with the berry flavor, Lacrima is mostly indigenous to the area (Marche) so you won't see this stuff a lot

La Boatina
2004 Collio Ribolla Gialla (100% Ribolla Gialla) unusual nose, slightly musty old book smell, not TCA but like old papers
2003 Collio Pinot Grigio (100% Pinot Grigio) almost like white chocolate, marzipan on nose, lots of acidity to uphold the heavy flavor and aromas

Santi
2004 Sortesele Pinot Grigio (100% Pinot Grigio) musty marzipan nose (like a combo of the last two!), starts out acidic and turns into vanilla goo at the end, very creamy finish
2002 Valpolicella Classico Superiore (Ripasso) I enjoyed it quite a lot, had a burst of clean flavor in the finish, good astringency/acid

Cave du Vin Blanc de Morgex et de La Salle
2004 Valle d'Aosta Blanc de Morgex et de La Salle Rayon (100% Prié Blanc)
2004 Valle d'Aosta Blanc de Morgex et de La Salle (100% Prié Blanc) good labels foamy, looks unfined and unfiltered, girly flowery nose, finish ends up creamy lemony

Zenato
2003 Lugana Vigneto San Benedetto (100% Trebbiano di Lugana) reticent nose but a lot of vanilla in mouth
2000 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico (Corvina, Rondinella, Sangiovese, according to book) a little closed up, vague black fruit and astringency, kind of one-d, probably needs some more time

Tasca d'Almerita - Regaleali
2003 Leone d'Almerita (Catarratto, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay according to book, I noted Inzolia and Chardonnay at the table) a nose like canned vegetables and then strangely lemony and fruity in the mouth, kind of odd combination
2002 Cygnus (Nero d'Avola, Cabernet Sauvignon) slightly green, mostly seems to behave like Cabernet

Marchesi Mazzei - Catello di Fonterutoli
2001 Chianti Classico Castello di Fonterutoli (85% Sangiovese, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot) a little too much bitters/quinine (?) and not a lot else going on in it
2002 Tenuta Belguardo (Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon) I liked it better than the previous but still kind of simple and like a "whonk on the head" (I wondered if the transition from white to red did the wine in here, but I didn't get a chance to revisit later, so I can't say for sure)

Allegrini
2001 Palazzo della Torre (70% Corvina Veronese, 25% Rondinella, 5% Molinara) dried grape sweet finish, a very dried raisiny plummy finish and a little too dried for me, nice tannins, though
1999 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico (75% Corvina Veronese, 20% Rondinella, 5% Molinara) smells a little corked but pleasant in mouth if you can ignore that, very drying and intense
(people who wear all cream to Italian wine tastings are crazy)
2001 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico (75% Corvina Veronese, 20% Rondinella, 5% Molinara) clean nose, berry, tarry, leathery, violet, nice finish that isn't too cloying

Di Majo Norante
2002 Biferno Rosso Ramitello (85% Prugnolo, 15% Aglianico) beeyooteful nose, green bell pepper, in the mouth it is bitter and stemmy (and I mean that nicely)
2004 Sangiovese (100% Sangiovese) leathery tea nose, a lot of fruit up front but then gets bitter with soft fuzzy tannins, tasty

Giuseppe Cortese
2000 Barbaresco Rabajà (100% Nebbiolo) lots of sediment, nose smells heavy dried fruit, light in mouth though
1996 Rabajà Riserva (100% Nebbiolo) looks like old coffee/tea, has a soapy floral nose

Prunotto
1999 Barolo Bussia (100% Nebbiolo) smells like heaven (black tarry flowers), not as cloying at finish, more astringent than the 2000
2000 Barolo Bussia (100% Nebbiolo) very tasty, very dried raisin/prune, a little much for me
2000 Barbaresco Bric Turot (100% Nebbiolo) nice, slightly too sweet/fruity at finish but I wouldn't kick it out of bed

