The Unique Red Grapes of Campania

The Campania region of Italy has some unique red grape varieties. The ancient Greeks originally brought many of these varieties while others that were thought lost during the phylloxera epidemic have been rediscovered. There is one that no one knows where it originated. These grapes make for very interesting wines

At a recent tasting of the Wine Media Guild held at Felidia Restaurant, we tasted some examples of the red wines of Campania:

Piedirosso: “The name… translates as “red foot” and the grape is also known as Palombina or Pre’e Palummo meaning respectively little dove and dove’s foot in dialect, the latter because of its red-colored triple-branched stem like a three-taloned bird’s foot,” according to Nicholas Belfage in his book Brunello to Zibibbo. Piedirosso is an ancient black skinned grape that does well in volcanic soil. It may be identical to the Colombina, the grape that Pliny the Elder (d. 79 AD) mentions in his Natural History. 

Lacrima Christi del Vesuvio (tears of Christ) Rosso DOC 2013 Mastroberardino Piedirosso 100%. Volcanic loose soil very rich in minerals and the exposure is south – east. The vineyard is at 70 m above sea level and there are about 3,000 plants per hectare. The training system is radical back with guyot pruning and the average age of the vines is 15 years. Harvest takes place in mid-October. Classic red vinification is in steel tanks at a controlled temperature. The wine remains in the bottle for one month before release. The wine has hints of cherry, plum, cloves and a touch of smoke. $20

Piedrosso Campo Flegrei Riserva “Tenuta Camaldoli” DOC 2011 Cantine Astroni 100% Piedirosso The winery is located in Campi Flegrei west of Naples. The bunches were destemmed by hand to avoid any possible greenness in the wine. A small quantity of juice and skins was put into an open top tronconic cherrywood cask where it was fermented by indigenous yeast. The wine was treated as gently as possible, and only punching down was used for extraction. After the fermentation had finished, the wine remained for an extraordinarily long time on the skins, some 65 days in total, in order to extract all the tannins from the skins. The wine went through malolactic fermentation, which happened by itself, and was racked off in a small stainless steel tank where it stayed for a month.

Katell Pieven of Cantine Astroni

The wine was bottled unfiltered. Only 1100 bottles produced.  This is the first Piedirosso riserva that I have tasted. This is a very elegant Piedrosso, well balanced and smooth with hints of black and red berries with a nice finish and long aftertaste.    The winery notes indicate that Piedirosso is “planted throughout Campania… the Piedirosso Beneventano and the Piedirosso Avellinese are completely separate varieties.” They do not specify which one is in the wine. $27

Falerno del Massico “Etichetta Bronzo DOC 2006   Masseria Felicia Made from 80% Aliganico and 20% Piedirosso. The winery is located at the foot of Mount Massico, Sessa Aurunca. The vineyards are at 200 meters and the soil is gray tuff, pumice and ash. The training system is guyot. Fermentation is in open conical chestnut barrels. Aging is in barriques for 12/14 months and 12 months in bottle before release. The wine has hints of cherry, plum and other red and black fruits with a touch of tobacco and oak. $50

Cassavecchia (old house) The origin of the cassvecchia vine is completely unknown. Legend has it that farmers found an old vine, which had survived phylloxera. It was rediscovered among ancient ruins in Pontelatone inside the remains of a walled garden near the via Latina, the ancient road which connected Capua with Alife. The vine that was found had a trunk 40 centimeters across and cuttings were taken from it and replanted.

Casavecchia “Centomoggia” 2010 Terre del Principe made from 100% Casavecchia. A “moggia” was a unit of measure for property in this area that historically had very small plots. In fact, a property measuring 100 moggia, or about 74 acres, was such a rarity that this place, located between Caiazzo and Castel Campagnano, was named Centomoggia, meaning one hundred moggia. The vineyards are located in Castel Campagnano, Pontelatone and Castel di Sasso, the exposure is northwest for the former and southeast for the latter two. Elevation is 985 ft. and the training system is guyot. Total acres of vines is 24. These are very old vines planted between 1912 and 1932 and the soil is clayey and skeletal. Harvesting is by hand and the grapes undergo a berry selection at the winery before a prolonged maceration and fermentation at a controlled temperature using native yeasts. Aging takes place in new 225liter French oak barrels for 12 months and one year in bottle before release. The wine has hints of blackberry, spice, liquorice and a touch of cloves $40

Pallagrello Nero: This grape variety is grown almost exclusively in Campania particularly in the province of Caserta. It was a favorite of Ferdinand lV the Bourbon King of Naples and Sicily. Pallagrello was believed to have been destroyed by phylloxera but was rediscovered in the 1990’s and has been replanted by a few wineries. It is not a color mutation of Pallagrello Bianco.

Terre del Volturbo IGT Vestini Campagnano made from 100% Pallagrello Nero. The winery is located in hills in the province of Caseta. The vines are at 250 meters. Classic vinification is in oak barrels. There is a short maceration period. The wine is aged for 18 months in new barriques and 3 months in bottle before release. The wine has aromas and flavors of black fruit with hints of plum, oak and vanilla. $50

 Montevetrano Colle di Salerno 2011 Montevetrano Silvia Imparato. The enologist is Ricardo Cotarella. The wine is made from 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 10% Aglianico. The winery is located in the municipality of San Cipriano Picentino near Salerno. The vineyards are 100% meters above sea level. There are 12 acres of vines and the harvest is by hand from the end of September to the beginning of October. Fermentation is in stainless steel tanks for about 15 days and the wine is aged in new barriques for 10 to 12 months. This is a wine with hints of violet, blackberries, cherry, tobacco and chocolate. The wine did not have the strong aroma and flavors of vanilla and oak, which were present in past vintages. $60

Terre del Volurno IGT “Sappie di Sopara il Bosco” 2012 Nanni Copè, made from 90% Pallagrello Nero 5% Aglianico (clone VCR 23) and 5% Cassavecchia. The grapes are from a 2.5-hectare vineyard of the same name. The soil is mostly sandy with silt and clay. There are 1,750 vines per hectare and the vines are 30 years old. Organic farming methods are used but the winery is not certified organic. Only fully matured grapes are harvested by hand. The wine is fermented in stainless steel with natural yeast and the grape varieties are fermented together. Maceration lasts for 16/19 days and malolatic fermentation takes place in 500 liter barrels.The wine is aged 1/4 in new oak, 1/4 in second passage, 1/4 in third passage and 1/4 in bottles. The wine remains here for one year and then all the wine is aged in bottle for another for 8 months before release.

