vinosseur

Claude Bourguignon discussing soil life & microorganisims

Just got back from Zurich where I was cordially invited by Angiolino Maule of La Biancara. Not only does Maule make fantastic wines and value prices, he is also acting president of the VinNatur organization.   Day one was spent mostly attending a seminar with guest speakers such as Isabelle Legeron MW, Lydia & Claude Bourguignon, Federico Giotto, Terje Meling and Jonathan Nossiter (Mondovino). The day was interesting and long, but luckily concluded with an open tasting with 98 natural wine makers and their wines.

This is one of the reasons we attended the event, right?

All in all, there are not many tastings where so many amazing producers and wines can be found in one place. Overall the quality of the producers was high, especially in my opinion, the producers from Slovenia.  In any case, here is my quick rundown of the producers I felt showed promise, and were in my opinion the “ones to watch”

Davide Spillare showed real promise with Dolce Racrei Sparkling Passito

24-year old Davide Spillare from Gambellara, Italy (Veneto).  Worked under the guidance of Angiolino Maule, so it wasn’t surprising that his wines were not only good, but showed real depth and freshness without being “over the top” or overripe.  His whites (which I actually preferred) where made with very little sulfur added and his red was made completely without.  His Garganega-based sparkling pasito Dolce Racrei (which I have sold for about a year now at Jacob’s) is just delicious. Dried hay and fruit with a crisp acidic background and slightly smokey finish is perhaps one of the most interesting dessert wines I have tasted.

Next were the wines of Bodegas Bruno Ruiz (Toledo). These wines have been in Norway for a few  years now, but for every year they get better and better. The whites have a depth you don’t often find at the super-value price levels they are at. More and more of their wines are being made without the addition of sulfur indicating that their fruit quality has to be fantastically healthy. And their labeling is improving, or rather becoming more fun to look at..

The wines of Jean-Marc Espinasse of Domaine Rouge-Bleu from the Southern Rhône showed amazing fruit quality and depth. Yes, alcohol levels where high here, but still remained fresh. We tasted a very-old Grenache wine that was just so deep and delicious. He also splashed me an experimental, unlabeled Nerello Mascaslese that he was making on Mt. Etna. This also showed real promise, but a tad too much on the oak for my palate. Oh, and nice labels as well. these are actually what got me to his table to begin with

Dorado pictured here with Alice Feiring

Next were the wines of Marcial Dorado from Portugal.  I don’t have any wines from Portugal on my wine list. Not because there isn’t some quality wine in Portugal, but because I haven’t found any wines that I really like and that have the philosophy I search for in a wine producer. These wines were not only being made naturally, but again showed that real quality of fruit I expect in a wine, a living wine. Super-juicy, drinkable, low alcohol, deep and no oak. No oak in a wine is hard enough to find, but in Spain and Portugal even harder. The Alvarinho-based whites were especially interesting to me.

For me the highlight of the event was of course the wines of Frank Cornelissen whose wines never stop impressing me for their expressiveness. So deep and pure. I still have yet to taste wines like these. Love

Overall, the only criticism I had of VinNatur  is on the use of barriques by many producers.  There is still way too much barriques use for my palate and I wished that wine makers who prefer using oak, would use larger and older format wood so that their incredible fruit would shine through

Out with the bad reputation, in with the good?

Marcel Lapierre, who died last year, was perhaps the most important person to help save the reputation of the Beaujolais region, which was mostly known by the masses as “that place” where Beaujolais Nouveau comes from.  Always sour, rarely drinkable, until producers such as Marcel Lapierre, Jean Foillard, Guy Breton, Jean-Paul Thévenet and let’s not forget Yvon Métras came along and stopped adding selected yeasts to their Gamay grapes, or anything else for that matter. The recipe was easy, healthy grapes and a lot of hard work.

Now, I will admit that I never had the fortune to taste the wines made by Marcel Lapierre (his last vintage I believe was the 2009), due to importer/logistic problems I had in Norway. What, you say?! Never tasted the fruit of Marcel’s hard work?! Nope. Never. Nada

So, brace yourself as I taste the 2010 Morgon Sans Soufre *(please see “comments” below).  In fact, i tasted the 2010 vintage on 2 separate occassions. And I disliked the wine on two separate occasions.

