Living Venice

Friuli with the Red Dress On

Feb 15, 2010 Wine for all & all for wine

Friuli is famous for its spectacular whites. In fact, anytime anyone tells me they don’t really care for white wine, my response is usually “Yes, you do,” while handing them a Tocai or Ribolla or Chardonnay or Malvasia or a blend from Isonzo or Collio or the Colli Orientali. There is a pause, and then: “Oh, this is good.”

Another convert.

Forget these magnificent whites for the moment, though. At this upcoming tasting it’s Friuli’s reds that will take center stage:

• Sunday, February 21
• 10 am – 7 pm
• Hotel Monaco e Gran Canal
• Entrance: €10

There you’ll find over fifty producers offering a wide variety of rich reds. Those created from familiar varieties like Merlot and Cabernet (Franc and Sauvignon) stand alongside others with less recognizable names, but highly recommended for conducting research: Schioppettino, Marzemino, Refosco, Terrano, maybe even a Tazzelenghe or Pignolo.

Another reason to attend: a selection of specialty foods will be offered by the restaurant Il Ridotto dell’Acciugheta.

Even if you’re not in Venice at the moment, do make sure to check on wine events during your stay…they’re always fun, inexpensive, and offer an excellent opportunity to taste many wines you’ll never find back home.

Tags: red wine, venice, vino, wine, wine tasting

Tenuta Sella Wines at the Bistrot de Venise

Nov 12, 2009 Events & Offerings, Wine for all & all for wine

Sorry for the last minute announcement, but here’s the info, adapted from the Bistrot’s own description. There is a free tasting today, but these rare wines will also be offered at a special price for the next two weeks as well. If you’re in town and are any sort of a wine enthusiast, it’s a definite Don’t Miss. Location and map link are below.

GREAT WINES OF NORTHERN PIEDMONT AT THE BISTROT
TWO WEEKS WITH THE HISTORICAL “SELLA” ESTATES

Thursday, November 12th, 2009
4.00 p.m. – free admission

With the joint aim of promoting “Venice: Wine Capital” and to spread awareness and encourage tasting of their excellent, typical qualities, for two weeks the Bar and Restaurant of the Bistrot will be offering the wines of Northern Piedmont at a “flat rate” We invite you stop by and take advantage of this tasting opportunity.

The Sella family has been producing wine in the Lessona DOC area since 1671, making it one of the oldest Italian wineries still in operation. La Tenuta Sella has been dedicated to small-scale, high-quality production since its inception, and maintains its original artisan size still today. (Some wines are produced from high-quality, extremely low yield vines of over 80 years of age, for example.)

Sella is a producer of Lessona and Bramaterra DOC wines from a delimited area located about halfway between Torino and Milano, inching up toward the lakes and the Alps – far north of their more widely known Nebbiolo relations of Barolo and Barbaresco. This is instead the western part of a ring of extremely fine denominations that continue in the neighbouring Gattinara, Ghemme, and Boca.

Northern Piedmont is one of the three classic areas of Nebbiolo (called Spanna in this area, just to keep us confused.), along with Langa and Valtellina. Here the noble Nebbiolo vine is never monovarietal, but always alternated with rows of Vespolina, Croatina or Uva Rara varietals. For this reason, the Lessona and Bramaterra are made with a predominant base of Nebbiolo and lower percentages of these ancient local vines.

(If you spot a wine called “I Porfidi,” make sure not to pass it up…)

Bravo Le Bistrot!

Presentation by Gioacchino Sella and the oenologist Cristiano Garella
Coordinators: Giovanni Vazzoler and Sergio Fragiacomo
With the support of AIS, the Italian Wine Sommeliers’ Association – Venice

Le Bistro de Venise

San Marco
Calle dei Fabbri 4685

Located halfway between
Campo San Luca and the
Piazza San Marco

Be sure to check their website for on-going event information at the Bistrot.

Tags: wine for all & all for wine

Taste Wines of the Colli Euganei – Gratis

Oct 13, 2009 Events & Offerings, Wine for all & all for wine

This is what one might refer to as un’occasione. In an effort to let enthusiasts get a real sense of the wines produced in thsi Veneto zona DOC, fifteen producers from the Colli Euganei are gathering in the beautiful Scuola Grande San Giovanni Evangelista (c. 1251) next Monday afternoon. If you’re in town, and you’re at all interested in wine, please do stop by.

What to expect?