This is a wine with good fruit, hints of cherry and spice, good acidity and a long finish. The owner of the winery is Giovanni Ascine and his childhood nickname, Nanni Copè, gives the wine its name. $40

Excellent article on conditions in Italy

http://tap2-cdn.rubiconproject.com/partner/scripts/rubicon/emily.html?rtb_ext=1&pc=9280/16016&geo=na&co=us

• Italy’s in terminal decline, and no one has the guts to stop it

Everything that’s wrong with France is worse here

205 CommentsNicholas Farrell 25 October 2014

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James Forsyth, Mats Persson and Matthew Elliott discuss Europe

Rome

The Rome Opera House sacked its entire orchestra and chorus the other day. Financed and managed by the state, and therefore crippled by debt, the opera house — like so much else in Italy — had been a jobs-for-life trade union fiefdom. Its honorary director, Riccardo Muti, became so fed up after dealing with six years of work-to-rule surrealism that he resigned. It’s hard to blame him. The musicians at the opera house — the ‘professori’ — work a 28-hour week (nearly half taken up with ‘study’) and get paid 16 months’ salary a year, plus absurd perks such as double pay for performing in the open air because it is humid and therefore a health risk. Even so, in the summer, Muti was compelled to conduct a performance of La Bohème with only a pianist because the rest of the orchestra had gone on strike.

After Muti’s resignation, the opera house board did something unprece-dented: they sacked about 200 members of the orchestra and chorus, in a country where no one with a long-term contract can be fired. It was a revolutionary — dare one say Thatcherite? — act. If only somebody would have the guts to do something similar across the whole of the Italian state sector. But nobody will. Italy seems doomed.

The latest panic on global stock markets has reminded the world of the vulnerability of the euro, and this week pundits in the British press have been busy speculating about France’s possible collapse. Hardly anyone bothers to fret about Italy any more, even though last week its exchanges took the second biggest hit after Greece. Italy’s irreversible demise is a foregone conclusion. The country is just too much of a basket case even to think about.

Italy’s experience of the European monetary union has been particularly painful. The Italians sleepwalked into joining the euro with scarcely any serious debate, and were so keen to sign up that they accepted a throttlingly high exchange rate with the lira. The price of life’s essentials, such as cigarettes, coffee and wine, doubled overnight while wages remained static — though back then jobs were still easy to find and money easy to borrow. But when the great crash happened, Italy, as a prisoner of a monetary union without a political union, was unable to do anything much about it, and could not even resort to the traditional medicine of currency devaluation.

The only path to recovery permitted by Brussels and Berlin — that of austerity — has been counterproductive because it has only been skin-deep. If austerity is to stimulate growth, it must be done to the hilt, which inevitably involves terrible suffering and the risk of mass agitation. No Italian politician can stomach that.

Italy can’t blame all its problems on monetary union, however. The euro did not cause the catastrophe, but it deprived Italy of a means to combat it and exposed its fatal structural weaknesses.

The youth unemployment rate here is 43 per cent — the highest on record. That figure doesn’t factor in the black market, which is so big that the Italian government now wants to include certain parts of it — prostitution, drug dealing and assorted smuggling — into its official GDP figures. The contribution is thought to be sizeable enough to take the country out of its third recession in six years.

We should remember that Italian companies get state money to pay workers to do nothing and not sack them — currently about half a million workers are in what is known as ‘cassa integrazione’. So the real unemployment rate in Italy must be at least 15 per cent, and that does not include all those who have given up trying to find work. Just 58 per cent of working-age Italians are employed, compared with an average 65 per cent in the developed world.

Even including all the cocaine and bunga-bunga does not alter the extra-ordinary fact that Italy’s economy has been stagnant since 2000. Indeed, over the past five years it has shrunk by 9.1 per cent. Worse still, it went into deflation last month, the thing that everyone most fears — even more than hyperinflation — and which caused the Japanese economy to stagnate for 20 years.

Since the defenestration of Silvio Berlusconi in November 2011 as a result of the bunga-bunga scandal, and the horrific gap that opened up in the value of Italian and German bonds, Italy has had three unelected prime ministers.

The left-wing Matteo Renzi, the latest of these, is billed as Italy’s Tony Blair because he has managed to force his party, the post-communist Partito Democratico, to forget the past and face the future. Initially, he promised that he would bring in all the necessary structural reforms within 100 days; but of course he did not, and now he says that he needs 1,000 days.

Il rottamatore (the ‘demolition man’), as Renzi is known, has just forced through a reform bill amid much fanfare and even physical fighting in the Senate. Renzi’s bill is supposed to abolish the mythical Articolo 18, which makes it virtually impossible to sack anyone in companies that employ more than 15 people. Yet if the bill ever becomes law, this being Italy, it will no doubt be so watered down by the time it reaches the statute books as to be meaningless. The unions have promised ‘un autunno caldo’ (a hot autumn) to protect their most prized sacred cow.

Same old story. Regardless of who is in charge in Italy, it is nearly always all mouth and no trousers, which to be fair is partly because the electoral system makes it impossible to avoid coalition governments and partly because the constitution, for fear of dictatorship, gives the prime minister little executive power.

