Posts Tagged ‘oenopole’
oenopole’s Greek spring workshop (1/6)
A group of wine and food geeks, several of them writers or bloggers, were recently invited to oenopole world headquarters for a second wine and food workshop, titled printemps grec. The wines this time around were entirely Greek but the food most definitely wasn’t, the idea being to see how Greek wines work with non-Greek dishes. Guest chef Noam Arieh Gedalof, formerly of The French Laundry and Kaizen, turned out a succession of beautiful small plates, a feat made all the more impressive by the HQ’s complete lack of a kitchen.
While waiting for the tasting proper to being, we were offered glasses of a sparkler.
Amalia Brut, Méthode traditionnelle, Domaine Tselepos ($23.00, 11901103)
Formerly available only on a private-import basis, this 100% Moschofilero traditional method sparkler will go on sale at the SAQ on September 26 and not a moment too soon. 12% ABV.
Light straw-yellow with fine persistent bubbles. Fleet yet present on the palate, pure and quite dry. The fruit tends to lemon and is accompanied by a crystalline minerality and a telltale hint of Moschofilero’s floral aromatics. The acidity and effervescence keep things lively. The clean finish brings a faint saline note. Can hold its own against any cava or crémant at the price point. (Buy again? Can’t wait.)
The first dish was a lightly dressed salad of mixed greens, planed root vegetables and herbs.
Mantinia 2012, Moschofilero, Domaine Tselepos ($17.85, 11097485)
100% Moschofilero. The grapes are macerated eight hours at 10ºC, then pneumatically pressed. Fermentation with selected yeasts and in stainless steel vats is at 12ºC and lasts 20 days with regular stirring. 12% ABV.
Lightly fragrant nose – grapey and floral (honeysuckle?) with white mineral notes – evocative of Muscat and Gewurztramner. Dry and bright in the mouth with an appealing tautness. The fruit is citrusy (lemon, white grapefruit) and, again, the finish is clean and faintly salt-crystally. Straightforward and fresh, this makes an excellent aperitif but also has enough heft to go with food. (Buy again? Yes.)
> The wine’s acidity handled the vinaigrette with aplomb. The root vegetables brought out the wine’s minerality, the bitter radicchio its sweetness and fruit. The fresh mint leaf achieved a surprising synergy. Theo Diamantis mentioned that the first local non-Greek restaurant to put the wine on its list was Toqué!, where chef Normand Laprise paired it with wild asparagus, a combination I intend to put to the test now that local asparagus season is upon us.
And speaking of printemps grec wine and food pairings, oenopole and SAT Foodlab are joining forces this evening for a Nuit greque au Labo culinaire with four visiting winemakers. If last year’s event is anything to go by, it should be epic.
Recipe for a cheerful marriage
And a mixed marriage at that.
One of the best uses for leftover roast is in a tian, a simple Provençal preparation in which the chopped meat is combined with vegetables, aromatics and white wine and baked in a earthenware dish of the same name (recipe after the jump). I recently made one with the trimmings from our vernal equinox leg of lamb. As a believer in regional parings, I’d normally reach for a lighter-styled Provençal red. Having none on hand, I popped the cork on this: an outlander, yes, but it made a fine match.
IGT Sicilia 2010, Gaio Gaio, Calabretta ($21.90, oenopole, NLA)
100% organically farmed Nerello Mascalese grown on the north slope of Mount Etna. Fermented with indigenous yeasts. Matured in stainless steel and Slavonian oak barrels (neutral, I’d guess). The wine is named after the winemaker’s father, Gaio, which also means cheerful, merry, chipper. 11.5% (!) ABV.
Pale red. Nose of red berries, obsidian dust, dried orange and a umami note (dried porcini mushrooms?). Light and flowing in the mouth, with a caressing texture, singing acidity and soft tannins. The fruit plays sweet over a ground base of dark minerals and finishes on a savoury note. Fresh and pure, a wine that almost drinks itself, a joy. The closest analogue would be one of the lighter Beaujolais crus – a Fleuri, say – except the flavours are more southern, solar, volcanic.
oenopole’s first-ever shipment of Calabretta wines arrived in March and sold out within days. Going by the quality of this bottle, it’s easy to understand why. Those who didn’t get any or enough can try it in local restaurants, hope for a second shipment and keep an eye peeled for the next vintage. Wines like this are why people turn to the private import channel.