November 4^th at 19:00

Yes, the nose was intense in the sense that the aromas just jumped out of the glass. But, something peculiar…. I could swear that I felt sulfur. Yes, I know that natural fermentation will produce sulfur, but since none was added to this wine*(please see “comments” below) during the wine making (I expected the final number to be low) I was surprised to find it there – stinging my nose. And i also found this on other Lapierre wines from the 2010 vintage. I  found this on this Morgan (both bottles I tasted) and on the Raisins Gaulois…. In all the 2010 wines I tasted, aromas that were not very exciting  jumped out of the glass.  I didn’t find the aromas so fruity, but rather green like what you would get from underripe fruit. There were some small red berries also, but the green was dominant. Too dominant.

On the palate much of the same; green mostly with some light red berries and a structure and concertration that left me wondering if I was drinking an ordinary Beaujolais Nouveau.

After struggling through a couple glasses trying to grasp this wine, I decided to put it in the fridge until the next day to see if it improved, after all this was a Lapierre Morgon.

November 5^th, 18:35

Appearance: Same as last night, a pale red, not very intense wine with a very slightly hazy, unfiltered look to it (which I liked)

Nose: most of the stinging I felt yesterday on the nose was gone. But there was still that sour, red fruit with dominating green notes I nosed yesterday. The wine is just not very ripe. One day or 5 years wasn’t going to change that. I just keep going back to that glass trying to find what it was that everyone spoke so highly of. I was really searching for that purity of fruit, and I just couldn’t find it. There were some hints of fruit in the form of little red berries and vague hints of watermelon, but not the pink juicy part, but rather the green meat closer to the skin..

Palate: In the mouth, the wine was showing the fruit a bit better than on the nose and a bit better than yesterday. The watermelon was there as well, but mostly the light pink part near the skin. The tannins have gotten a bit more aggressive than yesterday and were now dominating along with the underripe fruit. The acidity was quite high, but not that ripe, juicy acidity I enjoy that helps carry the wine to a long and happy ending that leaves you wanting to start again from the beginning. That first sip that leads you fall in love with a wine. This just doesn’t have that feeling for me. I don’t want to take another sip, and why would I when my mouth still feels «bruised» from that first sip. But most of all, this wine lacked some serious depth. Depth I would expect from a Morgan. Disappointed.

Some might wonder if this was a bad bottle, but the fact is it’s the second bottle I have tasted of Lapierre’s 2010 Morgon..or perhaps I’ve never really tasted a Morgon made by Lapierre. Or perhaps it’s a 2010 vintage issue.

Now, by contrast, I happened to have a bottle of Yvon Metras 2009 Fleurie Le Printemps in my cellar, so I thought what the hell. Let’s do another one of those odd comparisons i love to do just because i can  Yea, I know, two different vintages, two different Villages. So what.

After coming off tasting a 2010 Lapierre Morgon, one would expect that i may be disappointed, but I say that after the Lapierre it would be hard to be disappointed.

November 5^th, 19:00

Nose: just as intesne as the Lapierre Morgon, but what, what is that I smell? Fruit, fruit and loads of it. Not under ripe and not overripe either, but really nice and fresh. Cranberries with a slight hint of peppery spice.. now I knew I was smelling a Gamay. Hints of barnyard and purple flowers give this wine a bit of edge that tends to make me smile. A wild side you might say. And none of that “sulfur” sting I experienced from the Lapierre.

Palate: Ah, balance, fruity with an amazing sweet cranberry finish. Fruit all the way from start to finish and what a finish it was, juicy with some cleansing tannings along the way. I would say quality here.

Great acidity that surrounded the wine just fine. Refreshing and begging me to take another sip, and so I did over and over again. The fruit was only just a bit dominant if I was to be crtitical. But, this is something that time will surely sort out. The wine is deep deep deep, something the Morgon was not. Another component that the Morgon lacked was concentration, which is something this wine has nothing to apologize for. Concentration could be it’s middle name.