Italian TV broadcasts wall-to-wall political talkshows (most of them left-wing even on Berlusconi’s channels) but they too are in crisis: the Italians, fatally disillusioned, are not bothering to watch television any more.

Italy’s sovereign debt, meanwhile, continues to grow exponentially. It is now €2.2 trillion, which is the equivalent of 135 per cent of GDP — the third highest in the world after Japan and Greece. And the more deflation Italy has, the bigger the debt and its cost in real terms.

In Italy, as in France, a dirigiste philosophy has predominated since the second world war. The government is run like a protection racket; money finds its way into every nook and cranny of the economy. Even newspapers are publicly subsidised, which is why there are so many of them.

Anyone who works in the real private sector — the family businesses that have made Italy’s name around the world — is in a bad place. Italy has the heaviest ‘total tax’ burden on businesses in the world at 68 per cent, according to theSole 24 Ore newspaper, followed by France on 66 per cent, compared with just 36 per cent in Britain. To start a business in Italy is to enter a Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare, and to keep it going is even worse. It also means handing the state at least 50 cents for every euro paid to staff. Add to this a judicial system that is byzantine, politicised and in possession of terrifying powers, and you begin to understand why no sane foreign company sets up headquarters in Italy.

I worked for a regional newspaper, La Voce di Romagna,as a columnist for a decade until a year ago, but gave up after my employer — even though in receipt of hefty public money — failed to pay me for three months. I was not entitled to dole money, because I was self-employed. Employees with proper contracts are entitled to the dole, but only for a year or so. Many of my colleagues have not been paid for up to a year. Now, though, La Voce is about to go into bankruptcy and close. I would not bet a single euro on those former colleagues getting any of the money owed to them.

Yet there is another Italy — the state-financed one — where life is, if not a bed of roses, still fine, all things considered — even though those Rome Opera House sackings have caused a little ripple of anxiety. Italian MPs are the highest paid in the civilised world, earning almost twice the salary of a British MP. Barbers in the Italian Parliament get up to €136,120 a year gross. All state employees get a fabulous near-final–salary pension. It is not difficult to appreciate the fury of the average Italian private sector worker, whose gross annual pay is €18,000.

The phrase ‘you could not make it up’ fits the gold-plated world of the Italian state employee to a tee — especially in the Mezzo-giorno, Italy’s hopeless south. Sicily, for instance, employs 28,000 forestry police — more than Canada — and has 950 ambulance drivers who have no ambulances to drive.

An Italian government that really meant business would make urgent and drastic cuts not just to the bloated, parasitical and corrupt state sector, but also to taxes, labour costs and red tape. Yet even now only Beppe Grillo, a modern comic version of Benito Mussolini, and the separatist Northern League advocate Italian withdrawal from the euro. Most Italians still don’t get it: the euro is the problem, not the solution — unless, that is, they go for real austerity in a major way, which they will not do unless forced to at gunpoint.

Italy, more even than France, is the sick man of Europe — and it is also the dying man of Europe. Italian women used to have more children than anyone else in Europe. It is common to meet old men called Decimo (‘Tenth’). Yet for decades the birth rate in Italy has been among the lowest in the world, and if it were not for immigration the population would be in decline. When Italian women refuse to make babies, it is a clear sign of a terminally sick society.

This article first appeared in the print edition of The Spectator magazine, dated 25 October 2014

Tags: Berlusconi, Bunga Bunga, Bureaucracy, decline, dirigiste, employees, Italy,private sector, protection racket, Rome Opera House, state sector

A Taste of Puglia at SD 26 in NYC

At a recent tasting and dinner at SD26, I was very impressed by the wines of Alberto Longo. I have known Alberto and his wines for a number of years, but something seemed different. I asked Alberto if the winemaker was the same or if he made any changes in how the wines were made. He said that the winemaker was still Graziana Grassini and she is making the wine the same way. He added however that the wines were better because his vines were now 12 years old and this made all the difference.

Alberto Longo

He also said that he does not like to use new wood for aging his wine. It hides the true character by adding aromas and flavors that do not enhance the wine but distract from it. Only three of his wines see wood and it is second, third and fourth passage barrels.

Alberto Longo and Chef Vito Aversa

The Alberto Longo winery is located in Lucera, in northern Puglia, and there are 35 hectares of vineyards around and near the winery. Alberto is very proud of his region, especially the food and wine. For this tasting and dinner he flew in Vito Centrone, the young owner of restaurant da Tuccino near Bari, and his chef Vito Aversa who prepared the food with the help of the SD26 staff.

IGT Puglia Bianco “le Fassete” 2011 made from 100% Falanghina. The production area for the wine is San Severo and Masseria Celentano in northern Puglia. The vineyard was planted in 2002 and the soil is calcareous clay loam. There are 5,600 vines per hectare. After a soft pressing the grapes are de-stemmed. Alcoholic fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks at controlled temperatures. The wine remains on the lees for three months. Alberto wanted to show the current vintage 2012 but was sent the 2011. For me this was the better choice because the wine had an extra year of aging and had developed more character. Italian white wines can age and Alberto said he has older vintages at the winery. The wine was a perfect combination with the fish crudo. It has a fruity and floral bouquet. It is full bodied with hints of citrus and good acidity. 

Puglia IGT Rosso “le Cruste” 2010 made from 100% Nero di Troia. Type of soil is calcareous clayey texture. Fermentation in stainless steel with prolonged skin contact. After malolactic fermentation the wine is aged in French barriques (second and third passage) and in casks for at least 12 months, then at least 18 months in bottle before release. This wine had flavors and aromas of blackberry and plum and a touch of spice.

It was served with fresh black squid ink orecchiette in a sauce of clams, red shrimps and zucchini flowers. 

