Cellared WHERE?

Most people who know and hang out with me, my staff, and our company are familiar with our goal: We travel around Europe and the US to track down and bring in unique wines from unique production areas. After my last scouting trip, I may have outdone myself. I was in Val D’Aosta, a tiny region in Italy, wedged between Piemonte and France, in the middle of the Alps just north of the city of Turin. I have been visiting this winery since last spring, finalizing our selection while marveling at the beauty of its wines and the mountains all around me. This time I was tasting with Andrea, the winemaker, and he handed me a glass of sparkling wine which I had just been admiring in the bottle because of its beautiful shade of pink. By now, you all know, that I never refuse to taste wines, especially sparkling wines (my July blog can attest to this). This wine was really well made, using classic method, from a single vineyard of Pinot Noir grapes which we had just been hiking. Andrea gave me the winemaker’s description but I will skip the technicality of it all, to get to WHERE the wine is made and WHERE this beauty is aged and matured: on the Matterhorn.  I could not believe it– the cellar for this beauty and for its little brother, a Charmat Method made with Chardonnay and Muscat, is underneath the historic alpine guides’ chalet, the base camp from which all the major climbs to the famous summit took place and still do.

So, out of all the cellars that I visit, this is one that I will need to physically train to reach. I’m planning on taking some of you with me, so you’d better get your hiking boots out and get in shape too. The wines will be coming soon to our market, until then we will have to be patient, like good mountain climbers.

Cin Cin,

Manu

Sardinia, wines from the Mediterranean Sea

Finally! Last week we got our wines from Sardinia, the first two that will represent this amazing region in our book. The scouting of this region has been quite complicated, it took us two years of trying, tasting and talking to finally be able add them to our portfolio.

Sardinia is the second largest island of Italy after Sicily, I could spend several pages of this blog to describe the unique feature of this land and its inhabitants (hence the difficulty getting the right wines), but my task is to relate the information on the wines and for this reason I recommend all of you readers, to just google some of the names mentioned below, it is a treat for the eyes.

Our brand is called TERRE PALMAE, we actually went after two distinctive varietals and two distinctive areas of production for the grapes utilized. Our selected red wine is the CARIGNANO DEL SULCIS from a spectacular small island called Isola di S'Antioco just off the west coast of the main island, the vines are all pre-philoxera, with their original root stock. Thanks to the distance from the main land of Europe, this area was saved from the ferocious pest.  Ranging in age between 30 and 70 years old the wine has an elegant ruby red color with intense aroma of wild berries and mediterranean herbs. This peculiar grape thrives near the coastline, rich in saltiness and mild climate.

The white wine is the VERMENTINO di SARDEGNA, from an area called Marmilla, perfect for the cultivation of the Vermentino grape. This is also a type of vine that prefers the saltiness of the coastal areas, being widely cultivated along the coastal regions of Liguria, Tuscany, and of course, Sardinia.

I like that we can now showcase Vermentino from the three main regions with their unique flavor profile and differences: the lightness and elegance of the Ligurian, the power and concentration of the Tuscan, and the strength and depth of the Sardinian.

I hope you will enjoy these two new additions to out family of wines.

Cin Cin,

Manu

Gavi di Gavi, Gavi di Massimo, Cortese di Manu

By now one thing is clear, my house drinking wines for the first week in Europe are the Cortese grape based wines. The Gavi di Gavi Ru`, the Gavi made by Massimo Lovisolo and our Tati Cortese  are the quintessential wines to pair to our summer meals. The 2010 vintage is an absolute delight, crispier than the 2009 with lovely nose and superb citrus notes that leave your mouth so fresh you just can't stop drinking them. We had the Lovisolo Gavi with "Pasta alla Checca"using some of Oreste's tomatoes and the freshest mozzarella (Oreste is the "Master of our Vineyards" that many of you have met), his tomatoes are poetic, it's the only expression I can use to describe them.  Our local butcher prepares a deboned chicken drumstick that I made on the pan with olive oil, fresh rosemary and sage, the Gavi di Gavi RU` was perfect with the dish, and during the preparation of the meal our Tati Cortese 2010 was served as an aperitif with "prosciutto and melon", the bottle disappearing rather quickly. Our guests were pleased, I hope you will be too.

Cin Cin!

Manu

PS: if you need the recipe for the "Pasta della Checca" just ask me.

Bubbly? The love affair of Europeans with sparkling wines

I landed in Italy a couple of days ago and I got immediately confronted with the reality of the culinary life and all the things related. Wines being the part that we are personally more interested got me back to a phenomena I noticed already in the past few years and it's now getting stronger, the passion of Europeans and Italians in particular for sparkling wines. "Bollicine?" It's the first question a bartender or a sommelier asks you as soon as you sit down for your meal or for a simple aperitif, this is the nickname adopted by all Italians for sparkling wine.  Once dominated by the classic Prosecco or the more sophisticated Franciacorta now the novelty is to discover the use of the almost infinite, by industry standard,  types of grape varietals present in the Italian viticultural industry. In the first 2 days here I had a Cuvee made from Pinot Noir, Riesling Italico and Bonarda, creamy and elegant; a charmat obtained from Arneis and Cortese (outstanding!) and a sparkling rose` of Barbera which I couldn't stopped "tasting".

This is the real kingdom of sparkling wines, Europeans just cannot live without them and for good reasons, nothing set up meeting a friend or starting your meals better then them.

"Bollicine anyone?"

Cin Cin!

Manu

Ciliegiolo, the Lost Grape of Maremma, Tuscany

Recently we had a chance to taste our new arrival, the Ciliegiolo from La Selva, a byodinamic and organic estate from the Maremma area of Tuscany. La Selva sits near the charming town of Orbetello, the estate is owned and managed by a very dynamic German family, who moved in the area 25 years ago, specialized in local products and traditional Maremma varietals (I used to spent some amazing summers in this area during my college years but this will be a subject for another blog..)
I looked for a pure, 100% Ciliegiolo for several years and finally I got one that is really beautifully made. The Ciliegiolo is an indigenous grape of Tuscany, quite limited although almost every farmer had few vines in their vineyards, some making small batches for their own consumptions but never openly commercialized. The grape got its name from the very pronounced black cherry flavors, both in the nose and on the palate. I tried the 2007 vintage last year and really liked the wine, it was silky, soft with tremendous depth and elegant aromatics. This particular Ciliegiolo from la Selva,  is aged for 9 months in new, neutral, French oaks tonneau, the 2008 vintage was just released, it is still very young and in the developing phase, we discover that giving a proper aeration time, 2 hours or more, really helps the wine.

I hop you'll enjoy as much as I did.

Cin-Cin!

Manu

Wine Notes Coming Soon!

In July I am going to start posting what I am discovering in the world of wine as I begin my summer scouting in Europe. This should be helpful and hopefully fun for my sales team and office staff-- they can learn along with me as I discover some new varietals and wineries. I will also occasionally jot down some tasting notes and explanations on the wines that we carry in the Siema portfolio.  Feel free to encourage anyone interested in wine and scouting for wine and wineries to subscribe for updates. Clients, consumers, friends, and all my staff are welcome. I promise to keep it short, sweet and interesting!