MWG Feburary 21st tasting (6/8): Four middleweight reds
Vin de Savoie 2011, Mondeuse, La Sauvage, Domaine Pascal & Annick Quenard ($21.80, 10884671)
100% Mondeuse Noire. Manually harvested. Fermented with indigenous yeasts in carbon-fiber vats for one to two weeks. Matured on the lees one year in a mix of French oak barrels and stainless-steel and carbon-fiber vats. Lightly filtered. 12% ABV.
Choco-cherry segueing to pomegranate and sandalwood, then to dried raspberry. Light- to medium-bodied. The clean fruit and dark minerals are framed by light tannins and tart aciditiy. As fresh and pure as a draught of mountain air. (Buy again? Yes.)
Bourgueil 2010, Domaine de la Chevalerie ($28.10, 11895268)
100% organically farmed Cabernet Franc. Manually harvested. Fully destemmed. Gravity fed into vats. Fermented with native yeasts. Minimal sulphur regime. Matured in two- to five-vintage demi-muids and other large containers. Bottled unfiltered. 12.5% ABV.
Lovely, layered nose of slate, undergrowth, cherry orchard, old wood and green pepper. Fluid with an airframe structure, good acidity and silky fruit over a minerally substrate. Long. A beautifully balanced Cab Franc that’s enjoyable now but also capable of aging at least five years. (Buy again? Yes.)
Ruchè di Castagnole Monferrato 2011, Cascina ’Tavijn ($24.70, oenopole, NLA)
A small estate located near Asti in Piedmont. 100% organically farmed Ruchè. Hand harvested. Vinified with indigenous yeasts and minimal intervention. Matured in Slavonian oak barrels. 14% ABV.
Fragrant: rose petal, slate and black raspberry. Pure, with an intense core of spicy fruit and minerals, pulsing acidity and soft tannins that give it a velvety texture. Long, herby finish. Going by the 2009, this will be even better in a year or two. (Buy again? Yes.)
Lacrima di Morro d’Alba 2011, Marzaiola, Monte Schiavo ($18.05, 11451894)
100% Lacrima. Manually harvested. Fermented and matured in stainless steel vats. 12.5% ABV.
Plum, rose and maybe some violet, along with darker mineral notes and a whiff of sourdough. Fruity and smooth in the mouth. Round tannins and not a lot of acidity. In fact, it’s borderline flabby and saved mainly by a vein of slate that adds some structure and depth. Drying finish. Not quite up to the 2009. (Buy again? Maybe.)
Symbiose’s Jura event at Bocata
Old Montreal wine bar Bocata has been holding a series of Thursday evening wine and food events in collaboration with various agencies. On January 23, the agency was Symbiose and the theme was the Jura. A friend from Besançon, just outside the Jura, and I made reservations.
With its stone walls, low, rough-beamed wood ceilings, fireplace, bookcases, warm lighting and seating for 30 or 40, the space is cosy, romantic and refreshingly unslick. The regular menu leans toward Spain and southern France, but ours was a Jurassic prix fixe: four courses for $40 or five for $45, wines included. We went the latter route.
The starter was a beautifully presented oyster on the half shell covered with a mince of sour apple and fennel, a credible match for the Côtes-du-Jura 2010, Naturé, Domaine Berthet-Bondet ($29.77, Symbiose, 6 bottles/case). Naturé, one of Savagnin‘s former aliases, is now used exclusively to refer to unoxidized Savagnins. This one had a nose of straw, brine and preserved lemon with a musky Sauvignon-like cat pee note. In the mouth, it was rich and round on the surface but had plenty of underlying acidity and a long, rainwatery finish.
The Côtes-du-Jura 2011, Rubis, Domaine Berthet-Bondet (NLA) is a blend of Trousseau (60%), Poulsard (30%) and Pinot Noir (10%). True to its name, the wine is a limpid pale red. With coaxing, the stern, faintly bretty nose of shale and burned match gave up scents of crushed raspberries (fruit and leaves). Light-bodied, minerally and tart, it had a silky texture, shy fruit and not much depth. The finish brought a surprising note of orange peel. What the wine needed was food to perk it up, and this it got in an earthy bowl of Puy lentils flavoured with smoky Morteau sausage.
