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Larmandier-Bernier Champagne
We recently announced that Louis/Dressner Selections is now the national importer for Larmandier-Bernier Champagne in Vertus. We worked with Sophie and Pierre Larmandier years ago, starting at the same time they began working with the new Terry Theise Champagne book.
We were drawn to them years ago because they have great sites, make wine from natural yeasts, work their land organically, plough their fields, keep yields low and work at low or no dosage.
It's not that we believe in Grower Champagne as a category. A small estate in Vosne-Romanée is not better than Jadot, for instance, just because it is smaller. We carry small estates all over France and Italy because we have found vignerons dedicated to the hard work needed to express terroir in the bottle, not in promotional pamphlets. We don't believe that estate-bottled is better than négociant wine simply because it comes for a single estate.
We stayed friendly with the Larmandiers over the years. Recently they grew tired of being marketed in a catch-all Grower Champagne category, which includes some colleagues who they felt do not work substantively different from the larger houses. The Larmandiers found their American trading partners honest and hard working, but wanted to work with someone who embraces their particular style of work in the vineyards and cellar and will explain that work to the consumer. That's why we've decided to work together again.
For us, the low dosage at Larmandier is one of the most appealing aspects of their wine. Champagne is one of the rare regions where a winemaker gets to legally manipulate twice – by adding yeasts and enzymes during the fermentation and during the dosage. Years ago, we visited Anselme Sélosse who explained how his colleagues added a broad range of flavorings, both legal and not, during the dosage. So the modern trend toward higher dosage and higher sweetness is not simply the Yellowtailing of Champagne.
High dosage, along with other manipulations, allow the r-m or the négociant to mask the flaws of their wine. Larmandier is able to work at no or low dosage and still gets a rich wine because the work has been done in the vineyards to produce great wine. There is no Coca-Cola secret formula but a cutting purity that is both refreshing and elegant. We've always been great fans of their Terre de Vertus bottling, which is made without dosage, but all the bottling share this sense of beauty and are clear expressions of why Champagne ought to be a wine of terroir.
Please take a look at their excellent web site – Larmandier-Bernier Web Site
Sophie and Pierre explain on this site the elements which make a great Champagne, the elements basic to all wines:
Creating a great Champagne, as any other wine, begins in the vineyards. The recipe of a good grape is simple but demanding : old vines, cultivated soils, low yields, a vine that survives upon itself without fertilizers and hand picking at optimum maturity….
The average age of vines is 33 years. The vineyard is cultivated with the forgotten techniques that respect the Terroir: we plough the earth to ensure the roots grow deep into the chalk and to preserve life in the soil….
At Larmandier-Bernier's, each harvest, each vat, each cask, each barrel has its own life and its own yeasts. Each year is a new start because the yeasts change with the crus, the exposures but also the climate during the year… At Larmandier-Bernier's, the wild yeasts are not an estate selection re-used each year. And it is not either the first vat to start fermentation that is spread in the others vats….
Is it necessary to make a good wine? No.
Is it necessary to make a great wine? Yes.
Take a look at the following page to get a broader range of their cuvées:
Larmandier-Bernier Cuvées
Larmandier-Bernier wines will excite all our supporters who love real, natural wine. There are only a handful producers who work this way in Champagne and we are delighted to be working again with the Larmandiers.
Joseph P. Dougherty Elected to Board of Directors of AnorMED!
Shareholders of AnorMED Inc. (TSX:AOM, AMEX:AOM) today voted overwhelmingly to elect a new, independent and experienced Board of Directors to work for the benefit of all shareholders.
AnorMED is a chemistry-based biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of new therapeutic products in the areas of hematology, HIV and oncology. The Company has a product in Phase III development, a product in Phase II development and a research program focused on a novel class of compounds that target specific chemokine receptors known to be involved in a variety of diseases including HIV. Additional information on AnorMED Inc. is available on the Company’s website www.anormed.com.
At a Special Meeting of Shareholders, approximately 74% of the shares voted in support of the eight directors nominated by Baker Bros. Advisors, LLC, on behalf of the funds it manages that are collectively AnorMED’s largest shareholder. The directors nominated by management and the previous Board received approximately 26% of the votes cast.
