The Marche wine region in Italy is one of the regions I've
discovered the least due to the lack of accessibility of wines.
Studying for this Italian wine exam has really opened my eyes to the
world of Italian wines even further and has made it so much more
exciting with the boat loads of information I have to share with you.
I've had people ask me “Don't you ever run out of material to
write about?” It's hard for me not to laugh as I'll never run out
of material to share with you with the amount of grapes and wineries
all throughout Italy that are dying for us to explore them.
Garofoli winery compliments of www.garofolivini.it
At a recent tasting I sampled a Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi
Classico Superior from the Garofoli winery of the Marche region. The
Garofoli winery is run by brothers Gianfranco and Carlo and the 5th
generation to the Garofoli winery, their children Beatrice, Gianluca
and Caterina. Many of the missions and goals of the wineries
that I've become acquainted with is to always introduce modern
technologies in winemaking by trying to stay true to the traditions
of the winemaking held within the family for years or even centuries.
This philosophy is true also of the Garofoli family.
The Garofoli family ~ Compliments of www.garofolivini.it
The Garofoli winery, that began in 1871, is a large producer
averaging about 2 million bottles annually that sources grapes from
their 4 vineyard sites as well as grape growers they have partnered
with for years that provide them with grapes for their production.
Garofoli vineyards ~ Compliments of www.garofolivini.it
There are two DOCG's of the Marche wine region producing
Verdicchio wines: Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Riserva and the
Verdicchio di Matelica. The reason why the wine I'm sharing
with you today isn't a DOCG is because it's specifically not a
riserva. There are some differences between the verdicchio
wines produced in both of these areas.
Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi
Rounder and softer
More approachable
Longer aged
Close to the sea
Verdicchio di Matelica
About 1/10 the size of Castelli di Jesi
Sharper and higher acidity
Rich in minerals due to an ancient sea bed
Found in the inland valley on the slopes of the Apennines The 2012 Garofoli Macrina Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico
Superiore I sampled is vinified in one of the 2 Garofoli locations,
Serra de' Conti, but aged in their winery at Castelfidardo. The
Verdicchio grapes from the classico DOC area of Jesi come from their
vineyard site, Cupo delle Lame in the comune of Montecarotto.
This wine was bright and fresh. On the palate it's florally with
ripe exotic fruit along with apples and peaches combined with
minerality. It's a medium bodied wine.
What wineries have you discovered from this region or any favorite
wines you'd like to share?
In two weeks on Saturday April 4th
our Italian Food, Wine & Travel bloggers group (#ItalianFWT) will
be featuring Sicily so I wanted to get everyone in the southern
Italian mindset and share with you a wine that I recently had from
the winery Feudo
Maccari.
Sicily is the largest island of Italy
at the tip of the boot. The climate here is Mediterranean and one of
the hottest, arid conditions for grape growing. There are also the
influences of the winds from the north as well as the hot African
scrirocco winds that help to prevent diseases and mitigate the hot
climate.
Feudo Maccari is located in the Val di
Noto, a UNESCO world heritage site found near Ragusa and Siracusa at
the southwestern tip of Sicily. A special feature of the wine
produced here is due to the black volcanic soil that is rich and
fertile. The winery uses the alberello method,also known as bush
training, which is traditional to use in Sicily where the vines are
close to the ground and not trellised. It helps create maximum sun
exposure with the leaves covering and protecting the grapes and
phenolic substances.
Landscape of Noto, Sicily
Owner, Antonio Moretti, has focused his
passion on his 3 wineries: Tenuta Sette Ponti located in Arezzo
(Tuscany), Poggio al Lupo in the Maremma (Tuscany) and lastly Feudo
Maccari which he began with his daughter Monica Moretti. They
started producing wine at Feudo Maccari in the late 90's when they
combined with a number of owners 50 plots of lands, about 250 acres,
for their winemaking around the town of Noto. The winery also
possesses 3 estate vineyards: Maccari, Vendicari Guaranaschelli and
Bufalefi.
One of the grapes of Sicily that is
largely planted throughout and is one of the prominent red grapes is
Nero d'Avola. I wanted to share the 2011 Feudo Maccari Saia Nero
d'Avola IGT that I tasted. The name of the wine “Saia” is
actually an Arabic word named after the irrigation canals of Sicily.
They began producing this wine in 2002. It's a 100% produced with
nero d'avola grapes aged in french oak. This wine has been a highly
rated 90+ wine in many vintages by James Suckling and Wine
Spectator along with having won numerous Tre Bicchieri awards,which
is one of the highly acclaimed awards for Italian wines. The 2011 Saia was a deep ruby that consisted of black fruit, sweet spice and was a little peppery. A dry wine with nice fruit, crisp and persistent on the finish.