Cacc’e Mmitte di Lucera DOC 2012 made from 55% Nero di Troia, 30% Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and 30% Bombino Bianco. The soil is calcareous with sandy topsoil. There are 5,600 vines per hectare. Viniflcation takes place in stainless steel tanks at controlled temperatures with prolonged maceration on the skins. Malolactic fermentation takes place in November. The wine is aged in cement tanks for at least 6 to 8 months and it bottle for at least 6 months before release. Alberto said that this appellation had been nearly forgotten. He helped to support it along with its principal grape Nero di Troia, aka Uva di Troia. The wine has aromas and flavors of berries such as blackberry and blueberry, and a touch of violet.

Oven roasted wild turbot with a potato crust, fresh tomatoes, parsley and garlic was the accompaniment.

IGT Puglia Rosso “Capoposto” 2012 made from 100% Negroamaro. There are 5,600 plants per hectare. Vinification is in stainless steel tanks at controlled temperature with prolonged skin contact with the must. Malolatic fermentation takes place in the month of November. Aging takes place in concrete vats for at least 6 to 8 months and in bottle for at least 6 months before release. This is a wine with aromas of red and black berries. It is a medium to full bodied wine with a long finish and nice aftertaste. Served with Fassone Piemontese rib eye with braised endive and radicchio.

Understanding the Challenging Wine Market in the USA

The following excellent article was written by Cathy Huyghe for Forbes Food and Drink. The article gives one of the best explanations of the “three tier-system of alcohol distribution  in the United States. At Vinitaly, Ms Huyghe was on a panel  discussing this topic along with Alfonso Cevola,  and Jeremy Parzen (as moderator).  I know these two men and greatly respect their opinions about wine.

Ms. Huyghe also writes about the problems Italian producers have understanding the three-tier system and marketing their wines in the US. She uses as her example Liù  Pambuffetti of the Scacciadiavoli winery. I first met Liù a number of years ago when I was the wine director of i Trulli restaurant and Vino wine store in NYC. Liu came to the wine store for a month to learn about Italian wine and the wine market in NYC.  I  spent time with her talking about these subjects and she sat in on the wine classes I was giving at the time at Vino. So this article is of special interest to me. I believe that every Italian producer who has their wine in this country should read this article.

What Makes A Wine Sell, And What Doesn’t: Takeaways from VinItaly

Note: Last week, during the VinItaly trade fair in Verona, I participated on a panel on the subject of the three-tier system of alcohol distribution in the US. This post recaps the discussion. My co-presenters were Alfonso Cevola, Italian wine specialist at Glazer’s distributor; Steve Raye, co-founder of Brand Action Team TISI +0.78%; and Jeremy Parzen, an Italian wine specialist, who moderated the panel.

One van. Three friends. Twenty-five states. And 40 cases of wine. That was Liù Pambuffetti’s life for three months last winter, as she and two friends drove through the midwestern US, visiting restaurant after restaurant and retailer after retailer, tasting each one on her family’s wines from the Scacciadiavoli estate, in the Montefalco region of Umbria. “We can’t understand the American market from Italy,” Liù Pambuffetti said two weeks ago, standing in the courtyard of her family’s winery. “We had to go there. We had to see for ourselves.”

The initiative started because Pambuffetti found herself in the same position as many smaller Italian wine producers who want to export their wines to the US: with a lack of knowledge or experience with the three-tier system of alcohol distribution in this country.

That lack of knowledge is one reason why the three-tier system was the subject of a panel and seminar I participated in last week at the VinItaly International Wine & Spirits Exhibition in Verona, home to more than 4000 exhibitors, most from within Italy and its wine sector that’s worth 12 billion Euro annually.

The four panelists, independently of each other, anecdotally polled different Italian producers on what they knew about the three-tier system in the US. The answer – very little – was consistent across the board.

For the record, the three-tier system (which dates back to the repeal of Prohibition in the US) means that alcohol must pass through three sets of hands. The first tier is the producer; the second tier is the distributor, which is sometimes also the importer; and the third tier, finally, are the licensed retailers, who sell to the public.

Each state complies with the three tiers, but each state also has its own regulations. Which means a producer must multiply those three tiers by 51 – for all 50 states plus a county in Maryland – in order to get a sense of the magnitude and complexity of bringing their wine to the US market.

A reasonable knee-jerk reaction would be to protest such a system but, as Steve Raye pointed out during the panel, there’s no use spending time debating the faults and merits of the system. Raye is the co-founder and principal at Connecticut-based Brand Action Team, who specializes in innovative digital marketing programs for the alcohol business.[/entity][/entity]

The three-tier system is the reality in the US, as Raye said, and it won’t be changing any time soon. But there are ways to work within it and, increasingly, around it, given the always-changing regulations in the US about ecommerce and shipping wine directly to consumers.

Despite how complicated the laws are, and despite how helpful an importer/distributor may be once the wine lands in the US, the responsibility for selling and marketing a wine still lies squarely in the hands of the producer. That realization quickly lead our panel and the audience to a discussion of how producers can find, market to, and sell to their audience.

Which brings us back to Liù Pambuffetti’s three-month “tour” of the midwestern US.

She and her team had planned ahead and scheduled tastings in target markets. In a very savvy move, at each stop they asked the restaurant or retailer which importers or distributors they respect and use to deliver smaller-production Italian wines like theirs.

In the end Pambuffetti identified not only new customers but also four new distributors, giving her family’s wines an exponentially greater presence in the US than they had before. It isn’t just a presence, however: it is a strategically intelligent presence that increases their chances for successful sales.

There are three important takeaways from Pambuffetti’s experience for Italian wine producers who are looking to break into the US market. These points were discussed in details during the VinItaly panel.