The following individuals were elected as Directors of AnorMED:
* Joseph P. Dougherty, Ph.D. Managing Director of Seaview Securities LLC
* Felix J. Baker, Ph.D. Managing Member of Baker Bros. Advisors, LLC
* Henry Fuchs, M.D., Ph.D., Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Onyx Pharmaceuticals
* And some other guys
Immediately following the Special Meeting, the Board of Directors named Mr. Galbraith as Chair and appointed Dr. Michael Abrams, AnorMED’s President and Chief Executive Officer and Dr. William Hunter, Chief Executive Officer of Angiotech as additional Directors.
"This new Board of Directors is committed to maximizing long-term value for all AnorMED shareholders. It has already begun its work to effect positive change and to determine a new strategic direction for the Company,” Galbraith said. “We will ensure that AnorMED has the best corporate strategy for growth and that the Company follows the highest standards of independent and active corporate governance.”
The Wine Importer salutes the new member of the Board of Directors. We are confident that AnorMED is taking a bold step forward!
Rights for Immigrant Laborers!
There is a lot of controversy these days about immigrant workers.
We at The Wine Importer respect the work of migrant laborers around the world and demand they get the same rights as "home workers."
People can pay another few bucks for their miserable premium California wines. Profit in the wine industry should not be based on the misery of the third world.
Sentimentality
We Dressners traditionally spend Saturdays doing nothing.
My father still watches black-and-white cowboy movies on Channels 5, 9 or 11. Channel 9 has the best selection, featured on The Million Dollar Movie. Channel 9 show the The Million Dollar Movie three times a day, so if my father dozes off during one of the outlaw chases, gunfights or as the Indians attack the wagon train, he can still catch the rest of the action later in the day.
My father hasn't heard about cable television and still believes that Bob Teague is the weekend anchorman on the NBC 11 pm news. Usually, he dozes off by 10:45 pm, so he's been spared the hard truth that Bob Teague isn't even being recycled on the WPN with the rest of NBC's anchormen castoffs. My mother doesn't have the heart to tell her husband of nearly 61 years.
I spend my Saturdays far away from the wine world. Periodically, some deadbeat retailer somewhere makes me do a wine tasting in their horrible store. Being a businessman, I'm obligated to ruin my pointless Saturdays and pretend I'm passionate about wine on a Saturday to largely indifferent consumers who mostly think I'm a clerk at the retail store and that they know more about wine than I do. Sometimes they get arrogant and treat me like the service, reasoning that if I was a figure to reckon with, I wouldn't be a clerk at a liquor store pouring wine on my Saturdays. Predictably, they act respectfully as soon as I tell them that I'm the importer. Can you imagine that these fools keep me from doing my ritural Saturday inactivity, disrupting a centuries-long tradition of Dressner Saturday idleness!
Actually, my family was not named Dressner when they arrived in 1903 at Ellis Island. My Grandfather's name was Yosaf de Villaine but the immigration authorities could not pronouce de Villaine and Americanized our name to Dressner. Now that there are three generations of Dressners born in America, I sometimes wonder how things would have been different if I had been Joe de Villaine and my children had kept our ancestral name.
I do know that the de Villaine family used to practice Saturday idleness in the old country. They would often hide in basements on Saturdays, since there was strong anti-de Villaine feeling in the old country and often the threat of violence and persecution. While we no longer need to hide from our enemies, we continue to do nothing on Saturdays to show respect to our de Villaine roots and heritage.
Usually, I go for a ride on my bicycle at some point on Saturday. Although sometimes I feel too idle to even do that. Today, I may not cycle as I have to attend a performance of The Long Christmas Dinner by Thorton Wilder at Mayor Bloomberg's home on 79th Street and I don't want to arrive sweaty or exhausted from a long ride. My daughter is appearing in this performance, which I already saw on Thursday night, and she's smashing. It is great to know that someone in the de Villaine family tree is up to something exciting, even if it is against all odds.