Next, a dish – actually a shallow bowl – of mussels and scallops, the latter cut into mussel-size pieces, in a curry-scented carrot soup/sauce/purée: an excellent match for the L’Étoile 2008, Domaine de Montbourgeau, which had wowed the MWG in November 2011. (The 2010 is currently available at the SAQ ($21.55, 11557541).) Made from Chardonnay and possibly a little co-planted Savagnin, it spends around 18 months in 230-litre oak barrels and 600-litre demi muids. A middleweight that flowed smoothly on the palate, this had a classic, complex nose of browning apple, marzipan, hazelnuts, corn silage and dried pine needles. The lightly oxidized fruit was brightened by acidity and did a slow-fade on the long finish. A complete wine, lacking nothing.
By this point, we had become seriously impressed with the food – not just the execution, which was flawless, but also the clear knowledge of how to pair dishes with Jura wines. How many local chefs appreciate curry’s affinity for oxidized Jura whites, let alone use the spice with such an elegant hand? We asked the waiter to transmit our compliments to the chef. Before long, he stopped at our table: young, Limousin native Benjamin Léonard, who, it turns out, did a stint at Arbois’s top restaurant (two Michelin stars), Jean-Paul Jeunet.
The next wine was the Arbois-Pupillin 2009, Les Vianderies, Domaine de la Renardière ($29.84, Symbiose, 12 bottles/case), a small-production, old-vine Chardonnay cuvée. Fermentation and maturation last 18 months and take place in 500-litre tonneaux. This had a wafting nose of lemon, hawthorn and chalk with a hint of smoke and ash. On the palate, it was dry, fresh and pure – very chalky and citrusy – a lovely wine whose only weak point seemed its fleeting finish. Still, it made a fine pairing for the most accomplished dish of the evening: a moist, meltingly tender round of turkey breast stuffed with foie gras, cooked sous vide, served in a foamy vin jaune sauce and garnished with hedgehog mushrooms and a few tiny nuggets of sautéed foie gras.
Lastly, accompanied by an 18-month Comté, came a 2005 Château Chalon, Domaine Berthet-Bondet (NLA). Aromatically dazzling: walnut, curry powder, dried corn, almond, even a little banana peel. Delicate, minerally, subtly oxidized in the mouth. Rich but dry in a Fino-like way, with fine but sustained acidity. Not as deep or rich as some yet elegant and beautiful all the same.
To say we were satisfied would be the understatement of the century. The QPR was off the charts; we would have considered it a bargain to have paid $45 for the food alone. This may have been a case of the planets aligning – a Jura-trained chef egged on by a Jura-enamoured agent and given free rein to concoct a Jura-inspired tasting menu to accompany a series of fine Jura wines – but the overall quality was so high, I doubt it was only that. Both my friend and I plan to return to check out the regular menu.
Two more Bocata wine events – both even more affordable than the Jura tasting – are planned for February: Rézin and Beaujolais on the 21st and oenopole and Greek terroirs on the 28th. And it looks like there may soon be some interesting local developments on the Jura front. Stay tuned for details.
Sausage love
Forget those overpriced Valentine meals prepared by bored chefs and served by jaded waiters in stuffy restaurants. On February 14, sausage lovers, wine lovers and just plain lovers will be heading to the Nouveau Palais for a hit of Pork Futures goodness (sweet or spicy love sausage sandwiches with fries and coleslaw) and glass after drinkable glass of — what else? — San Valentino wines poured by oenopole.
The third annual St. Valentine’s Sausage Party
Thursday, February 14, 2013
17:30 to midnight (or until they run out of sausages)
Nouveau Palais
281 Bernard St. West, Montreal
Natural bang for the buck
A recent tasting that featured Alsatian wines from Domaine Gérard Schueller and was led by oenopole’s Theo Diamantis (notes to follow) included a surprise flight of three affordable natural-leaning new arrivals. All are private imports and, as far as I know, are still available, though they probably won’t be for long.
IGT Sicilia 2011, Nero d’Avola, Tamì ($19.00, oenopole, 12 bottles/case)
Tamì started as a book, design and wine shop in Siracusa run by Arianna Occhipinti’s architect boyfriend. In 2009, the project introduced a line of négociant wines under its own label. Like the other Tamì wines, this 100% Nero d’Avola is made from organically farmed grapes using whole-cluster fermentation and indigenous yeasts. After six months’ maturation in stainless steel tanks, it is lightly filtered before bottling. 13% ABV.
