Highlights from Tre Bicchieri

Gianluca Grasso, Az. Agr. Elio Grasso (Photo ©Tom Hyland)

The Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri  tasting was held in Chicago yesterday - stops in New York City and San Francisco are also part of this current tour - and wine lovers in the trade and media were treated to an embarrassment of riches, as far as Italian wines go. This publication, generally regarded to as the Bible of Italian wines, each year tastes 20,000 wines for their guide and rates wines on a scale of one to three glasses, with the highest being three - tre bicchieri - wines that are considered by the tasting panel as the finest in the country. As only 415 wines were given this rating for the 2014 guide - barely more than two percent of the wines tasted - these truly are special wines.

What I love about this guide is that the highest ratings for Italian wines are not relegated to the most famous full-bodied reds such as Barolo, Brunello di Montalcino or Amarone; rather there are dozens of Italian wines that are honored as worthy of a Tre Bicchieri rating, be they sparkling such as Prosecco or Franciacorta, elegant whites from Alto Adige, Friuli, Campania and several other regions or gorgeous reds such as Aglianico del Vulture, Taurasi and Montepulciano d'Abruzzo that often do not get the attention they deserve.

So at this tasting yesterday, one could pretty much receive a thorough education in Italian wines; yes, tasting the finest Italian wines of the year is quite special, but when you realize that you'll taste a wide range of wine types, well, that makes a day like this even more enjoyable.

So without further ado, on to a few highlights from the 2014 Tre Bicchieri tasting:

Sparkling - Everyone knows Prosecco, the famous sparkling wine from the Veneto region, but this is a product generally thought of as an everyday wine, one without distinctive characteristics. One taste of the 2012 Ruggeri "Giustino B"Extra Dry would prove how special this wine can be; medium-full with an explosive mid-palate and a lengthy, elegant finish, this is a classy sparkling wine! 

As for Franciacorta, arguably Italy's finest sparkling wine category, there were several first-rate offerings featured, including the beautifully-structured Lo Sparviere 2007 Extra Brut and the Ferghettina Pas Dosé "33"Riserva 2006, a blend of three of their finest wines (100% Chardonnay) that is perfectly balanced with lovely complexity. Then there were two of Italy's most sublime sparkling wines, the 2005 Ca' del Bosco "Annamaria Clementi" and the 2006 Bellavista "Vittorio Moretti"; both are quite powerful, with amazing persistence are absolutely delicious and can rightfully take their place among the world's finest sparkling wines.

Marica Bonomo, Monte del Fra (Photo ©Tom Hyland)

Whites - Italian white wines just don't get the attention they deserve from the major wine publications; I've been commenting on this for years. So how nice of Gambero Rosso to honor the country's finest whites, whatever the type and style. At Monte del Fra, proprietor Marica Bonomo produced a lovely 2011 Custoza "Ca' del Magro" from her estate vineyards in the Veneto; a blend of several grapes (primarily Garganega), this is a charming dry white with beautiful acidity and subtle charms. The 2012 Feudi di San Gregorio Greco di Tufo "Cutizzi" from a single vineyard in Santa Paolina in Campania, is a rich white with beautiful citrus and floral aromatics and lively acidity, a trait of this vintage's white from this region. Drinkable now with rich seafood, this will be even better with another 3-5 years of aging.

The white that most surprised me was the 2011 Valle Reale Trebbiano d'Abruzzo "Vigne de Capstrano." I say that as most examples of Trebbiano d'Abruzzo are quite simple, even one-dimensional; how nice to experience a Trebbiano that breaks the mold! Fermented with wild yeasts and unfiltered, this has a cloudy appearance; quite full on the palate, this has spicy, nutty perfumes and a powerful finish; here is a Trebbiano of great complexity, one that has aging potential. This estate has been a leader in this region and this wine is, in my opinion, one of Italy's most distinctive whites!

Gerardo Giuratrabocchetti, Cantine del Notaio (Photo ©Tom Hyland)

Reds - Of course, there were the usual suspects presented in this tasting, including Barolo and Brunello di Montalcino. Of the former, the best examples were the Giacomo Fenocchio "Bussia" and the Elio Grasso "Gavarini Chiniera", both from the 2009 vintage. That was a rather difficult year for Barolo, but these wines displayed the elegance one has come to expect from the finest examples of this iconic wine. Both are made in a traditional style and are ideally balanced with good acidity; these are examples of Barolo that are meant for food, whether in a few years or 10-12 years down the road.

As for Brunello di Montalcino, the Mastrojanni "Vigna Schiena d'Asino"is a stunning wine. Traditionally made with great Sangiovese purity, this is a wine of elegance, breeding and first-rate complexity. Offering excellent depth of fruit, subtle wood notes and very good acidity, this is a textbook Brunello meant for 12-15 years of aging.