I can't wait to share more wines and
foods from Sicily over the next couple weeks and I know we'll have
lots of great stories from the rest of our Italian bloggers group so
come back or join us with your experiences live on twitter,
#italianFWT! Have you been to Feudo Maccari or Noto, Sicily?
I was a little hesitant I must say to join the “Open that Bottle Night” for our Wine Pairing Weekend event. I always have a hard time opening bottles that are special to me that I have brought back from Italy after visiting the wineries. I'll always have the memories from that visit, but once the bottle is gone it's gone. It's crazy thinking I know. I can go back and always get another bottle, but I'm sure many can relate that it can be tough. Another worry is after sitting on a bottle for years will it even be good upon opening it.
I decided to revisit a winery that I visited back in 2007, Fattoria dei Barbi in Montalcino within Tuscany. Fattoria dei Barbi is run today by Stefano Cinelli Colombini. The winery is on about 750 acres of land and their production is about 800,000 bottles with ¼ of those being Brunello di Montalcino. The winery still has bottles in their cellars bottles that date back to 1892. As you'll see from my pictures below there were bottles in dim red lighting from the 50's and 60's as well. I'd love to experience some of those older vintages to see how they have developed. One can dream.
Don't mind the old picture of me ; )
Large slavonian oak barrels of Fattoria dei Barbi
According to their site, Fattoria dei Barbi is the leader in many firsts:
First to sell Brunello by mail (1832)
First to export Brunello to the USA (1962)
First single varietal grappa with Brunello (1974)
First to use carbon dioxide for cold fermentation with red wines (2000)
The Wine I was patiently aging a 2000 Fattoria dei Barbi Brunello di Montalcino that I chose to open to share with you today. If you're not too familiar with Brunello di Montalcino it was a DOCG that was created in Tuscany in 1980. You may have heard of the 3 B's of Italian wines and that includes Barolo, Barbaresco and Brunello. These are some of the best wines in all of Italy. Sangiovese was definitely my first love when it came to Italian wine and as I began to discover how many clones of sangiovese there were back then and over time I discovered the amazing Brunello di Montalcino.
This is a wine that is required by Italian law to be produced with 100% Sangiovese Grosso and to be aged a minimum of 2 years in barrel and 4 months in the bottle prior to release. It's a wine that can age for 15-20+ years depending on the producer, storage conditions and the vintage itself.
Brusco dei Barbi was their first “super tuscan” developed in 1969
The long awaited moment had come where I opened and decanted my bottle of 2000 Fattoria dei Barbi Brunello di Montalcino. Obviously it doesn't compare to the vintages that I shared with you in the pictures above, but we can't have it all, can we?
The Fattoria dei Barbi Brunello di Montalcino was aged 2 years in large slavonian oak barrels showed above followed by 4 months aging in the bottle. It's always amazing to me how a bottle with age can retain the characteristics they do when kept in the correct conditions. When I brought this bottle back from Italy I put it away in my wine fridge and never touched it again. Opening the bottle and pouring it into the decanter I then poured myself a few sips in anticipation to see how the bottle held up. I was impressed by the acidity and fruit that were still in tact. It was garnet in color with a slight hint of orange around the rim showing its age. After about close to an hour of the wine decanting everything was beautifully integrated and turned into a very silky, smooth and beautifully aromatic wine of ripe cherries, more on the black cherry side with a hint of tobacco. I sat there for awhile with my nose in the glass treasuring these moments as the nose was intense.
Wine Pairing with Brunello di Montalcino
If I had some of the foods that are accessible in Tuscany accessible here in the states I definitely would have chosen wild boar. It's one of my Tuscan favorites! My husband is a lover of pappardelle and I promised I'd bring him some back from my recent trip to Italy.
With this Brunello di Montalcino I prepared a pappardelle with a bolognese sauce. You could also go for preparing it with braised beef as another option. One of the disappointing factors for me when I see pasta bolognese on a menu is whether or not it's produced in a true bolognese form. So many restaurants prepare it as an everyday meat sauce, but it's so much more. Every time I think of bolognese it brings me back to my travels to Bologna in the Emilia Romagna region during the same time when I also visited Fattoria dei Barbi. No one til this day has prepared a bolognese like that meal I experienced in Bologna, but it was coming from the source of Bologna so it's pretty hard to beat. No one knows how to make a meal than those of where the dish originates from.