Focus, focus, then focus some more on who the audience is. It sounds obvious, but producers can increase their chances of success by homing in on the people most likely to care about their brand. Otherwise the experience can resemble fishing for sardines in the Pacific Ocean. Maybe the audience for a particular producer is white tablecloth restaurants, in the Italian category, with 50 to 100 seats, and two or more staff dedicated to the wine program. If the producer has dug that far down, in a number of different markets, they’ll already know how their audience wants to be communicated to.
Seriously consider the off-the-beaten-path markets, that is, outside the major cities on either coast of the country. When everyone else is zigging, you zag.
The in-person experience is paramount, because that’s the very best way for a producer to deliver their story.
In my opinion, a producer’s story trumps any detail about a wine’s technical profile or even their numerical rating by international publications. A wine’s technical profile – things like the type of wood it was aged in, or its acidity or alcohol levels – are what I’ve come to think of as tablestakes, to borrow a phrase from Kevin Roberts of Saatchi & Saatchi: they are the stakes any player has to bring to the game to earn a seat at the table. Everyone has them, but they aren’t a point of differentiation.

Which means they don’t help a wine to sell.

What helps a wine sell is its story.

When I interview a winemaker or visit a producer from my perspective as a journalist, the story that interests me doesn’t emerge until later, often much later. It definitely doesn’t happen until after the preliminaries – the tablestakes or logistical data, that is – are over with. It’s only then that the lightbulb of recognition goes off, that illuminates what it is that makes that particular wine and that particular producer unique and different than all the others.

This more narrative approach doesn’t come easily – not even to producers themselves whose stories are their own – within an industry long influenced by the split-second recognition of numerical ratings of wines. Yet it’s exactly what a major distributor like Glazer’s, based in Dallas, Texas, has its eyes and ears open to.

Alfonso Cevola, Import Wine Director and Italian wine specialist at Glazer’s, estimated during the panel that he receives about 20 emails a week from Italian producers that are strikingly, almost dishearteningly, similar because they all say the same thing and relay the same information (such as the tablestakes of oak aging, acidity, length of time the family’s been making wine, etc), only with a different brand name.

The problem is that none of that information is going to help him, or his sizable sales staff, sell the wine. What they need to know is what differentiates the brand from all the other producers in the company’s portfolio, which is also sizable.

Convincing producers of the value of their individual story, though it makes valuable sense intuitively, requires an important shift for many producers moving forward. But, as Raye pointed out during the panel, producers are in an advantageous position today because of technology and measurement tools, many of which are openly available for public use.

Producers can experiment not only with the platforms for communicating their story, but also with whether the story resonates with the audience they want to reach. “Try it,” Raye said. “Measure it. If it doesn’t work, then try something else. The tools are at our disposal.”

Follow me on Twitter @cathyhuyghe.

The White Wines of Campania Part II

There were so many great white wines from Campania at the recent Wine Media Guild tasting and lunch that I had to write about them in two blogs. This is the second

Campania has some of the oldest and most unusual grape varieties in Italy, such as Fiano di Avellino, Greco di Tufo, Ginestra, Pepella and Fenile.

In his book Brunello to Zibibbo, Nicholas Belfrage writes, “Fiano is either a native grape of Campania or a member of a family of grapes called Apianes brought to southern Italy from the Peloponesse, once called Apia… it is mentioned specifically by Pliny in his Naturalis Historia… ‘the bees give Fiano its name, because of their desire (for it).’ Pliny’s etymology has since been challenged…it is not bees (apes), but wasps that are attracted to the sweet grapes, and it is claimed that the name really derives from appiano, a type of apple, or Apia, once a place name in the province of Avellino now called Lapia. 

Fiano di Avellino Etichetta Nera 2013 I Favati Made from 100% Fiano di Avellino. The grapes come from the 5 hectare vineyard Pietramara in Altripalda in the province of Avellino. The age of the vines are 6/7 years, the soil is mostly clay and there are 6,500 vines per hectare. The training system is guyot and the harvest takes place the 3^rd to 4th week of October. Fermentation is in stainless steel tanks and maceration takes place on the lees.

Fiano di Avellino 2013 Tenuta Sarno 1860 made from 100% Fiano di Avellino from the vineyards of Tenuta Sarno 1860. The winery is in Candida, an ancient village in the province of Avellino, The vineyards are at 6,000 meters and the soil is calcareous clay rich in potassium and phosphorus. Harvest is by hand in the middle of October. Grapes are crushed with a pneumatic press with the cage closed, and the wine spends 6 months on the lees. This is a complex wine with depth and structure. It has hints of white peaches, pears and hazelnuts. $25 

Fiano di Avellino 2012 Ciro Picariello made from 100% Fiano from a seven hectare vineyard in the villages of Montefredane at 1600 ft. and Summonte at 2,100 ft. The harvest takes place in late October and the grapes are picked by hand. The grapes undergo a slow pressing with only the first press fraction used. The wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks with indigenous yeast for 11/12 months and then several months in bottle before release. There is a minimal use of SO2 and the wine is not filtered or fined. The wine has hints of apple, white peach, hazelnut and a touch of flint and minerality due to the volcanic soil. $29

Fiano di Avellino Ventidue 2009 Villa Raiano made from 100% Fiano from vineyards in the municipalities of Candida, Montefredane, Lapio and San Michele di Serino in Irpinia. The vineyard is at 450/600 meters, the soil is calcareous clay and marl, with loamy sand, the training system is espalier-guyot and there are 4,500 plants per hectare. Harvest takes place the first week of October. Vinification is in stainless steel tanks. There is a settling of the must after a soft pressing of whole clusters and inoculation with selected yeasts. The wine is bottled the second week of February following the harvest. This is a wine with a mineral character, good acidity and hints of citrus fruits, white peaches, and a touch of mint and sage. $23

Fiano di Avillano can age and is at its best when it is 5 to 10 years old. However there are also many that can age for 15 to 20 years and longer. 