Arguably the finest red wine at this event - and that's saying something - was the 2010 Cantine del Notaio Aglianico del Vulture "La Firma." Aglianico is the great red variety of Southern Italy, but one usually reads about this grape when referring to Taurasi of Campania. But in Basilicata, there are several distinguished examples from the Aglianico del Vulture zone; wines that are rugged, yet elegant with firm, but refined tannins. I included this wine in my book Beyond Barolo and Brunello; I can now reaffirm that the Cantine del Notaio "La Firma" is truly one of Italy's most distinguished red wines after tasting this 2010 version; full-bodied with a beautifully developed mid-palate and tremendous persistence, along with balancing acidity, this is a marvelous effort, a great bottle of wine on so many levels.


So it's a year off, but I can't wait until the 2015 Tre Bicchieri tasting!

Recent Italian Discoveries - In the Air and on the ground

Notes on a few recent Italian wines I've enjoyed over the past few weeks:

The first was onboard a short plane ride from Verona to Munich on my way home from my recent visit to Soave and Valpolicella. I generally fly to and from Chicago via Munich on Lufthansa and connect for a short flight to Verona or Milan on Air Dolomiti, which is a partner airline of Lufthansa. I've flown on this airline more than a dozen times and have to tell you how happy I am with the experience. Though the flights are generally brief (45 to 60 minutes), your time is well spent, as you are given a beverage and a light snack, which could be anything from biscotti to a light sandwich. And this food is quite good - how many airlines can you say that about? It also doesn't hurt that the flight attendants are quite attractive - yes, I'm always pleased with my flights on Air Dolomiti!

They also generally have an excellent wine selection; this is not the drab white or red offering found in economy on so many airlines, but instead they offer wines from first rate Italian producers. On this most recent flight from Verona (the airline's hub), I saw that one of the three featured wines was the DUBL Falanghina, a sparkling wine made by Feudi di San Gregorio in Campania (this is a joint venture with the Champagne house of Selosse). Although I make it a rule not to drink any alcohol on flights as it tends to dehydrate me (besides, I'd had plenty of wine over the previous 12 days of my trip), I ordered a glass. The wine has a lovely delicate entry on the palate, excellent persistence and beautiful acidity - it's a lovely sparkling wine and this was a great way to begin the long voyage home.

By the way, the other two wines offered on the flight were the St. Michael-Eppan Gewurztraminer from Alto Adige and the La Braccesca Vino Nobile di Montepulciano from Antinori. When's the last time you saw wines like that offered at no charge in economy? Bravo, Air Dolomiti - you've got my business!

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During my trip in the Valpolicella district, I visited a dozen producers and tasted many of their offerings, from the basic Valpolicella to their powerful Amarone as well as their beautiful Recioto. One morning with an extra half-hour before my first appointment, I sampled about a dozen other examples of Amarone at the offices of the Valpolicella Consorzio, thanks to the kindness of director Olga Bussinello. 

As I selected a few wines I was interested in tasting, her assistants asked me if I would be interested in tasting wines from some new producers. I told them yes; one of those wines turned out to be from Massimago, a small estate located in the eastern part of Valpolicella in the commune of Mezzane di Sotto. I tasted the newly released 2007 Amarone, which I loved for its varietal purity, delicious fruit, round tannins and overall balance. It was the finest of the dozen wines I tried that morning and thought at that moment that this would be a producer to keep an eye on. 

I found the website and learned that the individual behind this project is a 26 year-old woman named Camilla Rossi Chauvenet, who comes not from an agricultural background, but from a family of lawyers. She was more intrigued by vineyards rather than a courtroom, so she studied agriculture at the University of Padua, which led to the wine business. (She jokes on her website that "biology saved me from the Civil Code.")

Based solely on her 2007 Amarone, I can't wait to try her other wines and then visit her estate to see what this dynamic young woman has in store for lovers of Amarone and other wines from this area!

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Finally, I want to let you know about a unique sparkling wine I have just tasted. The wine is called Sinefinis, and it is a joint venture between Robert Princic, a wonderful producer in the town of San Floriano del Collio in Friuli and his friend, Matjaza Certica, a producer in nearby Slovenia (San Floriano is in the eastern part of Collio that borders with Slovenia).

The wine is 100% Ribolla Gialla and the project is called Bollicine senza Confini - "sparkling wine without borders" - a lovely name! The wine was produced according to the classic (Champagne) method and aged on its yeasts for 18 months. Medium-full, the wine has lively acidity (as you would expect from Ribolla Gialla) as well as an excellent perlage along with impressive persistence. Aromas and flavors are of Bosc pear and pineapple; the finish is quite dry. This will age a bit, but it would be best to enjoy this in its youth over the next 1-2 years. You might think a sparkling Ribolla Gialla would be rather light, but this has a nice richness to it and will pair perfectly with most seafood (I tried it for lunch with a Thai dish of ginger shrimp and it was a heavenly match!)

