Indie Wineries

Thoughts on Paying $175 for a Headache...

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:38:00 +0000

As I've written before, my mission is to convince people that it is just as important to drink 'organic' wines, and know where your wines come from as it is your food. Shopping at Whole Foods, and drinking wine that is full of chemicals just doesn't make sense. It's like going to whole foods and asking for the 'caged' meat section.

I am not ashamed to admit that, because of facility, we almost always drink Indie Wines at home. If not 'Indies,' then wines of friends or wines gifted to us by winemaker friends... as in any industry, birds of a feather flock together. Wine making and vine growing philosophies form friendships and circles that have rather heavily armed borders.

There is nothing better than drinking a wine of one of our friends to celebrate, or share with our dinner table... creating a new 'discovery' for our guests. We'll then talk about that producer friend, Fabrizio will undoubtedly stand up and start telling some funny story that happened a million years ago, and it becomes almost as if that producer friend is with us at the table. For our guests, it becomes almost as if they come to know that producer friend as well... drinking the wine they made, and listening to us giggle over stories of past encounters.

When we are at wine fairs, they are almost always 'natural' and small organic wine fairs, where I can count on the fact that the wines I am tasting are all made in the old style, aka 'organically,' (which as we know, is how all wines were once made - and had no 'title' or category), whether certified or not.

When we dine out, again, we'll order the wines of our friends, or wines that whom ever we're dining with recommends and want to share with us. Or, we'll ask the advice of the wine director to recommend something within some given parameters.

I would never think to pigeon hole myself and my continuing exploration of the wine world by saying; "I only drink organic." It feels wrong even writing that... it's like saying, "I only eat at Michelin star restaurants." Or; "I only eat Italian." Well, maybe not exactly, but I think you all understand where I'm going.

However, after a recent experience... the reality of the importance of what our producers, and the producers of the same philosophy as ours are doing came crashing down. Again.

Fabrizio and I went out to celebrate our recent engagement at a local enoteca, owned by a friend. He carries Fabrizio's wines, as well as the wines of many of our friends. Fabrizio's Italian distributor, who also focuses on organic and biodynamic wines sells many of the wines from his portfolio to this wine bar as well. We asked the owner to choose a Champagne, and I added; "a GOOD one," with a smile, which means - 'we're splurging.'

I will not disclose the producer, but we enjoyed every sip of the wine that evening. In fact, I quickly looked it up to see if it was already being brought into the US. Delicious, balanced, incredible acidity - fresh and bright. It went down smoothly and easily. We shared a few glasses with friends, so I'd say between Fabrizio and I we drank a little more than half the bottle (nothing for us :).

We went on to have dinner at another restaurant. We each drank a glass of a local Grignolino, which we knew was farmed organically. No after dinner drink, no coffee... went home and called it a night.

To explain the headache I had the next day is impossible with words. Imagine a wood clamp on your head, all day, making reading, eating, walking, anything - painful. Fabrizio was also eating Advil like they were potato chips - and he will never take anything. Horrible. Of course, we both knew right away it was the Champagne. In fact, even thinking back on the label makes me wince in pain. Sulfites, and everything-else-chemical that we're not used to drinking.

While I'd rather not suffer quite that terribly to have my little epiphanies, I'm glad to have had the reminder. A few glasses of this wine and we were both devastated for a day... what about the earth these vines are growing on? There can't be anything left alive in that soil with the amount of chemicals this estate is using (again, this is not fact, but my and Fabrizio's pretty educated opinions). The vines are most likely essentially on life support... it being impossible for them to develop any immune system of their own with all the intervention and 'dumping' that must go on.

What about the families and children that live on or near this estate? My mind goes on and on about the ramifications of all the irresponsible farming and wine making that is still going on (and not to even get started on the food industry). With the obvious suffering of our mother earth, and the how angry the environment is, and not to mention what is happening to our health as a human race (cancer, infertility rates), and the other members of the animal kingdom we share the planet with, the bee's, the fish, and on and on and on, how the HELL are there still people out there that feel good and ok about dumping all of these chemical products on their land and their plants that they then eat and drink off of??

So, I retract my earlier statement that I would never pigeon hole myself into saying that; "I only drink organic." I would like to get as close to that as possible... not everyone can be certified, and with the new EU Organic standards, certification doesn't make all that much difference anyway. However, I can know where my wine comes from, who makes it - who imports it, and be an educated drinker. I implore all of you to do the same, if you don't know the producer, know your importer, there are plenty of fantastic importers in the US now - lucky for us. Period. One of our most potent rights is to boycott and choose what we spend our money on. Let's not spend it supporting the people polluting our earth, and hence ourselves.

The grand finale; the wine we drank, and that stole a day of our lives, costs $175 in NY.

Thanks but I'll take the Pithon Paille Cremant de Loire for $40 ANYDAY, I don't care if CHAMPAGNE is not written on the label.

Frozen Baseball Insurance and January in August...

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 16:57:00 +0000

If a frozen baseball were to come crashing down from the sky and hit you on the head... what would you anticipate the damage to be? Maybe a big lump at best, stitches, concussion, or of course... worse case scenario; death by frozen baseball. Would you take out insurance if you knew that frozen baseballs only came flying down from the sky once every ten years? This is the biggest risk for vignerons every year - hail storms (or for vines, the equivalent of frozen baseballs falling from the sky), and an assessment to make... to take or not to take hail insurance!

(this photo from local newspaper)

On August 3rd I woke up at 6AM, the weather was cool, and it was a perfect sunny day... I went for a run and on my way back extended my normal 'running route' to visit Fabrizio in the vineyard. He was cleaning between the vines on the tractor, and had a huge smile on his face. The vineyard was beautiful, the fruit as well... and he said, 'Ta-da, this is it for the season... I hope (no need to tantalize fate), no more treatments or vineyard work, this should do it... now we can just wait and watch the fruit ripen." He had finished up all the work he wanted to in order for us to take a few days to go visit Martin Arndorfer in Austria, and Primoz in Slovenia. We left beautiful vineyards, and what was shaping up to be a really nice vintage behind.

On Sunday August 5th, we were in the stunning vineyards of the Wachau, over looking the majestical Danube. A sea of green, healthy beautiful vines, gorgeous fruit... and we were all commenting on what looked like to be an incredible vintage for this region of Austria (together with the Kamptal where Martin and Anna are). Suddenly Fabrizio's phone started ringing off the hook...

At around 6:30pm that day, Monferrato saw one of the worst hail storms anyone (still alive) in the region can remember. The hail in our little village of Montaldo (pop:100 people, on a good day) lasted only 6 minutes, but it was enough to bring down parts of walls, put dents in cars, take out antennas, roof tiles, and scare the living sh** out of everyone. Fabrizio on the phone was almost like watching someone get that horrible news that you are always afraid of when you see someones face fall from the words on the other end of the line.

(Montaldo, our town)

We were with our good friends, and his Italian distributor and his wife, as well as Martin and Anna; so they all knew the gravity of the situation... and what 6 minutes of hail could mean. We went from being tourists on vacation, to a quickly somber and respectfully quite mood, spending the rest of the evening rather solemnly. There was however nothing we could do until we got home, assessed, and waited 10 days or so for the vines to 'dry out,' and heal a bit.

Among all the phone calls coming in, we got a call from a friend that was staying at the house where the Nebbiolo vineyard is, and he told us he was stranded... the hail broke the windshield of his car, completely smashed, pieces of glass had fallen INTO his car, and there were even holes in the roof of the car... there was clearly no electricity, and needless to say... no words were even necessary for the vineyard situation, it was understood. It looks like it does in January before the pruning... not only in the vineyard, but in the surrounding hills as well. From green to brown in 6 minutes.

In a few towns over, hit equally as hard, people were sent to the hospital with wounds requiring up to 7 stitches... a few animals were lost, and lots and lots and lots of work for roofers!!

(Nebbiolo vineyard 4 days after the hail storm... not a leaf spared - not to mention a grape)

(Same vineyard last year at the same time)

Fortunately our Barbera and Pinot vineyards were spared in comparison. We think we lost about 20%-30% of the fruit, but we were lucky none the less that even only a few kilometers away, the hail was slightly less severe.

I don't need to wax poetic about the work that goes into a growing season, the nurturing, and constant attention needed for not just vines, but all crops. You all know. However, the sadness that only 6 minutes can ruin a years worth of work is just devastating.

Insurance? Ha. I am not sure how insurance works for the farmers of corn, wheat, alfalfa, sunflowers, poplars, and all the other crops grown in our area, but a large chunk of them lost 100% of their production, and unlike in wine, they do not have 'other vintages' to sell. They can not spread out the loss over the next few years selling, 'back vintage corn'. These guys have lost an entire years income, and I just hope that the insurance they have for weather damage is different then ours. I know one town delcared a state of emergency, so hopefully that will help release some governmental funds (again, ha ha, that is summer being incredibly optimistic and/or naive :).

For vines, the 'hail insurance' pays the producer a PERCENTAGE of the market value of the fruit... not the wine, and certainly not the finished product in bottle. So what does this mean? You pay a ridiculous amount each year for hail insurance. Normal hail happens once every ten years or so, and serious hail like this... we hope only once every 50 years or so. Pretty easy to do the math, regardless of insurance, we end up loosing not only our crops, but also more money. Yes folks, another racket.

On a final note, Fabrizio always recounts the fact that in the 1960's, Monferrato saw three years of consecutive hail right before harvest, and the farmers couldn't afford to go on after loosing three years income, and so almost all of the vineyards were abandoned as folks moved to Torino to work for Fiat. Leaving the land to work in a factory. We hence feel very lucky to have the Barabba vineyard from 1935, as vineyards of that age are almost inexistent due to abandonment of the country side. When he tells the story, we are usually in the vineyard itself, and without fail, everytime I think, "how could you leave this, regardless, I would never give this up... no silly hail could force me to abandon this!"

I still feel that way... but I must say, I feel closer to those that worked this land before us, and feel their sadness.

What can we/you do? Open a bottle of Iuli, or any Indie wine, and enjoy it... and appreciate even more what goes into it all - and the risks involved with being a producer and farmer. Each bottle is a labor of love, art and passion - otherwise it would take only one frozen baseball storm to scare us away!

So there... a little lesson and story about hail for those of you that didn't know!

From Dolia to Fusti; Indie Wine in N2 Kegs...

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:32:00 +0000

Wine in kegs is a hot topic in the US right now, and there are two very clear sides and lines. Personally, traveling and living in Europe since 1998, I am captain of the cheerleading squad for wine on tap (insert high jump and pom pom wave here), finally! Typically American, what many fail to recognize is that this is NOT a new concept, and something that is simply a new concept in our country. Being a primarily beer culture until quite recently, we associate taps with 'pub's' and cheap pitchers of beer flavored water, and I think this is the problem a lot of the 'haters' are having with wine on tap. In Italy, almost 100% of the tap systems will have both wine and beer, and this is how it has always been. What is new about this concept is using quality wine, sourcing from top producers, and using top of the line systems to pour the wine out of put together by trained professionals. Wine on tap will never replace 'bottles', it's ridiculous for people to even mention this absurdity, what it does is offer both the consumer AS WELL AS the producer a new opportunity in the US wine market.

In Europe wine has been sold as 'sfuso' or 'in bulk' for as long as wine has been produced. The Romans even had two 'tiers' of wine. As soon as the wine became 'limpido,' or 'clear,' it was sold directly from the 'dolia' or amphora buried in the ground, and then the higher quality wine was racked into another, above ground amphora container and sold directly in the amphora itself. Then, before being sold in 750ml bottles, wine was sold in 'damigiana' or large glass and straw containers of varying sizes, from 5 to 54 liters. Trattoria's, cafe's and bars have all been serving wine on tap out of 'fusti' or kegs, for 80+ years in Europe, and in fact, at one time it was the only way wine was served in most places, by the carafe. The wine list as we know it today is a recent addition in Italy.