Fattoria di Felsina
2001 Chianti Classico Rancia Riserva (100% Sangiovese) very well balanced
2001 Fontallloro (100% Sangiovese) more aggressive than Rancia, more tannin and astringency, makes your mouth tingle

Fontanafredda
2000 Barolo Fontanafredda Vigna La Rosa (100% Nebbiolo) tarry, berry, cherry, tarry, not too sweet or tannic
2002 Eremo Langhe (70% Barbera, 30% Nebbiolo)

Casanuova delle Cerbaie
2000 Brunello di Montalcino (100% Sangiovese Grosso) so so, too fruity at finish for me
1999 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva (100% Sangiovese Grosso) slightly more tannic than the 2000, but similar in style

Palari
2002 Rosso del Soprano (Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio, Nocera e Calabrese) Sicily, has the funky nose I smelled last night that I can't quite place, Rob says it is blood, cigars, (I think it has some manure, too, because it has a sweet aroma), it is slightly fruity and then just fades off and disappears
2002 Faro Palari (Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio, Nocera e Calabrese) less sweet version of the nose the Soprano had, slightly lighter overall, had a nice fuzzy finish, and I enjoyed it

Ricardo Baracchi
2002 Ardito (Merlot, Syrah) 3rd wine with manure/blood/cigar nose
2003 Cortona Sangiovese Smeriglio (100% Sangiovese) nice tarry blackberry nose, nice tingly finish, prickly, I liked it a lot

Ruggeri & C.
2004 Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Extra Dry Gold Label (Prosecco, Verdino, Bianchetta e Perera) floral nose, pleasant mousse, apples and citrus, zesty, slight sugar
2004 Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Superiore di Cartizze (100% Prosecco) slightly more reticent nose and then no more because there was a minor to-do as the poor lady at the Ricardo Baracchi table spilled red wine all over herself (she was wearing light clothes) and the Ruggeri guys gave her one of their aprons to wear to cover up

Cusumano
2003 Cubia (100% Inzolia) slightly ML finish, but pretty well-balanced and smooth, slightly too buttery on finish for me, but only a bit
2003 Sagana (100% Nero d'Avola) licorice, not tannic, easy drinking, simple

Fattoria Le Corti Corsini
2002 Chianti Classico Le Corti (95% Sangiovese, 5% Canaiolo e Colorino) it has the funky funky bloody nose, with a hint of manure, very smooth and soft finish, lots of sour cherry fruit, well done
2001 Chianti Classico Don Tommaso (85% Sangiovese, 15% Merlot) nose reticent, not much funk like the previous, pleasant lingering tobacco finish

Fratelli Alessandria
2000 Barolo tar and a floral element, violets or jasmine, big
2000 Barolo Monvigliero very tannic and heavy, I would store it for a time, classic tarry fruit

Academia dei Racemi
2003 Primitivo Manduria Giravolta (100% Primitivo) refreshing, not too spicy, pretty well balanced
2003 Susumaniello Sum (100% Susumaniello) old variety from Puglia, medicinal herbal nose, bite mid palate to finish like a Syrah, but wilder, with more funk

Albino Armani
2001 Corvara Vallagarina (Corvina Veronese, Cabernet, Merlot) well-balanced
2002 Foja Tonda Vallagarina (100% Casetta) sweet cardamom like an Australian Shiraz, bitter fruit followed by astringency

Anzivino
2001 Bramaterra(Nebbiolo 70%, Croatina 30%) much softer nose, no bloody funk like the Gattinara, lots of red fruit, with bitters and a fair amount of tannins
1999 Gattinara (Nebbiolo 100%) blood nose, lots of acid, not tannic, some sweet dried fruit (berry/cherry), it has a lot of things I like in it even if it is a little challenging

Sassotondo (loved this woman)
2001 San Lorenzo (100% Cigliegiolo) oak, lots of tannin, it is rugged, some funkiness with the nose, not as clear and pure fruit as the Rosso
2004 Sassotondo Rosso (70% Cigliegiolo, 10% Sangiovese, 10% Alicante) regular blend, very clear and pure berry, with a bite of spice at the end, all stainless, the nose is a little reticent