Oh, and did I forget to say the word elegance? The wine was quite elegant, perhaps one of the most I have tasted from Beaujolais.

In the end I have to say that this wine isn’t exactly in my style, but it was in my opinion (not taste) that it was a better wine than the Lapierre Morgon. What I didn’t love about this wine is that there was a disturbing sweet note tied to the fruit, one which today is noticable but will very likely disappear in a few years.

Lapierre Morgon 2010 – light, green and bitter with the ability to leave the mouth a bit sore and not wanting more. A Morgon disguised as a Beaujolais Nouveau, sorry.

Métras Fleurie Le Printemps 2009– serious depth wrapped in juicy fruit, lively acidity and enough tannins to make it the perfect mate to food. Elegant and concentrated. Win

Have you ever have one of those tasting experiences that leaves you feeling light, energetic, happy & humbled?  We were just in Piemonte harvesting grapes for our third vintage of our Felice wine. A wine we  first made in 2009 from healthy nebbiolo grapes without any additions during the wine making process or bottling.

After our harvest, we come back to the Felice homestead to return his crates, the ones we used to gather our grapes in.  As we get set to leave, Felice comes towards us with a bottle of the last vintage of his nebbiolo that he was to make, a 2006.  We sit down to taste, then drink. We are stunned, but not surprised, by the pureness of his unlabeled wine.  We ask him questions, he responds modestly.

“How do you make your wine?”

“I just pick the grapes and let it make itself.”

“What about sulfur?”

“Why should I use sulfur? My grapes are healthy. I never add sulfur when I make my wine.”

Then he goes back into his “cellar”, an outdoor barn/wine making facility.  A structure that at this late date in September was a quite warm 25 degrees or so.  He comes back with a bottle of his 1979 vintage, and it goes a bit like this:

“The year is 1979, the vineyards are in Barbaresco and the grapes are healthy. Felice Grasso goes out to harvest his nebbiolo grapes, something he has been doing for more than 20 years already. The grapes are brought down the steep hill into his very modest wine making facility, an outdoor barn like structure exposed to fluctuating temperatures between the seasons.  He destems, crushes lightly and lets his grapes ferment on their own, like he has always done, like his father did before him, and like he will continue to do up to that last vintage, 2006. He adds nothing, and why should he? “My grapes are healthy”

Back to 2011. It’s been about 30 years since he bottled that 1979.

Felice doesn’t add anything to his grapes. At all.

Felice doesn’t store his wines “properly”

Felice doesn’t label his wines for sale

Felice doesn’t drink other peoples wines

What Felice does is make great wine. Honest wine. Transparent wine. A wine that after 30 years of standing alongside other bottles and being subjected to sunlight and varying temperatures, was supreme. Yes we were in Piemonte. Yes it was a beautiful day. Yes we were drinking a 30 year old wine. And still, the wine was supreme.

You said it wasn’t possible. Well it was, it is and it will be.

It has been almost a month since my last post, here is what has been keeping me so busy:

Working a lot at Jacob’s…

Preparing for my wedding….

Traveling to Italy…….

Visiting Carussin in Piemonte to taste the 2010 vintage, which by the way is still slowly fermenting and showing itself to possibly be their greatest vintage.  Absolutely alive in every way.. “All of these years of biodynamic farming are starting to really show us rewards”, says Bruna Ferro.

Thus far, none of their wines have been shown even a pinch of sulfur dioxide.   These were the healthiest of grapes. Bruna even presented me with two bottles to taste. Both made with the exact same healthy barbera grapes, grown biodynamically.  One bottle was produced in the same way Carussin make all of their wines (without the addition of anything, not even selected yeasts). This wine was still happily finishing its fermentation. The second bottle was produced by sending their grapes to a laboratory. Everything was added to this bottle from selected yeasts, to enzymes and sulfur. This bottle was of course “ready for market”.  The difference between these two bottles was astounding. Astounding. Everybody should have the opportunity to experience such a tasting.  This shows that although healthy grapes are extremely important,  care after harvest is also extremely important.

