The Wine's the Thing
Mitch Kornfeld
6/2/03

2003 Italian Wine and Food Gala (Part I)

In February I had the high honor and distinct pleasure of attending two big Italian wine tastings. The first, called "Italian Wine and Food Gala," will be covered in two parts, starting with this column, and the second, called simply "Super Tuscan Tasting," will be covered immediately after. Both tastings were held in my old stomping grounds, the New York Marriott Marquis, and both were sponsored by the Italian Trade Commission and the Italian Wine & Food Institute. At first I was very surprised to learn that the Italian Trade Commission was an actual government agency. In the U.S. groups that promote exports are usually sponsored by industry and private companies and they fly well below the average American's radar (and mine). In retrospect I shouldn't have been surprised. On more than a few occasions I have read that in Australia it is official government policy to increase wine exports. 

The Italians have probably been doing this type of promoting for quite a while as they really have it down. They do a really nice job. There are plenty of breads and crackers, plenty of cheeses (not all Italian, they don't stand on ceremony), there's plenty of water, which is important, as, contrary to popular belief, alcohol dries you out, there's usually some nice refreshing San Pellegrino (sparkling) water in evidence, there's plenty of time for tasting, and you certainly don't always get that, and if that wasn't enough, in the middle of the whole thing they serve food! 

Alas, these tastings are for the trade only. They want bang for the buck and want importers, reporters, and people representing wine retailers to attend. Technically there is no way for the average consumer to get in. But I saw what appeared to be quite a few guests, spouses, and significant others in attendance, so here's my suggestion. If you hear of one of these events and you have a good relationship with your local wine merchant (always a good idea), ask them if you can go along. If they're smart, or nice, or think it's good business, or some combination thereof, they just might say yes. If they do, when you're at an Italian tasting you'll be wearing a tag saying "Fifth Avenue Wine Shop," or whatever the name of your favorite wine shop is. If the people doing the pouring ask you if you make the buying decisions for the shop you can tell them honestly that yes, you certainly do. (It is, after all, your discriminating purchases from the shop that help determine what it keeps in stock.)

In any case, there's the current crop of featured Italian wines are indeed impressive. (There, I mentioned the wines no latter than the fourth paragraph. This keeps our esteemed editor happy.) The wines are really good and they get better and better every year.  Planting and growing gets better, the technology and winemaking gets better, add the fact you just can't throw out indifferent wines into the fiercely competitive international marketplace, and add all of the many good value wines, and you begin to see why in the U.S. market Italian wines represent the largest share of imports.  

I usually review the wines in the order in which I tasted them but this time I will deviate slightly. I'll begin with the non-Tuscan wines first, then finish up with the Tuscans. Since my next tasting was the Super Tuscan tasting, and future columns will be about it, I feel there will be a little better continuity that way. With that said here's on to the reviews, and I really did start with a sparkler.

My first wine of the tasting was a Prosecco. Prosecco is the name of the grape and of the wine, and no, it doesn't mean professionally dry. It comes from Veneto, the province that has Venice as its capitol, and nowhere else. It comes in both Brut and Extra Dry versions, and in sparkling wine-speak that means dry and slightly sweet. It also comes in frizzante and spumante versions, and that means lightly sparkling (the French would say "cremant") or fully sparkling. It is not a methode champenois wine but is made with the Charmat Bulk Process, but it can be a lovely wine, and it's usually inexpensive. Wine number one was a Prosecco Spumante Brut (Non-Vintage) from Mionetto, the leading Prosecco producer. It was a charmer, with a fair amount of bubbles, was crisp, showed some depth, and was clean and nice. A perfect summertime sipper. It retails for $9. After that I tried the Mionetto Cuveé Sergio, their top of the line. It's a non-vintage Extra Dry Spumante. It's extremely light in color, but the richness belies the color. It's light on its feet but very creamy and long. It's just a lovely wine, and it's perfect for summertime entertaining. It's about $18, which is high for a Charmat process wine, but it might be the finest Charmat wine made anywhere.

