Do Bianchi Wine Selections

Above: I’ll be working the floor at Sotto in Los Angeles on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, doing my sommelier thang… it’s super fun! Please come and see me and enjoy the awesome pizza (and if you want a Southern Italian Six-Pack, you can pick it up at the restaurant… just make sure to order before tomorrow evening). I hope to see you!

BREAKING NEWS: SOUTHERN ITALIAN SIX-PACK UPGRADE!

The distributor of the Benanti accidentally sent me the wrong wine for the Southern Italian Six-Pack (see my notes below) and as a result the 2007 Etna Rosso has been upgraded to one of the winery’s flagship wines: the 2005 Nerello Mascalese. And the best part? THE PRICE IS THE SAME! See my notes below. Wines will ship a week from today.

SOUTHERN ITALIAN SIX-PACK

Villa Matilde 2009 Falanghina
Benanti 2008 Etna Bianco Bianco di Caselle
Benanti 2007 Etna Rosso Rosso di Verzella
Benanti 2005 Nerello Mascalese
Gulfi 2009 Cerasuolo di Vittoria
Terre di Balbia 2009 Balbium Rosso
Pietracupa 2007 Quirico

$121 (plus tax, shipping, and handling if applicable)

Free delivery for San Diego residents.
Pick up available for Los Angeles Residents.

TO ORDER, SEND ME AN EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE.

This year has already been “my year in Southern Italian wine”: in February, I visited Puglia for the first time; I authored a Southern Italian wine list for my friends at Sotto in Los Angeles; next month I’m leading and seminar and tasting of Southern Italian wines at the Atlanta Food & Wine festival; and in early June I’m heading back to Puglia to sit as a judge in a native grape variety competition. (I’ll be working the floor at Sotto, btw, Weds.-Thurs., May 4-5, so please come by and taste with me and let me pour you some wine!)

Southern Italian wine is SEXY: there are more interesting wines coming out of Southern Italy than ever before, the fine wine world is buzzing about the caliber and quality of the wines to be produced there (if one more person compares Mt. Etna to Burgundy, I’m gonna heave!), and Southern Italian wines continue to represent the greatest value for fine wine in the world today (there is no doubt in my mind about this).

All of the wines in the current offering (except for the Benanti) are currently featured on the list at Sotto (at the restaurant, we try to carry only one label from each producer and so in Benanti’s case, it’s one of the winery’s top bottlings of 100% Nerello Mascaelese). Please see my notes below and I know that when you taste these wines, you will be blown away — as I am — by their originality, their food-friendliness and downright deliciousness, and the incredible value (about $20 average bottle cost).

Villa Matilde 2009 Falanghina

Acidity! (Let me say it one more time) ACIDITY! This wine has the zing and the pop that Tracie P and I look for in wines that we drink at home. Falanghina has been cultivated in Campania since antiquity (a favorite of the 1st century Romans, btw) and this clean, bright wine is very true to its variety. White stone fruit, bright acidity… I love it and could drink it every day.

Benanti 2008 Etna Bianco Bianco di Caselle

I first tasted the wines of Benanti from Mt. Etna (Sicily) about 6 years ago in New York. Today, Mt. Etna has become one of the sexiest places on earth for fine wine. Benanti’s wines are all about elegance, focus, and clarity… This is a 100% Carricante (white) grown on the high slopes of Mt. Etna (some of the highest growing zones in Europe), where the volcanic soils impart an incredibly delicious minerality — I would even say saltiness — to the wines.

Above: One of my favorite posts over at the blog this year was “My Olive Bread Gas Station Epiphany,” which took place in Puglia.

Benanti 2007 Etna Rosso Rosso di Verzella

A 100% Nerello Mascalese. Again, look for wonderful minerality here, extreme focus and elegance, and one of the best red wines I’ve tasted in 2011.

Benanti 2005 Nerello Mascalese

As I mentioned above, I received this wine because the distributor inadvertently sent it to me but charged me the same price as for the entry-level red by Benanti. I’ve been pouring this wine at Sotto since the restaurant first opened and it is simply ONE OF THE MOST STUNNING RED WINES I have tasted this year: elegant, lithe yet powerful, volcanic soil and meaty flavors matched by red and black fruit… An incredible value (thanks to the distributor’s screwup!).

