Trends from VinItaly

Cristina Ziliani, Guido Berlucchi

(Photo ©Tom Hyland)

A brief summary of new releases from VinItaly:


2009 Whites
I tased dozens of impressive whites from 2009, especially from Friuli and Campania. Cool throughout most of the growing season, there was some much needed sunshine in August and September, according to Elisabetta Polencic of the Isidoro Polencic winery in Friuli. Luigi Maffini from the Salerno province of Campania told me that 2009, “was a very good vintage. The wines are very complex and offer excellent freshness. I prefer the whites from 2009 over 2007 and 2008.” Antonio Capaldo, owner of Feudi di San Gregorio, says that 2009 was “especially good for white wines.”

A short list of my favorite 2009 whites:

Friuli
Gradis’ciutta Sauvignon (Collio)
Livon Sauvignon “Valbuins” (Collio)
I Clivi Malvasia (Collio)
I Clivi Verduzzo Friulano (dry) (Colli Orientali del Friuli)
Isidoro Polencic Sauvignon (Collio)

Campania
Feudi di San Gregorio Greco di Tufo (especially good value)
Feudi di San Gregorio Greco di Tufo “Cutizzi”
Colli di Lapio Fiano di Avellino
Mastroberardino Greco di Tufo “Novaserra”
Mastroberardino Fiano di Avellino “Radici”
Marisa Cuomo Furore Bianco
Terredora Greco di Tufo "Loggia della Serra"
Vadiaperti Fiano di Avellino
Pietracupa Greco di Tufo
Vinosia Greco di Tufo
Luigi Maffini "Kratos" (Fiano - IGT Paestum)

Liguria
Cantine Lunae Vermentino “Etichetta Nera” (Colli di Luni)

Piemonte
Oddero Langhe Bianco (Chardonnay, Riesling blend)

Puglia
Alberto Longo “Le Fossette” (Falanghina) (Pugila IGT)

Antonio Capaldo, owner, Feudi di San Gregorio

(Photo ©Tom Hyland)

Amarone
Many of the newest releases are from the 2006 vintage, a very good vintage. The regular Tedeschi bottling is rich, spicy and gusty, but above all, well-balanced, while their “Monte Olmi” offers more weight on the palate with more pronounced ripeness. Similar notes for the Stefano Accordini “Acinatico” bottling, though fatter on the palate. Accordini has also released his exceptional "Il Fornetto" from 2004; a great wine from a great vintage. This will not be available until very late in 2010- this is a must buy for Amarone lover with its layers of fruit and intense notes of fig, date and red raspberry.

It’s also interesting to note how two exceptional Soave producers have now focused on Amarone as well. Leonildo Pieropan previewed his first-ever Amarone from the 2006 vintage; the wine offers beautiful ripeness and delicate spice and is as elegant as the man himself. Ca’Rugate has produced Amarone for a few years now and their new 2007 is their finest yet. Displaying black cherry and cranberry fruit wih notes of orgeano, the wine is driven by its fruit and not by oak and is quite elegant. Look for 10-12 years of improvement with this wine – complimenti to winemaker Michele Tessari.

Leonildo Pieropan

(Photo ©Tom Hyland)

2006 Barolos
I tasted a few bottlings of 2006 Barolo; the new wines will be released within the next few months. This is a big vintage and right now, many of the wines are quite tight and a bit tannic. While it’s difficult to fully appreciate these wines right now, one can clearly sense the excellent depth of fruit; this should be a long-lived vintage.

As usual, the finest bottlings display their terroir; take the three offerings from Vietti. The Brunate is wonderfully perfumed with velvety tannins, the Lazzarito is much more closed with firmer tannins, while the Rocche is more full-bodied with appropriate young tannins. The always lovely Vajra “Bricco dell Viole” is excellent, though more restrained than the 2005 was at this time last year, while the Luigi Baudana “Baudana”, aged in grandi botti, is quite elegant, while still offering excellent concentration.