Tenuta Coppadoro
2002 Radicosa (100% Montepulciano) bitters, crushed rotting flowers, cigar and wood
2003 Pescorosso (85% Primitivo, 15% Nero di Troia) sweet candied leather, some cigar, in the mouth it is all about the big boom finish, lots of spicy tannins at end with slight bitter undertones

Cascina Adelaide
2000 Barolo Cannubi slightly hot but reticent nose, some tar, more cigarettes and cigars than other Barolos, nice acids at finish
2000 Barolo Preda reticent nose, sweeter, fruitier on finish, I prefer the Cannubi

Gianfranco Alessandria
2001 Barolo smoother than the Nebbiolo... could be better grapes, could be the extra year, could be both, very nice
2002 Langhe Nebbiolo leather and earth, it was very tannic and made me cough, even...in a few years it will be tasty but right now it will beat you up

Cà Viola
2003 Langhe Dolcetto Barturot soft cute fruit nose, no leather here, simple fruity, would be an easy drinker, fun

Veglio Mauro
2000 Barolo Vigneto Arborina roses and red fruit, not much tar, kind of a Barolo-lite, not a lot of tannins, fruity

Manara
2002 Valpolicella Classico Superiore Le Morete blood nose tempered by dried fruit, very delicate in the mouth, slightly warming, spicy, elegant
2000 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico more slight funk of the tobacco blood variety, dark and spicy and tannic

Castello di Neive
1999 Barbaresco Santo Stefano Riserva cypress and pine needles in nose

Impromptu Italian

Friday night, I tasted a bunch of Italian wine as a precursor to Golden Glass on Saturday... wines from Monchiero Carbone, Filippo Gallino, Cascina Val Del Prete, and Cascina Cà Rossa, all from Roero. I'm glad I went, since many of the wines poured were not poured at Golden Glass the next day, and some of those were my favorites.

It was a very good tasting, even though it was kind of crazy, too. The producers were there and everyone was playing the shell game with the bottles on the counter and debating the pouring order (and changing it, and debating, and changing, and debating some more) throughout the tasting. I think my clear winner for the night was the 2001 Cascina Val Del Prete "Carolina", although I liked several of the wines that night. My notes are not the best since there was a lot going on and talking to people and figuring out what I was supposed to taste next and if it was in the right order was pretty distracting. I also think that sometimes I just don't have the words to describe Italian wines well, yet. I am talking about them in the verbal equivalent on sticks and rocks, which you will see more when I write up Golden Glass.

I was perplexed by the nose on the "Monbirone", and thought it unusual, but then at Golden Glass I had about four or five wines that had similar notes, so it isn't all that strange after all, I guess. It's a funky sweet smell that I can't nail down exactly but is in the meat/tobacco/blood/manure part of the smelling world. And I of course mean that in the best meat/tobacco/blood/manure way.

Here is what I tasted, below, albeit reorganized by producer (we did them in the usual order, whites first, reds next, and that is where the big debate on order came in... flip between the same producer and stainless/oak to compare or do all the stainless wines to compare them first and then do all the oaked wines. This was mostly the issue with the Barberas since Nebbiolos came later, and finally, the Birbéts).

Birbét, by the way, is a semifizzy, light, sweet wine that is made from Brachetto but can't be called Brachetto d'Acqui because of laws governing the growing and region (Brachetto d'Aqui has DOC status, and the grapes must be grown in Asti or Alessandria), since it is grown in Roero. The people in Roero just decided to call it Birbét.

