Looking at some wineries in the Lugana region, we came across this image in Google Maps.
Ridiculous.
Category Archives: Italian Wine
Fun With Wine And Google, Sinio Edition
We’re back in Piemonte, enjoying Azienda Agricola Rivetto‘s nebbiolo thanks to our friends over at Sovereignty Wines. Nebbiolo is simply the best varietal in the world, whether its expressed as a top dollar Barolo or just an every-day drinkable nebbiolo offered up at not-so-stratospheric prices, and the Rivetto shows why: straightforward, just a touch of the typical ripe dark cherry and similar fruit, great strong tannins that take about thirty minutes to round off, and the rusty dark translucent color you’d expect. It’s fabulous. And nice to look at:
So where does this beauty come from? Let’s dig in:
Close to our friends in Rodello, Rivetto’s azienda is just outside Sinio and south of Alba, near Serralunga d’Alba on the eastern edge of Barolo country.
Just off a narrow road winding its way through Piemonte’s prime real estate, from this altitude you already know you’re in for a treat as you click through the Google map for Rivetto. Such a great collection of greens in those fields and rolling hills.
A little closer and you can see Serralunga just to the west of Rivetto…if you click around the Google Earth views for Serralunga you’ll fall in love immediately.
Fantastic: neatly trained vines, lush woods, and a rustic country feel; Rivetto runs an agriturismo and has very reasonable rates for a stay that we are hoping to take him up upon very soon. Imagine waking up and having to contend with the view he encounters daily:
Ah, the life of the Piemontese wine maker. Not bad eh? We cannot wait to visit.
Fun With Wine And Google, La Morra Edition
We’re going to be exploring some Lugana and Piemonte wineries this fall whose wines we enjoy, and one of the ones we’re hoping to visit looks simply extraordinary; we managed to find a ridiculous deal on the Tenuta L’Illuminata Tebavio from 2004 a few months back when our friends at Sovereignty. Taking a look at their website, we can see this is definitely one for the bucket list…beautiful. So where does this lovely Barolo hail from? Let’s see:
Just to the west of La Morra and southwest of Alba, you can see that Tenuta L’Illuminata is located in the foggy, hilly, verdant heart of Piemonte’s prime nebbiolo real estate. Diving in:
Looks like it’s almost walking distance from downtown La Morra, a beautiful hilltop town of about 2400 lucky folks.
A little driveway, terra cotta roofs, a pool…and lots and lots of well-trained vines neatly nestled in the rolling hills. Yes.
Time for a leisurely stroll in that sea of green.
This doesn’t look too bad at all. Can’t wait to see it in person, but for now the Google Earth views tell us what we need to know: this place needs to find its way onto any Piemonte itinerary.
Rodello In Spring, Sassi Wine Tours
Our friends at Azienda Giribaldi tweeted this to us. Ah, the view of a small hilltop town in Piemonte in spring where the mountains in the backdrop are still snowy. Let’s go!
We’re going to be doing some explorations with friends and clients in the region soon and will be expanding our repertoire of winery related tour items. What a great way to see the best of the real Italy.
Vino With Val!
What a fantastic tasting!
We had the privilege of attending a wine tasting with Val Caruso today, and it was remarkable; the theme was Tuscan wine, and Val boldly guided us through a well-traveled, well-documented region without a trace of redundant-feeling looks at wines you’d expect (and likely have already tried). Her approach is very much in keeping with ours: get off the beaten path! As you can thusly guess, this was not merely a run-through of off-the-rack Chianti you can find just anywhere. More on that in a second.
Val started us with a wine from our friends at Fattoria il Palagio, but not the Tuscan IGT or their Cellini Chianti that we typically source over at Sovereignty Wines, but rather a perfectly light and refreshing Vernaccia that made for a perfect aperitivo. We snacked on some goodies and listened as Val discussed the wines, the producers, and the changing culture of Italian winemaking (to wit, specifically how Italian women are coming to the forefront of the wine biz in Italy, to the benefit of both Italy and viticulture alike).
We discussed stylistic differences between wines and winemaking philosophies, both traditional and the somewhat iconoclastic happening region-wide. Extensive discussion of what constitutes “Super Tuscan” anyone? Excellent. We learned about the challenges faced by Italian vintners as they continue to push back against frankly inaccurate and outdated stereotypes that persist about Tuscan wine and and Italian wine generally; it’s quite clear from the outset that Val knows her stuff and has spent extensive time traveling the region and meeting the people pressing the grapes.
And it was on to the reds. As mentioned above, what made this tasting compelling was the distinct lack of the more predictable wines you’d expect to hear about and taste at a Tuscan wine event–no Chianti Classico, no Brunello, and nothing in a straw basket bottle. Not that there’s anything wrong with those wines, mind you, as they’re some of the best in the world to our mind and to the minds of many a wine critic. But as we’re fond of saying, to get a feel for the *real* Italy, getting away from our biases and out of our comfort zones is incredibly critical. Val takes great care to select blends and varietals that expand your sense of what Tuscany can do, and as a result we got to taste producers and labels that frankly one might not just stumble across at the typical wine store. It just communicates that psychological connection to a place that you can only experience through food and wine, and communicates it well. Not just about tastes and smells, it’s taking in a feel for what it is to be Tuscan. Fantastic.
While Sangiovese blends made appearances, there wasn’t a Chianti to be found. Creative, outside of the box thinking from Val made for a great, unique tasting.