The rest of the de Villaines are boring predictable second generation de Villaine's with homes in the suburbs, professional degrees, and children they're cloning for success. I'm in the liquor business and might be the worst of the lot! Perhaps that's why most of the de Villaine family, now named Dressner, do not talk with me. Then again, it could be because I insulted one of them several years ago on this blog. I forget why I insulted him, but I'm certain that I wrote the insult during one of my Saturday idle moments. No doubt, he read the insult during one of his idle Saturday moments. Writing the insult was a mistake on my part and I try to keep my personal life off this blog. For instance, I'm tempted to use this blog to write an essay on the degeneration of Steiner Education as it is practiced in America today, but that might also get me into trouble. Even worse trouble than insulting my relative several years ago.
For today's idle activity, I've decided to illegally download music files from the internet. Now that Channel 9 has taken The Million Dollar Movie off the air, I find the equivalent amusement by downloading 32 versions of the same song performed by different groups and singers. I could call these groups and singers "artists" like they do on MTV but I still have trouble thinking of Madonna and Britney Spears as "artists." Regardless of who is the "artist," I always look to find 32 versions of the song.
My project today was Chuck Berry's Little Queenie. I'm not big on popular music and mostly listen to Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations. One advantage of only listenting to the Goldberg Variations is that I don't need to buy an IPOD as I don't need 20 or 40 or 60 megabytes of Goldberg Variations storage.. The variations are not long and I can comfortably fit 10 to 20 different versions on a low memory, low cost MP3 player or PDA. Right now, for instance, I have all my Goldberg Versions loaded on my HP IPAQ (not IPOD) Pocket PC and listen to them through bluetooth stereo headphones while cycling around Manhattan/Brooklyn and Queens. Yes, the de Villaine descendants might be boring but we have embraced modern technology with a vengence!
Unfortunately, I enjoy the Glen Gould piano versions, although it would be more in my purist profile to insist that you can't listen to the Goldberg Variations unless it is recorded on a reconstructed period instrument of Bach's times. Frankly, my love for Gould tortures me and makes me realize that despite my purist postures, I'm intellectually weak and shallow. Probably a closet hedonist.
I downloaded 32 different versions of Little Queenie and was able to find Chuck Berry's original recording. The guitar break is short and primitive, but it is a work of beauty, seething with energy. Little did I know that Jerry Lee Lewis also has multiple recordings of Little Queenie, although it does not seem surprising, and one of them is truly sublime. Somehow, the piano works better here than the twangy guitars and this is yet another example of a modern piano working better than a harpsichord.
Of course, there is also a Rolling Stones live cover in 1969, which is recorded at a concert I actually attended. At that time, I was known as a Marxist-Jaggerist. My father used to have trouble napping while watchingThe Million Dollar Movie during my Marxist-Jaggerist period. My kids have arrived at Marxist-Jaggerist age and although they are not Marxist-Jaggerists they are also disrupting my napping patterns. Young people these days are not Marxist-Jaggerists, instead they call each other "bitches" and "hang" and "chill" as if "chilling" was a professional calling.
There is also a superb Little Queenie collaborative effort between Berry and Rolling Stones Guitarist Keith Richards. Richards made a movie some years back about Berry which I have read degenerated into fist fights between the two guitarists. I once saw an interview with Richards about how difficult Berry was as a personality, but how much he loved him and how Richards had built an entire career and made 100s of millions of dollars by stealing a guitar riff from Berry.
I sometimes feel the same way about Robert Kacher, who was recently awarded the Ordre du Mérite Agricole from the French Government. Other wine industry luminaries who have received this honor include Bill Deutsch the Yellowtail Importer, Michael Skurnik, Michael Aaron from Sherry-Lehman's and myself. We de Villaine's have come a long way!
I recently bought a set of earplugs and an eye mask to help me sleep on the long flights I take all over this great nation of ours to promote my wines at horrible Saturday afternoon tastings at horrible liquor stores. Not that I've downloaded my 32 versions of Little Queenie, I'm going to put them on and go to sleep.
My father, Sam Dressner, was in the hospital several weeks ago for heart problems. He's fine now and I hope he has found a good western to watch this afternoon on Channel 9.
Meet the Wine Importer at Astor Wines next Saturday!
The Wine Importer, Joe Dressner, will be appearing at Astor Wines in New York City on Saturday April 29th from 3 to 6 pm.
He will be serving a range of delicious wines from the Louis/Dressner Portfolio.