Of course a quick trip over to Igino and Irma was a must, and as usual, an extreme pleasure. Tasting the wines of Igino again was just amazing. From his skin macerated Favorita, to his non-sparkling, dry fermented Brachetto. Too bad he only makes a few bottles of each and are only produced for his enjoyment (and of course mine)

Igino pouring me (my favorite), his skin-macerated Favorita.

Gabrio & Genevieve Bini

On this quick trip to Italy, I also had the incredible fortune to meet Gabrio Bini (and his wonderful wife Genevieve), wine maker for Azienda Agricola Serragghia on the island of Panteleria. All of his wines are vinified with long skin contact in amphora without any additions..I will write more on this wine maker and his wines in a future post.. promise.

Gabrio and Genevieve were kind enough to meet me at La Fastuchera Osteria Wine Bar, one of the only places to drink natural wines in Bologna.  With a Sicilian kitchen and an interesting selection of wines, they are worth a visit!

Oh, and of course lot’s of packing going on as I write this piece in my half-empty apartment as I prepare for my transition to a new home in a new country.  I look forward to the many changes. Many will be easy, some more challenging. Until my next post (which will be more often), continue to appreciate what you have and keep tasting.

I was raised in the Bay Area of California and have been enjoying what i believe to be authentically prepared Chinese food for many years.  Oh how I long for those “great” Chinese restaurants which are totally absent here in Bergen, so when a friend invited me over for homemade wonton soup, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity.

Needless to say, the soup was truly excellent. But there was a surprise waiting to greet me.  An old friend whom I had not seen in a couple of years. And I must say, the years have treated my friend very well.  You know when you bump into an old friend and you notice how great they look?  You notice that they have lost some of that baby fat and they are just glowing…

Let me introduce you to my old friend. The 2007 Contadino 5.  Two vintages later, and this ’07 is looking, smelling and tasting better than ever.  This bottle hasn’t had the easiest two years either. I know it wasn’t stored under the greatest of conditions. But pay no matter, the wine was still alive and vibrant!  A few minutes in the glass and aromas of wild spring flowers and red berries started to jump out of the glass.  Even rose-colored rose pedals graced its aromas.  None of the “edges” this wine had in its youth were there anymore. They were replaced by sweet, ripe tannins and  a ripe acidity that was still keeping this wine on its toes!  No signs of oxidation, fatigue or development beyond her two years.  A glorious wine that rewarded its consumers for waiting those two years..

….thank you……

If you go to London, read my blog and like to drink the same sort of wines that I like to drink, then Brawn is a must the next time in your London!  Brawn, the baby brother to the well-established Terroirs, is the sort of restaurant I could eat & drink at every night!  A laid back sort of place where the service, food and wine are the focus here. No fancy table cloths.  This is the sort of place that oozes with passion and it’s easy to see that everyone is having a good time working there.  I also want to thank the staff, especially Maxime & Louise for seating a group of our size. We were 18 people, 19 including David (the local  importer of Frank Cornelissen wines), and they normally limit the size of their groups to 12. So for this, I am extremely grateful because if i had missed the opportunity to eat at Brawn, i would have been seriously bummed.  Enough said.

What we drank:

Camillo Donati Malvasia Rosé / Puzelat Pétillant Naturel

Overnoy – need i say more?! too bad they only 3 or 4 bottles!

Panevino Vigne Vecchie. Again, too bad they only had 3 bottles of this beauty!

Yes, that is a Magma back there. 2007. Thank you David!

Sébastien Riffault Sancerre. A sauvignon blanc w/o cat piss…

Tenuta Grillo Pratosciutto dolcetto – too much wood influence for my buds

Olivier Cousin V V  Grolleau. cool and yummy. some oak, but i like it anyway.

I have to ask Maxime what this was. Something was said about residual sugar and cheese.. But, I don’t remember tasting it.. hmmm.

Zidarich Vitovska Magnum. ok. not going to complain. but i prefer Vodopivec for this lovely, mineral grape. so sue me.

