Playing “What’s That Note?” With Italian Varietals
Posted on | March 22, 2012 | Written by Will Di Nunzio | No Comments
Without a doubt, there is a connection between grape variety, wine varietal and aroma. You can always expect to find specific scents in specific wines based on their grapes and their blends, but the truth of the matter is what you get from a wine is a very personal matter and changes from both individual person to individual person and estate to estate. As difficult as it is to get ten people to agree on a place to have dinner in New York City that they all like, it’s difficult to get those same people not only to agree on all liking the same wine, but liking the same thing about it. However, as much as it may be difficult for people to agree on how to describe wines, there are qualities we can generally attribute to specific grapes.
The fun thing about wine drinking in the 21st century is that the market understands the concept of individual experience, so you can express yourself any way you want. From saying “it tastes like shoe polish” to “there are notes of tar” is perfectly normal. It’s not that you take a spoon full of shoe polish with your morning coffee and then take a dive in a vat of tar every time you walk pass a “Road Work Ahead” sign, but as many experts have pointed out, taste is smell, so you’re not necessarily tasting; you might be smelling.
In wine tasting as much as everything else, practice makes perfect. If to you a wine tastes like toasted maple leaf, perhaps it does, but maybe you really want to make sure. You might want to practice tasting wine at home with some dried fruit and nuts to help you taste the corresponding flavors of your favorite wines. It is easier to make comparisons if you have both things you’re comparing. Do it enough, and you’ll be able to do it by scent alone. It’s a lot of fun when you can recognize wines by their smell alone—practice at home, give it a shot, and impress your friends at parties.
While smell and taste are highly personal, you can expect some specific flavor profiles with specific varietals. To help you out in your quest to master your next favorite party trick, here are the basic flavors to look for in some popular Italian wine varietals:
Sangiovese (Toscana): Dried flowers, berries like blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, or strawberry. You’ll find a really nice example in the 2006 Fontodi Chianti Classico.
Nebbiolo (Piemonte): Cherry and other dark fruit (like dried cranberries) or tar and rose petal, but please do not have a wine, tar and rose petal tasting! I would try the De Forville Nebbiolo 2007 or Massolino’s 2004 Barolo for some great aroma and flavor representation.
Nero d’Avola (Sicilia): This is one of my personal favorites. You can find many flavors; look for black cherry, plum, vanilla, tobacco and licorice. My Nero d’Avola go-to since I started at IWM has been il Moro by Valle Dell’Acate. The 2006 is great.
Palagrello Bianco (Campania): Orange blossoms, pears and peaches—grab some juicy pears and peaches and open a bottle of Alois Caiati 2005 or Vestini Campagnano 2004. I’d thrown in a couple of pieces of Reggiano while you’re at it just to complete the experience.
Pigato (white, Liguria): I love this wine! Look for apricot, peach and herbs. Both the 2008 U Baccan by Bruna and the Bisson 2007 are exceptional wines and will help you to understand this varietal.
Cortese (white, Piemonte): This is your Gavi’s varietal. Look for white flowers, white fruit like peaches, pears and apples. I would give the Ca’ dei Mandorli a shot, a wine that dips under the radar but really shows what Cortese is about.
And for those of you who have mastered the art of the nose, what are your favorite scentastic wines? What profiles can you detect and in conjunction with which varietals?
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Three Truths About Wine, Considered and Validated
Posted on | March 21, 2012 | Written by Francesco Vigorito | No Comments
Today on the Wine Spectator, Matt Kramer wrote a post called “The Three Truths of Wine,” and I read along finding myself agreeing wholly.
The first truth, Kramer says, is that “All Good Wines Can Age (But Not All Can Transform).” It’s a hard fact, but not all wines transform into something special. I once aged a bottle of Beaujolais nouveau for over three years and let me tell you it was awful. Yes, it aged and yes it transformed, but not into something special. Now, take a bottle of 1997 Flaccianello and let it age for 10+ years and you will have something special. Only about 10% of all wines in current production will be able to transform into greatness.
Truth #2, Kramer asserts is “All Good Wines Work Wonderfully With Any Food That Is Remotely Plausible for Them.” I agree with the truth that all great wines pair wonderfully with any food that makes sense for them. In other words it wouldn’t make sense to pair a Grand Cru White Burgundy with a 28-day-aged T-bone, but pair that with a Grand Cru red Burgundy and you will be in heaven. You do have to use a little common sense, but a great wine is definitely more flexible.
The last truth is a little more personal. Kramer says, “All Wine Drinkers Get in a “Taste Rut.” Having been in retail for over two years now, I have come to see many people ask for the same wines over and over again. Of course, when you find something you like, you should indulge, but it is also important to keep and open mind. The wine world is very expansive and there are many regions that produce fantastic wines that no one knows about. True wine lovers love wine because of the diversity that exists and the experiences that they instill.
