Category: Wine
Antonio Caggiano Tari 2004
Architect and photographer Antonio Caggiano began bottling wine from his own grapes in 1994, at first producing a Taurasi DOCG wine and later expanding production to include two other Aglianico-based wines and one white. Since then the wine’s reputation has steadily grown, and today Caggiano’s wines are imported by Michael Skurnik.
This bottle showed up in our house quite a few months ago, when I was hot on the trail of Aglianico-based wines. But as is often the case, our motley collection of wines grew haphazardly, my attention shifted from Aglianico, and this poor bottle languished in the shadows, waiting to be reconsidered. So as part of a recent push to drink the wine we actually have as opposed to buying new, we decided to open this bottle up the other night.
The Tari is Caggiano’s entry-level Aglianico wine. All of the grapes come from vines grown within the bounds of the Taurasi DOCG, but are considered too young by Caggiano to use in the Taurasi-labeled wine. Instead they use them to make this medium-bodied, more approachable wine. Aglianico makes up 80% of the wine, with Piedirosso adding 15%, and Fiano 5%. The Piedirosso and Fiano help to soften the wine considerably, and round some of Aglianico’s thornier edges. After fermentation the wine is aged 10-12 months in French barriques before being bottled.
The color of the wine is medium ruby red. The nose is intriguing with spices, tobacco, black cherries and dark red fruits. The palate is interestingly balanced, with an acidic undercurrent staged opposite a red fruit core. Some slight vanilla flavors emerge from the oak barrels, and lie alongside flavors of flinty menthol, grape skins, and black cherries. The wine is medium-textured and gentle, with some gripping tannins. The medium-length finish is all red fruit, with black cherries and raspberries kicking around.
A very pleasant, very drinkable red wine. It definitely displays some of aglianico’s characteristic elements, while still being very approachable.
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Bartolo Mascarello Barolo 1996
No wine holds my fascination in quite the way that Barolo does. And the irony is that until very recently, I’d only ever tasted Barolo on one previous occasion. And yet, the idea of Barolo has fired my imagination since I first began learning about wine.
Barolo is the wine produced in the DOCG of the same name, located in northern Italy’s Piedmont region. It is made from 100% Nebbiolo and is often cited as the purest expression of this finicky grape. Known as “the king of wines and the wine of kings”, Barolo is renowned for it’s remarkable aging potential and the miraculous grace and beauty that it acquires with extended aging.
Barolo is also ground-zero for the now two-decades old, international debate between traditional and modern-style producers. It is, in fact, where the whole debate took its starkest shape.
Up until the 1990′s nearly all Barolo was made in the same fashion. The grapes were grown in abundance in the vineyards, and after being crushed the wine (including skins and stems) was fermented over the course of 10-20 days in untopped oak vats. Following fermentation, aging took place in large oak casks called “botti”. The result was a very dry wine loaded with tannins, that required decades of aging before really coming into its own. Nonetheless, the result was a wine that was considered sublime by those who had the opportunity to taste its best examples.
But in the 1990′s wine-making in Piedmont (and worldwide) began to drastically change. Many trace the changes back to Angelo Gaja who began aging his wine in French oak barriques in the late 1960′s. With barriques came a host of other changes including better selection and wine-growing practices in the vineyards, the use of roto-fermenters designed to extract pigment but not tannin from the grapes, and briefer aging in barrels, to limit the oaky tannins added to the wine. The result has come to be known colloquially as the international style, since wines from California, Australia, Spain, and Italy all began to present themselves and taste so similarly to one another.
These were barolos that were accessible and delicious at a young age, and understandably they found a receptive audience among wine drinkers. But with this success came questions – about the wine’s ability to age, about the lack of terroir, or typicity of the wine – and inescapably a backlash from traditionalist producers. Those producers who continued to practice more traditional methods spoke out, sometimes fervently, against the modernist producers, and with this debate arrived what has come to be seen as a schism of sorts between the two schools, modern vs. traditional.