Filippo Gallino

2003 Roero Arneis pale straw - nutty nose, floral when swirled - soft at first in mouth, then steely, lots of acid, grassy hard finish
+2003 Barbera d'Alba (stainless, no wood) pink-ruby - austere and dusty nose - pleasantly drying tannins with a little burst of fruit in the finish, maybe a little young, still
2000 Barbera d'Alba Superiore bloody red - dusty red fruit and spicebox smells - more tannin, acid, rigidity than the "Carolina", could use some aging

Cascina Val Del Prete

2004 "Luet" Arneis pale straw - superfruity peach and banana nose, not as steely as the Gallino in the mouth, still a lot of acid, but more honey tones, fuzzy fun finish, tingly
2003 Barbera d'Alba (stainless, no wood) pink-ruby - dried fruit raisin plum nose - very soft tannins, very pretty fruit in mouth, slight bitterness at finish
++2001 "Carolina" Barbera d'Alba Superiore (oak) blue-red, looks young - pretty pretty pretty nose of tobacco, flowers, and spice, nice nice acids and fruit, not much by way of tannins

Monchiero Carbone

+2003 "Recit" Arneis straw yellow - funky peachy nose - lemony in mouth, soft finish, did it see some wood?
+2001 "Monbirone" Barbera d'Alba (18 months in wood, ten percent Nebbiolo) opaque burgundy - very funky nose... ham? blood? cigar? manure? - nice acids in mouth, but I spent way too long trying to understand the nose and found it very intriguing
2003 "Regret" Nebbiolo light burgundy - cherry and violet soap, earth - slightly more fruit evident than the Cà Rossa Nebbiolo (which I had just before this), nice acids, fuzzy velvety tannins
2000 "Printi" Nebbiolo brown brick - on the dusty/austere side, both of these Nebbiolos could hang around for a while
NV Birbét light, sweet, sparkling red, strawberries and flowers, fun and fizzy

Cascina Cà Rossa

+2001 "Mulassa" Barbera d'Alba burgundy - first one corked - second one had a much cleaner cherry and earth nose, but was sort of closed - nice acid and tannin, leathery finish
2003 Nebbiolo color of dried blood - bitters, soap, dust, cherry - intensely tannic right from the start with some red fruit and iodine
NV Birbét fruit leaves on the nose, very interesting, I liked it better than the Monchiero Carbone

1998 Rocche dei Manzoni "Bricco Manzoni"

Region: Piemonte, Italy

Composition: 80% Nebbiolo, 20% Barbera

Background: 1976 might have been a good year for the Sex Pistols, but it was a bad year for Barolo. In the Langhe hills of Barolo, Valentino Miglorini wondered what to do with all of his so-so Nebbiolo grapes, grapes not good enough to be made into Barolo. Valentino and his wife Jolanda had only come to the region two years earlier, and he wasn't about to be bound by tradition. He decided to combine the highly acidic and tannic Nebbiolo with the less tannic but still lively Barbera grapes he had around, and put the resulting wine in some new French oak barrels. A year later, "Bricco Manzoni" was born. Originally, the wine only garnered the status of vino da tavola, since the blend was not something that fell within the Barolo DOC, but blends from the area eventually gained the DOC status of Langhe (Langhe Rosso and Langhe Bianco). (And I wonder why, since the same idea in Tuscany, the one that is responsible for Super-Tuscans, still gets only IGT status, which is a level below DOC, but who am I to argue with Italian wine law.)

Rocche dei Manzoni produces 40,000 bottles of Bricco Manzoni a year, which is a lot, especially when you consider that they only make about 50,000 bottles of their four Barolos a year!

Notes: Ruby red in the glass, with browinish-pink edges, you can tell this wine has a little tiny bit of age to it. The nose is decidedly Italian to me, and has a lot of dusty bell pepper, black cherry, and old books and parchment. The mouth has some fleeting dark cherry that is quickly overwhelmed by soft fuzzy tannins, which in turn wrap around a slight spicy peppery bite. The finish is nicely acid and astringent, filled with earth and dust, and lasts for a good length of time, although for some reason I found myself expecting it to hang around even longer. It was slightly tightly wound, and could probably benefit from an hour or so in a decanter, or even another year or two in the cellar, but was pleasant nonetheless.