Wafting nose of plum, boysenberry, spice, kirsch and a hint of horse. A lighter and more elegant take on Nero d’Avola than most. Dry and smooth. The fruit is brightened by just enough acidity and structured by soft, fleshy tannins, leaving an impression of richness unusual for a welterweight wine. By Arianna’s admission, the goal of the Tamì project is to make good, simple, natural everyday wines, and that’s a perfect description of this wine. Trattoria owners should be buying it by the case. (Buy again? Sure.)
VDP de la Principauté d’Orange 2010, Daumen ($17.00, oenopole, 12 bottles/case)
(For background on Jean-Paul Daumen, see the notes from the June 2012 MWG tasting he led.) A blend of organically farmed Cabernet Sauvignon (35%), Grenache (35%), Syrah (15%) and Merlot (15%). Unlike most of the wines in the Daumen line, the grapes come from Daumen’s own vineyards. Partially destemmed; temperature-controlled fermentation with indigenous yeasts; extended maceration; approximately 12 months’ aging in foudres and neutral barrels; no filtering or fining; sulphur added – and then minimally – only just before bottling. 13% ABV.
Sweet fruit, hint of tobacco, turned earth, kirsch, slate. Fluid with an admirable balance between fruit, acidity and weight. The tannins are fine and linear, the structure not unlike a Bordeaux’s. Long, drying finish. Tasty and delivering great QPR. (Buy again? A no-brainer.)
Barbera d’Asti 2009, Cascina ’Tavijn ($21.80, oenopole, 12 bottles/case)
100% Barbera. Manually harvested. Spontaneous fermentation. Vinified in Slavonian oak botti. The estate sometimes lightly filters and sulphurs wines to improve their stability, though I’ve found no information about this particular bottling.
Earth, animale, plum, leather. A carbon dioxide tingle on the palate quickly dissipates. Rich fruit, tart acidity and mild tannins with a rustic/raspy edge. Cherry and slate mark the finish. A country-style Barbera that’s honest, close to the land, not overpolished and all the more appealing for it. (Buy again? Absolutely.)
Lastly, a heads-up. ’Tavijn’s 2011 Ruchè di Castagnole Monferrato ($24.80, oenopole, 12 bottles/case) is also available. A bottle of the 2009 opened last week at the MWG’s private import pickup party was just singing: dark purple; redolent of plum, slate and rose petal; dense yet light on its feet, with velvety tannins, soft acidity and a bitter-edged finish; pure and artless; and perfect with an excellent rabbit and hazelnut terrine from Boucherie de Paris. I’ve not tasted the 2011 but Theo says it’s every bit as good.
Considering the oyster
The good people at oenopole recently invited a number of local wine and food bloggers and writers to a workshop, possibly the first in an occasional series focused on pairing wines with a single food. In this case the food was raw oysters, Coville Bays to be precise. Impressively fresh and impeccably shucked, the medium-sized, meaty bivalves were some of the briniest I’ve tasted. Aside from four white wines, all that was on the table were mollusks on half shells, lemon wedges and bread – about as straightforward as it gets.
Bourgogne 2010, Sœur Cadette, Domaine de la Cadette ($18.25, 11460660)
In this vintage though maybe not for long, a négociant wine. 100% organically farmed Chardonnay. Slow-pressed, fermented in stainless steel with natural yeast. Matured 12 months in stainless steel tanks. Lightly filtered before bottling. 12.5% ABV.
Light lemon, chalk and quartz with a lactic note. Fresh and bracing on the palate, the fruit (lemon and green pear and apple) discreet. Taut with a tension between acidity and minerals. Long, clean, appetizingly sour finish. You won’t find a better brisk and minerally Chardonnay at the price.
> Lean and bright on its own, the wine was richer, rounder and fruitier with the oyster. A good match.
VDP des Cyclades 2011, Atlantis, Argyros ($16.65, 11097477)
Assyrtiko (90%), Aidani and Athiri (each 5%) from ungrafted vines. Fermented in stainless steel vats with selected yeasts. 13.0% ABV.
Rainwater on stones, crystal lemon, a hint of herbs. Denser than the Sœur Cadette but much less fruity, the sharp-edged minerals and trenchant acidity here softened by the wine’s weightiness. A saline tang flavours the finish. If possible, even better than the excellent 2010. Unbeatable QPR.