Gulfi 2009 Cerasuolo di Vittoria

This wine is the staff favorite and top seller at Sotto. A blend of Nero d’Avola (which imparts tannic structure) and Frappato (which balances the former with red and berry fruit flavors), there is no better way to describe this wine than YUMMY! It’s got that wonderful lightness of body and just enough tannin to make it my favorite red wine to pair with seafood (one of the reasons it’s so popular at Sotto). Cerasuolo di Vittoria is made in the township of Vittoria in the province of Ragusa in the southeast of Sicily.

Terre di Balbia 2009 Balbium Rosso

This wine is made from 100% Magliocco on the Calabrian estate where the Venica family raises its olive oil. This is perhaps the most original and striking wine I’ve tasted in 2011. Gently tannic and with generous fruit, this wine has a mouthfeel and weight to it that you need to experience to full wrap your mind around it. It has a wonderful chewiness and a brightness that delightfully surprised me. As with the family’s Friulian estate, Giampaolo’s wines are all about freshness and clean fruit. Here earth and fruit come together in a way that I know will surprise and thrill you. We do it by the glass at Sotto and we can’t keep it in stock!

Pietracupa 2007 Quirico

This is a 100% Aglianico from Avellino — the town of Paternopoli to be exact, from the San Quirico neighborhood (hence the name, after the 4th century Christian martyr Quiricus). I didn’t want this six-pack to get too expensive but I wanted to make sure there was an Aglianico in it and this wine is another staff favorite at Sotto. It’s vinified in a lighter style, with shorter maceration time, thus making it less tannic than the winery’s Taurasi (one of the greatest expressions of Aglianico). I love the approachability and the freshness of this wine and it’s my go-to pairing for the heavier meat dishes at the restaurant. Great stuff… I know you will love it as much as I do!

SOUTHERN ITALIAN SIX-PACK

Villa Matilde 2009 Falanghina
Benanti 2008 Etna Bianco Bianco di Caselle
Benanti 2007 Etna Rosso Rosso di Verzella
Gulfi 2009 Cerasuolo di Vittoria
Terre di Balbia 2009 Balbium Rosso
Pietracupa 2007 Quirico

$121 (plus tax, shipping, and handling if applicable)

Free delivery for San Diego residents.
Pick up available for Los Angeles Residents.

TO ORDER, SEND ME AN EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE.

Above: Giampaolo Venica has become a good friend. When we’re not talking about wine, we talk about Pasolini and his legacy in Friuli (where Giampaolo and his family live). His Terre di Balbia is 100% Magliocco raised in Calabria (how about that, wine geeks?), one of my favorite wines of 2011. See notes below. I’ve just confirmed that he and I are going to be hosting a dinner at Sotto in Los Angeles on Weds. June 22.

SOUTHERN ITALIAN SIX-PACK

Villa Matilde 2009 Falanghina
Benanti 2008 Etna Bianco Bianco di Caselle
Benanti 2007 Etna Rosso Rosso di Verzella
Gulfi 2009 Cerasuolo di Vittoria
Terre di Balbia 2009 Balbium Rosso
Pietracupa 2007 Quirico

$121 (plus tax, shipping, and handling if applicable)

Free delivery for San Diego residents.
Pick up available for Los Angeles Residents.

TO ORDER, SEND ME AN EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE.

This year has already been “my year in Southern Italian wine”: in February, I visited Puglia for the first time; I authored a Southern Italian wine list for my friends at Sotto in Los Angeles; next month I’m leading and seminar and tasting of Southern Italian wines at the Atlanta Food & Wine festival; and in early June I’m heading back to Puglia to sit as a judge in a native grape variety competition. (I’ll be working the floor at Sotto, btw, Weds.-Thurs., May 4-5, so please come by and taste with me and let me pour you some wine!)