Next up were two wines from Giancarlo Travaglini, both were Gatttinaras. Gattinara is a place name. It's in Piedmont (Piemonte in Italian), and the wine (it's a red) comes from the Nebbiolo grape. Nebbiolo only seems to do well in the northern Italian provinces of Piedmont and Lombardy. I've never seen one from another part of Italy, and there is some in California, but it has never amounted to much.  The most famous Nebbiolo wines are Barolo and Barbaresco. Gattinara is probably in third place, but that's not too shabby. The first of the two I tried, a Travaglini 1998 DOCG Gattinara (G for Garantita) was described by the server as a younger sibling of Barolo, and that was an apt description. It displayed the characteristic smoky-leathery bouquet of a Barolo but just didn't show the depth of a good Barolo. It was harmonious and drinkable and will still be good for at least five more years. It's about $25. Their next wine was the Travaglini 1998 Tre Vigne Gattinara. As the name would indicate the grapes come form three vineyards. Obviously they can't call it a single vineyard wine, but they're trying for that quality range. It's basically the equivalent of a Reserve wine though they do not label it as a Riserva. It was darker than the DOCG, though not very dark at all, but this is the norm for Nebbiolo. It's a thin-skinned variety and you really have to be careful about judging it by its color, much as you would with Pinot Noir. Some say that unlike other red wines, when evaluating Nebbiolos, don't even consider the color at all, but there's far from unanimity on the issue. In addition to being darker, the Tre Vigne was definitely deeper. It was strong and persistent, tasted good, but didn't have a lot of bouquet, but it will almost surely develop, as this wine showed it was definitely an ager. Very good stuff. It's about $45, not cheap, but Barolos and Barbarescos at this level can go for much more. 

I then moved on and found a table from the distributor Wine Wave where I started out with one of the few white wines I had that day. It was a single vineyard Pinot Grigio called Contessa Manci. (Italian for "Gray Pinot."  It's named for the color in between Nero and Bianco [Noir and Blanc in French]. It's a pink grape but a white wine.)  It's from a winery named Concilio, and they're located in Trentino, in the north, and it was a 2001. To put that all together here was how it was listed: "Concilio Pinot Grigio Trentino DOC Contessa Manci 2001." It definitely was varietal and showed some single vineyard character. It had pretty decent length and seemed to improve as I got to the bottom of the glass. A nice effort. Next up was a Barolo, a 1998 single vineyard DOCG (they're all DOCG's) from the Gigi Rosso winery called Arione. It came in at 13.5 alcohol. Had that true Barolo light color, and a true Barolo leathery-cherry nose. It still showed some fruitiness and had pretty good length. It was not a blockbuster but all in all it was very true to type. It's $26 a bottle wholesale, which translates to about $40 a bottle, which is actually pretty good as single vineyard Barolos go. I was then served a wine from Puglia in southern Italy. It was a Lirica 1999 Primativo di Manduria. Any time you see the words Primativo, or Primativo di, (di Gioia is common) on an Italian wine label know you are dealing with a Zinfandel. You may hear some contradictory things on this subject but Primativo is Zinfandel. The California version is clearly better, but that's the way these things go. Nebbiolo is at its best in northern Italy, Reisling is at its best in Germany and Alsace, and Zinfandel is at its best in California. The soil, climate, and probably the clones are all different. This Lirica, however, was one of the best Italian Zins I have tasted. At a nice ripe 14.5 alcohol. It showed good fruit, going to the cherryish side of the Zinfandel spectrum, was tasty and refined, had nice length, had only a light to medium body but was fairly intense. It won't have the California "R" wine producers (Ridge, Ravenswood, and Rosenblum) shaking in their boots, but it's a nice wine and worth it in the low teen$.