> A superb pairing, a whole greater than the sum of its parts. The wine’s minerality and brininess echoed the bivalves’ while its acidity cut their richness. In contrast to the Sœur, the wine’s flavour was little transformed by the naked oyster, though adding a few drops of lemon juice did bring out the otherwise shy fruitiness.
Champagne, Blanc de Blancs, Brut, Pascal Doquet ($43.25, 11528046)
100% organically farmed Chardonnay from the communes of Bassuet and Bassu. Vinified entirely in stainless steel. Matured six months, three of them on the lees. A blend of three vintages. 12.5% ABV.
Faintly floral, candied lemon, chalk, lees. Crisp and delineated yet soft and caressing. The flavours are clean and pure. Dry, the sweetness coming only from the fruit. Leaves on a mineral note. Beautiful and, once again, offering tremendous value.
> If an oyster transformed the Sœur Cadette, here it was the wine that transformed the oyster, amping up its seawater taste (iodine, saltiness, even fishiness). As these were already exceptionally briny oysters, that was perhaps too much of a good thing; I suspect the Champagne would work better with a milder oyster. As before, a squirt of lemon sweetened the wine.
Champagne grand cru 2002, Le Mesnil sur Oger, Brut, Pascal Doquet ($74.00, 11787291)
100% organically farmed Chardonnay from the Le Mesnil sur Oger vineyard. Based on the 2002 harvest (65%) with 35% reserve wines from 2001. About a third of the wine is matured in casks, the rest in tanks. 12.5% ABV.
Classic, refined champagne nose of brioche and yellow apple. Light, even ephemeral on the palate yet rich, complex, layered. Soft, fine effervescence. Some fruity sweetness is apparent on the attack; otherwise very dry. A load of minerals on the long finish. So elegant. A complete and beautiful wine comparable to blanc de blancs costing up to half again as much.
> Interacted with the oysters much like the non-vintage did, though a little less forcefully.
A last-minute addition:
Bourgogne 2011, Les Saulniers, Domaine de la Cadette ($47.00/1500ml, oenopole, six bottles/case)
100% organically farmed Chardonnay from a single parcel located on a path once used by salt smugglers, whence the name. Sorted on the vine, slow-pressed, fermented with native yeasts in wood and stainless steel vats. Lightly filtered before bottling.
Stony, ashy nose with some lemon/lime zest. Fluid. Dry. Pure. Weightier and rounder than its little sister though still acid-bright. Full of green apple, sweet lemon and mineral flavours. Long, clean finish. Tasty.
> Naked oysters made an acceptable pairing, lemoned oysters a better one.
As the crowd chatted and prepared to leave, the cork was popped on a magnum of the always delicious and refreshing Bisol Prosecco ($19.10/750 ml, 10839168; $40.25/1,500 ml, 11549349). Didn’t take notes but the fact that it didn’t taste like a letdown after such an excellent sequence of whites should tell you all you need to know.
Tasting with Aldo Vacca
Aldo Vacca, the managing director of Produttori del Barbaresco, was in Quebec recently to attend a series of events. One of them was a trade tasting of eight PdB wines – the 2010 Langhe and seven 2007 Barbarescos, including six single-vineyard wines. I was lucky enough to be offered a place and ended up sitting immediately to Aldo’s left. Many thanks to oenopole for this rare opportunity to taste these wines – long among my favourites – and to spend time chatting with Aldo, a man very much like the wines of the cooperative he heads: down-to-earth, dapper, focused, eloquent and ultimately inspiring.
Considered by many to be the top wine-growers’ cooperative in the world, Produttori del Barbaresco made its first wines in 1960. That, however, was a “terrible vintage” (quoting Aldo) in the region, so the first wines that bore the PdB’s label were the 1961s. In 1967 the co-op and Gaja became the first winemakers to produce single-vineyard bottlings. The co-op currently has 52 members.
Aldo says there are four keys to the co-op’s high quality and reputation:
- The region. All the grapes, even those in the entry-level Langhe, come from the Barbaresco DOC.
- Co-op members must sell all the Nebbiolo grapes they grow to the co-op – “100% belonging,” as Aldo puts it – though they’re free to do whatever they want with the other grapes they grow (usually Barbera and Dolcetto).