I found this event listed on a web site called localwinevenets.com. According to that site:
Importer Joe Dressner of Louis/Dressner will be on hand pouring some favorites from his extensive portfolio of artisinal wines. Stop by to ask him all of your burning questions, such as "Why do all French winemakers name cuvees after their dogs?" He'll entertain you with his stories and charm you with his honest and incredible wines.
The event is also mentioned on upcoming.org, another fabulous wine site, which notes:
Most of you don't know Joe, but he consistently imports some of the best artisinally made wine from France and Italy. He has the tough job of traveling the world, hanging out with winemakers and drinking vino. We love him for then sharing it with us back in the States. Taste some of the favorites from his extensive portfolio. As always, this event is totally free.
It sounds like a great event and I plan on being there myself!
Today is a Jour Férié in France!
It has something to do with Easter and it is part of the preparation for the big May Jours Fériés Festival.
France has many off days in May. Please don't ask us to get prices, details about wines or to arrange shipments.
Highlights include: May 1 is Labor Day, May 8th is Victory in World War II, May 25th is Ascencion (something to do with Jesus Christ). May 1st is a Monday, the 8th is a Monday and Ascencion (which has something to do with Jesus Christ) is on a Thursday. Being on a Thursday, this is a pretext for everyone to close down on Friday and have a four day weekend. This leads to Pentecôte, which is early in June and also falls on a Monday. That holiday commemorates something to do with The Holy Ghost.
Happy Holidays!
Don't Miss the Strange Cuvées: Freaks in a Bottle Dinner at Bette on April 24th!
Bette Restaurant is having a Strange Cuvées: Freaks in a Bottle!!!! dinner on April 24th.
Bette Restaurant is at 461 W. 23rd Street in Manhattan's fashionable Chelsea district.
There will be an evening of obscure wines from obscure regions. For only $75.00, you get to meet the staff of Bette, Byron Bates their sommellier, maybe Amy Sacco and various banal representatives from Louis/Dressner Selections.
There will be five courses and 8 different and thrilling wines from unknown spots.
Don't miss this fabulous event.
Call 212-366-0404 for a reservation.
New Producers Available from Louis/Dressner Selections!
It has been a busy time for us and we have been able to sign on some more producers to import. Some are still in the works and we will have some dramatic announcements in the weeks to come. New producers include:
Domaine Antoine Arena in Corsica
These wines are insanely delicious expressions of local grape varieties from one of the leaders of France's natural wine movement -- they cost a fortune but are worth every last penny. Insanely delicious is a precise term used by professional and seasoned tasters. What is remarkable here is the balance of acidity they still get here by working the land. They are now looking to make the whites somewhat drier than in the past, as the sons find they go better at meals. Arena has planted séléctions masale of vermintino in exceptional landscapes that cost a fortune to clear and cultivate. The results are in the bottle. Patrimonio rules!
Domaine Agnés and Réné Mosse in Anjou
Réné is one of the great bon vivants of France and his wines have a great joy and exhuberance. This is a fairly recent estate, the first vintage being 1999, but Réné has worked for estates like de Montille in Volnay and brings considerable experience and passion to his work. Réné toyed with non-sulfured bottling in the past, and often looked for a light oxidative style. His 2004s transcend this trendiness and have that little extra dose of stability to make the wines delicious and precise.
Philippe Pacalet Burgundies
Philippe has a small négoce house where he buys uniquely from plots of pinot fin, the old massale of Pinot Noir. The wines lack color, lack spoof, lack extraction and lack wood flavors. The wines actually taste different from AOC to AOC and are light, aromatic, tender, teasing, ethereal and magic. Just what you used to think Burgundy was about. Coincidentally, we recently learned that he is Marcel Lapierre's nephew!
Sophie et Pierre Lamandier Champagnes
We worked briefly with these vignerons about nine years ago, bringing in the Terre de Vertus bottling. We've remained friendly and I've remained a great fan. This is the Champagne I have enjoyed drinking over the past several years and we run into them every year at natural wine events in France. The Larmandiers do not believe there is such a thing as "grower champagne," because grower who does the same style of work as the larger houses is not better because they are smaller. These are wines are at no dosage or little dosage, but with fat richness and intensity. This is one of the few Champagne producers where you spend more time visiting the vines than you do in the cellars. Exemplary work all the way around. We are delighted to be working with them again.