Tags: palate fatigue > Three Truths About Wine > wine aging > wine pairings > wine ruts
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Go-to-Wine Tuesday
Posted on | March 20, 2012 | Written by Evan LaNouette | No Comments
The wine is Borgo dei Santi 2010 Pinot Grigio – Friuli Grave, and we are the only merchant in the USA that has this bottle. The classification tells me the grapes are sourced from the Udine region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and is likely a regional blend of Pinot Grigio from different vineyards. Knowing this, I was enthusiastic to learn more about the producer and their story, but found very little information available in our digital world. When I say little, I must correct myself. Rather, there is literally no information out there on the producer, a very strange occurrence considering our ever-expanding global market. After this discover I knew Sergio had found something very unique for us to experience, and I grabbed a bottle to taste at home this week.
My eager suspicions were gratified. This is a delicious Pinot Grigio–more Chablis than Loire, more flinty complexity than raw fruit; all of which was supported by nice ambient perfume and flowers. This wine delivers like very few can in the price point of $19.99, and it had a finish in the range of premier cru Chablis. Interestingly, the acidity was not sharp. For an elevated region, this is a sign of great forethought. The true sign of a wine having balanced acidity and tannins is you don’t need to drink water after you have the wine, and with Borgo dei Santi (English: “Village of Saints), it is nearly as refreshing as a glass water with a touch of lime. It does not bite whatsoever, but rather it glides its full-bodied aromatics across your palate, the sort of delicious, roll over the palate that everyone enjoys.
To say the least I was impressed. It’s great see something so mysterious and undiscovered in our cellar, and at the same time a wine any level of enthusiast or connoisseur should appreciate. Whether you’re coming in to grab something quick to drink with dinner, or put in the cellar for a party Borgo dei Santi 2010 Pinot Grigio – Friuli Grave is an option worth your consideration. Salute!
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A Tale of Two Winemakers
Posted on | March 19, 2012 | Written by Janice Cable | No Comments
Happy olive trees at Fontodi
This week, we’re running a special of six Tuscan wines. They’re all good wines (I’ve been lucky enough to drink them all), earthy, vibrant and real, wines that speak articulately of the place where they’re from, but I’m not writing here to sing the praises of those wines. I’m here to recollect two of their makers, and in doing so, to marvel a bit at the difference of the people who dedicate themselves to making wine.
This time last year I was traveling through Tuscany, visiting two, three or four vineyards in a day. It sounds very idyllic—and I suppose it really was—but as I was immersed in this driving slog, I was also doing everything I normally do as IWM’s marketing writer. I had one leg in Italy, one leg in New York, and I often felt pulled between the two places, especially when it came time to sleep. Therefore it’s not terribly surprising that a lot of the month of March in 2011 feels like a blur, almost Cezanne-like impressions of geography and meals and people and places and lots and lots of wine.
Pietro Baricci
Despite that impressionist blur some things have retained solidity, and two of them are visiting the Baricci family in Montalcino and the Fontodi estate in Chianti. The Baricci family is terribly humble, their winery incredibly small. They make only about 12,000 bottles a year, and their entire 2010 harvest was held in three shining stainless steel tanks the day I visited. Pietro Baricci, the father, is a gaunt man with a generous spirit. His family transitioned from sharecroppers to winemakers as post-WWII low-interest loans gave them the ability to move from “fame di fama”—or in English from hunger to fame, and so Pietro’s attitude of gratitude makes a lot of sense.
The Baricci estate in the rain
When I visited the Baricci estate, it was drizzling with a foul intensity. Rain dripped from the eaves and the trees, and the ground was sucking mud. It was cold, unpleasant, and depressing weather. It was hard to understand why anyone would want to be a farmer, which is essentially half of Pietro Baricci’s job description. But Pietro was warm and inviting, and rather than merely taste his wine in a sterile tasting room or snuggled around the botti, he invited Eleanor, my guide and translator, and me to the family’s dining room table, where we drank his rustic, umano Brunello with fennel sausage that his wife had made. Pietro apologized for not having roasted a cinghiale for us. He’d not had enough time to prepare, he said, and he felt bad.
Fontodi has a lot of stainless steel
If Baricci is small, humble and unprepossessing, an estate that is also home to hunting dogs and a chicken coop, Fontodi is large, gleaming and shiny. Everything about Fontodi is shiny. The weather was shiny. The olive trees gleamed. The stainless steel tanks shone. The man who showed us around the estate, Silvano, even has a shiny name. It’s a big, shiny, happy estate filled with busy, busy people doing what they need to do to make Fontodi’s really great wines.