- Each load of grapes is evaluated and paid for based on its quality (sugar, colour and tannins are the current evaluation criteria). In 2012, the prices ranged from €2.00 to €5.20 a kilo and averaged €4.20.
- Most importantly, in Aldo’s opinion, are the single-vineyard bottlings.
Not only are the Produttori admired for making some of the most classic and beguiling Barbarescos, their wines are also seen as delivering unbeatable QPR. As I wrote of the 2001 Rio Sordo a few years back, “It may seem odd to refer to a $50 bottle as a bargain, but that’s exactly what this is.” When I asked Aldo why the co-op didn’t raise its prices, he shrugged and said the members make a good living as it is and “they’re not greedy.”
All of PdB’s Barbarescos are made the same way. Fermentation takes place in large, temperature-controlled cement and stainless steel vats using cultivated “Barolo” yeasts and lasts about three weeks. It is followed by lengthy maceration with regular pump-overs and punch-downs of the cap. The wines are then transferred to Slavonian oak botti for 36 months’ maturation, after which they are bottled unfiltered and with a small squirt of sulphur dioxide and laid down another six or more months before release.
There are nine single-vineyard bottlings. As all are made exactly the same way, the only difference between them is the vineyards the grapes were grown in. This makes a horizontal tasting an opportunity to taste the influence of terroir.
The Barbaresco vineyards run from fertile land near the Tanaro River to vineyards higher up the slopes of the valley, where the soil is less rich and more limestoney. The lower vineyards produce fruitier, more forward wines, the higher vineyards wines with more depth and power.
2007 was a mild winter with early bud break; the growers were afraid of frost damage but the temperature never went below freezing. The summer was also mild. Rain was manageable. The fall was near ideal and the harvest was the longest on record. Aldo feels the single-vineyard wines from this vintage should peak at “seven to ten years of life.”
Aldo characterized the most recent vintages as follows: 2010 “light,” 2011 “extremely ripe” and 2012 “ideal, between the two.”
You’ll find my tasting notes after the jump.
oenopole trade tasting (4/4): La Stoppa
Located south of Piacenza in westernmost Emilia-Romagna, the 58-hectare La Stoppa estate was acquired by the Pantaleoni family in 1973. Daughter Elena took the helm in 1997. She and winemaker Giulio Armani (who also bottles wines under his own label, e.g. the Dinavolino reported on last spring) are both committed to organic farming and the notion that wines are made in the vineyard, not the cellar. The 30-odd hectares of vines are planted to local varieties as well as Bordeaux red varieties and Pinot Noir (in contrast to Tuscany, the international varieties have been in the region since the 1800s).
Since, after the blog’s name, La Stoppa Guttunio is the search string that most often brings visitors to this site (with gutturnio La Stoppa and Gutturnio also among the top ten search strings), I should mention that, as of the 2010 vintage, La Stoppa has stopped making Gutturnio per se. (I’d meant to ask Elena why during her visit but didn’t have the opportunity to speak with her.) Apparently, both the frizzante and still versions have been replaced by an IGT Emilia dubbed “Trebbiolo” (see below).
IGT Emilia 2010, Trebbiolo Rosso, La Stoppa ($18.90, 11896501)
Barbera (60%) and Bonarda (40%) from three- to 20-year-old vines. Macerated on the skins for about 20 days. Fermented with native yeasts. Made and matured in stainless steel vats. Unfined, unfiltered. A little sulphur is added on bottling. 13% ABV
Intriguing nose: red fruit and sweet spice with earthy and savoury aromas only just beginning to unfold. Medium-bodied. Ripe fruit over an inky substrate. Structured by acidity as much as tannins. Turns a little astringent on the finish. Intense, pure, long. Great QPR. A wine to buy by the case.
Colli Piacentini 2004, La Stoppa ($43.75, oenopole, NLA)
Cabernet Sauvignon (40%), Merlot (40%) and other minor Bordeaux varieties such as Petit Verdot. Macerated on the skins for 30 days. Fermented with native yeasts. Aged 14 months in neutral barrels and two years in bottle. Unfined. 14.5% ABV.
Bordeauxish nose of cassis, tobacco, mint, graphite. Intense and heady. More extracted than your average Bordeaux but retaining an Old World balance and austerity. Ripe tannins and acidity provide structure, the layered flavours depth. Long, savoury, dark-minerally finish with cherry overtones.