While most producers have a foot in both worlds, perhaps using some percentage of barriques as opposed to 100%, there are those iconic producers who cling to one side of the debate or the other. Angelo Gaja is perhaps the most prominent of the modernists, and Bartolo Mascarello was perhaps the most recognizable of the traditionalists.
Mascarello’s father Giulio was one of the first prominent grower-producers of Barolo. He began producing wines in the 1920′s and first bought land in the Cannubi area of Piedmont in the 1930′s. At this time, and for several decades to come, Barolo was always made as a blend of grapes from multiple plots, in order to take advantage of the strengths of each individual grape-growing area. It was this family business and tradition that Bartolo took over in 1981.
As the modern-style Barolo gained in popularity and production, Bartolo Mascarello quickly rose to prominence as the icon for traditionalist Barolo producers. The following statement from A Wine Atlas Of The Langhe aptly sums up his winemaking philosophy:
Faithful to his father’s teachings, Bartolo always made a Barollo that had no truck with fashion, a wine traditionalist by conviction and philosophy. There was no technological wizardry in his cellar, nor were they any barriques. Bartolo’s Barolo was made with grapes from the family’s four plots at Cannubi, San Lorenzo, and Ruè in the municipality of Barolo and Torriglione at La Morra. As used to be the custom, Bartolo made no vineyard selections, which ‘would have brought success at the box-office, but would have betrayed tradition.’
In his later years, when he was no longer able to actively take part in the winemaking activities, he devoted part of his time to creating hand-drawn labels for the Barolo, culminating perhaps in his several “No Barriques, No Berlosconi” labels in the late 1990′s and early 2000′s. You can find some images of these labels here, here, here, and here along with lots of info here about the Mascarello Barolos.
I became fascinated with Bartolo Mascarello’s wines before I’d ever had the chance to try any of them. The story that he and his wines embody is utterly romantic, and for someone who is so intellectually interested in wine it is unavoidably attractive. I was entranced with the notion of being able to try the most traditional of traditional Barolos.
And yet, Mascarello’s wines are very rare and difficult to find. And so I was immeasurably lucky to receive a bottle of the Bartolo Mascarello 1996 Barolo from my lovely wife on the occasion of our first anniversary. This was a bottle produced by Bartolo himself, and we hesitated only briefly before opening it a couple of days after celebrating our wedded bliss.
The bottle itself is artfully understated (you can see a photo here). The wine poured a medium-deep purple in the center, fading to a rusty-colored red at the edges. The nose was delicately fragrant, with scents of fresh cherries, strawberries, and mint, layered against a backdrop of earthy minerality. The wine’s flavors are fresh and vibrant, with notes of black cherries, raspberries, a trace of black liquorice, herbal mint, and brambly minerals intricately woven together. The tannins are fairly mild, noticeable but not overpowering, and lending the wine a nice, firm grip. Despite the tannins the texture is light, making the wine easily drinkable. The finish seems to go on forever, with flavors of cherries alongside hints of chamomile and anise.
All in all, this wine absolutely lived up to the hype. Of all of the wines that I have had the opportunity to drink, this was one of the very rare ones that combined an intricate delicateness with vivid flavors. What is more, the wonderful combination of fresh fruit flavors and earthy, herbal tones was mesmerizing.
If I never try a Bartolo Mascarello Barolo again, I’ll be satisfied, as this was a superlative wine. Fortunately, we were able to pick up a bottle of the 2007 Bartolo Mascarello Dolcetto d’Alba recently, and I very much look forward to trying that. Yes, it’s not in the same league as the Barolo, but I believe that with this winemaker in particular you can rest assured that every wine you have the opportunity to try will speak vividly of its authenticity. In tasting these wines you’ll be able to gain a sense of both where the grapes were grown and who produced the wine.
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Rosenblum Cellars Rockpile Zinfandel 2004 Rockpile Road Vineyard
The first wine that really caught my attention and got me excited was Zinfandel, and specifically the 1994 Zinfandel from Nalle Winery. At the time I didn’t know anything about wine, and had not really tasted very many wines. And so Zinfandel quickly caught entranced me with its combination of spicy, peppery red fruit and soft tannins that make for such a wonderfully accessible and exciting red wine.