Cost: $30

Overall: A-

2003 Marotti Campi "Luzano"

Region: Marche, Italy

Composition: 100% Verdicchio

Background: After a hard weekend of doing little and a day dominated by hangovers and general lethargy, we decided to celebrate Memorial Day by walking up the hill for dinner at Aperto. It was a nice sunny day and the food we were ordering seemed to demand white wine, so I went with a Verdecchio dei Castelli di Jesi, a wine I have read a fair amount about but have never tasted. I was just vowing the other day to try more Italian whites, and it seemed time to start making good on that vow.

Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi is one of the more famous wines of the Marches area of Italy, an area to the east of Umbria. The Verdicchio grape originated in Marches and is now grown in several regions of Italy, including Tuscany and Friuli. The Marotti Campi family grows these grapes (and the grapes for the handful of other wines they make, including an interesting-sounding Lacrima) in the hills around the town of Jesi, surrounded by castle ruins (castelli). They have been doing this since the 19th century, but are interested in trying new things such as replanting some of their vineyards with high-density plantings.

Notes: This wine is a clear, sparkly lemon yellow in the glass, with glints of chartreuese. The nose is floral and grassy, smelling of white jasmine, hay, lemons, and green apples, and in the mouth it offers more of that tart apple and lemon on the palate, along with some bitter lemon pith flavor in the finish (a slight bitter finish seems common in Verdicchio), which I of course loved. It's got a medium body, probably somewhat from the fact that the grapes were left on the lees a long time, but overall is zesty (the wine sees no oak, which is a good thing in this case) with nice acids and surprising elegance. It went well with our artichoke, leek, and pine nut ravioli and asparagus, leek, and preserved lemon risotto, which was nice considering that asparagus and artichoke can be a pain for wine-pairing. We finished the bottle while watching a guy ride up and down Connecticut Street on his bike. When I asked him what he was training for (if you could see Connecticut Street you would know that people aren't likely to bike up and down it for fun) he said he is going to try to bike up Mount Shasta. Good luck, bike guy!

Cost: about $15

Overall: B+

2001 Gulfi Nero d'Avola Nerojbleo

This is my entry for Wine Blogging Wednesday number eight, which this month is all about Sicily, and hosted by Ron over at Love Sicily. The order of the day is to blog about a Sicilian red wine (I am trying to say Sicily as much as I can here).

I kind of decided to play it safe this time around, since the last two months I have had bad bottles (yes, even when I made multiple attempts to get something drinkable) and absolutely no luck getting a decent bottle to drink. So I played it a little safe with some Nero d'Avola, and I actually got two different bottles, which is good, because guess what-- my backup bottle was bad (the bottle seemed to have suffered some heat damage and the cork was pushed up from the bottle a bit, and that would have been fine, but it tasted pretty acrid). Originally I thought I could compare and contrast the two different bottles (from two different producers) of Nero d'Avola, but sadly, one is out of the running.

However, that means I actually had one reasonable bottle to drink! So away we go.

Region: Sicily, Italy

Composition: 100% Nero d'Avola

Background: Sicily, known mostly for Marsala, also grows a fair variety of grapes for light wines, ranging from Primitivo (Zinfandel) and Cabernet Sauvignon to Frappato and Perricone. Nero d'Avola, also known as Calabrese (and it is not from Calabria, but that name is probably one of those slightly-off-translation names that results from different languages colliding), is probably the most well-known non-fortified Sicilian wine. Up to the 1980's it was mostly used to boost lighter and weaker red wines, and production was decreasing until then, when it took on a new life, probably partly because winemakers figured out a few tricks (consisting mostly of keeping the grapes very cool post-picking and pre-pressing) that allowed them to make tasty but not over-the-top wines, rather than the heavy and overpowering wines that had come from the grape previously.