IGT Emilia 2008, Ageno, La Stoppa ($39.00, oenopole, NLA)
Malvasia di Candia Aromatica (60%) with Ortrugo and Trebbiano. Macerated on the skins for 30 days. Fermented with native yeasts. Aged 12 months, 50% in stainless steel vats and 50% in used French oak barrels, followed by another two years in bottle. Unfined. Lightly filtered but no added sulphur. 13% ABV.
Complex nose: flowers, white and yellow fruit, citrus zest, spice and more. Pure, fresh and equally complex in the mouth: dried apricot, straw, minerals, herbs. The lively acidity, light airframe structure and rich extract give the wine a real presence. A light tannic astringency appears on the finish. In contrast to many other orange wines, as kaleidoscopic on the palate as on the nose. A treat.
IGT Emilia Malvasia Passito 2008, Vigna del Volta, La Stoppa ($51.00/500 ml, oenopole, NLA)
Malvasia di Candia Aromatica (95%) and Moscato (5%). The grapes are partially dried on sheets and pressed in a wooden press. Aged ten months in French oak barrels and two years in bottle. 13% ABV.
Fragrant nose: raisiny and candied but fresh. Sweet but not saccharine, rich but not heavy. Honeyed fruit flavours are layered over a savoury, dry substrate. Long finish with just a hint of bitterness and astringency. Another treat.
oenopole trade tasting (3/4): Arianna Occhipinti
Based near Vittoria in the province of Ragusa in southeast Sicily, just-turned-30 Arianna Occhipinti has been making wine and olive oil on the family estate for more than a decade. She farms organically, ferments using indigenous yeasts, adheres to a non-interventionist approach in the cellar and bottles unfiltered, unfined and with minimal sulphur dioxide. In the five years since the MWG had the pleasure of hosting her at a tasting, she has gone from being a virtual unknown in North America to something of a rock star, with regular mentions in the New York Times and wine magazines.
IGT Sicilia 2011, SP68 Bianco, Arianna Occhipinti ($25.90, oenopole, NLA)
A 50-50 blend of Albanello and Zibibbo (aka Muscat of Alexandria) from ten-year-old vines. Macerated 15 days on the skins. Aged six months in stainless steel vats. 12% ABV. Albanello is an obscure but ancient grape variety grown in the Ragusa and Syracuse areas. At the private import expo, Arianna told me she feels it has the potential to make very fine wine and is experimenting with a varietal bottling.
Fragrant nose of muscat grapes, sour apple and white flowers with minerals in the background. Less perfumy in the mouth. Dry and a little disconcerting because the nose has you expecting something sweeter. Soft, fragrant, delicious. Not super fruity but pure and fresh with just enough acidity. Lingering sour chalky finish and a faint astringency. One of those wines that keeps you coming back for another sip.
IGT Sicilia 2011, SP68 Rosso, Arianna Occhipinti ($22.70, 11811765)
A 50-50 blend of Nero d’Avola and Frappato from ten-year-old vines. Macerated 30 days on the skins. Aged six months in stainless steel vats. 12.5% ABV. The wine will be sold through the SAQ for the first time as part of the November 22nd Cellier release. Unfortunately, the SAQ decided to order only 900 bottles for the entire province (it was offered more), virtually ensuring a stampede by wine geeks anxious to score even a bottle or two (versus the case or two they could get when it was a private import). The monopoly moves in mysterious ways.
Lovely nose: cherry and red berries with hints of flowers, slate and old wood. Soft, supple, pure. Lightly tannic and acidic. The fruit fades leaving minerals, earth and herbs. The drying finish is kissed by bitterness. A joy.
IGT Sicilia 2010, Il Frappato, Arianna Occhipinti ($38.25, oenopole, NLA)
Arguably Arianna’s flagship wine. 100% Frappato di Vittoria from 50-year-old vines. Macerated 50 days on the skins. Aged 14 months in large 25 hl Slovenian oak barrels. 12.5% ABV. Quebec’s entire allocation was snapped up by restaurateurs, leaving even us longtime innamorati empty-handed.
Fragrant nose of dried rose, sour red berries, slatey minerals and spice. More tightly wound than usual with some tannic astringency. Still medium-bodied and beautifully balanced. Turns minerally on the long, caressing finish. The structure makes this more Burgundy-like than ever. Will probably benefit from a year or two in the cellar but plenty delicious now.
Brett happens 