The Colli (hills) Euganei region lies south and just east of Padova, and is formed roughly by a triangle of the three towns of Vo, Torreglia, and Arqua Petrarca (a lovely stop if your winding your way through the Veneto, by the way). The wines are young, a mix of spumante and still, red and white, dry and sweet. The whites are pleasing, fresh, and aromatic; the reds structured but not imposing. You’ll find varietals you know, like Chardonnay, Riesling (Italico), Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and others you may be less familiar with:

• Pinello (recent white, fresh, dry, still or spumante)
• Serprino (similar to Prosecco)
• Tocai Italico
• Cabernet Franc

The Bianco DOC may consist of any or all of the white varietals in specified percentages; the Rosso DOC will combine reds that may even include Barbera. Look for the fresh spumanti like  Fior d’Arancio, a famed moscato giallo, whose sweetness is balanced by a fresh acidity and an exploding bouquet, and the rarer Moscato Rosso di Parenzo, a red aromatic that you must try should it be offered.

You may also find less familiar ways of vinifying these wines, but do adventure there as well: some of the passiti, dessert wines fermented from what might be termed as raisins, with round concentrated fruit balanced by higher alcohol, yet still-fresh acidity.

The producers you’ll find are:

• Alla Costiera
• Ca’ Lustra
• Ca’ Orologio
• Castello di Lispida
• Colle Mattara
• Conte Emo Capodilista – La Montecchia
• Il Filò delle Vigne
• Il Mottolo
• Monteforche
• Montegrande
• Sengiari
• Vignalta
• Vigna Roda
• Vignale di Cecilia e Villa Sceriman

I do hope you can make it. Salute!

Tags: wine for all & all for wine

Pop the Prosecco! (Just don’t call it Champagne.)

Aug 29, 2009 Eating & Drinking Venice, Wine for all & all for wine

“Oh, it’s like Champagne!” is the inevitable, completely innocent response to almost anyone’s first sip of Prosecco, the lively, loveable libation from the Veneto, now known and enjoyed worldwide.* Unless you’re the sort of person who likes giving other people fits, however, try to avoid making this comment within earshot of someone who actually produces Champagne. Reactions can range from mildly indignant to downright apoplectic.

Pourquoi, you ask? Is it because all Champagne producers are snobs? Because they don’t like Italy? Because they don’t like you?

It’s none of the above, of course. It’s more because first, you’re talking about their life’s work; then, they realize that for whatever reason, you have not (yet) drunk enough sparkling wine to understand that although Prosecco bubbles like Champagne and is perfectly palatable and pleasing…the resemblance, mon cher, ends there.

Don’t feel bad. La Difference between Prosecco and Champagne (or the Italian metodo classico produced the same way) is obvious to no one who hasn’t either grown up with wine or made an effort to get to know it better. However, it’s fun to know, a good thing to understand, will contribute to your own enjoyment of both bubblies, and make it easier to choose which might be appropriate for a particular occasion.

I give up. Why isn’t Prosecco like Champagne?

The obvious reason is because it’s not made in Champagne, France. Then, Prosecco wine is made from the grape Prosecco, and not from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, and/or any of the other varietals used in Champagne, none of which are Prosecco. Most importantly, however: these sparklers are produced using two completely different methods: one short and efficient, the other long, complicated and more labor intensive. The results are two very different sparklers, each to be enjoyed and appreciated for its own merits.

See if the following, somewhat over-simplified explanation helps clarify things a bit.

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble.

For both types, we’ll start with a still wine that’s highly acidic, created especially to be undergo a second, induced fermentation.

In one method, a yeast/sugar concoction is added to the still wine stored in large stainless steel tanks, or vats. These tanks are sealed for the second fermentation, however, trapping the resulting carbonation in the wine. It will remain in the vats for three months or more (depending on a variety of factors), and remian under pressure continually even as it is bottled. The resulting spumante will be ready for consumption from about six to twelve months later.

In the second method, the specially formulated mixture is again added to a still wine. It will not remain in vats, however, but will be bottled and capped (not yet corked) for the second fermentation which will take place inside each individual bottle. For the next eighteen to thirty-six months, the bottles are regularly rotated (manually or mechanically) and gradually up-ended, shuttling the spent yeast (the lees) down into the cap in the process. At the end of this refining process, the neck is flash frozen, the cap is removed, and the now-solid lees pop from the pressure. The bottle is immediately topped off, corked, and packaged for retail — although it will still be a minimum of six months before it should be drunk (it’s recovering from the shock, you see). Sparkling wines produced this way also have a much longer “shelf life.”

Which is which, then?