Irpinia Bianco Campania ”Campanaro” 2012. Feudi di San Gregorio made from Fiano di Avellino and Greco di Tufo grapes are from the Valle dei Ruggi vineyard in the commune of Sorbo Serpico and the Campanaro vineyard in the commune of Tufo, Campania. 15+ year-old vines are grown at between 1,300 – 1,600 ft above sea level with southern and southwestern exposures. Grapes are grown at a moderately dense 4,500 vines per hectare and organic farming methods are employed. The Fiano is grown in a moderately deep soil with slight to moderately calcareous surface. Deeper levels are calcareous with silt clay and marl, limey soil. The Greco is grown in deep, finely textured, moderately alkaline and very calcareous soil with a clay surface layer with deeper layers of clay, lime marl and copious limestone. Harvest is the first two weeks of October. There is a soft crushing of the grapes at low pressure followed by cold settling for 24/48 hours in stainless steel and wood. The wine is aged for 6 months on the lees and then spends four months in bottle before release. $14

Ginestra: This grape variety is present in Furore, Tramonti, Corbaia and Positano. It has nothing to do with Falanghina, with which it was mistakenly combined in the 19th century. It has a characteristically strong scent of broom, known in Italian as ginestra, from which it takes its name. This robust grape variety requires extensive pruning and offers discreet yields. It is a complementary grape variety in the Costa d’Amalfi Bianco DOC.

Pepella: With only a few large grapes on each bunch, the rest of them are small, the size of peppercorns (hence the name), but they all ripen at the same time. This is another grape variety exclusive to the area of Amalfi inland from the coast. Pepella is fairly uncommon and the vines are rather old. As a complementary grape variety, it falls under the Tramonti and Ravello subzones of the Costa d’Amalfi Rosso DOC.

Costa D’ Amalfi Bianco “Per Eva” 2008 Tenuta San Francesco made from 65% Falanghina, 30% Ginestra and 5% Pepella. The vineyard was once owned by the clergy so it is called “Vigna dei Preti.” It is located in Tramonti on the hills high above the Amalfi Coast. The vineyard is on steep-sloped terraced hills 300/500 meters above sea level. The harvest takes place the third week of October. Fermentation is in stainless steel for 10 months and two months in bottle before release. The wine is named for the wife of one of the owners. This is a wine with nice fruit, smoke, good minerality and acidity.

Fenile: I was sitting next to Livio Panebianco, the importer for Marisa Cuomo Wines and he told me about the Fenile grape. It is a complementary variety found mainly in the territories of Furore, Positano and Amalfi. It is trained using the pergola system in groups of two or three vines per position. Fenile offers a modest production due to the slight weight of the bunch. This grape ripens between the end of August and the first few days of September and the very thin skin of the berry means that it must be harvested immediately to prevent it from rotting.

Ripolo: The grape variety is now grown in a few areas mostly in the municipalities of Furore and Positano. It is not particularly fertile and production is not always constant. In particular, the weight of the bunch is well below average.

Costa D’ Amalfi “Fiorduva” Furore Bianco 2012 Cantina Marisa Cuomo. The wine is made from 30% Fenile, 30% Ginestra and 40% Ripolo. The production zone is in Furore and the surrounding municipalities on the Amalfi coast. The coastal terraces are at 200/500 meters and are south facing.  There are 5,000 to 7,000 vines per hectare. The training system is pergola. The soil is limestone-dolomite rocks. The overripe grapes are harvested by hand the third week of October and the grapes arrive intact in the cantina. After pressing the juice is inoculated with selected yeast. Fermentation takes place for about 3 months in oak barrels at 12°C. The wine has very nice fruit with hints of apricot, raisins, a touch of candied fruit and good acidity. This was one of my favorite wines at the tasting.

 

 

 

Pizza and Hygienic Terrorism in Italy

The following article was published  by Jeremy Parzen on his Blog Do Bianchi 

Does Pizza Cause Cancer? Italy’s Big Pizza Kerfaffle

by Do Bianchi Above: the last pizza I ate in Italy in Lecce in October 2013, a “napoletana” with salt-cured anchovies and capers. Every Italian food and wine blog that I follow posted yesterday on a controversy sparked by a Sunday evening news program aired by RAI 3, one of Italy’s three national television networks. The show, “Report,” is analogous to “20/20” on ABC or “48 Hours” on CBS, a “gotcha” news program that generates views and clicks by means of pseudo-investigative reporting. In Sunday night’s show, entitled “Let’s not burn our pizza,” the producers contend that because Italian pizzaioli (pizza makers) do not properly clean their pizza ovens, the resulting “hydrocarbons” in “burnt pizzas” can cause cancer. Image via the RAI 3 site, where you can view the entire show online. The residual burnt flour that discolors the bottom of the pies, says one University of Venice toxicology professor interviewed by the producers, is similar to the exhaust that you breathe on the freeway. The producers make other outrageous claims as well: the use of oils other than olive oil, low quality flour, and even the boxes for delivery pizza can also be cancerogenic, they report. Between yesterday and today, Neapolitan journalist Luciano Pignataro — one of Italy’s leading wine and food bloggers — published seven posts on his blog in response to what one of his contributors calls “hygienic terrorism.” In a press conference yesterday organized hastily by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (the Authentic Neapolitan Pizza Association), Professor Antonio Limone, commissioner of the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Mezzogiorno (Experimental Veterinary Prevention Institute of Southern Italy), stated flatly that “the amount of hydrocarbons found in a burnt pizza is less than in mussels” (source: Luciano Pignataro Wine Blog). “We cannot stand for attacks like this against [the region of] Campania,” said Antonio Startita during the conference, a “historic” pizzaiolo who works in the Materdei ward of Naples. “We must defend our treasures. A Neapolitan pizza not cooked in wood-fired oven is unthinkable.” Do Bianchi | October 7, 2014 at 10:59 am | Categories: de cibo, de rebus italicis | URL:http://wp.me/p5ma7-6wm

White Wines of Campania: Part 1

 

When Tom Maresca, member sponsor of the event,  sent me the list of Campania wines for the Wine Media Guild tasting and lunch at Felidia Restaurant, I could not believe the variety of wines that he had managed to put together. There were 14 white wines on the list and 14 reds ranging in price from $17 to $60.