All quality estates have wine that does not 'make the cut.' Possibly it comes from young and new vineyards still not mature enough to produce bottle quality wine, 2, 3 or 4 years old (sadly, some estates do put this juice in bottle... and then call it quality, but that is another blog :). Some estates have wine produced intentionally to sell in bulk. There are a number of factors that lead to certain 'tanks' being destined for 'sfuso' rather than bottling. This will change vintage by vintage, and estate by estate, but finally being able to get our hands on some of these 'seconds' for the US market is a dream come true for me.

In 2005 I worked at Felsina in Tuscany. On one of my first days I saw a building near the cellar with a line of locals outside, all holding different sized and shaped containers. I was totally confused... some of the containers were so large I couldn't understand what they would be buying. When it was explained that they were buying Felsina wine in 'bulk'; white or red and there was even 'sfuso' olive oil, I had a full on dropped jaw. I couldn't believe it, was overcome by excitement at this discovery, which was followed immediately by a veil of disappointment that this was an opportunity only available in Europe. Buying great wine in bulk for a few bucks a liter seemed too good to be true. This is possibly when I really first fell in love with Europe... needless to say, while living at Felsina, I don't even want to know how many liters of that 'sfuso' I consumed, sorry liver.

The first person to start talking to me about 'wine on tap' in the US was my long time friend and maestro, Paulo Villela from the Bohlsen restaurants on Long Island. He was one of the NY pioneers to get the system set up in their restaurant, 'Verace' on Long Island: http://www.veracerestaurant.com/, and he opened the concept and restaurant in 2009 with Barbera, yes - you guessed it, Iuli Barbera. Fast forward to the summer of 2010, I meet Bobby Stucky and Lachlan Patterson of Frasca restaurant here at Iuli in Piedmont. Lachlan was looking to do wine on tap at their new place in Boulder, Pizzeria Locale, and so we worked out getting them some of the Iuli Barbera and San Lorenzo Verdicchio: http://www.pizzerialocale.com/. Lachlan and Bobby introduced me to Jim Neal who was doing the kegging for them in California: http://www.n2wines.com/press .

Thanks to Jim Neal's innovation with the kegging of the wine from these bulk totes, to top quality stainless steel kegs, the tap system itself in the restaurants, and passion and dedication to the project, this little personal 'dream' of my own to bring quality Italian bulk wine to the market has finally come true! Here is a great piece recently written on the subject, mentioning Jim Neal from Wine Spectator:

http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/45801#.TpblQJeoUvA.twitter

I have worked personally with a selected few of our estates to choose the 'sfuso' to send to the US. In order to save costs (it costs money to register wine under an appellation, the DOC, DOCG, AOC, ect., every single bottle with those letters on it comes with a cost), and by most European wine laws, the wine being shipped in these 1,000L totes must be declassified as VdT, or table wine, which as we know cannot have a vintage or grape variety on the 'label'. However, our Indie producers that are part of the project are all proud to attach their names to this wine in order to guarantee to you that the wine you are drinking is in fact exactly what we have listed it as - and the 'seconds' to their bottled products we all love and drink every day.

Before this project and collaboration with Jim Neal, a lot of this 'sfuso' from these producers was sadly just sold to the local cooperatives, to be blended in with other wine. This 'sfuso,' when coming from the Indie producers, is almost always made from the very same certified organic vineyards that make the bottled goods you are all familiar with. This opportunity for them to sell it instead to Jim for kegging in the US is exciting for us all, and we all hope that you will enjoy experiencing a little bit of the 'trattoria' feel in your own favorite local spots that have jumped on board with this old Italian tradition.

For more technical information, photos of places across the country that have 'tapped up' with Jim Neal and Indie juice, or a presentation on the N2 system, please just write to us!!

Cheers :)
-Summer

Natural Wine: Know Your Palate, Not the 'Fad'....

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:15:00 +0000

The problem with 'fads' is probably less than half of the 'fad followers' actually really believe in, like or understand the fad itself. The majority of these 'fad followers' are just that, followers, and are the entire reason that whatever the subject or item is, is only a 'fad'. The followers will loose interest, forget, move on to the next thing, ect., and so on. This leaves the rest of us that were probably the ones that 'started' the fad in the first place, frustrated and scratching our heads.

What am I referring to? Yes, Natural wine. I know, I know, the internet is spilling over with blogs, articles, opinions, arguments, debates, celebrations and praises on the subject, but after the wine fairs this year in Verona I had for the first time an incredible urge to put my 2 cents in. I heard just too much bull**** to not write.

The 'fad followers' I'm referring to in the first paragraph are hearing and reading about 'natural wine', 'organic wine', and 'biodynamic' wine. They are seeing it more and more present in the market, they are hearing in their shops and restaurants more and more requests for this 'natural wine' stuff. So, like good bloggers, buyers, sommeliers, and collectors, they are going out and tasting it, trying it, and talking and writing about it.

The truth; natural wine is not for everyone. Some of these fad followers are trying natural wine and having their entire wine-geekdom-world shift, and that is what happened to me personally, becoming believers and not just followers. Others want their worlds to have shifted... but they didn't, and so they 'fake it', or keep trying. If you grew up drinking coca-cola, and you are still drinking and enjoying it, you are not going to all of a sudden start drinking wheat grass and loving that instead. This is not an insult, just a fact, and a matter of what you and your palate is used to.

I am a full believer in the shift that has taken place in the wine world, the step backwards that many producers all over Europe are taking. A return to traditional methods; cement, amphora, natural fermentation, following moon cycles, no pesticides or herbicides. None of these things are new, and were never a category of wine making (which they fall into now), but instead, simply how wine was made, period. I hope that all wine production (and food production... but that is another subject) moves in this same direction, whether 100, 100 thousand, or 1 million bottles are produced. Hopefully this shift will also help the 'coca-cola' palates to evolve into wheat grass lovers as well.

Back to the reason I am writing this little piece in the first place. I can't even count how many times I've had buyers tell me they are into natural wines/organic wines, just to start listing all the 'defects' they have found in the wines I've brought in my bag. Not only are the so called defects they are finding not defects, but they are confusing brett for VA and VA for brett. Oxidation for a wine being 'corked', and so on. The buyers are insecure, they don't understand the wine, and possibly, they just don't like it. This is fine, however I would like to just clear up a few simple points:

There is a small amount of brett in all natural wines... otherwise they would not be natural wines, the amount can reach levels where it becomes a defect, but in 9 cases out of 10 it is not a defect but a part of the wine's character, adds nuances and another level of complexity. By definition, brett is known, in small amounts, to improve red wine complexity.
Reduction; again, not always a defect. In fact, many producers want their wines to go into reduction while they are in barrel or tank before they are racked and oxygenated. This adds (yes again) character, nuances and another level of complexity.
Volatile acid is not a defect. Once again, when reaching certain levels can take away and cover up some of the other aromas in the wine making it more of a defect than an attribute. However, living at the Iuli estate - where we love acid, the slight VA Fabrizio has in all of his wines are what make them so unique and for me, one of a kind Barbera's. Let's remember that tannin and acid are what give's wine longevity... and again VA adds character, nuances and another level of complexity.
Oxidation is a tool that every single producer plays with... whether raising the wines in steel tank and bottling with synthetic corks not allowing any, to working in Amphora and oxidizing completely the wines. I have my own level of oxidation on wines where it goes from pleasant and interesting, to over the top, rendering the wine no longer enjoyable for me to drink and instead purely academic. This depends on the individual pallet. Oxidation will also add: character, nuances and another level of complexity (are you noticing the theme yet)...
Sediment: NOT A PROBLEM! As defined by Jancis Robinson, "Basically, filtration speeds the wine-making process and allows better control, thereby lowering production costs"and, "Filtration is a physical alternative to natural settling and requires more expensive equipment but much less patience." These two quotes say it all for me, reiterating everything I personally believe in and preach in wine. Slower is better, natural is better, traditional is better... keeping these particles and the sediment in the wine, for every single wine maker I've asked adds: character, nuances and another level of complexity.
Vintage and bottle variance. Really, I shouldn't even be dumbing down this list by taking the time to list something so obvious, but just incase; yes, in natural wine, there is an incredible vintage variance... because, yes, every vintage is different. Moreover, not every vintage will be produced - if mother nature decides not to cooperate, there is no fighting against her. This is also true for every bottle... again, a living breathing product, not a beverage, not stabilized, over filtered and fined, and so each bottle will be slightly different.
A science lab and sterilized cellar does not make natural wines. The yeasts that live all around, on the grapes, in the cellar, and even on us are what make the magic happen and all part of what 'terror' is. Terrior is not only defined by the actual soil that the vines grow in, but the energy and life all around the vine and wine. This can not exist in a sterile environment. Terrior driven wines can not exist in a sterile environment. Using a lab to analyze and 'adjust' a wine does not make a 'wine' but instead a 'beverage'. Natural wines are not 'made', but instead they are created and born from vines that are cared for by a vigneron. Everything in the cellar happens naturally...with some care and direction.

Basically it comes down to whether you want a beverage, or wine. It depends on if you want to taste where your wine has come from, who made it, and when and how it was raised.

If you want a so called 'investment banker' wine; that perfectly tailored suit that will fit perfectly every day, with not a thread or seam out of place, then you do not want a natural wine. If you instead want to be surprised, impressed, confused and thoughtful every time you open a bottle, then yes, natural wine is most likely for you.

If you take the time to buy organic foods, clothing, products, and free range meats, then natural wines are for you. If responsibility for our land, our children and ourselves is important to you, then natural wines are for you.

So please, I beg all of you out there that are following to the fad, but do not really enjoy the natural wines, to just come to terms with that. Do not continue to pick out all of characteristics of these wines that make them interesting and unique, that keep us talking and learning, and that maybe confuse you, calling them 'defect's.' I ask you instead to take a minute to think about the word defect. It's definition is, "a shortcoming, fault or imperfection." Friends and fellow wine lovers and wine makers... let's let this idea of a 'perfect wine' go, and instead keep enjoying what nature gives us each and every year - and get excited to keep learning from the wisest of us all, Mother Nature.

Thanksgiving Salami

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:09:00 +0000

I know I know, I still owe you 'The Harvest Part Deux,' but Thanksgiving in Montaldo this year was just too good to not share. It really does not have much to do with wine other than the fact that I drank a lot of it. Bare with me as I try to make this super long day short and sweet and 'blog-ish' for your reading pleasure...

I started Thanksgiving menu planning, preparations and shopping all the day of. I headed down at 11:30 to our little village to hit the three stores, vegetable store, bread store and everything else store. At the vegetable store we started off strong, parsley - check, celery - check, onions - check, carrots - check, sweet potatoes - not so much. I eye a basket holding what looks like sweet potatoes, but as I glance down at the little sign I see that they are not labeled 'patate dolce (sweet potatoes)' but instead 'americane'.

No s***, they call sweet potatoes 'American's'. I laugh out loud by myself (a common occurrence with me on my misadventures in this small little town). As I walked over to pay, my trusted vegetable guy (whom I adore and who special orders me avocado's so I can get my fix) is looking worried and skeptical because he heard me laughing, alone, with his potatoes. As he's tallying me up he grabs one of the little Americans and explains to me that they're sweet... but sometimes people do buy them, not him, but the foreigners. Clearly. I assured him I was not laughing at his Americans, but instead at the name as we call them something else. Clearly.

Next stop is the bread store. I walk in and start pointing to the loaves I want, and as the bread lady (who I like, but is not quite as friendly and flirtatious with me as the vegetable man) gives me a disappointed look.
"Why didn't you call to reserve the bread if you needed this much?"
This is a battle that I fight weekly on principal. I have enough going on, and one of my jobs is not making bread, instead her only job is to make bread. So make it, try not to run out, and don't make me add to my 'to do' list 'bread reservations,' it's hard enough to remember restaurant reservations, let alone BREAD reservations!
I say my usual "ooooh, so sorry, totally forgot."

Final stop, the everything else store to pick up the bird. I had asked my favorite butcher in all the land, that works at the everything else store, the week before if they ever carried Turkey's. He said, "of course not, but I can order you one, how big?" He is one of the few Italians left that still loves America, and loves to talk about it, and hence was clearly informed that Thanksgiving was coming up and I didn't have to answer any questions about why one would buy a Turkey.