My personal favorite was the Sasyr (as you can probably guess, a portmanteau of sangiovese and syrah). The syrah rounded out the sangiovese nicely, and while it has all the character you’d expect of a Tuscan gem, it was just different enough to make you really want a full pour. Val can help track down any of these locally here in Colorado Springs, and likely also help you find them elsewhere via her wine distributing friends. Needless to say we’re big fans of the idea behind this sort of tasting–go try something new!
Looking forward to more events with Val, and to visiting the space where the tasting was held, Soiree here in the Springs. What a great spot!
What Is Prosecco, Anyway?
Not just any sparkling white wine from Italy, mind you. This is a quick but insightful piece on what exactly prosecco denotes. We’re planning on doing some more exploring of this region soon and will have reports…stay tuned! Thanks Dream of Venice for posting this.
(Photo by Penny Sadler).
Fun With Wine And Google, Verdicchio Addition
We are forever bugging our friends over at Sovereignty Wines to expand upon their Italian white wine selection (they have a good one already, but one can never be too careful, eh?) and they graciously keep us trying new labels all the time. They were nice enough to source Belisario‘s Le Salse, a DOC verdicchio from Matelica. Is verdicchio trebbiano? Is turbiana trebbiano? Is trebbiano in central Italy the same as in Lugana? The Internet speculates on this subject at great and fascinating length. All we know for certain is that this straw yellowish green wine is perfect with seafood and grilled or sauteed veggies and rich cheeses. So where is it from?
Here:
Matelica is found in a valley in the Marche region about halfway between Ancona and Perugia. Cantine Belisario is found in the heart of this ancient city:
Upon a closer look, this is certainly a place that looks like it’s worth exploring!
So what do Matelica, and specifically Belisario’s location, look like according to Google at the ground level? Not disappointing in the least:
In addition to the post war modern warmth of the place and knowing that the wine is good, the suggested images Google offered up served as invitation enough to dig further; pretty soon Matelica and Cantine Belisario have made their way onto our list of places to investigate in person, and soon. See what we mean for yourself:
When we visit, we’ll take in the Apennine Mountains off in the distance, and then we’ll take in the enoteca here, which looks amazing. If we’re not heard from for a long time, it’s because we took a job in the winery. More tempting employment we cannot imagine.
Baracchi
Got a lovely birthday present last week in the form of Baracchi’s Smeriglio (which translates as small falcon, as the bottle hints); dark, almost opaque in color for a sangiovese, this wine hails from a part of the world more foreign travelers are starting to discover (Cortona). It’s a bit off the beaten path, but worth the effort for the intrepid traveler according to friends who call it their roots; per our friend Valter at Valter’s Osteria in Salt Lake City, the best way to get there is Trenitalia to Arezzo, and then private car service from there. On our list of things to do!
On the nose, you can immediately sense that the ABV is pretty robust, and the label confirms (14%). Not overly floral or fruity, just solid Tuscan minerality as you sniff, and slightly underripe plum and dark fruit on the sip. Long finish. Was perfect with some ravioli, and would stand up to proteins and heavier sauces just fine. You should try it if you find it. $22 at Sovereignty Wines here in the Springs.
Save Lugana (wishing I’d known about this sooner…)
We generally avoid political discussions here, but this is important: one of the best white wine producing regions in the world, let alone Italy, is in jeopardy because of the intransigence and ineptitude of the Italian political monster.
It’s too late to sign the petition, but it’s not too late to be aware of the issue and, if you value Italy as it is and should be, to stay abreast of current events and upcoming initiatives.
Be sure to like this FB page: Consorzio Tutela Lugana DOC.
They can reroute a train a heckuva lot easier than they can relocate a wine region.
Fun With Google Earth And Wine, Badia e Coltibuono Edition
One of the more lovely treats Doug Sassi brought home with him from recent set of tours was a bottle of Badia e Coltibuono’s Chianti Classico. The 2010 is a perfect expression of the Sangiovese/Canaiolo blend style and the strong nose is instantly transportative, reminding the taster of the sights, smells, and tastes of Italy. Not content to just imagine? Let’s dig in via Google Earth:
As you can see they enjoy a woodsy area of Tuscany northeast of Siena and south of Florence–the heart of the Chianti region. This is the sort of place that has made traveling authors swoon for generations, and end up finding a way to move there. It’s not an accident. Scrolling in:
Italy isn’t a huge country (about the size of California), but it still makes more wine than any other country by a long stretch, and it is because they still respect the old ways of doing things while managing to incorporate them and improve upon them with modernity. Because they live predominantly in well developed and livable urban centers, they can preserve these large swaths of wine producing country nearby the big cities–they have managed to avoid suburban strip mall sprawl in a way that we Americans have not. Moving in:
To get there from the main road, you have to navigate through that lush Tuscan forest. Does not sound like a chore to me in the slightest.
Now you’re talking. I love the pool nestled on the property by the entrance to the woods. As you can see from the higher up shots, most of the grape growing appears to happen a bit further out.
Well, that’s awful. Cannot imagine any of our clients will want to go here. 🙂 But just to make sure, we will go inspect the place personally to make sure it is up to snuff and report back shortly. If we are not heard from in six months, send risotto, porcini mushrooms, prosciutto, and help in the form of wine fund replenishment….as we’re likely to offer to pick grapes and handle the landscaping for free and possibly sell off everything we own in order to get to live here. Wow.
Imagine touring this place, tasting their wines, and then taking a bottle for a walk in the woods here. You too will be looking for a black market organ harvesting operation to sell a kidney to in order to expatriate yourself here. It looks that amazing.
The kicker: they offer a cooking school and overnight accommodations, and a restaurant that opens March 15th and runs through early November. Sounds like a place worth investigating.
Sassi Italy Tours 