Southern Italian wine is SEXY: there are more interesting wines coming out of Southern Italy than ever before, the fine wine world is buzzing about the caliber and quality of the wines to be produced there (if one more person compares Mt. Etna to Burgundy, I’m gonna heave!), and Southern Italian wines continue to represent the greatest value for fine wine in the world today (there is no doubt in my mind about this).

All of the wines in the current offering (except for the Benanti) are currently featured on the list at Sotto (at the restaurant, we try to carry only one label from each producer and so in Benanti’s case, it’s one of the winery’s top bottlings of 100% Nerello Mascaelese). Please see my notes below and I know that when you taste these wines, you will be blown away — as I am — by their originality, their food-friendliness and downright deliciousness, and the incredible value (about $20 average bottle cost).

Villa Matilde 2009 Falanghina

Acidity! (Let me say it one more time) ACIDITY! This wine has the zing and the pop that Tracie P and I look for in wines that we drink at home. Falanghina has been cultivated in Campania since antiquity (a favorite of the 1st century Romans, btw) and this clean, bright wine is very true to its variety. White stone fruit, bright acidity… I love it and could drink it every day.

Benanti 2008 Etna Bianco Bianco di Caselle

I first tasted the wines of Benanti from Mt. Etna (Sicily) about 6 years ago in New York. Today, Mt. Etna has become one of the sexiest places on earth for fine wine. Benanti’s wines are all about elegance, focus, and clarity… This is a 100% Carricante (white) grown on the high slopes of Mt. Etna (some of the highest growing zones in Europe), where the volcanic soils impart an incredibly delicious minerality — I would even say saltiness — to the wines.

Above: One of my favorite posts over at the blog this year was “My Olive Bread Gas Station Epiphany,” which took place in Puglia.

Benanti 2007 Etna Rosso Rosso di Verzella

A 100% Nerello Mascalese. Again, look for wonderful minerality here, extreme focus and elegance, and one of the best red wines I’ve tasted in 2011.

Gulfi 2009 Cerasuolo di Vittoria

This wine is the staff favorite and top seller at Sotto. A blend of Nero d’Avola (which imparts tannic structure) and Frappato (which balances the former with red and berry fruit flavors), there is no better way to describe this wine than YUMMY! It’s got that wonderful lightness of body and just enough tannin to make it my favorite red wine to pair with seafood (one of the reasons it’s so popular at Sotto). Cerasuolo di Vittoria is made in the township of Vittoria in the province of Ragusa in the southeast of Sicily.

Terre di Balbia 2009 Balbium Rosso

This wine is made from 100% Magliocco on the Calabrian estate where the Venica family raises its olive oil. This is perhaps the most original and striking wine I’ve tasted in 2011. Gently tannic and with generous fruit, this wine has a mouthfeel and weight to it that you need to experience to full wrap your mind around it. It has a wonderful chewiness and a brightness that delightfully surprised me. As with the family’s Friulian estate, Giampaolo’s wines are all about freshness and clean fruit. Here earth and fruit come together in a way that I know will surprise and thrill you. We do it by the glass at Sotto and we can’t keep it in stock!

Pietracupa 2007 Quirico

This is a 100% Aglianico from Avellino — the town of Paternopoli to be exact, from the San Quirico neighborhood (hence the name, after the 4th century Christian martyr Quiricus). I didn’t want this six-pack to get too expensive but I wanted to make sure there was an Aglianico in it and this wine is another staff favorite at Sotto. It’s vinified in a lighter style, with shorter maceration time, thus making it less tannic than the winery’s Taurasi (one of the greatest expressions of Aglianico). I love the approachability and the freshness of this wine and it’s my go-to pairing for the heavier meat dishes at the restaurant. Great stuff… I know you will love it as much as I do!

SOUTHERN ITALIAN SIX-PACK

Villa Matilde 2009 Falanghina
Benanti 2008 Etna Bianco Bianco di Caselle
Benanti 2007 Etna Rosso Rosso di Verzella
Gulfi 2009 Cerasuolo di Vittoria
Terre di Balbia 2009 Balbium Rosso
Pietracupa 2007 Quirico

$121 (plus tax, shipping, and handling if applicable)

Free delivery for San Diego residents.
Pick up available for Los Angeles Residents.