Since then, I’ve pursued Zinfandel in its many incarnations from California, but always end up coming back to Dry Creek Valley and a handful of producers including Nalle (my perennial favorite), Ridge, and Rosenblum. These days, I drink Zinfandel much less often than in the past, but I never fail to be bowled over by a really great bottle.
The catch with Zinfandel is that it is a grape that, depending on growing conditions, can very easily produce a big, hulking, overbearing red wine. This is why the Zinfandels from Dry Creek Valley have always been my favorite. For the most part, the growing conditions in this AVA produce Zinfandels that take advantage of the grape’s dark, red fruit flavor profile without indulging in its high-alcohol, huge body tendencies. There are definitely exceptions to this rule, but the wines from the above producers that really capture my attention are the ones that generally have more finesse and subtlety than the Zinfandel fruit bombs that are all too common.
And so a few years back I bought a couple bottles of the 2004 Rosenblum Rockpile Zinfandel, and stashed them away to wait for a good time to open them. The wine had gotten rave reviews all around, and the uniqueness of the AVA and its growing conditions really caught my interest.
The Rockpile AVA was approved in 2002, making it one of the newer AVAs in California. Of the AVA’s 15,400 acres, 150 are planted to a variety of red grapes, including Zinfandel, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petite Sirah. The vineyards lie between 800 and 1900 feet above sea level, and most importantly, many of them are above the fog line. The result is that the temperatures, and daily temperature swings, are more moderate than at lower elevations, and the grapes are exposed to constant sun during critical growing periods, ensuring full (very full!) maturity. Rockpile used to be part of the Dry Creek Valley AVA, but in response to the consistently unique quality of the wines produced from fruit grown there, it was determined that it warranted its own AVA status.
That unique quality basically boils down to wines that have serious depth and heft, and loads of dark, jammy black and red fruits. Think blackberries and black cherries on steroids. These are wines that satisfy the way a really great holiday dinner is satisfying. After drinking them you feel full with the wine’s richness, and satisfied in an almost gluttonous way. You wouldn’t want to eat a meal like that every day, but when you do you really treasure and savor the experience.
This is the 2004 release of this wine, and so it has been residing in our cellar for nearly three years now. It weighs in at a massive 16.3% alcohol! I haven’t been able to dig up any information about the percentage of zinfandel in the wine (although it has to be at least 75%), or the number of new oak barrels used. The label indicates that it came from the Rockpile Road vineyard, within the Rockpile AVA. (In a 2004 article, the Wine News indicated that of the 9 vineyards in Rockpile, the majority incorporate the word “Rockpile” into their name in some fashion.)
The wine pours a deep, inky purple, with a viscous surface texture. The nose is rich with vanilla, blueberries and blackberries, and a trace of smoke. The palate is velvety and mouth-coating, with very soft, warm tannins. Lots of dark, red fruits just saturating the palate, accompanied by a hint of black pepper and a trace of vanilla. The same flavors continue through on the finish. The vanilla flavors from new oak are very well integrated with the wine’s fruit flavors, and were not obtrusive at all. On the contrary, they offered a nice counterpoint to the spectrum of dark fruits, highlighting the fruit flavors more so than they would be without that counterpoint.
A wholly enjoyable wine that went superbly with the barbecue dinner that we ate with it. This may not be my favorite style of zinfandel wine, but it really hit the spot on this occasion. What is more, it made me look forward to going back to a bottle of Nalle’s Zin and revisit the more balanced style of Zinfandel that I enjoy so much.
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Domaine Ganevat Cotes du Jura “Les Grands Teppes” 2003
I never cease to be fascinated by the wines from France’s Jura region. This small winemaking area located to the east of Burgundy is home to some of the most remarkable and unique wines being made anywhere in the world. Ever since I first encountered them a little over two years ago I’ve tried to learn as much as I can about the region and its wines, and of course to try as many as I can reasonably get my hands on.
