by whitney on April 1, 2010
Where: Jayne’s Gastropub, San Diego
What: Piedmont tasting (Cogno, Giacosa, Produttori oh my!)
Who: Jermey “The Jar” Parzen, Jon “Stylin’ & Profilin’” Erickson and Whitney “The Only Gal” Adams (almost exactly half of the famed, revered and feared blogilicious Barbera 7)
First things first- a little love letter to Jayne’s Gastropub. It is a thing of beauty, carefully and thoughtfully designed by owners Jayne Battle and Jon Erickson. The restaurant is beautiful, the food is beautiful, they are like the most beautiful couple ever… tons of beauty all up in there. I highly suggest you get your butt to San Diego and pay them a visit. Now on to the vino!
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by whitney on March 17, 2010
The Barbera 7 did in fact get to venture outside the world of all things barbera. We had the pleasure of visiting Valter Fissore at Elvio Cogno in Novello right next to the town of Barolo. After the obligatory cellar tour, which can be more or less humdrum depending on the producer, we settled into our seats in the tasting room. Cogno produces some solid Barolo and a classic Dolcetto (and a barbera without the oak overdose.) But, we didn’t know we would be in for a little close encounter of the white kind.
There is a Piemontese grape called Nascetta, which I tried for the first time just a few days prior to this tasting at Cogno. Valter told us that they were the first producer to ever bottle the nascetta back in 1994 and single handedly fought for that little engine of a grape that could to rise from vino di tavola (table wine) status to a Langhe Bianco DOC. It will soon bear its own Nascetta label. We tasted the most recent vintage as he spoke of how nascetta is an age-worthy wine and can stand up to 10 years in the bottle. He had just completed a vertical tasting of all their nascetta wines going back to the late nineties. With our eyebrows raised, he sensed a challenge. Did we want to try the 2001 Nascetta he had in the cellar? Um, yes please.
Valter returned to the table with a single bottle in hand. He informed us that it was the last bottle. The last bottle. Ever. A crazy concept for me to wrap my head around although I know that the last bottle of something is being opened somewhere every day. It’s just rare that I am the one enjoying its opening. There may be someone out there in Italy that purchased a bottle back in 2001 and decided for whatever reason to hold on to it, but I seriously doubt it. The wine was a rich golden color and slightly saline and savory in the mouth. It reminded me of vitovska(!) and vermentino (of which it is thought to be genetically linked.) Cory brought up the fact that this wine could be done in an oxidative style much like a Friulian vitovska and I completely agree.
What a treat! Thanks Valter for cracking open the bottle for the sole purpose of geeking out. Our eyebrows are no longer resting in their upright position.
by whitney on March 5, 2010
Piemonte, Piedmont for us Americanos, is a region of Italy that holds a special place in my wine-soaked heart. Among the hills of Barolo and Barbaresco, Monforte D’Alba and La Morra is where my love and fascination with Italian wine really took flight. Or rather, a wild vespa ride.
The picture above is one I took at the Banca del Vino in Pollenzo a few months ago. It is the home to an incredible collection of Italian wines within the University of Gastronomic Sciences in the heart of Piemonte wine country.
I fly back to that lovely place tomorrow evening and couldn’t be more excited. Not only because I am going to Italy (duh) but because I get to spend 4 days with one of my favorite grapes- barbera. To me, barbera wines are like old friends. The ones that you can be around 24 hours a day and never tire of. The ones, whom after 2 years of not seeing each other, conversations can flow forth effortlessly as if no time had passed at all. Without getting into acidity and tannins, fruit and body…I hope my simile makes some kind of sense. Barbera makes fun wine, drinkable wine, food friendly wine. Although by this time next week, I am sure I will have a whole lot more to say about it than that.
To give you a glimpse as to what is in store beyond the ridiculous amounts of barbera during Barbera Meeting 2010: barbera sans soufre, a tasting at Gaja with Angelo Gaja himself, tastings at Brovia and Produttori del Barbaresco, dinners and lunches galore (grignolino and oysters anyone?) and so many other crazy amazing things I am beginning to feel a little “we’re not worthy.” I will be writing and posting and photographing like a mad woman so you’ll be able to experience it all with me. Catch you on the flip side…a presto.