TO ORDER, SEND ME AN EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE.

Above: Savio, Ottavio, Alessandro, and Alessandra (first names only, please) of the Valli Unite cooperative and agriturismo in Piedmont.

Hippie Wine Six-Pack

Valli Unite 2009 Brut & Beast
Valli Unite 2009 Barbera Gaitu
Coturri NV Sandocino (Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Syrah/Zinfandel)

two bottles each

$132 (plus shipping and handling if applicable)

Free delivery for San Diego and Los Angeles residents.

TO ORDER, SIMPLY SEND ME AN EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE.

There are so many great wines from Italy available today in the U.S. Nearly every week I taste with this or that importer or distributor and discover a wine that I didn’t know about. Such was the case when I tasted a few weeks ago with my friend Amy Atwood in Los Angeles, who always has killer wines in her bag. She turned me on to a biodynamic cooperative — a hippie commune, really — called Valli Unite. Here’s how the Valli Unite (united valleys) describe themselves:

Nestled high up in the hills surrounded by green and fruit bearing trees, fields of vines and fruits, a center village consists of a cluster of stone and brick buildings covered with green — this is home base for 25 people who live and work together. Food, wine and labor is divided equally. Each has his/her own role, working the land, tending to the animals or cooking in the kitchen to sustain an alternative lifestyle that was originally designed by Ottavio as a way for himself a few other local farmers to survive in an industrializing world. After 30 years of commitment to the land, nature, and one another — Valli Unite is going strong…

And when you taste their wines, you taste the freshness and purity of fruit that only chemical-free winemaking (freed of the yoke of industrial winemaking) can deliver.

From the Valli Unite, I’ve included a gently sparkling white blend and a 100% Barbera, both of which knocked my socks off (two bottles each).

And I’ve also included a wine, a red blend (two bottles), that I really dug by Tony Coturri, an Italian-American and the father of Natural winemaking in California.

Above: Tracie P and I hung and picked grapes with Tony last year in Texas, where he comes to make wine with his friend Lewis Dickson. (Check out my write-up of Lewis and his wines here.)

The red thread of this transnational six-pack is the fact that all the wines are raised in chemical free environments by people who believe that real, wholesome delicious wines should be accessible to all (the average bottle price for this six-pack is $22).

Valli Unite 2009 Brut & Beast

A beautiful, fresh, gently sparkling white blend of Cortese with smaller amounts of Moscato, Favorita, Chasselas, and Timorasso. Tasting note: FRIGGIN’ DELICIOUS. A wine that I could drink every day.

Valli Unite 2009 Barbera Gaitu

Gorgeous Barbera with the bright, bright acidity that I look for in this grape. Juicy red fruit. Lip-smacking, wonderfully food-friendly wine. I’m actually putting some of this down in my cellar because I think it will get better with a year of age on it. Loved this wine.

Coturri NV Sandocino (Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Syrah/Zinfandel)

The fact that Tony isn’t afraid to release a mixed-vintage red wine (in this case 08/09) is a sign that that commercial success and marketing considerations don’t shape the way he makes and sells his wine. I was blown away by the freshness in this wine combined with earthiness and lots of wonderful vegetal and savory flavors. This is probably going to be my favorite grilled meat pairing wine. Brooklyn-cut pork chop anyone?

Hippie Wine Six-Pack

Valli Unite 2009 Brut & Beast
Valli Unite 2009 Barbera Gaitu
Coturri NV Sandocino (Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Syrah/Zinfandel)

two bottles each

$132 (plus shipping and handling if applicable)

Free delivery for San Diego and Los Angeles residents.

TO ORDER, SIMPLY SEND ME AN EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE.

I just returned yesterday from the Colli Orientali del Friuli (the Eastern Hills of Friuli), where I led a group of 6 American bloggers on a tasting, eating, and drinking tour of the appellation. You can read about all of the bloggers adventures here.