Silvano, our guide at Fontodi
Where Baricci was a few tanks in a little building, Fontodi had a giant room filled with stainless steel. You walked around it on a little catwalk because the estate is built on the gravity principle to make wine more gently. The aging room is huge; barrels and barrels roll out before your eyes. When I was there, the estate hadn’t finished building the addition to its cellar, one that holds a giant tree at its center, growing in the living earth, a symbol for the estate.
Tuscan pansies bloom at Baricci
But as different as the two estates are and as divergent as their appearance, size and methods may be, it’s really clear that people are at the center of each. You can’t take the Baricci out of its wine; likewise, worktables all over Fontodi were covered with pictures of the workers’ families. “We are the terroir,” Silvano said placing his palm against his chest. So too are the Bariccis. And for those reasons, no matter the size of the estate or the number of bottles it makes, these two winemakers are related, under the skin.
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D-Harmony: Dim Sum And Wine Pairings
Posted on | March 16, 2012 | Written by Crystal Edgar | 3 Comments
One of my favorite pairing challenges is over dim sum, otherwise known as Chinese brunch or tapas. Dim Sum consists of a variety of hot and cold dishes in bit size quantities and, on occasion is delivered to the table in a special trolley. Dim Sum literally translates to “to touch the heart” originally created to accompany tea drinking. As the culinary world has evolved so has dim sum, which now covers a wide realm of gastronomic delights. Some of the most popular dishes are Char Siu Bao or steamed barbecued pork buns, Har Gau (steamed shrimp dumplings), Shu Mai (steamed pork and shrimp dumplings), Fung Zao (steamed chicken feet), Zhong Zi (lotus leaf wrapped glutinous rice parcels) and Dan Tat (egg custard tarts). Although there are many more dishes, these mentioned are staples and must be on every dim sum menu.
In order to create a great pairing, one must first dissect a dish and analyze each component – protein or main component, cooking method and sauce. Wine pairings can either complement flavors in a dish, pulling out similar flavor characteristics found in the wine (braised lamb shank with a big rustic red) or contrast a dish, using opposite flavors or textures to balance out the flavors (smoked mackerel with an off dry white wine). A few added pointers – when chili or pungent spice is present choose something off dry or fruity (avoid anything tannic). With desserts or sweet dishes, the wine must be sweeter than the dish otherwise the wine will appear bitter. Master these few things and the sport of pairing will become all the more enjoyable and fun!
Going back to the lazy Susan, below are some of my favorite dim sum pairings enjoyed over a few indulgent food adventures in Hong Kong.
Har Gau – Steamed shrimp dumplings (steamed shrimp, rice paper wrapper)
Crisp, light white wine
Sparkling wine
Muscadet – France
Sauvignon Blanc – France, Italy
Pinot Grigio – Italy
Albariño – Spain
Shu Mai – Steamed pork and shrimp dumplings (steamed pork and shrimp, egg and rice wrapper)
Medium-bodied white wine
Sparkling Wine
Marsanne or Rousanne – France
Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon – France
Arneis – Italy
Ribolla Gialla – Italy, Slovenia or Switzerland
Fung Zao – Steamed Chicken feet (chicken feet with oyster sauce and garlic)
Full-bodied fruity white wine
New World Chardonnay or Viognier
Gewurztraminer – France
Pinot Gris – France, USA or Australia
Zhong Zi – Steamed glutenous rice wrapped in a lotus leaf (braised pork, egg yolk, sticky rice, soy, garlic)
Full bodied white or fruity rose wine
New World Chardonnay or Viognier
Demi Sec Sparkling wine
Rose – USA, Australia or Greece
Char Siu Bao – Barbecued pork buns (braised pork, slightly sweet sauce)
Fruity, red wine
Lambrusco – Italy
Xinomavro – Greece
Kavaklidere – Turkey
Dan Tat – Egg custard tarts (slightly sweet egg custard, pie crust)
Fruity or slightly sweet white
Demi Sec Sparkling Wine
Sauternes
Picolit – Italy
Late Harvest Chardonnay – California
Muscat de Beaumes de Venise
Tags: asian food and wine pairings > international wines
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March 17th, 2012 @ 7:40 am
[...] Wine. Sauternes. Picolit – Italy. Late Harvest Chardonnay – … … See more here: D-Harmony: Dim Sum And Wine Pairings : Inside IWM ← How to Make the Perfect Wine Choice for Your Meal Wine vs. Beer: The Debate [...]
March 19th, 2012 @ 10:36 am
I need a wallet size copy of this to carry around Hong Kong. Thank you Edgar
March 21st, 2012 @ 12:04 pm
Crystal, this article is quite thought provoking. My family has eaten these dim sum dishes for a long time but your pairing suggestions will help make our dim sum outings more … intellectual. We generally just eat the dishes without thinking much about why we like dim sum; but with the wines, and their associated flavors and taste profiles, they force us to assess the different elements of dim sum and perhaps answer why we find dim sum so fun! Thank you.