David decanting the Magma. Photo accurately depicts our vision by this time in the evening   Just one thing to say about the Magma: wait 5 years to re taste.. Oh, and thanks David! One of the highlights of the evening for sure

If I remember correctly, an unsulfured Cortese from Valli Unite BiB..?  Very interesting, and a pleasure to taste. A tad green for my buds.

How i finished the evening – sharing this bottle of Ganevat (Jura) with Maxime, Louise and Ed the chef

And what we ate:

oysters, no doubt!

And let the pork begin! That country terrine was nice!

some shellfish!  Great broth!!

oven baked pork on a bed of chick peas, and a bitter salad of radicchio!  rustic and delicious!

Pork rinds! wouldn’t have been complete without!

Of course, cheese. If I remember correctly, all English

Apple pie? who remembers! just look at those beautiful glasses of wine!

And no night out in London would be complete without a chance meeting and greeting with the great Jancis Robinson, who obviously also appreciates the sort of wines that Brawn is serving!  respect!

In a country where disposable income seems to be increasing rapidly, the world of wine is only at it’s infancy with hopefully only one direction to go and that’s up.  This will be of course an “uphill”  battle in a country that consumes loads of Vodka (which is very cheap) and beer (also cheap).  They also have a vast variety of  “wines” from central Europe which on average can cost half as much as the wines from what I call the “Old World”.   Still, people seem to be talking about wine and wine shops seem to be opening up as fast as you can imagine.  Yet, in Krakow (Poland’s second most populous city with a population of just over 750,000), there is a serious lack of wine bars.  I can count them on one hand and still have some fingers left over.  Just to give you some perspective, in Bergen where I currently reside, there are at least 5 wine bars. Bergen is a city with one third the population of Krakow and is in a country that doesn’t (yet) produce wine (Poland does, by the way).  Despite this, one wine bar is surviving and even growing.  Welcome to the Wine Garage.

Wine Garage (the bar) got their start about 18 months ago.  Not only is Wine Garage a nice, cozy spot to drink some good wines, but the owners Mariusz and Agnieszka have also been importing and distributing their wines throughout Krakow for the last 5 years.  They focus on organic and biodynamic products (they also have a small selection of coffees and teas) from mostly small producers from Italy, France, Hungary and even Moravia (Czech Republic).  Wine Garage is located underground (that is,  one floor below street level) on a small residential street about a 5 minute tram ride from the historic city center.  The vibe is very informal and easy going, making you feel welcome and relaxed from the minute you enter  and come down the stairs.  Sit and enjoy a glass of wine with some cheese, or buy a bottle to take with you. It’s up to you.

In countries where a new economy is booming, many people with these new found riches like to show others  by proudly displaying recognizable labels from not only marks like Mercedes Benz and Prada, but also wine labels like Möet & Chandon and top Bordeaux’s.  This makes Mariusz and Agnieszka’s job even tougher trying to sell items with little known, non-conventional labels.  But it seems to be working out for them because as I write this, they are preparing to open a second location right smack in the city senter.

Ok, now on to some wine! Last night I had the privilege to get to together with Mariusz, Agnieszka and a few other wine enthusiasts to taste some wine.  The first wine we started with was a bottle I brought with me, a 2007 Dario Prinčič Pinot Grigio.  Seven days of skin contact gives this Pinot Grigio an unfamiliar hue that most wine drinkers wouldn’t expect.  This pinkish-skinned grape is usually made into a white wine, which I feel is a shame since my two favorite Pinot Grigio’s are made with the skins, like red wine.  Dario’s Pinot Grigio is made with grapes grown in a very natural way, only spraying sulfur if he really needs to and nothing more.  His philosophy is carried over into his wine making where, you guessed it, nothing is added, not even the yeast.  He checks his free sulfur levels before bottling (he adds none during the wine making process), and sometimes adds a little just to get the number up to about 20mg/liter.  I love this wine, and the others seemed to enjoy it as well.  Aromas of orange peel and tea, spices and herbs.  On the palate the wine is simply delicious.  Fruity, mildly tannic and even at 14% alcohol, extremely refreshing and easy to drink. Perhaps the best Pinot Grigio I have tasted (or should I say – perhaps my favorite Pinot Grigio thus far).