But trying them is no simple task. Very few wines from the Jura are imported into the U.S. (less than 5% of the overall production). Not only is the region very small, it’s wines can be strange and challenging upon first encountering them. One writer has argued that “The wines of France’s Jura are misunderstood, maligned and not widely imported – but these bottles are the rare artifacts of one of the world’s most singular food and wine cultures…” I wouldn’t hesitate to agree myself.
At the extreme end you have Vin Jaune, the iconic wine that Jura is most renowned for. Vin Jaune is aged in barrels for 6 years and 3 months, during which time the winemaker never tops up the barrel, and the wine develops flavors of walnut, hazelnut, spices, along with a brightening acidity. These wines are fabulous, very rare, and offer up a range of flavors that is highly unusual. It is not uncommon for people trying this wine for the first time to think that there is a defect with the wine.
Alongside Vin Jaune are a host of wines, many of which come from grapes that are unique to Jura. These include whites made from the Savagnin grape, and reds made from Poulsard or Trousseau. The wines made from these grapes can be very interesting and entirely unique. Savagnin wines tend to have a natural hint of nuttiness alongside a distinct acidity and minerality. Poulsard and Trousseau both produce reds that are very light in color with delicate fruit flavors. In fact, in the Jura it is most common for the reds to be served before the whites, because they are the lighter of the two, and the whites the more substantial, food-friendly wine.
As well, a good amount of light, finesse-style Pinot Noir is made, and over half of the total acreage of vines is planted to Chardonnay. So international varieties have their place (some great Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays do come out of Jura), but it is with their unique wines and grapes that the Jura really stands out.
Having said all of that, the wine in question here is a Chardonnay from Domaine Ganevat. Ganevat is located in Rotalier in the southern half of the Jura region. All of their vines are located in the Cotes du Jura AOC, the biggest of the few AOCs in the Jura with 700 hectares. The winery produces a variety of wines from Savagnin, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Poulsard, and Trousseau. The majority are produced using a method referred to in the Jura as “ouillé”.
This last point is where Cotes du Jura wines can be very fun and unpredictable. Winemakers in the Jura make the choice of producing their white wines using either the “ouillé” or “sous-voile” method (Vin Jaune must be made sous-voile). “Ouillé” means that the winemaker topped up the barrel as the wine aged. This is the normal practice throughout the world of wine, and prevents the wine from slowly oxidizing in the barrel. In contrast, a wine made using the “sous-voile” method is not topped up in the barrel. As a result, a thin layer of yeast forms on the top of the wine, which the Jura winemakers refer to as the “voile” or veil. This prevents the wine from turning into vinegar in the barrel, and allows it to slowly age and develop a range of unique flavors, including the nuttiness and spices that are so pronounced in Vin Jaune.
Cotes du Jura white wines are not aged anywhere near as long as Vin Jaune, and so if they are made using the sous-voile method they develop subtle flavors that combine well with the primary fruitiness of chardonnay or the minerality of savagnin. Sous-voile whites from the Jura are fascinating, highly enjoyable wines. And what is more, they match very well with food.
In the case of Domaine Ganevat, most of the wines are made in the “ouillé” style. This Cotes du Jura is made from 100% chardonnaay. The wine was made in 2003, and the label on the bottle carries the designation “La Combe” and “Les Grandes Teppes”. The vines the grapes come from are 85-plus years old. The wine is fermented in oak and aged on the lees for 18-months before bottling.
The wine has a strong, soft-gold color with an almost greenish tint around the edges. The nose has pistachio, apples, and caramelized shallots. The palate is soft and slightly heavy, but with a strong undercurrent of acidity. Balanced against this acidity are wonderful flavors of apples, poached pears, candied lemon rind, and hazelnuts. The finish begins with apples, gives way to a brace of sparkling acidity, and then slowly gives way to more hazelnuts.
What amazed me about this wine is that despite being made in the “ouillé” style, it still had a notable nuttiness. It was very well integrated and not overpowering at all, but still rather unusual for a chardonnay. You can’t help but raise the question of whether this is simple an element of the Jura terroir. The acidity that it had was also very nice, and in the end made the wine feel very fresh. Especially when it kicked in on the finish.