Gulfi is both old and new on the wine scene. The estate, located in the southeast corner of the island of Sicily, has existed for a while, but the grapes grown were sold to other producers. In 1996 Vito Catania decided to change all that, and started producing wines under the estate name (as well as olive oil). He uses an old and traditional method of wine growing that has been used in Sicily for 2,000 years but is going out of style now because it is hard to use equipment on the vines grown that particular way, and workers are hard to come by. So he's made some adjustments, and has imported a French mini-tractor onto the island to help with the work. In 2001 Gulfi produced about 8,500 cases of wine, so that tractor is working hard.

Notes: Deep burgundy purple, opaque in the center, almost black, so it's living up to its name--"Nero d'Avola" literally means "Black [grape] of Avola". It's tarry, with red and black fruit (blackberries and black cherry), bark, and earth on the nose. It's heavy in the mouth, almost unctuous (which seems like a pretentious thing to say, I know, but it has a placidity in the mouth that is elegant and thick and heavy at the same time, so what can I do). The tannins are soft and velvety and meld into the slightly spicy finish of medium length. Flavorwise, red fruit is present, mostly a soft cherry, and in the finish there is a hint of bitters (I had to think about that and actually go taste some bitters to make sure). I decanted it for about an hour and a half while I made dinner and we had it with pasta and roasted tomatoes and rapini, which was very nice. Tonight I had the final glass with a simple pizza I made (tomatoes/basil/cheese) and it held up nicely.

Cost: $18

Overall: B+/A-

2001 Torti Bonarda

It's that time of the month again, so here is my Wine Blogging Wednesday 7 entry. This time the challenge was to find an unusual red varietal...no Pinot Noir or Tempranillo or Cabernet Sauvignon or the like. I thought about drinking my Bonny Doon Mourvedre (since I just got it) and then toyed with the idea of Charbono (and ended up having that a few nights ago, figuring I had this Bonarda in my pocket ready for tonight. Oh, how wrong I was). This was one of those cases where I went to the wine store and poked around and asked around and finally came up with the most obscure thing I could that was still deemed tasty by anyone who had had it. I didn't want to relive last WBW.

Well, I tried.

Region: Oltrepo Pavese, Lombardia, Italy

Composition: 100% Bonarda

Background: First off, you are probably wondering, what is Bonarda? Well, that's where it gets confusing, right from the start, since there are three different grapes called "Bonarda" for various reasons:

You can find Bonarda Novarese in DOC reds from the Novara and Vercelli areas of Italy, where it is a minor player. This really isn't Bonarda at all but a grape called Uva Rara, and this grape is more widely grown in the Oltrepo Pavese area.

There is also a grape called Bonarda Piemontese found, as you might guess, in Piemonte. This grape is often blended with Barbera, but isn't produced much anymore since it is a pain to grow usefully and was almost wiped out by phylloxera.

Finally, there is the grape called Bonarda used in the Oltrepo Pavese and Colli Piacentini DOCs in the Lombardia region of Italy (an area a bit to the east of Piemonte). As seems to be the case with Bonarda, it isn't actually Bonarda at all, but is a grape called Croatina. This flavor of Bonarda is also actually the most-planted grape in Argentina, more common than Malbec, even though you see the Argentine Malbec far more often.

In Italy, there are only about 10,000 acres (if that) of Bonarda/Croatina planted. It tends to ripen late and produce fruity wine meant to be drunk young, so it doesn't seem to have too much sex appeal for growers or winemakers.

How can we know that this particular bottle of Torti Bonarda is actually Croatina? Well, the only DOC wines called simply Bonarda come from the Oltrepo Pavese and are made from Croatina. This bottle has DOC labelling and is called Bonarda, so we know it is the Croatina grape. The producer, Torti, was started in 1910 and is now run by a father-daughter team, producing a handful of Pinot Nero (Pinot Noir) offerings as well as some frizzante wines along with their Bonarda and Barbera.