My two favorite 2006 Barolos I tasted at VinItaly were from Oddero; the Rocche di Castiglione with sensual red cherry and orange peel notes and the Villero, a spicier and more powerful bottling that is no less elegant. I hope many more of the 2006 Barolos I will taste in May in Alba will offer the balance and finesse of these wines from Oddero!


2005 Brunello di Montalcino
I tasted a few dozen of these wines in February in Chicago and New York; this was my chance to try some of my favorites I missed. While these wines may be a slightly more difficult sell comig after the celebrated 2004 vintage, this is an excellent vintage overall, with beautiful varietal character and lively acidity. Among the very best I tasted were the Stella di Campalto, Talenti, Le Chiuse, Col d’Orcia, Innocenti, Ciacci Piccolomini, Fossacolle and these three I rated as outstanding: Il Poggione, Pian dell’Orino and Il Palazzone.


Franciacorta
Finally, a few words about a sparkling wine I love, but don’t get ot try often enough and that’s Franciacorta. Only a few brands, most noticeably Ca’ del Bosco and Bellavista are imported into the United States, which is somewhat understandable (especially now during the worldwide financial mess), but still a shame, as the finest efforts are distinctive and very special. I mentioned the amazing 2002 Bellavista “Vittorio Moretti” bottling in a separate post on my other blog; a few other excellent bottlings include the 2006 Camossi Extra Brut (their first Millesimato) the 2006 Saten from Il Mosnel and two very distinguished bottlings; the 2004 Guido Berlucchi Palazzo Lana “Extreme”, a 100% Pinot Nero with a lengthy, persistent finish and the full-bodied Brut normale from Enrico Gatti, a wine that is better than many top bottlings from other Franciacorta firms.

Here’s hoping that we see more examples of Franciacorta come to the United States!

Giovanni Arcari, Camossi

(Photo ©Tom Hyland)

Reviewing Brunello - Il Poggione and a few other thoughts

Fabrizio Bindocci, winemaker, Il Poggione (Photo ©Tom Hyland)

Last week, Alessandro Bindocci of the great Brunello producer Il Poggione entered a new post on his Montalcino Report blog that featured Antonio Galloni’s review of the 2004 Il Poggione Brunello di Montalcino. Galloni, the Italian specialist for Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate, labeled the wine as “awesome” and commented that this wine “stood apart.”

I’d like to comment on this review, as it is a notable one. First, it’s good that Antonio was so generous in his review of this wine, especially as this is such a great estate and the 2004 is a stellar wine. I praised the wine back in February when I first tasted the wine in Montalcino as part of Benevenuto Brunello (Alessandro Bindocci also was kind enough to post my review of the wine, which you can read here – thank you Alessandro!)

Now that Galloni has written his review, I’ve been getting emails from retailers bragging about their price for this wine and of course, they have included Galloni’s review. I understand this, especially in this economy, as retailers are doing what they can to move this wine out of the store and bring in some much-needed cash.

But where were these retailers a few years ago? As dozens, if not hundreds of wine writers in Italy and the United States have known for years, Il Poggione has been one of the leading estates in Montalcino for more than four decades; there aren’t many estates that can make that claim. But the way these retailers are pushing this wine, you’d think this was a new producer.

One thing that will happen with some of the customers who buy this wine is that they will purchase it because of a review, meaning it could have been any producer, not just Il Poggione. These people are called cherry pickers and are notorious in the business as they buy the top rated wines whenever they can. But where were these people in previous years? Probably buying such wines as Casanova di Neri, a Brunello that has consistently received scores in the upper 90s in The Wine Spectator.

If so, this would be highly ironic, as Casanova di Neri produces a very ripe, very modern, international style of Brunello while Il Poggione remains in the traditional approach of winemaking for Brunello. So many customers are buying a wine because it gets a high score, not because they think they’ll like it.

