keep as many of them as possible alive and healthy and center stage! Cheers Liz for this grand name and noble mission/thought/focus ... I'm " on board " with you on this all the way, really I am. I seem to have devoted my wine life/career to this mission. too.
This was another wonderful and serendipitous wine-tasting for me of wines that I love. It was great to revisit both the LA SPINETTA and the CIACCI PICCOLOMINI dry. classic Italian-style wines of the Piemonte and the Tuscan regions. We have sold both over the years and we currently had the 2007 CIACCI PICCOLOMINI IGT Toscana Rosso dry Tuscan red on our shelf at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 ) where I have managed the fine wine department for almost ten years exactly. What a marvelous trip this has been now with almost forty years of enjoying and expounding the virtues and the magic of wine.
In the picture above managing partner of INDIGENOUS Selections is pouring a glass for Kate Clugston ( her family owns GOTHAM winery just outside of Adelaide, South Australia and I invited her to taste along with me instead of just having her wait ). It's always nice to include everyone that we can so as to make it a more pleasing moment for all involved.
It looks like we were able to taste six out of the seven wines listed on the tasting sheet on February 17th, 2010 at around noon-time I believe. Two wines from CIACCI PICCOLOMINI and four from LA SPINETTA : all reds except for the last which was the silky, elegant, velvet-gloved-textured LA SINETTA Moscato d'Asti Biancospino 2009 sweet dessert-style Piemonte wonder of wonders. No wonder that everyone practically falls in love with this Moscato.
Arielle Monaco knows that I love these wines and she smiled the minute I started to wax poetic over their virtues.
She poured me the 2007 CIACCI PICCOLOMINI IGT Toscana Rosso which got the ball rolling nicely. It's quite smooth, bright ; showing beautifully with great toasty dark berry/cherry flavors showing in this medium-to-light-bodied red that certainly gets the appetite alerted and stimulated all in one. Where's something to nibble on? I liked it and am glad to have it one our shelf as it is well-constructed and balanced wine that sells for around $15 I believe. I will check the price when I am in the store. Today I am home and enjoying the sunshine and the rest from selling another bottle of wine : just thinking about enjoying another one!
Liz then poured me some of the CIACCI PICCOLOMINI " Montecucco " 2006 ( $33 approximately ) that really got me describing it in excited terms. I was now airborne and smiling from ear to ear. I wrote quickly as not to forget the more immediate " markings " of this delicious dry, classic Tuscan red : " great, musty and earthy nose - love the nose! the taste, too. Lovely tannins - a winner ! " The tannins must have been pretty soft and there more for accent and definition. I'll have to taste it all over again but the next time with Chris Barker that was off this day. He really missed some excellent Italian reds.
I could see from the get-go that Liz is totally committed to these wines as she described them as if they were dear family friends or neighbors. I tried to listen as much as I could to her talking about them and a tape recorder would have been great here as I was busy snapping away at these pictures of which only a very few are downloaded so far. I was also being cajoled and scolded and rewarded and teased and entertained by these dry. classic reds that just get me started like so many catalysts with so many tangents for me to be off on : and off I was almost non-stop. Sorry Liz : you will have to come once again and speak about all of these wines. Let's organize an in-store wine-tasting here in Cleveland Park the next time you visit. You can tie it in with visits to the Italian restaurants so close to us : DINO, SORISO, TWO AMYS, PESTO ...
Here I am using my artistic flare and trying to capture the top of the bottle in the wine's red reflection along with that of our ever-present and bold ceiling lights. I got it, too : subtle but there.
Here in the glass above I am tasting the LA SPINETTA Langhe Nebbiolo 2007 that is all or mostly declassified Barbaresco? I can't remember exactly. but before I drank that I was tasting some of the LA SPINONA " Il Nero di Casanova " 2006.
I wrote of this " Il Nero " 2006 : " wine of softer tannins, like a chord ( musical ) it lingers on the palate. Good balance. It's a blend of 5% Colorino and 95% Sangiovese. Medium-to-light-bodied, it needs food. Good acidity, good sharpness and definition of tar, tobacco and leather." These are all the things that I like so very much. It will sell for around $25 a bottle when we get it.