When I made my way back to the store he got a huge smile on his face when he saw me, and ran to the back leaving the poor little boring lady he was waiting on mid-sentence (she was probably explaining how her mom used to make pork chops, and how she doesn't do it like that, but she has a cousin that does, and her niece doesn't like it, but her cat's husband does... ect., ect.), the little old Italian ladies love to talk.

My trusted butcher came back with my bird in hand, and a proud smile on his face for the fact that he remembered to order the bird, handed it to me, and wished me a happy Thanksgiving. Love that guy. I inquired (despite little boring lady glaring at me) if anyone else had bought a Turkey that day... just out of curiosity. No. One guy had the day before, "some American guy, and he wanted the biggest one I could get him!" Of course he did, being the good American, bigger is better right!

This was not my first Thanksgiving in Italy, but it was the first year I decided to celebrate it here. Hence it was the first time I experienced what it feels like to be a foreigner and have an entire country ignore 'your' holiday. Growing up an American in America we of course are taught that there are other holidays in other cultures that we need to recognize as we have lots of people from those cultures living amongst us. However, as they always say, you just can't really understand the sensation until you've 'walked in another mans shoes'. I got it, and it kinda sucks. You just want to yell, "HEY, HAPPY THANKSGIVING A**H*****," at the top of your lungs, in a big crowd, to get some attention and recognition. Good thing there are no big crowds where I live.

I get home at 12:30 and start chopping, and prepping. Cooking is therapeutic for me, and pulls me out of the emailskypetextiphone frenzy that has become my work day. I start off with the 'singer songwriter' category on my iTunes. Relaxing, nice. Water drinking for now.

By 3:00, when I finished making the homemade croutons and stuffing (no Peppridge Farms pre-bagged stuffing here, or even croutons for that matter) the 'singer songwriter' music wasn't doing it for me anymore and I switched over to some Citizen Cope (my go-to cooking jams), which leads me to my first glass of wine. Here is the part where wine comes in. Poggio Trevvalle Rosato. Cold, pink, and delicious, perfectly hit the spot. MMMMMM, I say out loud, alone with my croutons.

At 4:00 I unwrapped the bird. I decided she was a 'female,' I have no evidence to prove this, but apparently according to google we generally only eat the females. I plucked the few feathers she still had on her, cleaned her out, stuffed her, tied her up and smeared her with herbed butter. Herbs from my garden, butter from the farm at the bottom of the hill. She was all dressed up and ready for her party.

At 6:40 I need more from iTunes, I change the genre to rock, and 'Fat Bottomed Girls' comes on. Mind you at this point I have been cooking since 12:30, alone, and I'm starting to get a little delirious (or maybe I was just getting drunk). Thank you iTunes genie, and thank you Queen! I shaved the Brussels sprouts, and peeled the Americans. THEY WERE NOT ORANGE INSIDE! I didn't have time for this mystery, I guessed they were yams or something. Not even sure there is a difference... other than I think you only 'candy' yams. Whatever. More wine please.

I cook the Brussels sprouts in a pan I had just cooked pancetta in and then added caramelized shallots and finished them with toasted hazelnuts - the hazelnuts were the only 'touch of Piedmont' I added to the entire meal. Finally, I boiled the Americans.

At 8:00 Fabrizio's family and Valeria arrived along with two other close friends. Fabrizio's mother came into the kitchen to give the scene a once over. At this point I was opening a bottle of Iuli Nino, and switched the music to Reggae, needed to be in a peaceful place now that I was no longer rocking out alone with my bird and the Americans in the kitchen.

The bird was beautiful, she was absolutely perfect I thought, but I guess 'mothers' always think that! I basted the hell out of her with her own juices as well as plenty of wine and vegetable broth during her stay in my oven.

I asked Fabrizio's mom to do the honor and handed her the knife and mini pitch fork thingy.

As I uncovered the stuffing I had in a pan she leaned over and asked if the stuffing was a soup!! I am not sure what to say here. There was no liquid. It looked like lots of bread broken up into pieces with herbs with a crispy top. It looked like STUFFING, not soup!

Now, Fabrizio's mom is a renowned (retired) chef in the area, and had a restaurant in the town for 50 years, but this was her first carving of a Turkey (and apparently the first time she had seen stuffing)! As she went at my girl with the big knife she went to the neck and was about to cut her in the wrong direction, crosshatch if you will, when I yelled, "Noooooooooooo!!!!"

Sometimes when I'm panicked my Italian falls short, and that was all I could get out. She jumped and looked confused.

She apologized and said she had never cooked a Turkey, let alone carve one. I drank more Nino, laughed and showed her how to go at it, and concentrated on making my mom's famous gravy. The most important piece of the meal. Fabrizio's 6 year old nephew watched in wonderment as the 'soup' fell out of the big weird 'Chicken' that his Nonna was painstakingly carving. I explained that it was called stuffing, and he was going to love it, and that it was a turkey and not a chicken.

Our Valeria had spent a few years in America, so she finished up the Americans for me mashing with butter and milk and adding S&P, she knew what was up, I can always count on Valeria! I then went into my pantry, back row, and pulled out a can that had been resting in it's place for two years, dusted her off, and proudly showed my cranberry sauce to Valeria. Vale smiled devilishly, knowing I was at this point looking for shock factor. No cranberry sauce in Italy. A friend had sent this as a joke a few years ago when I told her about the things you couldn't get in Italy. Now was finally the little can's moment to shine!!

I opened two bottles of Le Due Terre Merlot and we sat down.

Fabrizo's father, Renzo, doesn't believe there is any other food that is edible in the world other than Piemontese fare. Renzo one time told his family he was 'risking death' by eating yogurt that a doctor ordered him to have for breakfast on a special diet. He also eats chicken livers, pig feet, brain, intestine, and 'head', but mention 'Dannon yogurt' and he get's nauseous.

This was the moment I was most nervous and excited for all at once, Renzo at Thanksgiving.

I watched him closely as each dish was passed to him. He looked disgustedly at each dish, passed it on to his wife without taking any, and then scowled at her as she served herself and then put some of each dish on his plate as well. He was somewhat patiently waiting for the salami to arrive. He took a few small bites of each thing, mumbled something angrily in dialect to Fabrizio's mother, and then put his fork down. He reached for the Le Due Terre. Even though it was not from Piedmont, it was red and Italian, and a relief and comforting to him in lieu of what was going on in front of him on his dinner plate. Dinner was normally his favorite moment of the day.

I grabbed some salami from the fridge, and asked if he wanted me to make him some pasta. He declined, drank wine, ate bread and salami and pouted.

The rest of the crowd, while somewhat confused and at the same time interested, was for the most part pleased with the meal.

Here is Fabrizio's sister trying to convince her son to just TRY the Turkey, Fabrizio's mother standing up still trying to figure out what the weird 'soup' was that we were calling stuffing, and best of all, Renzo in the back at the head of the table, pouting.

In the end I was happy and thankful. It tasted like Thanksgiving, I finally got to use my aged cranberry sauce that was taking up valuable real estate in my pantry and I had successfully completed my first solo T-day flight.

Here is a quick reference list to sum up why Thanksgiving doesn't work in Italy... yes, I guess I could have just 'blogged' this at the beginning, but then you would never have read the long version!

They don't eat turkey here, "it doesn't taste like anything," and don't understand why anyone would eat turkey when you can eat the pig
There are no cranberries in Italy
There is no such thing as croutons to make stuffing
There is no such thing as gravy
It is a meal without pasta
It is a meal without salami (well, in most cases)
They don't have orange 'Americans'

However, the most barbaric part to the Italians is that we put everything on our plate at once, and all the foods touch, and are mixed up. I didn't even dare tell them about the day after thanksgiving sandwich tradition!!

Once again I pleaded guilty, I am just an American (or I guess you can say, 'just a Yam')!

Saving the 'Independent' Everything!

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:18:00 +0000

Three years ago when I first met Fabrizio Iuli, and decided to help him find a good honest distributor that his hard work and product merited, an 'ambassador' to his wines that would also be enthusiastic to have this special hand made juice, and would understand the importance of selling the 'independent vigneron,' my biggest motivation was the fear that if we didn't find the right hands to sell these small soul filled estates, that we would loose them forever.

Fabrizio Iuli and his dad, 'Renzo', his only 'employee'

It was this fear of loosing these small winemakers to big business, and to bankruptcy that eventually led me to the famous epiphany:

"F*** it, I'll just do it myself!"

... and just like that, Indie was born.

Our plight is simple; share these winemakers stories and history, express not only the passion of these artists, but also our own, teach our clients and consumers that it is JUST as important to know where your wine comes from as it is where your food comes from. To teach those that don't understand, that vintage variance is the best part about wine... that wine is alive, a natural product, and when done like our winemakers do it, brings you to a place and time, and has a personality all it's own that you won't meet even in a neighboring estate. All of this, as well as be able to support ourselves and our families. We aren't looking to build an empire, we aren't looking to have fast cars or houses all over the globe. We're looking to do a job that we love, and to keep these independent wine makers fed so they will keep making these wines that make us glow, ask questions, inspire us to cook new things, and share with our loved ones.

What I didn't foresee, was that we also need to save ourselves. Just as the big companies and industrial wine estates are slowly but surely eating up the small independent estates that don't have money for marketing, or time and/or knowhow to find agents/importers and distributors, the same thing is happening on the importation and distribution side of the business.

We are a new company working honestly and with our hearts and souls, and simply can't compete with all the 'free' that is thrown at our buyers. We can't buy new barstools or wine menu's for by the glass placements, and quite honestly if we could, wouldn't. Is telling your customer that the reason you pour a particular wine by the glass is because you wanted them to be comfortable on their new shiny barstool really what we want to convey? We can't offer 20 cases of free 'plonk' wine for 3 by the glass placements that are promised for at least 6 months. Is telling your customer the reason you pour a particular wine by the glass because it was free what we want to convey??

I have been called many times, 'hopelessly optimistic,' and I hope this never changes, and this is obviously why none of this entered into my train of thought before starting this passion project. I believed in the good people of the wine world. I believed that the people that were interested in the honest, natural, hand made wines we have to offer were the same people that wanted to support 'small business,' and the dream of entrepreneurial independence. I still want to believe this, but we are unfortunately seeing more and more of our fellow 'freedom fighters' (as one of our distributors calls them) fall subject to the fist of the big business.

Without risking 'soapy' feet, I will finish here, making this short and sweet. We at Indie Wineries ask you, our loyal friends, family and clients, to not forget to support whenever and as much as possible, the independent 'everyone'. Go to the corner store rather than 7-11, buy local produce at the farm stand, go to the locally owned restaurants rather than the chains, support the small grocers, the small shop owners rather than the GAP, and support the small independent wine growers and the distributors that carry them. Not only Indie, but all the small distributors of everything you buy, that are trying to do something different.

In 'Independent' there is passion first and business second. This is what it should be about.

Thanks for listening, and please pass along :)

- Summer

Straight From the Producers Bocca; Harvest 2011...

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:55:00 +0000

Between picking and de-stemming, crushing, pump overs and punch downs, racking and pressing, stressing and not sleeping and often barely eating, and forget about showering, we somehow convinced our producers to take 10 minutes to reflect on this years harvest, and the even bigger challenge; to actually write it down! The honesty, passion, and feelings from these producers that jumped off the page while I was typing their words actually brought tears to my eyes more than once. My nickname is Summer 'easy-tear' Wolff, but it was honestly a moving experience reading through these entries... I hope you all enjoy as much as I did, and a huge warm thank you to all you producers for taking the time to share!

We are missing a few, but here are reports on; Campania, Tuscany, Friuli, Sicilia, Le Marche, Basilicata and Piedmont!

Without further adieu...

The aftermath of destemming... or, 'harvest shrapnel' as I affectionately call it, splattered all over our courtyard

NANNI COPE, Caserta, Campania

"Very early harvest also at Sopra il Bosco, 20 days earlier than average, and 25 days earlier than 2010. Fortunately all went well, thanks to the beautiful tannins of Palagrello Nero which ripen slowly from the moment of version. The fruit was ready September 10th, too bad only for the quantity, which was much lower than the average. Two and a half hectares gave us only 8 tons of grapes... 2011 Nanni Cope will be rather 'rare'!"