The first method is called Charmat, or Martinotti after the men who created/established the process; the second, champagnoise – or in Italy, metodo classico, the classic method. The choice of method depends on a multitude of factors, not the least of which is the varietal itself; in any case there is no shortage of bollicine, or spumanti (the term that refers to any sparkling wine), both established and innovative, being brought to life from regional varietals throughout the country.

This is very good news, and offers us the opportunity to become quite adventurous in our sparkling explorations. Do your own taste tests. The next time you have a dinner party, have the local wine expert help you select both a Prosecco (Foss Marai, a Cartizze, perhaps?) or other “Charmat” along with an Italian metodo classico: a Lombardia Gatti Franciacorta, a Piedmont Gavi Soldati di Scolca, a Balter from Trentino. As you sip each, see what you find different…and the same…between them, in the visual, the nose, and in the taste. The goal is not to look for which method is “better;” but instead to identify the distinctive qualities of each — with the enjoyment of the wines, the meal, and the company taking priority always, of course!

The truth is, Prosecco will always remind us of Champagne…and it’s fine to say so. But now, the next time you head for your local enoteca to choose a sparkler, you’ll have no problem chatting up the wine expert and selecting just the right sparkler for the occasion. And remember, it’s not just for New Year’s anymore…

Salut!

___

* Prosecco has also become popular enough to be ripped off, evidently: there are reports that only one in ten versions of wine sold as Prosecco is produced in Italy – e questo non si fa, that will simply not do. To control this menace, as of the 2009 harvest, the Prosecco produced under either of two new DOCG classifications

• Prosecco Conegliano-Valdobbiadene
• Prosecco Montello-Colli Asolani

or under the larger Prosecco DOC zone will guarantee you of its rightful Veneto origin. To complicate things further, the Prosecco varietal will now be called Glera…but that’s a whole other post…

___

photo credit, last image: Luca Fabbian.

Tags: champagne, prosecco, sparkling wine, wine, wine education, wine for all & all for wine

Celebrating the wines of La Tuscia

Aug 9, 2009 Beyond Venice, Events & Offerings, Wine for all & all for wine

La Tuscia Viterbese refers to the area surrounding Viterbo where the Etruscans once reigned; today’s communities celebrate their regional DOC and IGT wines with Feste del Vino della Tuscia. They began in late July, but if you’re in the area you still have until the 16th of August to enjoy some of these interesting, and likely lesser known wines along with local fare in a festive atmosphere, al fresco.

The festivals take place in the towns named for the DOCs they celebrate. These wines are light, refreshing and flavorful, with whites vinified from varietals like Aleatico, Trebbiano, Malvasia (more than one type of each), the native Greco, Grechetto; red varietals include Sangiovese, Montepulciano (the grape), Ciliegiolo, and more.

MONTEFIASCONE:
Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone is a blend of three white varietals . It’s a light and refreshing, vinified in a variety of version from dry to sparkling (also dry). The name (Latin for “It is,” or perhaps Italian for “Ecco”) has a delightful history, read all about it in the last paragraph at LaTuscia.com.

VIGNANELLO
Vignanello is a town and a DOC, produced in the area just east of it. There are four versions are Bianco (one or two Trebbiano varietals, and two different Malvasia), Greco (which is the varietal), Rosso (Sangiovese, Ciliegiolo, maybe more), and Rosato (same varietals as the Rosso). You might also find the Greco in a sparkling version, and the Bianco superiore, or at a higher alcohol level due to a particularly mature vintage or other factors.

GRADOLI (only Friday, August 14)
This DOC zone Aleatico di Gradoli is located in the area just north of the Lago di Bolsena. It’s vinified from the Aleatico varietal. Don’t let the “dessert” category throw you however: although it’s not dry, it’s sweetness is balanced, fresh, and certainly worth trying.

You may also spot Tarquinia, Colli Etruschi Viterbesi (a larger DOC zone extending north and south of Viterbo), and even Orvieto, whose zone is shared with Umbria, not to mention IGTs (still regional with fewer restrictions than a DOC wine) such as Lazio, Colli Cimini, and Civitella d’Agliano.

The town festivals include tastings of both wines and local fare, music, wine carriage processions and even a neighborhood palio competition, this Monday night is the Calici di Stelle with tastings under San Lorenzo’s falling stars.

Most events take place in the evening, but also check with any of the tourist offices of the town nearest you for details, don’t to hesitate to call 334 284 2216.

www.tusciaviterbese.it
www.cittadimontefiascone.it
www.prolocovignanello.it (ANSA)
www.viviviterbo.it

Tags: Italy, Lazio, Tuscia, Viterbo, wine, wine festivals, wine for all & all for wine, wine tasting