I’d like to stay positive, but I’ve been around too long and have seen this before. I hope that the “new” customers of Il Poggione based on Galloni’s review will seek out Il Poggione when the next few vintages are released. So of course do Alessandro Bindocci and hs father Alessandro the winemaker! But let’s see what happens when the 2005 and 2006 are released; as these are two very good – but not great – vintages for Brunello, will the cherry pickers be there to support Il Poggione or will they look for other wines (perhaps not even Brunello) that receive higher scores?

Producing wine is a long-term business and love affair; vintners don’t just release wines from great vintages (great is such an overused and misunderstood term), they must release them from virtually every harvest. Readers of my newsletter have known of my love for Il Poggione for years; I rated their bottlings from 2002 and 2003 – two less than stellar years - as excellent. It’s easy for any producer to make a very good wine in a notable vintage such as 2004 (if you can’t, as they say, find another job!). But to me one of the best qualities about a producer such as Il Poggione has been their track record with Brunello. As I wrote earlier, how may estates have been at the top of their game for more than 40 years?

So for consumers, retailers or restaurant buyers who might be tempted to purchase a bottle or several of the 2004 Il Poggione Brunello based on Galloni’s review, please do the Bindoccis a favor and buy the wine when the 2005 is released next year – you will not be disappointed!

A few final notes: Antonio, congratulations again on getting it right. While no score was published with this review, I can only make an educated guess, but I’m sure the score will be in the mid to high 90s. If so, this is in contrast to James Suckling of The Wine Spectator, who awarded the wine 91 points. Some of you might be saying, “wait, 91 points is pretty good.” Well there’s a big difference between pretty good and stellar. The 91 from Suckling is a shrug on his part, letting us know he admires the wine, but isn’t wild about it. No surprise here, as the Il Poggione Brunello is all about elegance and harmony; it isn’t flashy enough for Suckling’s tastes.

So how nice that a major wine publication awards Il Poggione as among the very best of Brunello. But Antonio, two things. First, this mention of this wine “standing alone” among the 2004 Brunellos. While I’m sure that the Bindoccis are pleased, there are a dozen or so examples of 2004 Brunello that are first-rate including Sesta di Sopra, Pian dell’Orino, Talenti, Il Palazzone, Fuligni, Caprili and Uccelliera (read my February post on vinowire here). I want readers to know that there are other estates that made an outstanding 2004 Brunello and have been at the top of the pyramid of producers in Montalcino for several years and that all of these estates including Poggio Antico and Ciacci Piccolomini are to be commended as well for their recent Brunello releases.

So, Antonio, I’d rather you didn’t write that one wine stood alone among the 2004 Brunellos. It’s this type of wine writing that gives the business a bad name. It’s as though there has to be a best. Il Poggione is among the very best and has been for years. Let’s celebrate that. But let’s also remember another dozen or so producers that deliver the good every year.

Finally, I do have one more bone to pick with Signore Galloni, one that is far more serious than the one I just wrote about. That is in regards to his text about the Il Poggione where he writes that the wine was aged in French oak casks. This is accurate, but why write this? All this does is open up a can of worms.

Let me explain. To the average consumer that reads this, French oak aging for a Brunello will probably signify that the wine is made in a modern style. But nothing could be farther from the truth, as Il Poggione is a traditional Brunello producer, through and through. Yes, the oak happens to be French, but the casks are the large ones called botti grandi, which are the traditional ones that have been used to produce Brunello for more than a century; Fabrizio Bindocci made the decision a few years ago to work with new coopers, so his large casks are French oak and not Slavonian. The modernists, who prefer flashiness and ripeness over balance and subtlety, use the small barrels known as barriques (225 liters instead of the botti grandi, which range from 2000 to 6000 liters).

So Antonio, what is important about oak aging with Brunello is not where the wood comes from, but the size of the casks. This is something you need to communicate to your readers; it’s your responsibility to be accurate. Certainly, Galloni has heard of the scandal in Montalcino, where some producers have been accused of bypassing regulations, by including grapes other than Sangiovese. The big picture here deals with tradition versus doing what some people feel is right for the moment. Given that, it’s so important these days to let people know about traditional producers and how they view their work. Il Poggione is a traditional producer and one of the best.