- Giovanni Ascione

RAMONI, Montalcino, Tuscany

"Harvest was on the 22nd and 23rd of August, at least a week earlier than usual. Grapes show great equilibrium and we foresee this vintage to have a strong body and a power that we will try to tame with the help of our wooden barrels and lots of patience."

- Gianni Fabri

SAN LORENZO, Montecarotto, Le Marche

"The harvest at San Lorenzo was not as rich as in past years, the grapes are beautiful, but there is a low yield due to the lack of rain. Get back to me later on and I'll tell you more :) "

- Natalino Crognaletti

LE DUE TERRE, Prepotto, Friuli

"For someone who is in his 50's, harvest used to be associated with the first day of school. Long ago it was October 1st. In these 40 years many things have changed, including the weather. The smell of summer, lucid air, strong sun, singing cicadas, are all now part of our harvest, even here in Friuli! This change has brought us our first vintage that we were unprepared for, literally and emotionally. However, we have learned a new way of talking to our vineyards; remembering what our grandparents used to say, and adding our own new personal experiences.

As producers of natural wine, it has been a difficult year. It required an extraordinary amount of patience and hard work.

This season in Friuli, and especially in the Colli Orientali region, has been characterized by a warm spring with very little rain. In April we had high temperatures (summer like), followed by a very wet and cold July that kept us incredibly busy in the vineyard. We had to monitor daily the health and cleanliness of the fruit. Our neighbor producer had heavy hail, and some other nearby producers lost the entire vintage. Luckily the hail missed our vineyards.

This is the beauty of this small region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. We don't have "one and only" microclimate, but many! The proximity of the sea and the mountains with different air streams and temperatures can make the difference. Even during tragic events like hail, some areas are destroyed and others untouched.

August sun, dry days, and the lack of rain made the grapes and the pips and tannins ripen quickly. August 28th we called our trustworthy harvesters, we sharpened our scissors, and the morning of the 29th we started the harvest of Pinot Nero 2011. In the first few days of September we harvested Tocai Friulano and Ribolla Gialla for our Sacrisassi Bianco. After a 10 day break we were ready to harvest the Merlot.

The weather was still beautiful. Hot days were swept by soft wines. Grapes were beautiful and smiled at us. It has been a relaxed harvest and we weren't forced to "steal" the grapes from the plant, like it has happened at times in the past. Our land is wonderful, but can also be difficult.

We will next harvest Refosco and Schioppetino at the end of September.

Meanwhile Flavio, like a lighthouse guardian, is everyday meticulously checking his grapes. Prunning leaves back to expose the grapes to the sun, and picking out the small green berries that didn't ripen on the Schioppettino. He also has been doing some fruit dropping and the bunches that are less, 'perfect'. He tries to simplify the work of the harvesters that will have to gather only what is left by Flavio on the plant.

Let's hope the weather will be nice until the end of harvest. Until now we are very satisfied with the results. When we take the wine off the skins after the fermentation, we will know a lot more about this vintage. Meanwhile our fingers are crossed. Being farmers, we know that we must be humble; only when the wine is ready will we be able to toast to our success!

Here at Le Due Terre harvest is still a moment of happiness and an occasion to celebrate together. Everyday we cook something special and have lunch together. Old friends sit at the table under the old porch sharing this moment of happiness together. Everyone hoping that it will be a GREAT VINTAGE"

- Silvana Forte and Flavio Basilicata

VINI LA FAVOLA, Noto, Sicilia

"Harvest has been very good. Grapes have a good quality even if in Sicily the vineyards have been attacked by downy mildew all summer long. Never the less however, the vines have produced less and smaller bunches, so the overall production resulted in half of last years quantity. The harvest was early, and for us has already finished."

- Corrado and Valeria Gurrieri

CAPRANDOLE, Pontassieve, Tuscany

"Here after a nice season until mid August, harvest arrived in extremely hot weather and drought! We worked the land at the right moment, so the vineyards suffered very little from the drought and the grapes ripened correctly. It has been a very awkward season and I can't really predict how this is going to affect the quality of this vintage. Right now all seems fine even if I harvested only 5 tons of Sangiovese of the Bocciole vineyards. This vineyard hasn't been in production since 2006 so I'm really happy with the fruit from this 40 year old vineyard. Even if the yield is low, I've been putting a lot of effort into cultivating it.

I made a strict selection of the other Sangiovese and Merlot for the Tirle. The latter looks wonderful. I believe that by September 24th, everything will be ready in the cellar ready for fermentation and I'm confident that the results will be very good as long as these last two weeks don't hold any surprises!"

- Thomas Colella

SAN MARTINO, Forenza, Basilicata

"The season had been pretty steady until June, then we had lots of rain and a very cold July. Very unusual. However, we were pretty much on course. The veraison was completed just slightly before mid August, then from mid August the temperatures jumped, with a lot of sun, and with days that were over 100 degrees Farhenheit. Vines suffered a little from the heat, but luckily we had 3 days of rain that helped us breath again. We usually harvest in mid-October and so we are going to be forced to advance our plans. We hope to have at least 10 days more of lower temperatures. At night, temperatures drop to 59 degrees. Uf everything goes well, we won't have to start our harvest until the end of September. Meanwhile, we keep on looking at the sky. A farmer should be brave and courageous... however, it's still scary!"

- Lorenzo Piccin

IULI, Monferrato, Piedmont

"This year the whims of the climate influenced the harvest. It started off well in the spring, with rain and good temperatures, a cold July, and then a really really hot August and September. Fortunately we didn't suffer any drought. Therefore we ended up harvesting around 7-10 days ahead of traditional vintages. The quality of the grapes is very good, very aromatic, a lot of color, it is only unfortunately the yield that is inferior to the norm. Pinot Nero was harvested on the 29th of August, and I was really happy after racking after the fermentation finished. From the 15th of September on we started on the Barbera, and it seems we are working with a really good quality. We harvested the Nebbiolo on the 21st. It's too early to say, we are only still fermenting, however it seems we have good things in the cellar, not a lot, but good! Happy harvest to all!!"

- Fabrizio Iuli

The sunset from our front door on one of the last day's of harvest... fitting :)

Bringing 'Baby' Home a Week Early: Nino is in the House!!

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 12:13:00 +0000

The cellar, tanks, crates, tractors, pumps, hoses, de-stemmer, pruning shears, gloves, teams of pickers... all part of the preperation for harvest. Then, there is the mental preparation that the 'big show' is about to start... and the next two months are the cumulation of a years work all concentrated in anywhere from 4-8 weeks. This means cooking meals for teams of 12-20, little sleep, Fabrizio being somewhat 'out of his mind,' and basically 'back to bedlam,' as sexy James Blunt says.

This year she snuck up on us, we barely had time to get the cellar ready before this relentless dry heat and sunshine required us to bring the Pinot Nero in... let alone wrap our heads around the fact that it was already harvest time! Fabrizio didn't even have time to do an chemical analysis on the grapes (not that he usually does anyway), he just took one taste and look and said, "in they go!"

Nino, planted in '99 on the north side of the estate, at about 300m, with the Alps in the background...killer real esate!!

Unfortunately we were hit with hail in July, and while our Barbera vineyards weren't affected, Nino did not fare as well. So, in combination with the hot weather, low yield and being already our earliest maturing variety, 2011 will be a record setter on two fronts;

Date of Pinot harvest: 8/29/2011

Total picking time: 1 hectare, 11 pickers, 2.5 hours

The march down... (it's steeper than it looks)

The Cast: 5 Moldavians, 2 Americans, 6 Italians
(I think the Americans and Moldavians helped with the record setting)!

The 'Babies'... "Nino" (for those of you that I haven't told yet) means baby in Piemontese dialect

This was a lot more painful than it looks... the little bastard skeeters don't photograph well!

We were so busy getting the cellar, and everything else ready this weekend, that we forgot the bug spray. It got ugly out there, and the mosquitos definitely won this battle... but we'll be ready and armed for when we are knee deep in the Barbera trenches!

At 9:30AM we were back at the ranch sipping coffee, covered in battle wounds from the 'skeeters', but barely warmed up by the AM sun.

We'll have a little break, maybe 10 days to two weeks before the Barbera is ready... so even though we weren't necessarily mentally ready for the anticipated picking, we'll have some time to prepare before the next round!

However party people, it's on... finally, HARVEST TIME!!!

To be continued....

Safe at home...

'La Conserva'; Tomato Sauce and Nebbiolo allocations...

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 09:50:00 +0000

August in Montaldo means many things; the calm before the storm in the vineyards, getting the cellar ready for the 'big show' (borrowing Kevin Costners famous line from Bull Durham), a layer of mosquitos that are of a special malevolent Piemontese breed, the sound, sight and smell of 'heat' omnipresent every day in everything you do (no AC in Montaldo folks)... and last but not least, a bright spot in the horizon, the month Fabrizio's mother makes, "La Conserva," that will get us through the rest of the year.

The heat...

The day was chosen, Friday the 19th, the tomato's were ordered, 50 Kilos, and the human sized pot was dragged out and dusted off from last years batch. We hand cleaned the 50 Kilos of tomatoes one by one, basically polishing them with a damp cloth. They are the variety we call 'Roma' tomatoes in the US, but here are called 'perette' or 'little pear' tomatoes. Mariuccia (Fabrizio's mother) uses these because they have the least amount of water concentration. I then understood better why we were hand polishing each tomato rather than dumping them in a sink... just like cleaning mushrooms; water is the enemy.
Once shined up, we quartered them and threw them into the cauldron.

Mariuccia teaching the next generation

Amanda, our 'Intern,' approximately half way through the 50 kilos...
(Note: Amanda is interning at Iuli for wine making, not pasta sauce making)

The cauldron was then put on it's on special burner set up outside, attached to a propane tank. From that moment on it is all about stirring stirring stirring, keeping the buggers from sticking to the bottom. Then, as the tomatoes reduce, it's time to add, in no particular order:

2 Kilos of Carrots
1.5 Kilos of Celery
7-8 Onions
1 Bunch of Parsley
3-4 Heads of Garlic, Peeled, Whole Cloves
Rosmary
Basil
Salt

Stir some more...

The adding of the parsley... a big moment!

The pot started cooking at around 10:30 in the AM, we pulled it off around 5:30. Always stirring.

Once pulled off Mariuccia added sugar to balance out the acidity of the tomatoes. After letting it cool about 1 hour, we started ladling the mixture into the 'passavedure' or food mills. We then manually turned and turned, cranked and cranked, grinding the 'soup' together and leaving the skins, seeds and stems out, and leaving with us a velvety, scrumptious, tomato sauce. The final step was jarring.

I asked Mariuccia if she had altered the recipe at all in all of her years, and she said, 'nooohhh,' with a touch of 'why would you ask such a question' in her eyes and smile. She then said, I've been doing this same sauce for 56 years, at least once every year, starting when I was a young girl and had to help my mom...

"It's good, simple, why would you change it?"

There is so much wisdom in that response, I had to laugh at my own question, and tell her she was absolutely right, and that I wouldn't change it either :).

The entire project lasted a full day, we took a break around 11:00 for bread and salami (obviously) and a quick glass of fresh white wine to wash it down, then we all ate lunch together at 1:00, a little break after lunch, and finished up that evening. The jarring was done after dinner. With 50 Kilos of tomatoes we ended up with only 30 jars of 'la conserva' to last two families all year long. This allocation of 15 jars made me nervous, and got me to thinking about 'allocations'.

In thinking about allocating out these 15 jars of la conserva for the rest of the year, I started thinking about allocations in wine. We recently had to start allocating out the Bocchino's entry level Nebbiolo, 'Roccabella'. We started with the 2008 vintage, and there were 500 cases. They sold out in 8 months, and it was the first vintage ever produced of this label. The wine took off this winter, and before we knew it there was 30 cases left, and all of our distributors and NY clients were writing emails and calling wanting 100+ cases more, as the wine in a matter of months had been placed in restaurants by the glass across the country. We quickly shipped the 2009, of which there was a little more... 700 cases, and we are already half way through that in 2-3 months.