Nathalie et Christian Chaussard of the Domaine le Briseau, Jasnières
Chaussard is one of the great, larger than life characters of the French natural wine scene. I know Christian for maybe 12 years now, back when he was ploughing his estate in Vouvray with a horse. At first, he thought the only way to go was to make demi-sec Vouvray. They he wanted Vouvray with a slight touch of oxidation, in the style of Robert Plageolles. It didn't work out, he went backrupt and closed shop. Chaussard and Nathalie were able to set-up camp once again in the Jasnières/Coteaux-du-Loir region and we have finally decided to work together. The wines are now a shade less wacky than in the past, with Chaussard doing slight filtrations or adding a bit of sulfur at the bottling if necessary. It took 12 years for us to import his wines and it has been worth the wait! Coincidently, Chaussard is also an oenologist!
I Clivi, Friuli
We've been discreetly selling these wines for the past few months in New York, but are now selling them around the country. A “Clivo” is a little hillside in Friulian dialect and Ferdinando Zanusso is organically working two Clivio to make uncharacteristically elegant wines from this region. After a career in Africa where he spent most of his time as a consultant to the United Nations in its logistical distribution of food to troubled regions, Ferdinando Zanusso returned to his wife’s native region of the Collio, where he had already fallen in love with the local wines. There, they settled into the life of contadini. The wines are raised in stainless steel without extended lees contact, and have a clarity and purity that is startling and long.
Daughter Accepted to Concordia University Art School BFA Program, Montréal
I have known my daughter now for nearly 18 years and have watched her develop into a forceful, intense and creative personality. Yesterday, she received a letter from Montréal accepting her to the Concordia University Studio Arts program. New York's loss will be Montréal's gain, unless she decides not to go to school and harvest at Pierre Breton and Thierry Puzelat's next fall. Congratulations are in order!
Attacked by a Flying Cat in Venice!
I was walking aimlessly around Venice on Monday night when I was attacked by a dangerous, flying cat.
There is nothing more compelling than Venice at night. You constantly seem lost and go from one small square, over one small bridge, onto another small square. Every street and every building seems more magnificent than the last street you crossed and after a while you have no idea where you are, where you're going and how you're going to wind up back at your hotel.
Our group passed through a narrow alley, where a stray cat was visibly shaken by our presence. All of a sudden, the cat sprinted toward us, up a wall, and ricocheted into my chest. It was a frontal, head-first attack. I was lucky that I was wearing a parka and that cat was not attacking me. But I screamed in mini-terror....it was like being attacked by a guided missile. Not that I've ever been attacked by a guided missile before.
I was able to get a quick shot of the cat in flight with my new T-Mobile SDA camera as he approached me.
Many people write me about wanting to "follow their passion" and become wine importers. But often, the wine road can be a harrowing experience.
Exciting Pictures from Vinitaly!
I just got back my roll of film from the CVS Pharmacy in my neighborhood. Here are some of the exciting pictures.
Over 4,000 wineries exhibit at the fabled Vinitaly. Pictured below are some the tasters from all over the world who flock to this event to taste some of the greatest wines in the world today:
One of the most visited spots at Vinitaly was the booth from Cantina Tollo, the fabled producer from Abruzzo:
The Cantina explains its mission well in its promotional literature:
Offering up a wine to the market is a way of communicating one’s own way of being and philosophy, and of transmitting an ancient culture through aromas, emotions and memories....Each bottle does not contain only wine, but thousands upon thousands of caresses, changing moods and frames of mind, the passing of the seasons, a year’s work and the patient wait for the final outcome.
Our group not only visited fabled Vinitaly, but we also toured around Italy visiting the vignerons we work with and looking for new vignerons to import.
There were many traffic jams and many twisting roads, but happily our car was equipped with a modern GPS system.
Pictured below are Michael Rhodes and Kris Hilton of Triage Wines from Portland and Seattle as they enjoy the beautiful Italian scenery, cuisine and wine:
Plane Landed after Last Minute Rerouting to Fort Lauderdale!
Due to inclement weather in New York City last night, our Lufthansa flight was rerouted to Fort Lauderdale and all the passengers had to sleep over at an Economy Lodge right next to the airport.