I decided to venture out and try preparing a different recipe and went with the recipe for Pappardelle with Bolognese Sauce from Williams Sonoma. I used a pappardelle with truffles that had a hint of flavor that was just enough to complement the dish. I topped the dish with an aged Tuscan pecorino, which is my favorite. The elegance of the wine and the firm tannin combined with the rich bolognese sauce were a perfect combination. It was an evening of smiles and full bellies and was very delightful.
Be sure to check out these special pairings from my fellow #winePW bloggers and their wonderful pairings for Open that Bottle Night!
Time is flying and we have covered
about a quarter of Italy by now with our Italian Food, Wine &
Travel (#ItalianFWT) group including Tuscany,
Piedmont, Emilia
Romagna, the Veneto and now
today we talk about the Trentino-Alto Adige region.
Fortunately, I
just returned from this region a few weeks ago visiting the town of
Trento, the capital of Trentino. Trentino-Alto Adige is considered 1
region, but the southern part is Trentino and the northern part is
Alto Adige and they both have their respective capitals with Bolzano
serving as the capital of the Alto Adige.
This is the 2nd
alpine region of northern Italy I have visited and am in love with
the way the mountain ranges dominate over the valleys and small
villages. The air is crisp, clean and there is no better way to
enjoy the outdoors and peace and quiet than in regions such as this.
I ventured to the town of Trento by
train, which was only about an hour on the train coming from Verona
where I was based. I love being able to wake up in the morning and
jump on a train making it easy to enjoy a multitude of regions and
towns conveniently. Trento is an easily walkable town in the
downtown center much closed off by cars. I first started my journey
around the city center from the Piazza Duomo, a magnificent large
square with the Fountain of Neptune serving as the center and the a
tower and church as the borders along with cafes and shops with the
Dolomite mountains as a backdrop. It doesn't get much better than
this to start with a deep breath and enjoy the surroundings.
Piazza Duomo ~ Trento
Here are some of my highlights
architecturally of Trento that I enjoyed.
Buonconsiglio Castle Museum
Duomo ~ Trento
After exploring and wandering
throughout the day and taking in the sites and prior to my return in
Verona I took a much needed rest and stumbled upon a place called
Duo. Duo serves as a restaurant downstairs and upstairs where I
enjoyed window side seating at the bar that serves a variety of
tapas, which is always so fun especially when you are getting a feel
for what a regions cuisine has to offer. I decided to go with a
dish typical to the Trentino region, which was canederli. Canederli
are small dumplings made with stale bread and speck. If you aren't
familiar with speck it's a ham that is salt cured and smoked. It's a
simple cuisine that can be enjoyed by itself as I had or in a soup.
Canederli with Muller Thurgau
The Trentino-Alto Adige has many
Germanic influences and this can be discovered by the grapes found in
this region. Enjoying my canederli I chose a local white wine, 2013
Cembra Cantina di Montagna Muller Thurgau Vigna delle Forche. This
particular winery located in the Cembra Valley is set up high on the
Trentino mountains making for very difficult harvesting. The winery
is a cooperative that consists of about 400 growers that was
established in 1952. This area is home to a special type of red rock
known as porphyry. The Muller Thurgau of Cembra Cantina di Montagna
was fresh, crisp with lots of minerality balanced with good fruit and
some slight herbal notes.
Don’t stop here. We have lots more great information to share with you on the Trentino-Alto Adige region. Join the rest of our Italian bloggers group:
Make sure to join us live on Twitter today and throughout the weekend at #ItalianFWT to chat about the Trentino-Alto Adige region and your experiences. We can’t wait to hear from you. Check back at #ItalianFWT throughout the month as well for additional blogs on food, wine and travel of Italy. Next month on April 4th we feature Sicily so stay tuned. Ciao ciao!
Welcome to our 5th Italian Food, Wine & Travel (#ItalianFWT) group and since we're still in winter I figured let's escape to the northern regions of Italy. If you're in the Boston area where I reside, folks are hoping we're out of it sooner than later due to the enormous amount of snow this winter, but I personally love the snow. One of the beauties for myself of northern Italy is the alpine landscape that dominates over many of the villages as you get closer and closer to the borders of Switzerland and Austria. There is nothing like those snow capped peaks over the valleys and towns.