It is our number one selling wine, and the reason for that is easy; It's good, simple, and he is not trying to 'change' it (sound familiar). It is pure Nebbiolo from a place, no bells or whistles, made by two people that know Nebbiolo almost as well as Mariuccia knows her 'conserva'. It is priced fairly, so that everyone can enjoy it.

The tricky part is making enough that everyone get's some, and can have a good run with it, enjoy it, and then if they have to wait a month or two until the next vintage comes in ... well, we think that's ok, and will make it taste that much better when it does come back. We eat seasonally, and why wouldn't we also drink seasonally!

We've allocated the 2009 out between our distributors across the county as well as in NY/NJ, and so just like we know we have only 30 jars of la conserva to get us through the winter, these guys know how much Roccabella they have to get them through the winter as well.

If there were endless supplies of Roccabella and La Conserva, they would be found on grocery store shelves, and discount stores, and not, instead, just in our own private cellars.

Peace,

Summer

Androgynous and Ambiguous - Not Adjectives for Wine...

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Tue, 17 May 2011 16:07:00 +0000

We created a game 6 years ago called, 'who is this wine,' where we had to 'name' the wine that we were drinking, ie; Clint Eastwood vs Clark Gable, Selma Hayek vs. Sigourney Weaver. Not only was it about whether the wine was male or female, but also what kind of personality the wine had. Obviously you can not play this game with wines that don't tell you anything about who they are...

This past week I attended two tastings; one was a double blind tasting of 6 white wines, and the other was during a trip to Val d'Aosta, where at one of the estates we did a tasting of 24 varietal based wines, 8 of which were white. I can't begin to describe how different these tastings were.

The blind tasting was ridiculous, Fabrizio and I taste wines almost every day, often from all over Italy, and at times from all over Europe. These were ALL Italian wines, and we were not able to identify ONE, and the sad part was, we were not even able to identify correctly and with certainty the region. To be honest, at first we looked at one another remarking, 'wow, we really suck,' then as we listened to the rest of the 'tasters,' re-tasted, re-nosed, again, and again, and again... we realized something (besides the fact that we were starting to catch a serious buzz from trying so hard to peg these wines).

All these wines were TRYING to be something, they were manipulated, none spoke of a particular terrior, none had the typical characteristics that you jump out at you and say, "I'M VERDICCHIO AND I'M PROUD." We could smell the sulfur, we could smell and feel the wood, we could tell that there were a lot of aromas jumping out that were from selected yeasts, aging vessels, vinification methods, instead of from the climate, variety and age of the wine. One wine a few of us were certain was from Tuscany, and around the 2001 mark (and I was hedging on a Merlot, there were NO tannins, and very low acidity and little to no fruit left, so not Cab, or Sangiovese)... it was a 2007 Nebbiolo from northern Piedmont!! Upon seeing the sneaky smirk on the sommelier leading the tasting's face when we made our 'guess,' Fabrizio said;

"Please please please don't tell me this wine is a Nebbiolo!"

It was an insult to Nebbiolos.... we sent a silent apology to all the other Nebbiolos that we know and love.

I named this wine 'Pat' from SNL!

It is easy to understand immediately a wine when you are given some facts up front, when you are looking at the label and variety, and you know, or you can guess and/or see more or less what kind of estate it is, whether they produce wines naturally or use chemicals and selected yeasts. Whether their production is 500,000 bottles a year, or 50,000 bottles a year. Whether it is a farmer and/or artist making the wine, or a celebrity, politician or businessman. Whether the wine was born out of a family history and passion for a terrior, or born out of the desire to make money, get the 'points,' and hence some fame.

Point is, we did not correctly guess one.

On the other hand, at the tasting in Val d'Aosta, the wines were honest, while the 'producer' was actually 'Institut Agricole Regional/Aoste' (an agricultural institute and learning foundation), and the vineyards are not farmed organically (they use herbicide, sucked), they do however try to work with their varieties and with respect to their beautiful land and backdrop. The scope of this school (more or less) is learning which terrior each variety wants, working and learning about the indigenous varieties of Val d'Aosta, and how and each needs to be managed in the vineyards as well as in the cellar. This school does not make any money on the sale of these wines, but the money for the sale of all of these wines go back into the foundation to pay for the costs, the students and the employees. It is non profit so to speak. This is another telling piece in why the difference, the wines were 'grown' and 'vinified' in order to learn more about these varieties in particular terrior... not to please a particular audience. The wines that spoke to us were; Petit Arvine, the Pinot Gris as well as the Monchoisi which was a classic method sparkling wine made from 50% Chardonnay and 50% Pinot Noir (this last wine being the biggest surprise ... it was beautiful, balanced, playful, pleasing and not ostentatious, what a nice refreshing change in a classic method wine). I could smell and taste these varieties, and although all 8 were from the same estate, and the same region, they could not have been each more unique and his/her own. The only disappointment was the Pinot Noir, that would have been a wine for the previously mentioned blind tasting that was full of all the ambiguous and androgynous wines...

Point and lesson for me; if you can't find the varietal in the glass, at least something that tell's you it's him or her, on the nose, in the mouth, on the finish - hell, even in the color... change wines!

-Summer

Val d'Aosta line up

Stolen Recipe; Easy Cheese Dressed in Black Tie...

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Mon, 02 May 2011 12:18:00 +0000

I love eating, I love cooking, and I love discovering new 'outfits' for my favorite ingredients...

As my grandmother once watched me eat a salad in a shopping mall in southern Florida, she commented, "I've never seen anyone actually ENJOY their food as much as you do," good thing it was only a 'mall' salad, and she has never seen me 'go to town,' so to speak, here in Italy, on carne cruda, or oven roasted cinghiale!

While all of us 'gourmands' seem to find time to enjoy eating our food... we may not be able to find as much time to 'make' it.

Having my own company, running an agriturismo (aka Bed & Breakfast, and yes, yours truly prepares the breakfast), and daily life here 'on the farm/winery' with a constant stream of visitors and guests does NOT leave a lot of time for me to experiment with recipes, and study cookbooks. So when I find something new, that is wonderful and easy - I am all about it.

We recently had dinner at Fabrizio's partners house, Umberta & Gad Lerner, and Umberta served an herbed fresh cheese that blew me away. It was so simple, yet aesthetically beautiful, seasonal, and so delicious it was massacred in no time, with no traces left ... we soaked up the left over oil and herbs with bread.

It's this easy:

1. Fresh Herbs; Rosemary, Chives, Thyme (I used lemon thyme as well), Oregano, San Pietro (which is indigenous to this region of Piedmont), Mint (I used a few different types), Sage, and anything else you have or find in your garden or market...

2. Rough chop the herbs, drizzle a fair amount of a GOOD quality olive oil over a fresh cheese. I used a fresh goat Robiola, which by definition; an Italian soft-ripened cheese made with varying proportions of cow's, goat's and sheep's milk. Then sprinkle the herbs.

3. And serve with toast points...Voila!

So for those of you with little time, a love of food and 'impressive' looking appetizers that you can whip up in less than 10 minutes, here you go - steal away ...

I recommend from the Indie Wine list these pairings;

- 2008 La Colombera Timorasso Derthona: Sharp acidity to cut the fat in the cheese, herbal minerality to pair with the fresh herbs, and a structure to stand up to the complexity of the fresh herb mixture

- 2010 Arndorfer Vorgeshmack: Herbal wine for an herbal dish... the acidity and freshness of the 2010 Gruner is a perfect match for the fresh Robiola.

- 2009 San Lorenzo Verdicchio 'Vigna del Gino': The natural creaminess of Verdicchio is a perfect pairing to the cheese, and the salinity of the variety is also perfect to compliment the herbs and olive oil.

Enjoy!

Sunday De-BOCCE-ry in Montaldo...

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 07:57:00 +0000

So as I mentioned in my first post... not every single post is going to be about wine, but low and behold I couldn't keep it out of this one either, however there is a touch of 'Italian Culture' sprinkled in.

Sunday; we all have a different reason for the love hate relationship. For the majority of the working public it is a 'relax' day, but at the same time, the LAST day of the weekend which is in the air all day - the fact that the dreaded Monday is a nights sleep away. For many Sunday is either adored (men) or abhorred (most women) for the American pig skin, aka Football, and the same goes for the fried food and beer that seems to be a mandatory 'pairing'. Sunday seems the perfect day to run errands with your partner, but as you arrive at your destination you utter, 'what the @#@$^$% was I thinking', EVERYONE had the same brilliant idea you did, so the parking and lines tend to send those of us with low tolerance for crowds over the edge. As a child I remember hating Sundays because it meant dad watching football all day, so there were no cartoon's for us or outings because he had to see the game, and it was early to bed because school was the next day.... nothing fun about any of that!

My dear mother however helped change Sunday's when we decided to start using the day as a 'cooking' day, and together we baked bread, made soups, and baked desserts. Well... Mom was unknowingly getting me ready for life here at Cascina Iuli.

On the table above:

Peach tart I made with peaches from the 'La Colombera' orchard, cookies from the left over tart dough, and homemade pasta Fabrizio's mother and I made.

Sunday in Italy is about cooking all morning for the big 'pranzo,' and then sitting down for hours and hours eating and drinking, talking and smoking, drinking some more, maybe some coffee thrown in, and then maybe the cheese and meats even come back out again depending on the crowd and the wine consumption. This past Sunday, Fabrizio and I invited the owners of our favorite restaurant in Torino, Il Consorzio, http://www.ristoranteconsorzio.it/, our Italian national distributor from Les Caves de Pyrene Christian, and his lovely girlfriend Hanna, as well our neighbors and fellow wine lovers the Cesca brothers, Cascina Tavijn producer Nadia Verrua, and Roccalini Barbaresco producer Paulo Veglio and photographer Laura Tessera, and Fabrizio's daughter Sofia. Fabrizio decided he wanted Bollito (which you can refer back to the blog about the cold morning with the Bue grasso for the recipe), and so Bollito it was:

In the picture:

Tongue, head and intestine... needless to say I was less than thrilled with this part of the meal, Fabrizio's daughter courageously 'peeled' the tongue before serving... GROSS!

The lunch started at 1:00, and the first bottle was opened... and here is the WINE part:

A Saint-Aubin 1er Cru '"En Remilly," a mag, that Christian brought, it was lovely. Beautiful expression of Chard.

From there we opened a Grignolino from Cascina Tavijn that Nadia brought. Nadia is the producer, and she is a very talanted one at that... it is not easy to find GOOD Grignolino, but she makes it seem easy ... the color and body of a Pinot, but while still floral, more rustic and simple than Pinot, great acidity, and a great red for a first course and for warm weather.

Then a mag of 2007 Roccalini Barbaresco was popped, absolutely beautiful, a Barbaresco 'for the people,' charming and friendly with just the right amount of complexity. Even in a mag it was drinking 'now.'

Finally the famous 2004 Iuli Barabba in mag was brought out. Fabrizio bottled 400 mags in 2004 that he wanted to set aside for release in 2014 (I don't know how many will actually be left in 2014 at the rate we like to consume them ourselves with our friends). He states that a vintage like 2004 may come around only once in the lifetime of a producer, and so he wanted to do something special... this bottling was from a certain section of the old vineyard that had an incredibly high fixed acidity and incredible concentration. This is a wine that you start worrying about the prospect of there being none left before you take your second sip.

From here I lost track (because I was busy trying to keep up with the dishes and back end of the lunch)... and bottles started getting popped left and right. A quick coffee, and the BOCCE balls came out. Two teams, two hours, one throw, and then 10 minutes playing, and in good Italian spirit, 20 minutes debating over whether team A or team B's ball is closer. My team won, 13-3 (I've grown quite affectionate towards the game, it's not just for old Italian men :).

The eating, drinking, eating, drinking more, and then the 2 hours of 'exercise' chucking metal balls in our courtyard, finished around 7:00. Half the guests left, and the other half moved inside and I used the broth from the boiled meat to make a pastina in brodo for dinner with a salad and some 48 month old parmigano. It was the meal that kept on giving...

