Cheesy noodles and Piemonte rossi

Seeing as I was cooking up the Macaroni Italienne a la Escoffier (perhaps with a little more cheese than he calls for - like double the cheese), I thought it might be fun to enjoy some Piemontese red wines for the occasion. In retrospect, piemonte probably was not the way to go here, but heck I was craving these wines for some reason. As always, the pasta was great - what's not to love about gruyere, smoked swiss and parmesan melted on noodles, baked with some kale for extra vitamins? As for the wines...

...2008 Castello di Verduno "Basadone" Pelaverga

Sadly, a bitter disappointment. Hopefully no one takes too much offense, as I know that calling this pelaverga disappointing is in some circles akin to calling your baby ugly. What was missing from this wine was a sense of Piedmont: it lacks acid, lacks earth, floral qualities, grip. Even a (usually) lighter wine like grignolino or freisa has at least one of these components. To me, this tasted like a medium grade mencía raised in stainless, with a clumsy reductive quality and not too much going for it.

2006 Angelo Germano Langhe Nebbiolo

Better, with darker fruits, some minerality and a tannic, muscular, if a bit overbearing and clumsy grip. Tracking this over a few days, the wine failed to improve and was in clear decline on day 3.

2004 Da Milano Barolo Cannubi

Yes, I know that these guys are full on rotofermenting, barrique using modernists. The wine shows it, with a heavy handed, dumb dark fruit and oak expression that is not going to win many awards for excellence in nebbiolo. However, underneath all the method and make-up was a glimmer of minerality and expressive fruit. I'd be curious how this wine might have turned out if the fruit that they are sourcing was then harvested, processed and fermented by someone more traditionally minded.

Brief Piedmontese interlude in the midst of a French focused posting spree

Italian staff tasting at work today. While there were some other wines I thought well-made, one stood head and shoulders above the other 20 or so in the crowd. It is from a producer many of you probably know and respect, though I see a lot about his Lessona DOC wine on the blogosphere and less about this wine below from the Bramaterra DOC.

2005 Tenuta di Sella Bramaterra

The fact that this is still such a pretty, finesse driven and highly nuanced wine in this warmer vintage is clearly attributed to lots of experience (both handed down and lived) as well as a commitment to producing authentic, terroir driven expressions in this cooler climate, northerly zone of the Piemonte. A blend of 70% Nebbiolo, 20% Croatina and 10% Vespolina, this wine's pretty aromatics tend towards raspberries and small red fruits growing on bushes, as well as floral notes. Some shades of earthiness come into play as well. Fresh on the palate, with a light touch and again the small red berries. This is my favorite young Piedmontese wine I've tasted in a long time.

Click here for some more in-depth notes on the DOC and the winery from none other than Luca Furlotti, manager of the Sella estate (courtesy of the Bay Area's 'Mr. Piemonte' himself, Oliver McCrum, thanks Oliver).

Wine Blogging Wednesday: A very Dolcetto evening, with an Arneis guest appearance

Long time, no WBW participation here. In fact, if memory serves I have only done this once. Well, none other than David McDuff hosts this edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday, so I'm in. Thanks to our gracious host for selcting such an endlessly fascinating wine region: the Piedmont. Who knows, maybe I'll get back on the wagon with this fun, educational excuse to crack some new bottles and blog about 'em.

First the Arneis. Accompanied by a delicious pasta dinner I enjoyed with friends a few weeks ago, the 2004 Giovanni Almondo Arneis Vigne Sparse was easily, to my taste, the star of the evening. Though it is already three vintages matured, the wine tastes nearly as young as an '06 Vigne Sparse I enjoyed nine months ago. If anything the '04 has intensified, revealing more yellow fruit flavors, including the tarter fruit skins. It's still mineral, and at this rate of evolution could still be drinking well for another several years. Such a clean, precise, tense, chiseled arneis, easily the best of this style I've yet to try.

Now let's fast forward to last night. I had decided at work to ramp up the geek quotient of this post and compare two Dolcetti, one a 2006 Anna Maria Abbona Dolcetto di Dogliani Sori dij But, the other a 2006 Luigi Baudana Dolcetto d'Alba. If you were to go by the various writings on the region, the Dolcetto di Dogliani DOC is of the best quality and highest aging potential. Not that I was hoping to either confirm or disprove this assertion, but nonetheless I thought it might be interesting to compare Dogliani dolcetto to its Alba counterpart.

Well, Anna Maria Abbona is a stellar producer, one of the true masters of Dolcetto. The vineyards are at some of the highest elevation in the DOC, with ideal exposure, and the winemaking seems to never be at all heavy handed. I really enjoyed their '06Sori dij But (the name of one of their vineyards). On the nose, a satisfying bit of meaty, brett savor combined with full, fleshy darker cherry and berry fruits. Similar palate, with some nice violet floral notes and balanced acidity, especially for this notoriously low acid grape (Dolcetto = 'little sweet one).

As for the Baudana '06 Dolcetto d'Alba...different story. It was blocky, clumsy, grapey, lacking in balanced acidity and just not particularly good. Unfortunately it echoes many other Dolcetti I have tasted.

Photo's of wines and accompanying food to come....

Illadelph Blogger meet-up with the great David McDuff

Wine blogging. It may seem easy. You know, drink, form an impression, get up on your soap box and post something. Repeat. Well, blogging regularly - say 3 times a week as a minimum - actually is a real commitment. I read various wine blogs, but few of them ever keep me coming back as regularly as Mcduff's Food and Wine Trail. The combination of McDuff's crisp, professional writing, his thorough profiles of producers, region's and wines, and display of authority without coming across as arrogant or snobbish makes for what might be my favorite wine blog out there, or at least top 3. As David mentioned in his re-cap of our lunch together last week, we also have a good bit in common: we have spent significant time living in the Washington, DC area, we are both University of Maryland alums, we enjoy listening to an eclectic mix of music, particularly anything in a post-punk vein.