Last weekend I dug up a few more bottles of Jura wines, and I’m very excited to taste them over the coming few weeks. They’re not great summer whites because they don’t really have the refreshing, quaffability I look for in a summer white, but they’re excellent spring and fall whites. So it should be a fun, and provocative few wines that we’ll be drinking this spring!
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Castello di Luzzano “Romeo” Gutturnio Riserva Colli Piacentini 2003
Castello di Luzzano is located in Emilia-Romagna, a small region located in middle/northern Italy and bordering the Adriatic Sea. The region has a long history of producing lightly quaffable reds. But in the past couple of decades a number of DOCs have sprung up throughout the region, and with them a collection of varying styles and expressions of wine, from sparkling to white to red. Thus, while the region lacks a clear sense of identity, there is a lot of room for good producers to experiment and try out new ideas, and to create great wines in the process.
The Azienda Agricola Castello di Luzzano is one of those wineries. The winery is located inland in the hills that rise up along the border of Emilia-Romagna and Lombardia, and makes a collection of wines under both the Oltrepo Pavese DOC (Lombardia) and the Colli Piacentini DOC (Emilia-Romagna). In fact, their website lists 15 different wines that they make, 7 from Oltrepo Pavese and 8 from Colli Piacentini. Along with the Sangiovese di Romagna and Colli Bolognesi DOCs, the Colli Piacentini is one of the DOCs that have helped the wines from Emilia-Romagna get back on the map in recent years. In the Sangiovese di Romagna DOC the wines are made from 85-100% Sangiovese, and in Colli Bolognesi producers have been finding success with “new world” varietals, most notably Cabernet Sauvignon. But in Colli Piacentini, a wide variety of mostly traditional varietals are used to make a perhaps even wider array of wines.
The Colli Piacentini is composed of the four river valleys of the Tidone, Trebbia, Nure, and Arda rivers. Each of these river valleys has its own subzone designation. Gutturnio (Tidone River valley), Trebbiano Val Trebbia (Trebbia River valley), Val Nure (Nure River valley), and Monterosso Val d’Arda (Arda River valley). The number of grapes that can be used in different compositions to make up these subzone designated wines is dizzying. I stopped counting at twenty…
This wine from Castello di Luzzano is from the Gutturnio subzone of Colli Piacentini. The regulations for this DOC classification call for 55-70% Barbera, 30-45% Croatina (also known as Bonarda locally), and a minimum of 9 months of aging. Riserva wines must be aged for at least 2 years, with a minimum of 3 months of wood aging.
In the case of this bottle, the blend of grapes includes 60% Barbera and 40% Bonarda. The grapes, which were grown at an altitude of 270 meters, are vinified traditionally, with the skins remaining in contact with the wine until fermentation is completed. After this the wine was racked to new containers where it rests through the winter until all of the sediment has dropped out. The wine is then transferred to oak casks where it rests for a year before bottling, after which it spends an additional year aging in bottle before being released.
The is a deep, dark red, lightening only slightly at the edges. The nose is port-like, with dark plums, black cherries, and cinnamon. The palate continues the port theme, with deep, red-fruit flavors. Black raspberries, black cherries, a thread of creme de cassis, and a hint of smoke.. The tannins are strong and gripping and are accompanied by a very soft acidity. Despite the port flavors, the wine is medium-weight on the palate, velvety textured but not overwhelming. The finish is a bit brighter than the palate, with sugared strawberries and raspberries coming into the fold, along with a black raspberry reduction and a prickling of acidity.
This is an interesting wine, very big and pretty powerful. Lots of depth and a good amount of concentration. The flavors are not spellbinding, but they give the wine some definite character and make it a real satisfying wine to drink. I think it would be best suited to serving alongside a winter meal, it seems to need something equally big to stand up to it. Perhaps a nice porterhouse with a side of roasted root vegetables. Or perhaps an early-spring or late-fall barbecue, with a nice smoky barbecue sauce on grilled pork. Mmmmm…