My recent trip to Trento
This Saturday, March 7th, the #ItalianFWT group is featuring the Trentino-Alto Adige region in northeastern Italy. There will be a large variety of Food, Wine and Travel discussed from this wonderful region that is often less explored than the others, but has much to offer. Here is a preview of what is to come later in the week. We hope you join us back here and live on twitter Saturday and throughout the weekend at #ItalianFWT. Our features will be:
Vino Travels - Canederli & Muller Thurgau of Trento FoodWineClick - Trentino-Alto Adige is Different: Goulash and Teroldego Orna O'Reilly - The Italian Dolomites: A Foodie's Paradise Rockin Red Blog - Wine and Dine in Trentino-Alto Adige with #ItalianFWT Enofylz Wine Blog - A Taste of Alto Adige - Cantina Terlano Classico Cooking Chat - Italian wine with Indian Curry The Palladian Traveler - Under Doctor's Orders in the Trentino
One of the reasons why I chose to write this Italian wine blog are to educate on the Italian grapes produced throughout Italy that many folks aren't aware of or super familiar with, myself included. With hundreds and hundreds of grape varietals throughout Italy it's hard to know every one and that's what makes drinking wine so fun. You may try a grape in one region that can be very different in another as well based on the Italian terroir that I recently discussed in one of my recent articles last week.
Nick Mucci
Today I wanted to introduce you to Nick Mucci of Mucci Imports. I've met Nick a number of times at wine tastings in the Boston area.
Mucci Imports, owned by Nick Mucci, is a Boston based Italian
wine importer specializing in unique Italian varietals from producers he has
hand picked throughout his travels from living in Italy and developing special relationships
with the winemakers. Nick first started
Mucci Imports in 2013 towards the end of the summer. When I first met Nick he was introducing his
wines to folks at Ball Square Fine Wines in Somerville and I was intrigued by
his selections when I saw the announcement.
Being an Italian wine blogger I love the opportunity to try Italian
wines, nevermind those that are unique to Italy that are sometimes hard to find
over here in the states.
With Nick being of Italian heritage, both Sicilian and Abruzzi,
and growing up in an Italian household, the excitement of Italy and all things
Italian is what built up throughout his life.
His Italian heritage is one of the reasons that got Nick to want to live
abroad where he moved to Italy for over 3 years. From living in Italy and experiencing the
Italian lifestyle, it became the driving force completely for what he is doing
now. When Nick moved over to Italy he lived in Rome and taught English. After living 2 years in Rome Nick enrolled in
the MBA program of food and wine at the University of Bologna where he studied
for a year. There he developed further
relationships with professors, other students and designed his wine importing
business plan.
While living abroad with his girlfriend they would travel and
get lost and come upon festivals, sagre, where he met not only wine
producers, but cheese and olive oil producers as well. All his travel while living in Italy was food
and wine based to some capacity. From
meeting these producers the people and relationships that he built along with
the welcoming aspect of the people were one of the greatest satisfactions for
Nick. He was welcomed with open
arms. Speaking the language and
understanding the culture helped him relate to them. When he came back to Boston to visit family
he wasn't seeing in restaurants or shops any of the wines locally that he was
experiencing for himself in Italy creating even more a reason to start Mucci
Imports.
Mucci Imports currently works with about 12-15 producers and
imports from regions including Emilia Romagna, Piedmont, the Veneto, Tuscany,
Abruzzo (where Nick has cousins that make wine), Campania and Sicily. Originally Nick wanted to start all with
Sicilian wines since he has a lot of passion for this region. A lot of the wineries Nick works with are
quite small. The wines that he imports
and sells are not what the masses are typically looking for. In educating his buyers and their customers
he further hopes to make these wines more appreciated and known. That is what drives Nick every day to promote
the wines of Italy.
Growing up around this area Nick has focused his efforts on
selling wine in and around the Boston area.
You can find some of his wines at
restaurants including Giulia's in Cambridge, Coppa in the South End and Pastoral Pizza in Fort Point. You can also located them in your local wine
shops including Ball Square Fine Wines in Somerville, Social Wines in South
Boston and Federal Wine & Spirits on State Street downtown.
I've written about one of his wines in the recent past when my Italian bloggers group (Italian Food, Wine & Travel, #italianFWT) wrote about the Emilia Romagna region.
The 2012 Garofoli Macrina Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico
Superiore I sampled is vinified in one of the 2 Garofoli locations,
Serra de' Conti, but aged in their winery at Castelfidardo. The
Verdicchio grapes from the classico DOC area of Jesi come from their
vineyard site, Cupo delle Lame in the comune of Montecarotto.
This wine was bright and fresh. On the palate it's florally with
ripe exotic fruit along with apples and peaches combined with
minerality. It's a medium bodied wine.