Tom Maresca

Michele and I travel in Campania often and this was a chance to taste wines that I could only find there and taste them side-by-side

The speakers for the event were Ferrante Di Somma from Cantina Di Marzo, Katel Pleven from Cantina Astroni, Livio Panebianco, importer of Marisa Cuomo wines and Elena Gargani representing Donnachiara

Since there are so many wines to report on, I will write about the white wines made from Falanghina, Code di Volpe, Greco di Tufo and Pallagrello grapes first.

Falanghina: In his book, Brunello to Zibibbo (1999) Nicholas Belfrage states, “This grape (Falanghina), which some have suggested may be of Greek origin, and which some have tentatively indentified as the grape from which Roman Falernian was made, has been known as Falanghina only since the 19th century. (A falanga… is a type of wooden stake used for supporting a vine; the suffix –ina makes it a small wooden stake.) The grape Falanghina is a late-ripener, which requires well exposed, sunny slopes and not-too-excessive production to shine, but when it does so it shines brightly, making a wine of good extract and flavor, with a firm acidic backbone enabling it to resist the passage of time in the bottle. It is a grape of real interest deserving wider national and international attention.”

The grape is well suited for the porous volcanic soil around Vesuvius. Falanghina wine is currently very popular in Rome. 

Falanghina del Sannio Taburno 2013 La Rivolta 100% Falanghina. This is a third generation family run winery. The winery and vineyards are located in the province of Beneveneto on hills that range in altitude between 300/600 meters. The soil is alluvial with sand deposits. Harvest is by hand in early October. Fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks for 15 days with natural yeasts. The wine is not fined of filtered. This is a wine with nice fruit and hints of apple and pear. $18

Falanghina dei Campi Flegrei “Cruna Delago” 2012 La Sibilla 100% Falanghina. The Campi Flegrei is a small grape growing area north of Naples right on the Campania coast. The soil here is so sandy that the area never experienced phylloxera. The wines are not grafted but planted directly into the soil, which gives full ripeness to the grapes without high alcohol. The wine is fermented in stainless steel. This is a wine with nice citrus flavors and aromas, a hint of peach, a touch of smoke and a nice almond aftertaste. $17

Coda di Volpe (Fox Tail) may be the Alopecis that Pliny the Elder (d.79 AD) wrote about in his Natural History because the curve of the bunches resembles the tail of a fox. It is also the principal grape in Lacryma Christi Bianco del Vesuvio. It does very well in volcanic soil. 

Irpinia Coda di Volpe 2013 Donnachiara made from 100% Coda di Volpe. The winery is located in Montefalcone in the province of Avellino. I was sitting with Elena Gargani from the winery and she said that this is a different variety of Coda di Volpe than is used in other areas and it has more body. The soil is mostly clay and the training system is Guyot. There are 2,500 plants per hectare. The juice is free run and fermentation is in stainless steel tanks. Malolatic fermentation does not take place. This is a wine with good structure, hints of citrus and herbs. There is good acidity, nice minerality, a long finish and pleasing aftertaste. $18

Coda di Volpe Pomeiano Nati 2011 Sorrentino 100% Coda di Volpe from the ancient town of Boscotrecase 400 meters above sea level. The vineyards are in the rich fertile soil of Vesuvio-volcanic and sandy. The training system is Guyot and the vines are not grafted on American rootstock. Harvest takes place the first week of October. Fermentation is in stainless steel and the wine is in bottle for less then a month before release. The wine has nice fruit with hints of apricot, almond and a touch of smoke. $28

Mr.Ferrante Di Somma of Cantina Di Marzo

Greco di Tufo: The ancient Greeks brought Greco di Tufo grapes into the area around Naples about 2,500 years ago. The much-prized Greco is a late ripening varietal and the phenolic compounds in the grape contribute to the wine’s characteristically deep color. Greco is best when it is found in the volcanic hills in the Avellino province in central Campania. Only 8 villages can legally claim to make Greco di Tufo. One of these villages is Tufo from which the wine gets it name. Tufo is also the name of the rock on which the village is built. Greco thrives here because there is tufaceous, volcanic soil rich in sulphur and a relatively dry microclimate. The vineyards in this zone are between 400 and 450 meters

Greco di Tufo “Franciscus” 2013 Cantina Di Marzo 100% Greco di Tufo. Mr. Ferrante Di Somma, owner of the winery, was one of the speakers. He said that his was the oldest cantina in Campania and that his ancestor introduced the Greco grape into the zone. The vineyard has a southwest exposure and is at 250 to 500 meters. The age of the vines is 5 to 20 years and the training is guyot. Harvesting is by hand in the middle of October. Lightly pressed must and must run are blended together. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks. Fining is on the lees. Clarification is by cold and light filtering.  The wine has nice citrus aromas and flavors, a hint of orange blossom, minerality, good acidity and a touch of almonds in the aftertaste. $18

Pallagrello Bianco: the grape may have originated in the province of Caserta between the communes of Piedimonte, Matese and Alife. In the past it was known as Piedimonte Bianco. It is not a color mutation of the Pallagrello Nero and it is not related to Coda di Volpe as was once believed. The grape almost disappeared after the phylloxera infestation but made a comeback in the 1990’s.