Moral of the story, the idea of a 'relaxing' Sunday here in Italy, forget about it... I'm not saying it wasn't fun, but let's just say it reminded me a little too much of my waitressing days when I worked doubles to pay the bills - only this time there was not a 'dishwasher' in the back to help me out!

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Our recycling bin see's no sleep...

The Lessons of Veal Tartare

noreply@blogger.com (Christian) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:27:00 +0000

A breathtaking lunch in Barolo hosted by Eugenio and Cinzia Bocchino last week. Wines were pulled back to the 2002 vintage. Many have reported a tough vintage in 2002 for Piedmont in general, but the Bocchino's 2002 La Perucca simply brought the house down at the end. As Kermit used to say: COMBAT VINTAGE CHART MENTALITY!

The first course of the lunch was veal tartare prepared in two ways. The first, on the left, was a modern expression. Perfect veal, finely chopped, seasoned with salt and pepper and finished with sea salt. The second, on the right, was the old Piedmontese preparation in which the veal is ground several times, and in the preparation a small amount of finely chopped garlic is added along with both lemon juice and olive oil.

There is no right way. I finished both preparations and was satisfied by both equally. Some slightly preferred the modernist version, some the more traditional. But, what everyone did discuss was the quality and the subtle but very obvious distinctions in both. I don't think I saw a single plate that wasn't empty.

I saw this picture yesterday and thought- there's a greater story here regarding wine and choice in general. There are many schools in wine these days. The Modernists. The Traditionalists. The Natural Wine School. The small grower school. Etc...Each of these distinctions and schools has little to do with identifying a wine's quality, and has everything to do with selling wine. Yes, even the natural wine folks...talk to winemakers who work naturally and the one's who've been doing it for a long timesimply talk about their farming techniques; they rarely if ever mention natural farming or winemaking in order to qualify what they are doing. That's a sales / marketing thing.

Summer and I constantly look at our growers and our portfolio in the frame of how we tell the story. I think it's best told like the veal tartares. Taste! Taste! Taste! Just taste. You may find you prefer the more old school, traditional winemaking. You may find you like the modernista style. I think the more you taste the less you will try and categorize a grower's work, and the more you will fall in love with the grower themselves and their body of work. You will be excited to see how that grower fares when the next 2002 comes around.

No its not about modernists or traditionalists, natural or conventional here at Indie. It's only about one thing here at Indie- the quality of what's put in front of you.

Taste and enjoy, and decide for yourself.

Cheers!

Christian

Delicious Sicily

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 08:02:00 +0000

It started with fresh tuna crusted in local pistachio's, and ended with an oversized cannoli that I'll never forget... and in between- lot's of amazing people, colors, wind, sun, rain and of course, indigenous grape varieties that stole my heart!

How do I not ramble on about the last 48 hours that I spent in Sicily, this is my present challenge. I will do so by doing a top 10, just like Letterman - who doesn't have time to read all ten! Then, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

In chronological order, not in order of importance:

1. Our first day with producer Corrado Gurrieri of 'Vini la Favola,' exploring and breaking into an old abandoned, ingenious wine making facility called a 'Palmento' built in the 1700's. Over 300 years ago in Sicily they were already making wine working with gravity on four levels, all in cement.

2. Stealing 'roadside' artichokes with Corrado. 'Roadkill' for vegetarians??

4. The homecooked lunch Corrado's wife Valeria prepared, which we added a last minute menu addition of our vegetarian roadkill to, aka, Artichokes. Their own olive oil doused all over everything was absolutely incredible... and we had 'Italian Bread' done right, what a difference to that stuff you buy already bagged in the grocery store! It was like crack... we couldn't stop eating it!

5. Frappato; it's incredibly expressive and pleasing fruit filled nose that jumps out of the glass, a super playful easy wine that is immediately likable. It is believed that Frappato is a cross between Sangiovese and another unidentified Italian variety. Frappato also is 30-50% of the constituent of Sicily's ONLY DOCG, Cerasuolo di Vittoria, the rest being Nero d'Avola. ALL three of Corrado's wines (his 100% Nero d'Avola is amazing, Noto is the home and birthplace of Nero d'Avola, and it is evident in this wine) were intriguing and exciting, especially for two 'northern Italianer's'. We have a new member of the Indie Wineries club - and I can't wait for you all to taste!!

6. The Colors:

7. Our fearless leaders, our own Stefano Borsa (of Pacina), and enologist Fabrizio Tomas... who were a constant source of laughter and information (they have been friends since 'boydom') - and grazie to them we were able to meet these talented and special producers and enjoy Sicily from the backseat of our rent-a-car with no stress of getting lost.
Here they are, frick and frack, with producer Marchesi De Gregorio (Marchesi is in the middle):

8. Our visit to the absolutely breathtaking estate of, 'Porta del Vento,' with producer Marco Sferlazzo. The, 'taking of our breath' was due to the incredible backdrop of this estate, combined with the 39 knot winds blowing - threatening to lift us off our feet. Porta del Vento means "door of the wind," ... wan't hard for them to come up with that name.

9. Our visit to Valdibella... a cooperative of 6 partners that all have their own vineyards built as a project combined with a 'community' that houses boys from 14-18 that come from troubled families. The boys help in the cellar, and the cooperative helps finance the community house. Five of the 6 partners showed us around, tasted us through the new vintages in the cellar, and then we all sat down for a 'grilled lunch' prepared for us by the boys. We found a Rose that was just perfect, some very cool Grillo and Cataratto, and a single vineyard of one of the most elegant Cabernet's I've ever tasted. The entire visit was like a scene out of a movie, Camporeale is in the heart of 'mafia' country, and these guy's are not without related problems, but they have a spirit and sense of humor and vigor for life here in their hills that they adore that is contagious.

10. I CANNOLI!!

Valeria Brings Wine to Class

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:27:00 +0000

Our own Valeria's first post...

Thirty years ago I was a student at El Segundo High, California. At the end of the first semester I had to attend speech class because I could no longer play volleyball (I was too lame at it!). So the teacher, the best of all, Mrs. Jeanette Leneman, told me to prepare a speech, on whatever it was important to me as an Italian exchange student to the US. I was reluctant, but I had to. I could not bring pizza to class, it was too obvious, and by the way, I hated that "pizza and mandolino" thing. So I talked about something else, something distant and mysterious when you are 17, but still so entwined with being an Italian. I got up and walked to the podium and I poured a glass of red wine. My classmates jaws dropped simultaneously. They could not believe at what they were looking at. Speechless. The class was soooooo silent! Then one of my classmates said "Why is she allowed to bring booze?"

I turned to Mrs Leneman who was smiling. "It's ok Vale", she said, "Go ahead, you didn't know that you can not carry an open bottle of alcohol at school." Mrs Leneman was my hero at the time, infact, she was one of the few people around to know what prosciutto was.

"Alcohol?" I said, "I brought it in because of its color and its smell. It's like being at home."
It was, and still is. Dad had always wine at the table and during summer Grampa mixed it for you with water to make you feel like a grown up. Grampa used to yell at Grandma for doing so with her wine. You could not water down such a good thing as much as you wouldn't water down meat broth or gravy.

So much for my exchange student experience. 30 years later I was the one to teach to a class of entry-level English and I thought, let's talk about wine in English class, it'll be less boring. We opened two bottles of Iuli Rossore and ate cheese, salami and breadsticks. My students were really happy and learned a lot of new words. I hoped that after the second glass they would have the guts to speak more English, but I had to push for the third… They didn't know that only half an hour away from where they lived, Fabrizio Iuli was making such a great wine. We had fun and, and once again, we discovered one of the wonderful wines our country has to offer. Wine is something we Italians all grew up with and, and sometimes we forget to appreciate.

1st Annual Indie Wineries Road Show, "The Coming Out Party"... the credits

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 23:06:00 +0000

The party started in Pennsylvania with our distributor, The Artisans Cellar. Scott and Federico did an amazing job setting up two impeccable events.

Thank you to:

- Steve Wildly and his awesome pallet and hospitality, fluent Italian speaking and incredibly talented chef Jeff Michaud (thank you so much for that pork dish... WOW, still thinking about it, and the Italians were stupefied :) and the entire Vetri group, especially the staff at Osteria, that not only worked the event beautifully, but are all fellow wine geeks! Indie Wineries is thrilled and honored to be a part of your restaurants!

- Scott and Donna and all of your hard work, Donna thank you for sharing your husband with us for the week :), and Fede... for putting up with all of us, your tireless commitment to TAC and Indie is inspiring! Scott, thank you for your amazing generosity and passion, it is contagious and always a pleasure to be around! We will never forget our incredible bowling evening, and Elisa from "La Colombera's" .0005 mile per hour strike! Go team Indie! Scott, maybe we should reserve some lanes now for next year!

After a week in PA, we all took a bus (somewhat giddy and exhausted already), back to NY to fly out of JFK to Denver, landing in Denver at midnight.
Colorado went to fast for all of us (next year we need to dedicate a few more 'fun' days), but as always beautiful, and this time covered in a fresh blanket of snow (actually powder, that for us skiers was slightly painful). In colorado we would like to thank:

- The Kitchen Restaurant for hosting our Boulder tasting, it was non stop and filled with great folks from start to finish, and the space was perfect, bright, cheery, intimate and friendly. We hope you had as much fun as we did... and we are still thankful that Elisa's wines arrived in time! I was definitely sweating tears on that one, and running down Pearl street after the fed ex man in heel's is something I'll never forget. Maya - thanks for being there girl, you kept me sane :)

- The Frasca team, ALL OF YOU! Thank you Bobby Stucky and Lachlan Patterson for hosting us the evening of the 'big game' at the new Pizzeria... straight from the producers mouths, the pizza was better than they are used to in Italy! Thank you as well Benjamin Richardson and Matthew Mather for your stellar pallets and constant support of the Indie Wineries - AND to the entire staff at Frasca for hosting the Le Due Terre dinner, the food and wine pairing was incredible... Silvana felt, 'At Home'! That was a special dinner for all of us afterwards... and one we look forward to repeating next year! The service was impeccable as usual :)

- Our talented friends at the new Boulder hot spot, 'Oak,' and our own Mike Joyce for setting up and co- hosting a dinner, that for a snowy, freezing, February evening was what seemed a 'sold out' Iuli wine dinner! The food rocked, and the place does too... we can't wait to come back, awesome energy and congratulations to you all! Thank you!

- To Brad at Primo Vino, Shelly at Bella Bistro, Steve at City Wine, the Italian Institute at Piatti, and of course Davin and the staff at Tag Restaurant in Denver for hosting and organizing our tasting, again, we were up against the elements, and we still managed to have a room full of great wino's eager to taste and learn!

- Finally to the Bowen family of five for having us, and just being flat out awesome! Rock on Natural Wine Company!!

The last leg took us to the one and only LAS VEGAS, smack in the middle of the strip at the Bellagio! It was the first time in Vegas for all the producers, as well as for Christian... all were astounded, as it is quite a long way from the vineyards and hills of their home lands. No one won... but no one lost that much either, so I guess you can say it was a draw! Thank you to:

- The entire staff of Sensi at Bellagio for hosting the last portfolio tasting of the trip. It was absolutely a perfect ending, a full room - and attentive, and of course professional, clientele (we don't know how they behave after hours, but everyone was very well behaved for the tasting). The light 'fare' offered at the tasting was just perfect as well :)

- Jason Smith, my dear friend, and wine director (and coolest dude in a suit) of the Bellagio who introduced me to our distributor Patrick Pretz, partner and 'the man' of Crush wines.

- Jay Beattie, owner/partner of Crush wines for making the trip down from Seattle, as well as 'making copies' all morning so our guests had tasting guides :) It was a great tasting guide Jay!

- Art Podneisinski of 'The Intern' wines, our dear friend, and first 'cali' producer... for meeting us there and bringing your wonderful energy to the event!