We finally boarded another flight at 8:42 am to New York, where once again I was sitting next to the young German girl doing crossword puzzles and listening to her IPOD.
Unfortunately, the IPOD batteries ran out when we were somewhere over North Carolina, right as she started playing a greatest hit compilation from Guns 'N Roses.
Its great to be back in New York! The second most beautiful city in the world!
Plane Landing on Time at 6:10!
The stewards have collected all the garbage and in a separate pass through the cabin are collecting all the headphones.
We are on our descent. Lufthansa is showing old Walt Disney cartoons as we approach New York. Most domestic carriers show old episodes of Friends.
There is some turbulence and the young German girl next to me has splashed on some perfume and is packing up her collection of German crossword puzzles.
Mey ears are getting congested and I am simulating yawning to try to pop open the ear passages.
There is an enormous line of people at the restrooms. This is the last chance to go to the bathrooms until after we clear customs.
Although we are on our descent, I can still keep the tray table folded out. This is useful for me, as it would be difficult to type this blog without the aid of the tray table.
My flight stewart just came around to get the final load of headphones. I think it is nice that they recycle headphones, but I'm never clear who rewraps them. Is it immigrant labor or are the unwrapped headphones shipped offshore?
The plane is beginning to shake alot. I hope we are going to land safely. It would be very bad for our business if something happened to the plane. Not only am I a passenger, but my partner Kevin McKenna is somewhere in the back of the plane.
Landing in an Hour!
We have all filled out our customs declarations. I never buy gifts for anybody, so I can legitimately declare $0.00. I also kept a distance from livestock and can legitimately declare that I have not been on a farm.
The airline staff just gave us hot towels and will soon be serving us a slight snack along with a complementary beverage of our choice. The young German girl next to me is listening to an IPOD and dancing in her seat.
There is a guy in first class who is the spitting image of Neal Rosenthal, the wine importer.
The snack choices are a pizza or a cheese paninni. I'm going with the pizza, even though the dancing German girl is very happy with the cheese paninni.
The First Wine Blog Written from an Intercontinental Flight!
Yet another first for this site..
I am on a Lufthansa flight from Munich to New York City and there is a wifi connection on board the aircraft.
So here it is, the first wine blog written from an airplane flight!
Unfortunately, I have nothing to say. It is particularly difficult toi type as the Grandmother in front of me has pushed her seat all the way back. There is not much leg room on this flight and despite our record breaking sales of Gringolino this year, I still cannot afford business class.
I keep kicking the back of her seat to wake her up and every so often get up and I forcefully shake her seat. I hope, vainly, that this will convince her to move her seat back to the upright position.
But she won't take a hint and plans to lean back and enjoy the flight. So, please forgive me for any typographical errors as it is very hard to move my fingers around the keyboard, which is being pushed into my stomach by the extended seat in front of me.
For those of you curious.....they are showing one of the Harry Hopper movies. I have not been watching.
Lunch was a horrible beef goulash which I could not eat.
In Venice, Returning to New York!
Vinitaly and all the anti-Vinitaly Tastings are finally over.
The last time I was in Venice was 22 years ago on a pre-honeymoon with Denyse Louis, who is currently my wife. Since then, we've had two children, built a wine importing company along with Kevin McKenna, and raised a dog. It has been an eventful time and it is wonderful to be back in the the most beautiful city in the world and to think of how rich my life has been with the people I love and the crazy, eccentric, hard-working and creative people I have met in the wine world.
Here in Italy, people ask me if I've learned to love Italian wine in the same way I love French wine. I have not because I do not love French wine, in fact I find I greatly dislike 98% of the French wine I taste. Here in Italy, I have disliked 99%, so maybe the extra 1% I like in France makes me a French wine enthusiast. But basically I don't believe in a French wine world or Italian or Spanish wine world or Portugese wine world.
There are great terroirs and great vignerons the world round. In the New World, it might take several more decades or centuries to figure it all out -- everything is so young and market driven. In France, where there is a long tradition of stubborn peasant farmers, there is a small but significant natural wine culture that wants to improve the work in the fields and in the cellar without falling into the trappings of antiquated traditionalism or modern spoofulation.