Speaking of grapes that grow in California, I passed the table with wines from Bolla, and tried their 1998 Creso Cabernet Sauvignon della Venezie. "Della Venezie" simply means something from Veneto, and Bolla is based in Veneto. Soave, Bolla's best known wine, though certainly not their best, is also from Veneto. By the way, the name of that wine is Soave Bolla, but only if you speak Italian. If you're in the habit of saying, for instance, "Pinot Grigio Cavit, Chianti Classico Rufina, or Brunello di Montalcino Biondi Santi," then you can say Soave Bolla, otherwise be consistent, use English and call it Bolla Soave. Now where was I?  Oh yeah, the Bolla '98 Creso Cab. It had a cherry-spicy nose, was clean with a fruity taste, had an agreeable roundness, and is ready to drink but will hold up nicely for a few more years. The label said it was 13.5 alcohol. but I thought it tasted a little higher. It's not a heavyweight but it's a sound and perfectly nice Cab, and it's better than many California Cabs from the same year.

Next was another della Venezie wine (actually it was the last of the tasting but I'm taking some liberties today), from Domini Veneti, a 1997 Amarone Classico della Valpolicella DOC, Vignrti di "Iago."  Translation: A single vineyard Amarone. (That's a capital "I."  I can't say why they named it after a villain. Maybe the vineyard was named before Shakespeare's time?) Technically all Amarones carry that "della Valpolicella" nomenclature but in common usage they are simply called Amarones. (The e is pronounced but it sounds more like an a.) They come from an area near Lake Garda and are made from the same grapes as Valpolicella, all indigenous reds, (about 50% Corvina with a supporting cast of Rondinella, Molinara, and Negrara), but with an important difference. A portion of the harvest is dried on mats, and then put back into the wine (sometimes as late as December) for refermentation. The dried grapes are on their way to becoming raisins, so putting them back in amounts to an Emeril Lagasse maneuver, kicking up the fermentable sugars, which kicks up the alcohol, the body, and the taste, and sometimes adds a little residual sugar. The legal minimum alcohol for Amarone is 14.0%, and they often go higher. This one was 15.0%, and instead of being a charming and fruity Valpolicella, it had turned into a big bruiser. It was dark, and showed a big nose of fruit, stewed fruit, leather, and yeast, and it was big and intense on the palate. Save it for a cheese course with some very strong cheeses. It will stand up to them and will be an experience. It will set you back about $50 a bottle (it was $37 wholesale) but it won't shortchange you on flavor.

From this point on all the wines to be reported on were from Tuscany. That's where the next column will resume. 

© Mitch Kornfeld 2003 All rights reserved

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mitchk@unionsquarejournal.com


Previously by Mitch Kornfeld...

Christmas Reds (12/09/02)

A Brief Visit to Waughsville (02/06/02)

Get Bubbling with California Sparklers (12/27/01)

The Napa Valley Comes to Town, Part II (09/04/01)

The Napa Valley Comes to Town, Part I (07/12/01)

Windows on Long Island (06/13/01)

Bully for Your (05/30/01)

Big Euro Tasting, Part III -- Remembrance of Bouquets Past (05/17/01)

Big Euro Tasting, Part II -- Greater Burgundy (05/09/01)

Grand European Tasting (05/01/01)

King Cab, Part V -- Spain, Chile, Argentina, Australia (04/18/01)

King Cab, Part IV -- Italy (04/04/01)

King Cab, Part III -- California (03/21/01)

King Cab, Part II -- Bordeaux (03/07/01)

King Cab, Part I -- Some Basics (02/27/01)

For a Big Red, Think Petite (02/18/02)

Tannic Monsters from the ID (02/08/01)

New York Wine and Restaurant Deals (01/30/01)

Dad's Cardinal Zins and Other Clichés (01/20/01)

Some Basics for a Winter's Eve (01/12/01)

And if They're Spanish That's Fine (01/05/01)

Hello Carbon Dioxide (12/29/00)

Wines for Christmas (12/22/00)

Nouveau Beaujolais, Etc. (11/24/00)

Going to a Tasting 101 (12/01/00)