- Jim Neal and Allison Millhollen from N2 wines for making the long drive to join us for the tasting (yes I said drive... from San Francisco, in one shot)! We LOVED having you!

- Jared Hooper, my old friend and colleague, for showing up from LA (also drove), perfectly attired in bright red pants, a purple sweater and yellow golf tee (essentially, the only one not in a suit). When everyone asked 'where did that guy come from,' it was my pleasure to say with a grin, 'he's with us' :)

- to John Curtas for his awesome blog and write up on the event: http://www.eatinglv.com/2011/02/indie-wineries-tasting/ - John, I want to make the hot hostess list!

- To Patrick Pretz for making it all happen, and for placing Indie Wineries on some of the coolest wine lists on the strip! Crush wines... making it happen, one small (hehe) casino and resort at a time!

- Finally, a HUGE thank you to Alexi Cashen and Tim Elenteny, our importers, colleagues and friends, for all their support and help in making this all happen. The wine did not arrive to all the different destinations alone - Alexi, we owe you big time, next year hopefully we won't have to count on the 'pony express' and it will be a little easier on all of us :)

That's all folks... we hope to do it all again next year, but of course - bigger and better :), hope to see you ALL THERE!

Indie in Vegas!

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 21:20:00 +0000

A great write-up of the recent Indie Wineries tasting by John Curtas of the Eating Las Vegas website.

Thanks John!

Benvenuti a Osteria

noreply@blogger.com (Christian) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 01:00:00 +0000

A huge Indie Wineries thanks to Scott Braunschweig and Federico Dall'Olmo of Artisan Cellar in Pennsylvania. Some of the greatest hospitality we've ever experienced.

A dinner to be remembered courtesy of Scott at Osteria (www.osteriaphilly.com) in Philadelphia last night...

The Menu

Antipasti

porchetta tonnato with arugula, celery, and parmigiano

quail "al mattone" with persimmon, curley endive, and honey vinaigrette

wood grilled octopus, cured lemon, potato and chives

Primi

robiola francobolli "postage stamp ravioli" with royal trumpet mushrooms and thyme

chicken liver rigatoni with cipollini onions and sage

Secondi

wild swordfish with chickpea polenta and calabrese salami

house aged rib-eye "fiorentina" with corona beans and wilted winter greens

Dolci

polenta "budino" with gianduia mousse and candied hazelnuts

chocolate flan with pistacchio gelato

The wines: INDIES

The Last Waltz

noreply@blogger.com (Christian) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:47:00 +0000

I have to share....

Yesterday, here in New York and certainly on Long Island, was an absolute mess of a day for the weather. Slushiness, snow piled high, that dark brown/black ice sludge that gets thrown everywhere from people, cars, and trucks pushing and plowing their way to move just a little. It was a day to stay home...

I didn't. I got in the Prius and headed out into the great white adventure land to see some clients, taste some wine, and generally be out there telling the Indie story. After my first stop, a great friend and client- Mr Sean Gantner, Wine Director for the Mill Pond House group- texted me to confirm our afternoon appointment per the bad weather.

"Yes!", I replied- en route that afternoon! But it turned out that after my first stop I was actually right around the corner from his house. "Taste Chez Gantner?" I asked? Sure he said, and I drove over.

Sean is a music lover- a collector, really. He has acquired the single greatest collection of Grateful Dead music I have ever seen. Spools I tell you. Any concert, anywhere, with a catalog that will tell you the exact set list, date, details, etc...

So, I entered his home and there on his large flat screen was playing The Band's The Last Waltz directed by Martin Scorsese. Surround sound on, and honestly it was like almost turning back the clock and being front stage. We got out the Riedels and took our time tasting through the eight bottles I had brought.

The tasting went amazing. Unrushed. Alternating between talking about the wine, life, food, and then stopping for minutes on end just to marvel at the great piece of music history that was playing before us. It was the way a tasting should be.

Big thank you to Sean Gantner for his hospitality and opening his home. And yes, I downloaded The Band's Bink Pink album from 1968 as soon as I came home.

The Market

noreply@blogger.com (Christian) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 14:46:00 +0000

I think I almost died twice...

I have never been more attached to my GPS than this week, bobbing and weaving my little golf cart-like Prius through the backstreets of Brooklyn in search of this store and that store I had read about online. GPS firmly in my hand, placed front and center in my visage above the wheel, I was turned around more often than not (sorry, but satellite signals are not absolute), and after a long but good day I drove home back across Long Island. The ride allowed me to think a lot about my time management, but more importantly about Indie Wineries, about selling Indie, and about the correct path we want to take in growing the business.

Many clients have asked me where I see the wine market going in the near future, and the more I think about it, I see a very clear polarization happening.

One side of the businesses are moving heavy toward a franchise, or in-house franchise mentality. They're systematizing their business, drilling down on every cost to become more efficient, and squeezing more out of what they have by simplifying. In their wine, price has moved up to first or second place on their categorical list of what's important when buying. And what they bring to market is a view of wine that is the tried and true, at the best price, with a sale executed quickly, efficiently, and a service side based primarily on convenience.

I'm not knocking this way. It's very good business. It offers great value to the end customer, and the business is very sustainable with little to no waste. For Indie, it gets our wines into many hands and allows them to drink them- our overall most important goal: Taste the wine!

The other side of this polarization, is what I'll call "the little bookstore / custom coffee shop" mentality. Brick and mortar. One shop or restaurant, usually. Filled with oddities and intricacies in their product line. A staff that is driven by an eclectic passion for wine. An almost "all in the family" level of relationship that's built with each customer. This side of the polarization is not homogenized; it has crannies and contours, personalities, and spunk. The wines it offers are intellectual, and if not intellectual then they are certainly not commodities by any means. Although many owners of these businesses are highly efficient, there's an actual beauty in the non-system based operations they've set up.

I'm not saying that this is a better way to do business. But, in walking into these shops and restaurants the soul factor definitely feels higher; you easily get a feel that these businesses are as much about creating relationships as they are about selling wine.

Both businesses can move both quality and price based wines. So, which path is better? More important to Indie, where do I spend my time growing Indie? After that long ride, I came upon the answer: both.

Indie Wineries for both Summer and I is entirely about building relationships through the exploration of wine. It would be easy for us to say- we only deal with tiny, hand-sell based shops, but that would leave out many incredible relationships with people who are growing in a more systematized way. Long and short of it, if there's a connection, a respect, a shared energy, a passion for quality...that's where we're going to place our eggs. Fantastic, sounds easy, no?

No. The hard part of deciding to take that path is that it takes time to build relationships of that calibre. No one becomes a great friend in two 30 minute visits. Great, mutually respectful relationships take years of visits, and support. They are a commitment, as equal as the commitment that all of our producers have taken to working their vineyards and making great wine.

Yes, that stresses the business of Indie in the short term, but that's fine by me. We believe in turtle speed and a strong cornerstone.

The Mixed Boiled Fat Oxen Season

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:54:00 +0000

There are the classics; foie gras and Sauternes, oysters and Champagne, sushi and sake… and then there is Barabba and Bollito Misto!

"Il Stagione di Bollito Misto di Bue Grasso," or in English as the title states, "The Season Boiled Mixed Fat Oxen," ladies and gentlemen, it is that time of year… and this past December 2010 marked 100 years celebrating the festival in Carrú (near Barolo) dedicated to this animal and dish. I was lucky and unlucky enough to take part…

What is BOLLITO you ask, and then very quickly it comes to mind, and exactly what is a FAT OXEN. Both are 100 point, perfectly valid questions. Here it is:

Bollito Misto:

(The traditional, ‘official’ recipe)

7 Pieces or ‘cuts’ of Lean meat; Breast, Brisket, Thigh, Shank Muscle, Shoulder, Flank, and another shoulder cut called ‘Priests hat’. These are approximate because the cuts and butchering is completely different here in Italy compared to the names and cuts we are used to in the USA.
7 Pieces of Ammennicoli (which means the less valuable parts) which are; tongue, cross cut of the head with the nose, tail, hoof, rotallato (rolled parts), gallina, and cotechino (which is a very fatty sausage made with the rest of the parts)
7 Sauces or bagnetti (baths) to dip meat in; rustic Green Sauce (base of anchovies, olive oil, garlic, capers, vinegar and parsley), rich Green Sauce (the same as the rustic recipe with the addition of hard boiled eggs), red sauce, mustard, honey sauce, cugna (made with grape must, figs, quince, pears, cinnamon, cloves and hazelnuts), cren (horseradish sauce).

The Piemontese LOVE this dish… there is ‘Fritto Misto’ and ‘Bollito Misto’, so everything fried, or everything boiled.

Bue Grasso: This is the ‘work’ oxen of Piedmont. We say work oxen because at one time that is what they were used for, as well as for meat and milk. The Bue Grasso a pure white cow that is of the ‘Piedmont race’. These animals are prized and appreciated not only for their size, muscles and beauty, but of course the incredible meat they produce. Hence, born the ‘Bollito Misto’ from the Bue Grasso.

*******************************************

This is great you say, and makes sense… using this prized ‘Bue’ to make this dish, where every part of the animal is utilized. December is the month when the animals are all butchered, and a plate of warm boiled meat in the cold winter is a perfect match, hence born this ‘fair’ of the Bue Grasso. The fair itself (born in Carrú) is essentially a market where the animals are auctioned off, and win prizes in various categories (size, beauty, ect.). Then after this market, everyone sits down to eat a big meal of ‘Bollito’. Sounds cute right. Well the catch is that the fun all starts at 5:30AM!! So I dragged myself out of bed, grabbed my camera, and told myself it was going to be worth it.

The animals were in fact extremely impressive, and the energy was unreal. Everyone huddled and crowded inside this open-air market side by side with these gi-normous beasts (with no barrier between them and us), one of which, every 5 minutes, would ‘panic’ (and rightly so, it was early for them too). The handler of that particular Bue would yell and wave his arms, and the entire crowd would go screaming for cover. The handler would then calm down the Bue by hitting him in the head with a small stick (doesn’t that sound calming), and everyone slowly trickles back into center of the market, only for the same thing to happen again with another animal and another mass panic.

Did I mention ‘OPEN AIR’ market. Yup, this was all going on before sunrise on the coldest day we had seen yet. So before 8:00 I had run for my life at least 10 times, could no longer feel my hands, nose or toes, and was at the same time considering adoption of a ‘Bue’ because they are such stunningly beautiful animals.

Then the best part, we decide that we have had enough, and want to save our exposed faces from frost bite, and our own lives from being trampled by Bue and go to ‘lunch’ at a famous restaurant downtown Carrú. The place was packed. I looked at my watch, 8:30AM. At the table next to me they are finishing up … they arrived around 6:30AM to start eating ‘carne cruda’ (raw meat) and bollito misto, and were now on dessert, coffee and of course grappa. It was almost unbelievable. The crowd however was an enthusiastic one; happy, singing and drunk, it was surreal. For them this ‘Bollito Breakfast’ has been going on for 100 years, and was all perfectly normal.

We decided, if you can’t beat ‘em… well… you know the rest. We ordered a bottle of Barabba, and each one of us had the fixed menu of three courses of ‘Bue’ prepared in three ways; raw, with pasta, and then of course the famous Bollito. There was a line out the door of freezing people waiting to eat, and everyone was behaving as if it were 8:30 or 9:00pm AT NIGHT. By 10:00AM we had finished, were full and slightly ‘buzzed’ ourselves, paid the bill and piled back into the car to head home. I was collapsed in bed by 11:00AM, and was somewhat traumatized by this event for the rest of the week.

Previous to this Bollito Breakfast, we did a dinner with Bue Grasso and a verticle of Barabba (Fabrizio’s top Barbera), which was MUCH more my style; eating dinner at night rather than the morning that is. Needless to say we hope to repeat the Iuli Bue Grasso dinner, but I will NOT be attending the 101st annual festival of the Bue Grasso at Carrú.

All of this to say, a great food and wine pairing; Bollito Misto and Iuli Barabba!

"Nebbia" -olo, This is Why...

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 13:30:00 +0000

This is the view from out my kitchen window today...

