Please join
us this Friday (5:30-7:30) and Saturday (4:30-6:30) for our FREE weekly
tastings. This week, Charles and the Vino staff will be pouring wines from
the Veneto.
For more information on this and other events at Vino, please email events@vinosite.com.
It is almost that time of year again when we make our annual pilgrimage to
the wine fair in Verona,
Vinitaly. It is the largest wine fair in the world and this year we are all
going, Nicola, Jim Hutchinson (our Operations Manager), Jeremy Parzen (our
Marketing Director), and myself.
The fair this year takes place the last week of March and the weather is
always rainy and cold. It has a way of coming quicker than you think and
since we are going to do wines of the Veneto this week for our weekly
tasting, I thought that we could discuss Veneto wines but also the fair.
When we come back in April, we will give you an update on the fair and this
time, from three or four different points of view.
Since the wine fair takes place in Verona, it
is easy, if one wants, to take some time off from
the fair and visit some of the winemakers in the Veneto. Part of the problem is that most
of them are at the fair. However, some of them have special events and will
send a bus to pick you up so you can spend a pleasant afternoon or evening at
the winery tasting the wines and eating the local food.
One year at the fair, we were very pleased with the wines from Le Ragose, a winery that makes excellent Amarone and
Valpolicella Classico. Unfortunately, they were
being brought into the United
States by another company. After some
negotiations, they agreed to make our own private label using their family
name, Galli. All went well and the wines were on
our shelves and selling. Then one day, out of the blue, Nicola received a
letter from an attorney representing the Gallo winery of California. The letter stated that the
name Galli was "too close" to the name
Gallo and, therefore, it stated, that Nicola had to "cease and
desist" selling the wine. Not wanting to endure the wrath of the great
wine company of the west, Nicola decided to contact the Galli
family and tell them the problem. They responded by making a new label and
now the wine is called Capitel Sant'Eugenio.
It's named after a lovely small chapel, devoted to Sant'Eugenio
(St. Eugene), which lies on the Galli family
estate.
Even though the wines have gone through three different labels, they are
great wines, having all the characteristics of Amarone and Valpolicella Classico. These are traditional-style aged in large botti, the old oak casks that we at Vino prefer
over new barrique. The botti give you all
the big luscious flavor or Amarone but at the same time you still have the
good acidity and a wine that can go with food. Last year, we drank Capitel Sant'Eugenio Amarone by
the Galli for Thanksgiving.
In the immortal words of the great bard Shakespeare, who, although he never
traveled to Italy,
knew it well and loved the country: "an Amarone by any other
name..." But don't tell the Gallo family.
--Charles Scicolone, Wine Director, I Trulli and Vino
Charles would love to hear from you: please email him at charles@vinosite.com.