The second two wines were sponsored by wine enthusiast Kuba.  The first of the two was a “mature” Burgundy.  A 1995 Domaine Chaumont Pere et Fils Mercury that he found at a very reasonable price (about 100 Polish złoty – or about $34). Kuba had drank a bottle just the night before and was pleasantly surprised by it, so he decided to pick up another for this tasting.  I don’t know much about this producer except that the grapes are his own, not purchased.  The wine appeared more youthful in the glass than the age would suggest. The same held true on the nose.  No dominant oak here, just fresh red fruit, some herbs and hints of characteristic farmyard.  The nose made me eager to taste, but I nosed the wine at least 5 more minutes because the nose made me so eager with anticipation that I wanted to delay the pleasure a bit.  When I did finally take a sip, I have to admit that I was disappointed.  The wine still had it’s tannins and acidity in place, but the fruit was no where to be found. Have I just found my favorite H2O?  We laughed a bit at the comment made by Kuba that the wine tasted like Pinot Noir-flavored water.  The bottle he consumed the night before was still alive and fruity according to him.. Oh well… on to the next wine.

The next wine was a surprise.  A 2008 Vinařství Baloun Merlot from Moravia.  A very light, fruity and peppery wine carrying a modest 11.5% alcohol.  When I first nosed the glass, the first aroma that hit my nostrils was pepper, and lots of it!  Followed by very sweet, almost candied, red fruit.  These two aromas I would never have expected to find together.  Most of the “peppery” wines I have come across carried more earthy, less sweet aromas.  This was strange.  But, the more I aired the wine, the less candy-like the aromas became.  The pepper stayed and now red cranberries were the dominant red fruit.. Now the wine was getting interesting to me.  On the palate the wine was light, fresh and peppery with red fruit shoulders.  Low acidity and no tannins make this the perfect quaffing wine on a hot summer’s day.  I enjoyed the wine, but I felt it carried a rather hefty price tag of 43 Polish złoty (about $11.50).

We then moved on to a Spanish wine from Jerez de la Frontera provided by Carlos, a distributor for the wine.  A 2009 Viña Greduela Coupage Joven.  A bold blend of organically grown Merlot (40%), Syrah (30%), Cabernet Sauvignon (20%) and Tempranillo (only 10%).  First aromas to hit my nose were quite intense.  Ripe fruit, even some over ripe fruit characteristics, with mostly dark berries, plums and stewed plums.  Hints of the yeast with a mild volatility suggested to me spontaneous fermentation.  Very nice structure on the palate, refreshing acidity and medium plus tannins suggest that this Joven was young and could be possibly enjoyed for the next 5 years.  A good wine, a drinkable wine.  Not yet available in Poland.

And the last wine that made an appearance last night was actually a wine provided to us by Mariusz and Agnieszka from the Wine Garage selection of wines. A new Piemontese producer for them (and for me as well).  A 2007 Olek Bondonio Langhe Nebbiolo.  An organic producer of Polish decent.  This wine was a modern Nebbiolo made in the slightly oxidative style.  On the nose, the delicate aromas of the nebbiolo grape were hard to pick up at first whiff, but as the wine aired (and aeration it does need), the wine became a bit more characteristic.  Structure on the palate was immense and the tannins were very round (rounded out by the storage in small oak barrels).  This for some may not be an easy to understand nebbiolo, and for others may not be their style.  Whatever the verdict, it’s a pricey nebbiolo at around 120 Polish złoty (around $41). Despite this hefty price tag, and the average person’s propensity to spend little money on wine in Poland, the wine is selling well says Agnieszka.  That’s good news.

All this wine made us hungry, so we were fed some homemade Bigos, a traditional Polish hunter’s stew.  This Polish “national dish” is made with cabbage, sauerkraut, various cuts of meats and sausages and a few other ingredients.  I’m told the longer you take to make the dish, the better it is!  And, it’s supposed to get better the longer you keep it for.  This was by far the best Bigos I have tasted in Poland. Thank you Agnieszka!