...and sitting here at the table this is what I see:

Complete 'FOG-OUT'!
As all good wine geeks know, Nebbiolo is the famous Piedmont varietal that is the grape of Barolo and Barbaresco, and in northern Piedmont; Gattinara, Carema, and Ghemme (there is also Valtellina in Lombardy which produces incredible wines from 100% Nebbiolo). The word Nebbiolo is derived from the Italian word 'nebbia' which means fog... ahhhhhh, you say, this is what she's getting at.

Yeah yeah, we've all heard it said, "It's very foggy in Piedmont." Although we've all heard it said, very few have actually seen it. Most non natives and tourists visit Piedmont in the spring or better yet in the early fall; for harvest, beautiful weather and colors, and of course the stinky little super star of our region... the white truffle. There is very little 'tourist' traffic here in the winter months, so most don't get to experience this other face of Piedmont.

Driving up the hill home this morning after grabbing some groceries, the fog was so thick that I almost ran into the back of an 'Ape' (which is a funny little three wheeled vehicle that is a cross between a super tiny car and a motorino, or vespa, these are somehow legal to drive on the road with other normal sized people cars.... but that is a whole other blog and story). Driving in this foggy stuff is super dangerous, and people that have lived here their entire lives get lost in their own neighborhoods when the fog is draped this thick, and at night - forget it, stay home!

I must say though, that there is also something very uniquely special and mysterious about this intense Piemontese fog... it has been around for as long as there have been inhabitants in these hills, and she silently glides in covering everything in a thick misty blanket, and somehow gives me the sensation to slow down, and relax. It could be because it's Sunday, it could be because we have no choice but to slow down because you can't see anything, or it could be something else untangible which is just another reason why life moves slower here in Italy...

So the obvious decision is to cook soup, and stay inside for the rest of the day :)

Vendemmia Part II "Turning Fruit into Wine"

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:07:00 +0000

Well, this is more of a journalistic piece than it is a blog post... but hopefully there is some info here that you may have always wanted to know, and maybe thought you already should know, and so never asked - that's what happened to me in writing it! So sorry for the length, but enjoy, and I promise these 'blog' things will get shorter - if they don't, Peter will fire me!

Winemaking is a very complex, and at the same time simple job. What I mean by this is that wine is a natural process that will happen on it’s own, with little to no interference of man, here is the simple equation:

Sugar + yeast = alcohol + carbonic gas + heat

The science of this process is called enology. It can be said that there are different 'schools' of wine making. There are those that are separated into two roles; the viticulturist, who is specialized in vine growing and harvesting, and who then passes the torch onto the enologist or winemaker who will then control all of the chemical and scientific processes during the winemaking as well as the ageing. Then there are the winemakers/viticulturists, who do not have a degree in enology and will follow the wine themselves its entire journey, from vine to bottle. The 'Indie Wineries' all fall into the latter category. The winemaking of the latter is generally less 'lab dependent' and scientific, and instead uses more traditional methods. This article is a very brief description of wine making that just brushes the surface of the process, and intended to give you all a better idea and general overview of how the grape turns into the glass of wine we love to enjoy! This is also an overview of red winemaking which differs from white wine making, rose and Champagne.

Within a day or two of arriving in the fermentation vessel, which in our case are stainless steel vats, but can also be in some cases wood fermenters, the gently crushed fruit will create a 'cap', which consists of the skins, seeds and pulp, rising to the top and separating from the 'juice' or liquid, and fermentation begins.
Fermentation normally begins at 20 – 32 degrees Celsius, and is caused when the yeasts start to 'eat' the sugar naturally present in the grapes. These yeasts are naturally occurring on the skins of the grapes, as well as in the wine cellars themselves. Some winemakers use 'selected' or 'cultivated' yeasts to have more control over the fermentation, and even adding different taste profiles to the wine. Other natural winemakers will utilize the naturally occurring yeasts striving for a more natural and terrior driven wine.
At the point when fermentation begins the winemaker will begin to intervene, using pump over or punch down, which are two of the methods to reincorporate the cap into the liquid. In essence this is to keep the skins wet and extract color, tannins and flavoring compounds. All of these important parts in a red wine come from the skins, and the immersion of the skins will help 'melt' the skins to bring these factors out, and is referred to as the maceration. This process lasts anywhere from 15 to 20 days.*
When the sugar is all transformed into alcohol, it is time to pull the wine off the cap and the lees (the lees are the dead yeasts that have precipitated to the bottom of the tank). The sugar level can be measured in a lab analysis, or in our case, we use a simple tool called the 'babo'*, in addition to simply tasting the wine.
Pulling the wine off the cap consists of pumping out the liquid, and then putting the cap into a 'balloon' press. This balloon expands inside a cylindrical, perforated, horizontal tube that presses the skins and seeds allowing the last bit of juice to flow out to a receptacle under the press. This juice that is extracted from these skins and seeds is very important because it is the juice that will help to trigger the malolatic fermentation. This wine is added to the rest of the wine that has already been removed, and the skins are bagged and sent to a distillery to become grappa.
After 15 days, or even up to a month of secondary fermentation, the malic acid naturally present in the wine (the 'hard' or 'unpleasant' acids as in green apples), turns to lactic acid (softer, more pleasing acid as in milk). At this point the chemical-physical part of the wine making is complete.
At this point each wine maker will decide what kind of 'ageing' process he or she will use.

The steps above are more or less standard for RED winemaking, and will vary only depending on how a producer uses yeasts, and the amount of time the wine ferments, as well as the type of pump over or punch down the producer does. The more artistic part of the process that makes each producer and each WINE unique after the obvious variables of terrior and variety, is how the producer will age and refine his wine.

Here are just a few examples:

Stainless Steel vs. Barrel (size of the barrel and type of wood varies from winemaker to winemaker, and region to region) vs. cement
Period of ageing; months, or years
Whether the wine will be kept on it's 'lee's' or filtered and/or fined

Too scientific? Not to worry, that is what our talented wine maker friends are for, this is just a small glimpse into the world of winemaking, and all the variables, hard work, and patience that goes into that wonderful glass of wine.
Cheers!

*This year at the Iuli estate the fermentation was slower and lasted longer than normal… some tanks up to 25 days. For us this is a positive thing because the longer fermentations can produce more elegant wines. Producing wines naturally without or little temperature control and without selected yeasts, there is little to no control over the fermentation lengths or no real solid reason why some tanks ferment slower and some other tanks faster. It is all part of the magic of winemaking…

Harvest 2010 at the Iuli Estate, Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:32:00 +0000

My real adventure in Italy started in 2004 when I asked an estate in Tuscany if I could ‘come over for the harvest’. A naive, yet enthusiastic wine lover, I had romantic visions of ‘harvest’, just like everyone else; picking ‘fruit’ and long luncheon tables outside overflowing with the bounty of the growing season. I imagine scenes of women picking grapes with long dresses and aprons, and men in overalls and straw hats. Clearly I had seen too many films.

The harvest is absolutely the most beautiful time of year in Italian wine country, and the lunches are long and home cooked at the smaller, family run estates, and you can still find men in straw hats, but really that is about it for the ‘romantic’ part. The days are long, hard and hot, and it seems like the rows of vines are endless. At the end of the day your back is aching, you are covered in bee and mosquito bites, and your hands not only seem to be permanently died purple, you're sticky from head to foot!

For the producer the harvest is essentially quick, yet careful decision making and intense time sensitive labor to get a years work safe and sound into the cellar. One stroke of Mother Nature, like hail, too much rain, or a sudden extreme change in weather, and a year’s work can be lost at this incredibly crucial period.

To better understand all of the work and time that goes into your bottle of wine, I thought I would share with you a day of harvest at the Iuli estate where everything is done by hand by friends, family and a few employees.

1. Towards the end of August and the beginning of September, the grapes will start turning from red/purple to almost black, or dark dark purple. This is when Fabrizio Iuli needs to carefully walk all of his vineyards to check the ripening, and simply taste his fruit. Iuli’s ‘analysis’ consists his own palate as well as asking the other farmers, and locals if they’ve tasted their grapes, and what their thoughts are:

A number is factors will affect when the trigger is pulled to start the picking:

Sugar and acidity levels
Grape quality
Current weather
Weather forecasts (if there is a lot of rain in the forecast, it is better to pick early than to risk loosing an entire crop due to rot and/or mold)

A number of factors also determine when each of the different vineyards on the same estate are ready, as they do not all ripen at exactly the same time, and even moreover, different sections of the same vineyards will often ripen at different times. Here are just some factors;

grape variety, different varieties ripen at different speeds. For example, whites before reds, and Barbera before Nebbiolo.
vineyard location, disposition and altitude
soil type

Above all, at an estate where wines are made naturally, and with as little technology as possible, the harvest will start when the vigneron tastes his grapes and decides it’s time.

2. The crates are laid out in the rows ahead of time, and teams of two take one row at a time. The harvesters know which grapes to pick, and which to discard, as well as how to handle the fruit. The crates hold only 15 kili of grapes, and do not get filled to the top in order to keep the fruit from crushing itself. A tractor and another team of two will then drive up and down the rows collecting the filled crates to bring back to the winery.

3. The crates are then dumped into the de-stemmer while Fabrizio sorts again to double check the fruit selected in the vineyards is all healthy and nothing un-wanted makes it into the tanks.

4. The de-stemmer gently removes the berries from the stems, the berries get then softly pumped into the cellar into temperature controlled steel tanks, and the stems get shot out the other end. The stems will then be utilized as fertilizer in the vineyards.

5. Every crate is then hand washed to remove the sugars from the grapes to oxidation or premature fermentation while the grapes are waiting to be de-stemmed then next time the crate is filled.

6. The crates are then loaded back onto the truck and placed again in the next vineyard that is ready to be harvested, which may be the next day, or the next week, depending on the vintage.

7. The grapes on the other hand are now safely in the tanks in the cellar where they start to go through natural fermentation with indigenous yeasts.

To be continued….

La Americana (in Piedmont)

noreply@blogger.com (Summer Wolff) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:06:00 +0000

American tourists, we don’t necessarily blend in anywhere we go; fanny packs, T-shirt and shorts, tube socks and sneakers as a ‘travel uniform’, asking to take all of our left overs ‘to go’ (even if we are staying in a hotel), being the most obnoxious and loudest during transit in public transportation, finding humor in David’s nudity, and asking if they make Brunello in Chianti, and pretending to speak Italian by saying ‘pizza and pasta’ with a ridiculous accent that makes me scrunch my face up in pain. Living here in Piedmont almost full time I am no longer considered a tourist, but at the same time – can not hide the fact that I am 100% Americanissima in a region (Monferrato) where I may quite possibly be the only full time red white and blue ex pat.

I hence have on a weekly basis experiences that are life altering, beautiful, educational, but above all incredibly humorous. If you’re looking for political opinions and observations this is the wrong blog. Here you will find comical opinions and observations on food, culture and mostly wine, all based in and around my life at the Iuli winery in the small town of Montaldo in the province of Alessandria in Piedmont.

The name of my blog, ‘La Americana’ and the blog itself are born from the obvious… being ‘THE American’ among a large group of Italian friends and colleagues. I am a novelty, time after time referred to simply as ‘La Americana’, without my proper name coming anywhere into discussion. Upon meeting new guests, before I can reach out my hand to introduce myself I am interrupted by, ‘Ahhhh, you are the American’. Upon answering the office phone, doing my best to pronounce, “pronto” with an accent, am responding, “yes, I am La Americana.” When producer friends are asked to send their web designers or printers text in English, they quickly put me in CC explaining they don’t need to use their hired services for a translator because they have ‘AN’ American. This is stated in the same way one would explain that they don’t need directions because they have ‘A’ GPS system, or explaining to the butcher that they don’t need their Speck sliced because they have ‘A’ machine at home.

I am questioned, ridiculed, challenged, admired, insulted and at times even ‘mysterious’ (mysterious really only to children under the age of 12) all because of one simple fact that before now was completely superfluous to me, I am American. In conclusion (for now- I tend to babble) there are just two many things that happen to me on a daily basis that I need to share – because life is too short not to find romance, lessons and best of all humor in everything we do!