Pallagrello Bianco “Fontanavigna” 2013 Terre del Principe 100% Pallagrello Bianco. The soil is clay with many small stones, there are 5,000 vines per hectare and the training system is guyot. The harvest takes place the first three weeks of September and the wine in fermented in stainless. This is a white wine with nice citrus, flavors and aromas hints of apricots, peaches and good acidity.  $21

One of the dishes we had was fusillone pasta (big fusilli) with clams, different kinds of broccoli, and sliced almonds. It was excellent. The pasta producer is De Matteis and it is made from 100% Italian wheat in the Campania region of Italy.

Next time- Fiano di Avelliano, Ginestra, Pepella, Ripolo and Fenile grapes.

The Role of the Wine Critic

DINING & WINE

A Wine Critic’s Realm Isn’t a Democracy

I agree with Eric Asimov on all the points he makes in this article. Readers of my blog know that I have my own opinions when it comes to the

style of wines which I write about and drink.

APRIL 21, 2014

CreditTony Cenicola/The New York Times

The Pour

By ERIC ASIMOV

Heady discussions about the role of the wine critic may strike many people as navel gazing. Yet one issue has bubbled up on social media and blogs repeatedly in the last few months: Should wine critics allow their personal preferences to color their critical views? Or should they remain neutral on questions regarding a wine’s style, regardless of how they feel about it?

I find this issue fascinating, and before you dismiss me as one more self-absorbed wine writer, let me say that I think these are important questions for anybody who cares about wine. How you answer them shapes how you think about wine, your attitude toward its aesthetic potential and, indeed, what you expect from critics.

Let me not keep you in suspense: I believe a critic’s point of view is crucial. My job is not to act as an impartial arbiter of bottles, but as a guide, leading readers on a quest to explore what is most beautiful, fascinating, distinctive, curious, delicious and moving in wine. I hope to inspire curiosity, promote ease and comfort with wine, and provoke discussion and debate. Ultimately my aim is to eliminate the need for wine critics (at least in a utopian sense) by helping consumers become their own best authorities.

This requires me to view various styles of wine critically, which, emphatically, is not a question of simply promoting what I like and attacking what I dislike. In a recent column on Napa Valley cabernet sauvignons from the 2011 vintage, I made it clear that I was not a fan of opulent, powerfully fruity blockbuster wines, an opinion based on personal experience and aesthetic ideals. I would like to think it was well reasoned and thoughtful, and that I was exercising critical judgment rather than simply lashing out at something I personally don’t enjoy.

I wouldn’t expect everybody to agree with me, least of all other wine critics. They may argue strongly in favor of a style that I find repugnant, and back it up with their own set of reasons. That, too, is critical judgment.

Other wine writers, especially those from Wine Spectator, the popular consumer publication, think differently. They believe that wine critics must overcome their personal preferences and assess quality, regardless of style.

“Wine writers should curate, not pontificate,” James Molesworth, a Spectator critic, tweeted last fall. He amplified his views in an email to me.

“I feel it’s important to subjugate personal preference,” he wrote. “One can never eliminate it, but it should not be the determining factor. We, as wine critics, need to be able to identify, appreciate and describe a wide range of styles for consumers, and then identify the wines that are good and bad examples of their respective styles. Based on this approach, the consumer can then make a truly informed decision based on their own tastes.”

 I understand his position, but I believe critics must make stylistic judgments as well, based on ideas of what fundamentally constitutes beauty, balance and interest in wine, rather than whimsical likes and dislikes. The idea is to present a worldview of wine, rather than a set of options. The public can then accept or reject a well-thought-out set of opinions, rather than defining quality itself with its buying decisions. Yet a significant number of people in and out of the wine trade believe that great sales legitimize any style.

Justification by popularity may make sense as a business plan, but the aesthetic consequences are appalling. In what other field would critics temper their judgment by examining commercial sales? That people buy millions of fast-food burgers every day would hardly soften a food critic’s judgment of their quality and value.

Yet with wine, what the public likes (or, more accurately, what sells) can be enough to keep critics from making any sort of negative judgments.

I call this wine populism. As in political populism, it’s appealing to people’s prejudices rather than debating merits straightforwardly. Does it make me a snob to suggest that wines like Yellow Tail, an Australian brand that produces chardonnay and shiraz by the millions of cases annually, do not belong in the same category as small-production wines from historic vineyards? Most Yellow Tail drinkers will continue to enjoy it regardless of what I say, and that’s fine. But a tiny percentage may find greater pleasure by being inspired to try something new and different. If you like plush, opulent Napa cabernets, I’ll never tell you that you shouldn’t. But I will try to explain why I prefer leaner, more restrained Napa cabernets. Maybe you’ll like one, too.

A critic’s job is not to validate the choices of consumers. If anything, it’s to make them question their assumptions. You may drink a wine without ever wondering what it is you like about it. Such uncritical drinking is fine; nobody is obliged to give wine a second thought. But if a negative assessment of that style of wine actually causes you to consider all the things you like about it, your experience of that wine may be broader and deeper.

Consumers may find wine intimidating. I believe critics can calm fears by avoiding jargon, perfectionism and the suggestion that wine exists on some sort of elevated plane, available only to those who have specialized knowledge.

Yet reassurance should never come at the expense of pandering. People don’t need the sort of hand-holding suggested by terms like “starter wines,” “gateway wines” and other industry rationalizations for fifth-rate products. Nor do they need critics to refrain from strong points of view, provided they are based on thoughtful, well-reasoned opinions rather than grudges or unexplored motivations.

The notion of “objectivity” seems attractive, connoting freedom from bias. But in writing about wine, it’s ultimately a sham. It’s not possible to eliminate all matters of context, personal experience, extrapolation and aesthetic ideals. These are, in fact, what constitute judgment. What’s wanted in the end is not some sort of imagined neutrality, but fairness, openness and honesty.

Email: asimov@nytimes.com. And follow Eric Asimov on Twitter: @EricAsimov.