On my way home from New York City last week, I stopped in Philly and was picked up by Mr. McDuff at the train station. We then headed to one of the city's many BYO's for some lunch and wine which David brought with him. As some of you may know, the distribution and sale of wine in Pennsylvania is controlled by the state, which leads to a generally poor selection of wines which often times cost a lot more than they should. So a few upshots are that BYO restaurants are popular, and serious wine drinkers in Pennsylvania shop in New Jersey or Delaware - David, though he lives in the Philly metro area, actually works at a store in Wilmington, Delaware named Moore Brothers.

OK, on to the lunch and wine. We went to a Thai restaurant named Nan, which had a typical menu including pad thai, salmon with red curry (which I had and quite enjoyed), smoked duck (which David ordered, also very tasty) and one seriously out of place lunch entree of spaghetti with ricotta and broccoli. Hmmm...we started with a 2002 Ratzenberger Riesling Steeger St Jost Spatlese Trocken from the Mittelrhein. At first it showed the intense apricot kernel flavor and broad fruit which I generally associate with the Rheingau, but then the smoky blue slate minerality kicked in and grew increasingly present in the wine. Apparently the steeply sloping vineyard has provides some of the fruit for a Grosses Gewaches wine which Ratzinger also makes. It was a bit on the dry and strict side for a great pairing with most Thai dishes (especiall the curries), though it did go really well with some grilled squid salad. The second bottle David opened was a delicious 2004 Aldo Vajra 'Costa e Fossati' Dolcetto d'alba. It showed the cut and fine balance of '04 in Piedmont, with a real traditional structure. Very dry blackberry fruits, with some earthiness, cut white flowers and a real elegant, lighter weight (for Dolcetto) palate. The finishing tannins were really fine, like a cat's tongue - that sort of sensation on the palate. None of those coarse, puckery, wood tannins which marr many other Piedmontese wines these days - no surprise as this is a traditional winery (longer fermentation in large slavonian oak) and I do tend to prefer traditional wines. It was the best Dolcetto I have ever tasted, and just out of curiosity a few days later I saw an '05 Giuseppe Mascarello Dolcetto d'Alba in a new Baltimore shop named Swirl, cracked it open, and found that it was not nearly as refined and elegant. Granted, it's not as good a vintage and the Vajra has a year of bottle age on it, but I still don't think the Giuseppe Mascarello Dolcetto will be as good.

Sorry for the dolcetto tangent there. Anyway, back to the story at hand. McDuff knows his stuff, is a terrific guy, and it was a pleasure to finally meet him in person. Thanks for lunch, David, next time is on me.

New releases from Oddero

I was lucky to be on the sales floor yesterday when Enrico, an italian portfolio manager of a large distributor here in California, dropped by to taste a few new releases from Oddero. Run by the same family since 1878, La Morra's Oddero currently has two female Odderos, Mariacristina and Mariavittoria making the wine. While it is far from an undeniable truth, sometimes you can really sense a female winemaking stamp during a line-up of wines from a winery. There is a softness, lack of brash flavors, approachability and overall balanced character to the wines, even if made from grapes in an area known to produce bigger, bolder wines. I had the same experience recently tasting Vinedos de Ithaca's wines in Priorat (I'll post on it soon). Not to say that all or even most wines made by females are inherently softer, more subtle and balanced, that's just been my recent experience. And I'll leave it at that. Without a doubt, I plan on seeking out more wines made by females. After all, is it not true that we were made by a woman, got our name from a woman and our game from a woman?

So three baroli from the very good 2004 vintage and a barbera d'alba from 2006.

2006 Oddero Barbera d'Alba

A tricky barbera to classify. I tend to group barberas into these 4 categories:

1.) cheap quaffers with decent fruit and acidity
2.) mid weights with more sap, and stick to your gum qualities, often with a touch of wood influence (Vietti tre vigne)
3.) top-notch barberas with considerably more weight, complexity and ageability ( giacomo and aldo conterno, bartolo mascarello)
over extracted, over-oaked barberas that have lost their acidity and inherent barbera-ness (Cascina val de prete 'carolina', Vietti scarrone)

This barbera would be a cat. 2, but it is just so reserved, maybe closed, that it doesn't have the sap of others. There are somewhat shy, closed dark fruits that quite possibly will emerge and become more lively and interesting in the next few months. Maybe the wine recently arrived off a boat, or perhaps by truck from the east coast?

2004 Oddero Barolo Estate

Not particularly impressive, a bit muddled and lacking focus, but after all it's $35 barolo, and how often is $35 barolo worth drinking these days?

2004 Oddero Barolo Villero

Now things get interesting. This single vineyard barolo from the Castiglione Falletto commune has much more intensity, purity and drive to its dark berry fruits. The wine has a solid future ahead of it and is best stashed away for at least 12 years.

2004 Oddero Barolo Rocche di Castiglione

More complex aromas, with mixed red and dark berry fruit, sweet black licorice, a touch of anise and cocoa powder all making appearances on the nose. On the palate the red fruit flavors take over, and it is much more lithe and racier than the powerful nose would suggest. It's another balanced, traditional barolo that I would be proud to cellar if I weren't coming back from a trip where it cost me an average of 55 euros to tank up.