I am posting many of these pictures out of order and this one above is of the scrumptious LA SPINETTA Moscato d'Asti 2009 that we will get this Wednesday, March 3rd in just two days. Look at the bottom of my glass with the Moscato crystals. It looks so solid and so appetizing to me.
As you can see by the picture below that I was inspired to amplify the pastoral/pastel-palate of colors in this charming landscape on the Moscato d'Asti bottle of LA SPINETTA. You should be drinking some as you look at this picture.
Next Liz poured me some of the LA SPINETTA Barbera D'Asti " Ca di Pian " 2006( $28 or so approximately ) and I wrote : " Great individual interpretation of the Barbera. It works on so many levels. Leather, tar, tobacco - ripe sun-dried/shriveled fruit that reminds me vaguely of Amarone almost. " I really liked it especially as it stood out from the crowd of many Barberas that I have tried that do not have either this unique taste, character or personality all in one. It's worth searching for and trying to see how it fits you?
I need to download more of the pictures that I took to show the wonderful labels of these reds. I just can't seem to find the time these days. But don't worry, I will later this week as I intend to post this blog later today and then add the pictures once back at work this week.
Anyway, Liz then poured for me some of the LA SPINETTA Langhe Nebbiolo 2007 that really impressed me to no end. " Deep earth, cave- center earth fruit in the nose. Great smooth mouth-feel, soft dusty-dry tannins. Lovely and smooth enough to drink while watching the Winter Olympics! " They had just started in Vancouver, Canada and I was going home each and every night and watching them and not staying caught up with all these blogs that I still have now in their draft form. The Winter Olympics just ended last night and so I am now frantically dashing about, typing away like one possessed trying to get some of these wonderful, serendipitous tastings at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel : 202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com ) where I have now managed the wine department in our nation's capitol for ten years and still going strong : still feeling more alive and passionate about wine and about expressing myself creatively and artistically than ever before!
Liz O'Brien said that this Nebbiolo was mostly if not all declassified Barbaresco and so that at $33 a bottle or so instead of $60 plus dollars for Barbaresco this is an amazing bargain. I agree. I will make plans to buy some really soon with Arielle Monaco. It was and is a very special wine.
Then as a parting gift and something special to be treasured and savored Liz poured me some of the LA SPINETTA Moscato D'Asti Biancospino 2009 that is pictured above with the label, too. I wrote simply " Great middle, good finish : love the " surge " in the middle ." It's like riding a really fine wave to the beach with a spectacular ride before your body hits the sand. It catches you completely off-guard. The start is nice but it does in no way or shape or form prepare you for the stunningly bright and defined and 3-D middle that has so many clear and well-defined highs and lows and everything in between that you are simply swept up and along for a very special ride as if your tongue was the surf board and you were riding above and along on and with it and with this Moscato d'Asti 2009 from LA SPINETTA. I shared with both Arielle and Liz that perhaps it felt like the intense high or relief that someone might feel after confession?
In closing my tastings at the store I really like taking pictures of those involved as to capture and save and later savor the moment all over again! It was great and I think it shows in our expressions here as if there was ever any doubt about that.
By the way, this makes me get really excited about the inventory-reduction of Italian wines that we will be receiving in the store in tow days on March 3rd, 2010 and that we will open and taste with our customers as our two-day 20% off on twelve ( 12 ) or more bottles of still ( non-sparkling ) wines will run on Wednesday and Thursday ( March 3rd and 4th ) and include any of these wines as well as any that are currently in stock.
For more technical information about Liz O'Brien's( Managing Partner ) INDIGENOUS portfolio of wines go to : 1215 SE 2nd AVE. STE 101 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316 Tel: 954 530 4021 Fax: 954 206 2229 Liz@indigenousselections.com www.indigenousselections.com.
Thanks Arielle, Liz and Kate for such great company and such great wines. We'll have to do it all over again it was so much fun and the wines were so good. Come get some of both Arielle and Liz's wines as well as those of Kate ( GOTHAM South Australia bottle pictured here in her hands ; as well as the PUPPETEER ) wines Tuesday and Wednesday this week. That's tomorrow and the next day and you may take advantage, too of the great 20% still-wine sale that I mention above on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Cheers, TONY
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