The Weekly Word of Vino, Italian Wine & Spirits

In This Issue:

June 28, 2006

•	Taurasi 2000 has arrived!

•	Wine Opinion: Do the Math...

•	Wine Tastings: More Wines of Summer...

•	Dispatch from Dogliani

•	Wine of the Week: Teroldego Rotaliano 2004 Foradori

Taurasi 2000 has arrived!

Piero Mastroberardino at Vino Although he had to cancel his in-store tasting at the last minute, Piero Mastroberardino (pictured right) did lead a guided tasting of Taurasi for wine professionals and journalists earlier this week. The vertical tasting included wines going back to 1968 (see Charles' notes from the event below). As Charles points out below, the tasting demonstrated the longevity of Mastroberardino's wines and the wisdom in the winery's approach to winemaking. The 2000 Taurasi has arrived!!! Next week's in-store tasting (Thursday and Friday) will feature a number of new arrivals from Mastroberardino, including the 2000 Taurasi. Don't miss this opportunity to taste the new vintage of Taurasi, a wine that is sure to show well for 20 and even 30 years. Supplies are extremely limited. Chianti Tasting July 20 Mark your calendars: on Thursday July 20, Vino will be hosting a guided tasting of 10 Chiantis, including the 1993 Badia a Coltibuono and the 1982 declassified Chianti from Grato Grati. Enzo Mecella Large Format Lastly, later this summer, we will taste the newly arrived three-liter and magnum format Rosso Conero from Enzo Mecella (1993 and 1997). While many of the bottles have already been pre-ordered, there are still some available. Please email contact@vinosite.com to reserve.

Wine Tastings: More Wines of Summer...

Thurday and Friday, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Blanc de Morgex et de La Salle 2005 Morgex et de La Salle New! The motto of the Morgex et de La Salle winery is i vini piu' alti d'Europa, "Europe's highest wines." Indeed, the Prie' Blanc (a variety found exclusively in the Valle d'Aosta) used for its Blanc de Morgex et de La Salleare grown at extreme elevation in the Alpine region of the Valle d'Aosta (where French and Italian are spoken). The resulting wines are crisp and fresh, very approachable and fruity, perfect for hot summer months. Lagrein Rosato Kretzner 2005 Muri-Gries New! Vinification at the Muri-Gries winery is overseen by Dr. Benno Malfer, the Abbot of the Muri-Gries Monastery in South Tirol, where Benedictine monks continue to produce wines in the same tradition as the order's founder who wrote of the importance of winemaking more than 1,500 years ago. While the Lagrein grape variety is generally blended with Schiava, the clone Lagrein Kretzer (pictured right) is tradtionally vinified on its own. This fresh, bright rosato is created by limiting contact with the skins during maceration. The resulting wine is rich in flavor but light in the mouth. Il Mimo Nebbiolo Rosato 2005 Cantalupo One of our favorite wines, Il Mimo is made from 100% Nebbiolo. It's always great to see people taste the wine for the first time: although light in color, this rose' is a complex and intensely flavored wine. The name mimo or "mime" is a reference to an ancient Roman mask that was discovered in an excavation not far from the vineyard site where the grapes are grown for this extraordinary wine. Donnas Rouge 2002 Caves Cooperatives de Donnas New! The main grape used in Donnas Rouge is Picotendro Nebbiolo, a particular clone that produces grapes markedly smaller than the clones typically used in Piemonte. Because of the greater ratio of skin to pulp, the resulting wine is darker in color and heavier in the mouth. Up to 15% of Freisa and Neyret grapes are also added to the blend depending on the vintage. Founded in 1971, the Caves de Donnas winery is also home to a Museum of Wine that documents the great tradition of winemaking in the Valle d'Aosta. Teroldego Rotaliano 2004 Foradori Wine of the Week - 10% Off See tasting notes below. For more info, email us at contact@vinosite.com.

Wine of the Week: Teroldego Rotaliano 2004 Foradori

A truly avant-garde winemaker, the young Elisabetta Fordadori (pictured right) is often praised for her innovative use of "biodiversity" in the vineyard: by planting different grape varieties at the same growing site, she obtains intensely flavored and fragrant fruit. Her Teroldego Rotaliano is a 100% Teroldego blended from her top growing sites in the Campo Rotaliano. The Campo is a low-lying plain surrounded by the Alps where cool summer evenings and the pebbly alluvial-era subsoil create the ideal conditions for rich, bold, long-lived red wines. Teroldego is believed to be a relative of Syrah and it produces a rich, long-lived wine with a characteristic herbaceous note. Get 10% off this week only at Vino. Send an email to contact@vinosite.com to order (supplies are limited).

Wine Opinion: Do the Math...