This is not imported into the US at the present, so you'll have to travel to Collio or Slovenia to find a bottle. That's worth the trip, if you ask me!

Vintage 2010 Italy

Vineyard worker in Campania

(Photo ©Tom Hyland)

Here are a few thoughts on the 2010 harvest in Italy, which has been completed in some areas and is still continuing in others:


Antonio Capaldo - Feudi di San Gregorio - Campania
"We are quite advanced on the Falanghina and are starting Greco. Fiano and Aglianico still need another week. We were very worried about quality after the weird year in terms of weather but the last few weeks - with wonderful warm weather - have significantly improved the situation. The Falanghina harvest was excellent and so we expect it to be also with Greco and Fiano. There was significant reduction in quantity (-20%) but quality is very good.

Aglianico - delicate grape - is a different matter and we still don't know how it will be. It appears a difficult year with a low quantity...

The next two weeks however will be critical to assess the quality of the aglianico vintage. In any case, for Aglianico it will not be one of the best vintages. The Serpico vineyard however - with old vines - appears to be producing high quality grapes, so we keep our fingers crossed."


Piero Mastroberardino - Mastroberardino - Campania
"A cold and rainy Winter delayed a bit the start of the vegetative cycle, bringing the maturation timing process back to the traditional periods of the area. Spring and Summer were more rainy than usual. Summer was not very hot and the temperature excursions were significant already in August.

So maturation processes slowed down a bit, and this was helpful for the aromas and the freshness of grapes.

Harvest is one week late, compared to last year. We are going back to the traditional harvests of late October and November, with a positive contribution of the terroir distinctive characters on the grapes. More than other years, vineyard management has been strategic, mainly keeping the yield low during August, in order to select the best grapes.

With the white grapes we already can see excellent aromatic expressions and good acidity. About the reds, it’s too early to say: at the moment the process of maturation is regular, but of course we have to wait for the weather evolution of the next weeks. For now we are still in a nice and warm summer, having temperatures around 24-25 Celsius degrees during the day."


Stefania Rocche - Castelvecchio - Tuscany
"This year harvest was late and not so easy - we started around 22th September with the merlot grapes - we did a lot of selection in every vineyards so the crop is little less than normal but the wines are in fermentation right now and seem to have an interesting evolution."


Andrea Felluga - Livio Felluga - Friuli
"A cool vintage and one in which the quality of the wine has repaid all the efforts in the vineyard.

Vini dai profumi molto intensi. Carattere aromatico elegante."

Feudi's Great New Website

These days, given the popularity of blogs, winery websites just don't seem to have the same influence they did just a few years ago. They're still needed and they offer excellent information, but websites have definitely taken a back seat to other forms of communication in the wine world.

Well that may soon change, especially if a few producers adopt the model of Feudi di San Gregorio in Italy. This Campanian producer recently unveiled its new website and it is dazzling! Packed with tremendous detail about not only their wines, but also their territory as well as their one-star Michelin restaurant, Marennà (located at the winery), this is a website that will please the wine and food lover!



Now the old site was excellent and had much of the same information on the wines, but there's just a lot more on the new one. For example, click on Greco (under "vini" or "wines") and you are referred to five different pages, each representing a wine (or in one case, a grappa), where Greco is used to produce that particular wine. There are six pages for Fiano and Falanghina and a total of 11 different pages under the Aglianico heading! When you go to those individual pages, you will see a page listing technical data as well as recommended food pairings and you can also download each wine's label (the average size is about 750 KB and the resolution is excellent).



As previously mentioned, there is also a great deal of information on the winery's stellar restaurant, Marennà, located a few floors above the cellar. There is a beautiful streaming video that's imbedded on the page; it should definitely make your mouth water in anticipation! There are also two separate menus to download (Risotto cozze e nocciole, anyone?) as well as the wine list. That's very helpful and quite an advertisement for the restaurant. If that wasn't enough, there are also 10 recipes of Chef Paolo Barrale tha are avalable for downloading. It's a nice mix, from risotto and pasta to lamb, beef and dolce. The recipes are in both Italian and English, by the way, as is the entire site.

The site is located at:
http://www.feudi.it/

and in English at:
http://www.feudi.it/en

(note: the English translation was provided by yours truly)


What really puts this website into a special category is the way it works with modern communications. This one doesn't just refer to facebook, it has its facebook site imbedded on the homepage. That's a great way to get people talking about the wines and shouldn't that be what a winery website is all about?

Congratulations to Feudi di San Gregorio for taking the lead and providing such a superb website. Let's hope that other wineries around the world take note.