Copper pots over open fire

Juniper branches- nature's disinfectant - and ours

200 Year Old Barrel

Waiting for that magic 68°C

disinfecting the barrel with nature's gift

Pouring the barley into the barrel

Ahhh - 68°C - Ready to go

Adding hot water to the barley to release natural sugars

Read the rest of this entry »

Frank was kind enough to send me this email and allow me to post it here for my readers. Thank you Frank.

FrakeClaradipingere - Frank & Clara Painting

Dear friends,
The picking of the 2010 harvest finished on November 1st.
A special harvest in many ways for me. First of all as this is my 10th harvest (we survived the huge financial and economic risks), second as this was probably the most difficult one so far because of the risks of loosing over half of the crop (but we didn’t!) and third because of the new cellar we have inaugurated with this harvest (the extra space was a blessing!).

2010 was dominated by a lot of rain since the beginning of the season; a lot of vegetation resulted in vines with more vigor than usual, needing more canopy management, especially the vineyards in the lower quotes. The high vineyards did very well in terms of extra water overall during the year and this was a blessing for the vines. The summer was dry as usual and the ripening this year was accelerated over this period. Autumn was epic in terms of excessive humidity. Most of all we lacked the classic winds this year that keep the air dry; nights and mornings were dominated by humidity and the extra rain showers weren’t a help.
We have lost quite a bit of white grapes this year as at a given moment I decided to go for botrytis which in the end hardly didn’t develop and so we cut down lots of grapes due to the grey mould developing. It was either this or picking unripe watery grapes… difficult decisions especially when looking at all the grapes on the ground…

Frankfolature - Frank Punching Down

The difficulty in keeping grapes healthy was great and monitoring and cleaning to push to ripeness was extremely demanding this year with long days in the vineyards and even longer nights in the cellar. The new cellar with more space to work in an ordered and cleanly way came at the right moment and was a blessing in these difficult conditions.

All is fermenting for the moment and we will be pressing a bit earlier also as the fermentations on the reds are finishing faster than usual. The whites ferment slowly and doesn’t seem to want to stop… The rosato has been produced this year and was separated from the skins on November 7th. We used the running juice only and have 2 anforas aging with the malolactic nearly finished.

Another novelty is the arrival of a new person to our crew: Samuel Vinciulli, a graduate in enology who has “passed the test” during our harvest, will stay for two years to join us. Australian-Italian, Sam has worked in many different cellars and will be a welcome help with his positive energy and expertise in the cellar so that we can move into another level of quality and research over the next decade.

FrankeSamanfore - Frank & Sam Amphorae

During the winter period we will finally open our blog to be able to inform our clients and friends of our “works-in-progress”.
We will keep you updated!

Cordiali saluti,
Frank

Robert Camuto’s Palmento is a  journey through Sicily that describes the landscape, people, lifestyle, personality, generosity, cuisine and even the mafia of Sicily all between two hard covers. Oh, and did I mention that the book is also about wine?

For me reading Palmento was like watching the movie Sideways. An entertaining book about wine and at the same time, not only about wine. Sideways was fun to watch if you weren’t into wine, just like the book is entertaining to read weather you’re into wine or not. Follow Robert through his Sicilian adventures and misadventures making you eager to want to to see how it ends and at the same time, you just don’t want it to.

If you’re like me and are passionate about wine, then you might know that the book’s title Palmento, refers to «traditional stone wineries with massive wood lever presses» that were used in wine making in Sicily generations ago, and can still be seen strewn around Sicily like old abandoned bicycles in Amsterdam. For those of us not familiar with the Palmenti, and don’t care, then the title simply sounds like an Italian name for something charming, and indeed the book is just that, charming.

If you’re into wine, then you should read this book. It has enough wine information about some of the most interesting wine makers in Sicily to keep your attention. The book welcomes you into their homes, lives and wine making techniques. This book is also for those of you that like to travel, and actually feel like you are doing so through the eyes of the author. But be warned, you will often find yourself salivating as if you were the one actually traveling and eating your way through Sicily.

If you like my revue, then you will like the book because I don’t write nearly as well as Roberto Camuto does.  A must read…. for everyone. I couldn’t put it down.