Italy is an ancient wine producer with great sites, a great diversity of grape varieties and some great vignerons. There are great wines here and the material for even more great wines. Now is the time for the serious to get rid of their clonal selections, fire their oenologues and agronomists, stop worshipping ridiculous wine journalists, get rid of yeasts and enzymes and rotofermentors, throw out some of the vast sulfur supplies, and move on to the serious work of making real wine. That movement has started here and will only grow deeper in the next decade. Personally, I can't wait.
A side point -- Vinitaly had an amazing number of veteranarians at each stand who had nothing at all to do with the wine trade. Are they also getting a cut of the Italian consultancy pie?
I have turned on the comments section of my blog. Feel free to leave ridiculous comments.
Franco Noussan -- The Next Big Thing from Italy!
You heard about it here first.
The next big thing from Italy will be the Mayolet from Franco Noussan in the Aosta Valley.
What a wine!
I'm sorry I have not written more about our trip to Italy. I have been too busy being in traffic jams. I hope to write more tonight.
Until then, be the first to reserve Franco Noussan's Mayolet at your local retailer!
Teobaldo Capellano
I had no idea that the Capellano family used to be enormous property owners in Barolo, but successively lost their land over several generations.
Today they have only three hectares, with a considerable portion planted in ungrafted root stock. The wines have incredible finesse and I could have spent the entire day just smelling their beautiful aromas. This is clean wine making, but traditional Barolo in the best sentse There's no petit verdot, no extracted color, ancient botti, but a purity of aromatics and flavor. There's even acidity.
This is not old-fashioned or rustic wine making, but a well thought out commitment to natural wine making in a modern and reasonsed sence. The cellar is clean and well organized and the vines are scrupuously maintained. With just over three hectares, Capellan can treat his vineyard as a private garden. For instance, he does not have a style of pruning -- Teobaldo believes that you make a decision vine by vine. This type of work is only possible on this level of micro-management.
Capellano is insanely charming and our Seattle distributor congratulated us for finding a vigneron even more eccentric than I am. While this might be the case, I don't expect to join me as an avid blogger.
I also learned today that in the area no one speaks about hectares to measure area surface but still speaks about "giornatas." A giornata was the amount of land a cow needed to graze per day and this remains the until for financial transactions, wine organization and viticultural small talk.
Other regions, like Burgundy, have similar terms. In Burgundy you talk about an "ouvrees," which is how much land one person could work per day. It is revealing that the measurement here is still cow grazing, because it is only in the past thirty years that wine became central to this area. Capellano said that years ago you had cows which you sold as livestock and some vines on the side that never made anyone much money but which supplied the family and friends with their daily consumption.
What a change!
Tomorrow, we're off to a series of interesting vineyards. I ate a fabulous dinner tonight where none of the wine came wrapped in aluminum wrapping. It is past 1 am and I hope I can still wake up tomorrow. I've heard rumors that my 19-year-old son is currently working in a vineyarad somewhere in Gavi and I'm hoping to run into him.
Touring through Italy is much different than touring in France. Here, you can stay at restaurants, even in the countryside, until ungodly hours. In France, they would toss you out and tell you that with the "charges sociale" and the 35 hour work week they can't afford to stay open late.
Maybe they're doing their patrons a favor.
Good night.
Milan!
We just landed in Milan this morning and I will be spending the next 10 days hoping Italian vignerons speak English or French.
I just got back from a Milan Jeebus. Jeebus is what local winelovers call a wine gathering at a restaurant where you open 25 bottles and do not pay an additional tip to the servers. The other odd local custom is that at a Milan Jeebus they serve all the wines wrapped in aluminum wrapping. You have to talk about the wine and guess what you are tasting before the Aluminum wrapping is peeled off.
I feared that the other local custom would be that all the food at the restaurant would be served blind, but this was not the case. I do know that there is a restaurant in Paris which serves food in the darkness, as an experiment in fine dining and sensory deprivation. Here in Milan, they only apply this method to wine and have not yet caught up with the Parisians. I could still see the dishes as they arrived at the table, surrounded by great wines wrapped in aluminum foil.
The other odd thing about Milan is that they are trying to cash-in on the all the DaVinci Code frenzy. There are exhibits and events about DaVinci and his code everywhere you turn. This is just like the Europeans -- an American writes a great book and they rush in to rip it off and make money for themselves!
Aren't there international copyright protections?