Ronco del Gnemiz Six-Pack (Colli Orientali del Friuli)
2 bottles Ronco del Gnemiz 2006 Bianco di Jacopo
2 bottles Ronco del Gnemiz 2007 Sauvingon
2 bottles Ronco del Gnemiz 2005 Rosso di Jacopo

$169 plus tax (shipping and handling if applicable)

Click here to order.

Free delivery for San Diego and Los Angeles residents.
Wines will ship Tuesday of next week from San Diego.

The folks at one of my favorite Friulian wineries, Ronco del Gnemiz, like to tease me: “We do all the things that Jeremy doesn’t like for our wines: we use selected yeast for fermentation and we age them in barrique,” said winemaker Christian Patat when I visited him and his lovely wife Serena Palazzolo (whose father bought the property and founded the estate in the 1960s). On paper, I shouldn’t like these wines. But when I first tasted them back in the late 1990s in New York, I was blown away by their freshness, their bright bright acidity, and their genuine fruit and their intense minerality.

Of course, Christian doesn’t use “killer” yeast that creates a manufactured aroma or flavor in this wine. He uses a neutral yeast that allows him to be sure that he will complete the alcoholic fermentation of his white wines before malolactic fermentation begins. (While alcoholic — sugar to alcohol — fermentation occurs in all red wine, malolactic fermentation in white wine turns malic “good” acid, the kind Tracie P and I like, into lactic “buttery” acid.) And when it comes to the application of small cask, Christian is using the wood to oxygenate his wines and not to impart wood tannin or toasty, oaky flavor.

The other thing about these wines is that the folks who make them are super cool. The last time I was in Friuli, Serena and Christian helped me track down a hard-to-find edition of Pasolini’s Friulian poetry. They knew just the bookstore in Udine that would have it. They have a pretty rad jazz collection, too.

The bottom line is I THINK THESE WINES rock and while they are nearly impossible to find on the West Coast, I was able to snag this small allocation. This first six-pack for 2011 features 2 of each label.

Ronco del Gnemiz 2006 Bianco di Jacopo

This wine is named after the couple’s older son and is made from 100% Chardonnay (when’s the last time you heard me recommend drinking Chardonnay from Italy??!!). While I wish I could have included some of their awesome single-vineyard Chardonnay in this offering, the price point would have been too high (the COF blogger group and I were blown away by the 2004 single-vineyard Chardonnay Sol and I can obtain recent vintages for you if you like). Don’t look for Chablis in this wine… Look for Friuli… You won’t be disappointed…

Ronco del Gnemiz 2007 Sauvignon

You might be surprised to see me put this wine after the Chardonnay in the present flight. While I love Ronco del Gnemiz’s interpretation of Chardonnay, the Chardonnay grapes come from some of the estate’s younger vines, making for a more youthful, more approachable expression of the variety. The Sauvignon Blanc, on the other hand, is the winery’s flagship (in my humble opinion) and it’s with this wine that we start to see some serious structure and complexity. Definitely worth aerating for an hour or so before service. You wouldn’t believe how Mrs. Sancerre herself — Samantha Sans Dosage — was blown away by Serena and Christian’s wines when we tasted them together last week at the winery.

Ronco del Gnemiz 2005 Rosso di Jacopo

50% Merlot 30% both Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Schioppettino, 5% Refosco. Merlot in Colli Orientali del Friuli (and Collio) has been a big revelation for me. The unique subsoil of the eastern hills of the region that border Slovenia are made of Ponca:

Dense but brittle ancient seabed, layered in flysch (as it’s known in the technical jargon), a unique expression of calcareous marl that forces the roots of the vines to span out along the layers of rock in search of water. The theory goes that as the roots are stressed by this obstacle, they absorb the minerality of the marl. In the wine, the resulting saltiness combines with the fresh fruit the same way peanut butter and jelly combined in your mouth when you were six. Utterly delicious…

Ronco del Gnemiz Six-Pack (Colli Orientali del Friuli)

$169 plus tax (shipping and handling if applicable)

Click here to order.

Free delivery for San Diego and Los Angeles residents.
Wines will ship Tuesday of next week from San Diego.