Notes: In the bad run of luck I have been having, especially when it comes to WBW wines, the bottle was oxidized (the cork had dried wine leaked out at the top, which is never good news). Nothing much on the nose and an unpleasant flatness when you drank it, and a very unpleasant-in-an-acid-and-thats-it-way finish. Dull dull dull. I don't think it was suppised to be like this, the reviews I read mentioned "Zinfandelesque qualities", "intense fruit aroma" and "bright fruit" and nothing like that was in this bottle. Poor thing. I swear, I am going to start examining corks with a magnifying glass before I buy wine. Even if this wine was a little over the hill, it shouldn't have been like this.

Cost: $15

Overall: I can't say, since the bottle was oxidized (I need to give up trying to rate flawed wines). DNPIM.

I took the bottle back and it was deemed bad, but I did not risk getting another one... I was not feeling lucky and I examined the couple of bottles left and one, at least, seemed damaged to me (it looked like something had leaked out below the seal on the cork). I got a bottle of local-ish Carignane instead, since I don't often like Carignane and want to see how I feel about this stuff. Anyway, I will report on that later on.

2001 Lenotti "Le Olle" DOCG Bardolino Superiore Classico

Region: Bardolino, Italy

Composition: 65% Corvina, 25% Rondinella, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon

Background: I love Italian wines, and when I drink them, I always think of fabric (and mostly velvets at that). I love the Italian wines that no one else seems to love, or at least the ones that don't get the attention the Barolos and the Amarones get (not that I would chase those out of my glass). I love the regular old (well, Classico, at least) Valpolicellas and the Bardolinos.

Bardolino is a wine growing region in northeast Italy (about 15 miles west of Verona), squished in between the eastern shore of Lake Garda and the western edge of the Valpolicella region. In the center of the region, right on the shores of the lake, is the actual town of Bardolino, and in that town, you can find Cantine Lenotti.

Lenotti's clay-soil vineyard "La Pra" is right near Lake Garda, and thrives in the microclimate created by the lake. All thee grape varieties in this wine come from that vineyard, and once harvested, most of the grapes are pressed immediately, while 30 percent of them are left out to dry for almost anywhere from two to four months in order to concentrate the flavors and increase sweetness (this process is called appassimento, and many Italian wines go through it, both red and white-- when the resulting wine is left sweet, it is called Recioto, and when fermented to dryness, it is called Amarone). Once dried, the grapes are lightly pressed and the juice is added to the rest of the harvest. In the case of the Le Olle here, the wine-to-be then goes through a weeklong fermentation and is finally aged partially in oak casks, partially in stainless steel.

Recently, some medieval wine jugs were found in this particular vineyard, and were excavated to be put into a museum. So the wine was dubbed "Le Olle", which means "wine jug" in Italian.

Notes: This wine is an intense purple-red in the glass, and looks young. The nose is full of stone and rocks, with some reticent fruit and some nutty warmth. There is a slight hint of raisin; a sort of dried plummy note, which makes sense given the passito production. The flavor echoes the nose, with a hint of black fruit surrounded by savory spice (think thyme and oregano) and more stone, all combined with some nice acid. The finish is the finish Italian wines have that I love... soft, velvety chalkiness with a nice dose of astringent bitterness, like bitter almond.

I am taking a class on wine components right now and the other day we were discussing how different cultures generally like different flavors in wine, and these flavors echo the flavors in the traditional food of the culture. Examples would be the pine resin Greeks favor in retsina, and the sweet fruitiness that the Americans prefer in their wines (Americans love sugar). Italians like many bitter foods (think rapini, arugula, and chinotto), and their wine echoes that. I love that slight bitterness in the finish, especially when it is paired with the velvety tannin. The wine paired wonderfully with my lazy dinner (it was a long day at work) of pasta with tomatoes, red bell pepper, and chard.

I have to wonder what the Cabernet Sauvignon is doing here (it's not the norm; normally the Corvina/Rondinella is blended with something like Molinara or Negara), but it works for me, so I am not questioning it too much.

Cost: $17

Overall: B