On Monday I attended a vertical tasting of Mastroberardino Taurasi at the Vinoteca, including the 1968, 1977, 1980, 1987, 1997, 1999, and the newly released 2000. I was happy to see that the wines were drinking very well and Piero Mastroberardino made a wonderful presentation. I have been a fan of these wines for many years and remember meeting Antonio Mastroberardino at a tasting held by Philip di Belardino where Antonio was speaking Italian and Philip was translating. (For those of you who don't know, Philip is the number-one man at Banfi these days but back then he was the importer of Mastrobernardino and did more than anyone else to promote these wines.) At that tasting, we had the 1968, 1977, and - if memory serves me - the 1980 was the current vintage. For many years, Carlo Mastroberardino (Piero's brother) would come to America to promote the wines. My wife and myself became very friendly with him and we would visit him at the winery in Atripalda (in the province of Avellino). Carlo would always take us to a wonderful restaurant where we would have the best mozzarella di bufala. In 2003, I had dinner with my wife and Nicola in the garden at I Trulli and I opened my last bottle of the 1968. Nicola, who is impossible to please, said that it was possibly the best wine he had ever tasted. In my opinion, these wines have more than withstood the test of time: even today, as the tasting yesterday proved, these wines continue to show very, very well. The late Shelly and Pauline Wasserman, in his excellent book The Noble Red Wines of Italy, calls Mastroberardino the greatest producer in the zone and if you see Shelly's notes, he says that these wines will last a very long time and the book was out of print by 1990. What I’m trying to say is that my good friend Shelly predicted that these wines would last and indeed they have. As we examined the corks from the bottles during the tasting, Piero pointed out - rightly - that they had been very consistent in the selection and quality of the corks. "These wines," he said, "were made by people who wanted future generations to enjoy them," and in my opinion they have succeeded. Today, winemakers tell you, "drink my wine, ready or not." They want you to drink the wine even though it is not ready and not balanced. Mastroberardino is one of the few wineries that maintains standards based not solely on financial concerns. As Piero pointed out, he represents the tenth generation of winemakers in his family. The current vintage of Mastroberadino's Taurasi is the 2000. In my opinion, this wine will last for many years. Do yourself a favor, come to the tasting a week from Thursday and Friday, taste the wine, and you will see that this is a wine that you can drink twenty years from now. Twenty years from the 2000 will only be twenty-six years old. The 1968 is thirty-eight years old and is still drinking great. Do the math… - Charles Scicolone, Wine Director, I Trulli and Vino Charles would love to hear from you. Please email your questions or comments to charles@vinosite.com.

Dispatch from Dogliani

General Manager of I Trulli and Vino Jim Hutchinson is currently traveling in Italy. The following is the first in a series of his reports from the road. I had the pleasure of visiting Sandro Barosi (pictured right) a week ago at Cascina Corte, his small estate nestled in a shallow saddle at the top of Dogliani’s famous San Luigi hill. Sandro did me the great favor in the early fall of 2003 of letting me help him pick his Dolcetto and assist in the vinification process. It was an experience that added a lot to my knowledge of wine and one that formed a friendship that I hope will extend long into the future. This year's visit to the farm was particularly exciting because Sandro only recently finished building his new cellar. The project, an important phase in the gut renovation of a beautiful old farmhouse (pictured right) that will house an inn and restaurant as well as Sandro’s family, marked a significant milestone in Sandro’s development as a winemaker. He is fairly new to the game. He and his wife Amalia bought the place six years ago from a family that sold their grapes to the local cooperative and began to refurbish the vineyards and tackle the exhausting task of turning back the effects that decades of neglect had on the property. Sandro sought help from the well-known producer and consultant Beppe Caviola who had recently relocated from Montelupo Albese to a renovated manor at the edge of the village of Dogliani. Caviola rented Sandro space in his cellar and guided him through Cascina Corte's first vintages. Now, with his own facility, Sandro can step back and say that his is indeed a going concern. The new cellar consists of two concrete boxes built into the hill that abutted the rear of the old building. The larger of the two rooms contains the vinification equipment while the smaller houses the areas set aside for barrel aging and bottling. A small room that was the farm’s cellar in the original layout has been salvaged and refitted for tasting. If Sandro and his architect have it their way the cellar will disappear from outside view under the reconstructed barn. Standing in the cantina on a warm summer Sunday we tasted 2005 Dolcetto out of brand-new vats. Sandro's two Dolcettos, the regular and the cru Vigna Pirochetta can be described as contemporary in style. They are made without oak aging and its resulting aromatic and textural marks, a refreshing and representative aspect of a movement in Dogliani that has produced wide acclaim and a freshly minted DOCG designation. Top Dogliani producers including Marziano Abbona, Pecchenino and Chionetti pioneered a style that took well-situated, fully-ripened, mature-vine Dolcetto and vinified it to extract all of the fruit's potential. The resulting wines are tannic, full-bodied and concentrated, all things that many wine guides will tell you Dolcetto is not. Sandro's 2005 versions show his continued growth as a winemaker. They are as interesting aromatically as ever but have lost some of the rugged tannins that gave people pause in past vintages. Vino and I Trulli both currently carry Cascina Corte’s 2004 regular and Vigna Pirochetta and they are both drinking well. - Jim Hutchinson, General Manager, I Trulli and Vino Jim would love to hear from you. Please email your comments to jim@vinosite.com.