This was one of those serendipitous visits that I like so much last week at the end of March, 2010. Jody Jackman of Winebow Imports called to ask if it was okay to bring Robin Shay to taste the latest/current releases of these two Italian estates with me as she knew already that I really liked the ALLEGRINI Valpolicella ( Veneto ) and was beginning to get on the band wagon of the POGGIO AL TESORO ( Bolgheri, Tuscany ) wines grown along the coast of Tuscany and owned by Winebow's owner Leonardo Loscasio.
Speaking of Leonardo Loscasio I have to scratch my head and try hard to remember whether I have actually ever met him or not? I simply cannot remember and that troubles me as I have supported his wines now since the mid eighties starting way back when I worked at the Mayflower Wines & Spirits with owners Sidney Moore and Michael Downey. That was when I represented the California selections at the store. Funny, I had returned from Paris, France where I had spent time there throughout the 1970's with my family as my father was a career diplomat as the Consul for Visas and then the Passports sections at the American Embassy of Paris ; and here I was inc charge of buying the California selections for the store? I was just learning about them and that was exciting.
It was an exciting time back then in the early and mid eighties as there was such a freshness to the blooming/blossoming wine business. being an artist and painter/writer/poet/photographer I will use the image of a blank white stretched linen canvas : it was white and by-and-large empty and filled with promise back then. People had dreams and aspirations and a love and a pride for making wine and bringing it to the public's attention. It was a small business back then and so much was just becoming possible and available to the public-at-large as long as the retailers like myself as well as the restaurateurs were willing to help and educate and inform. There were very few wine critics and writers at this time and , of course, the internet was not born and computers were large boxes that filled-up a large part of any room in a college or business.
People had to then rely more on their own gumption and willingness to experiment on their own and take all that came with that effort : both the good and the bad. They had less information and the gambles that they took were more direct and they came to them with less information. I like that. I like that a lot. I miss that today. We are over-programmed and informed in my humble opinion and so the excitement, raw and palpable of trying something and not-knowing, not being sure, not having much of an idea at all was all there as it is not today. I joke today that after people read everything and are so well-instructed in what they will taste and experience, feel and undergo, hell they might as well forgo the experience entirely and save the money that they would have spent on the wine.
That's cruel, I know. But what ever happened to people doing and experimenting on their very own and having a white canvas to fill with their own actual, immediate reactions, tastes, feelings, observations? This to me is so much more valuable because this way I feel that I am in charge as far as having and wanting the experience and yet at the mercy of the actual experience and what it will mean, do and have as value, excitement, interest, eye-opening, teasing, pleasing, upsetting? It will be all mine and new and serendipitous because I brought nothing to the table? to the wine so-to-speak but myself and my willingness and desire to have this completely new moment with whatever wine I had selected to try. Try all by myself, I am a big boy after all : I can do it, I can trip, stumble and fall, soar and cry with glee and excitement, dig deep into my reservoir of experiences and come to my own conclusions and impressions. Wow, I can be the author of my own life and not have it all so well-informed with other's impressions and experiences that I might even dain ( spelling? ) to call it my very own?!? Exciting and heady stuff all of this : and I felt it keenly and wonderfully then back in the seventies and the eighties up until perhaps the last couple of years?
I miss those times, really I do.
Anyway, this is when I either met Leonardo or did not. He had a partner with the Matt brothers back then I believe. I know that I have met Peter Matt at least twice since managing the wine department for Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 , Tel:202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com ). It was fun to meet him and to have some of his excellent Italian selections from the Piemonte and from Tuscany, too.
This was also the time when I actually did meet Robert Parker, Jr ( we all called him Bob back then ) and he was just starting his Wine Advocate. I think that the publication then was a year or two old? Anyway Bob would go around with a shopping cart and ask Sidney what Italian wines that he should buy and sample/ Michael what French wines that he should buy and me what California wines that he should try and perhaps write about in the Wine Advocate? This was all so new and exciting and it was fun to be a part in this process. He would put all these wines in his cart and wheel them himself up to the cash register and put them on the counter and either Leon or Iris would ring them up and he would pay for them. Fun, exciting and all very new as we never knew what would be written about? He wrote about Geyser Peak Chardonnay, and the BIllecart Salmon dry rose champagne, about the Robert Arnoux burgundies, about Vietti and Fossi and many more of course.
But I am getting away from this moment with Robin and Jody which I enjoyed immensely, really. All the above is history leading up to this moment and I like and value both history and perspective ( seeing the bigger picture so-to-speak ) that leads to the present and the exact moment that one is experiencing.
I will say that I think it would be lovely if Leonardo took a day to visit the stores and restaurants in Washington D.C. sometime soon and say " thanks " : especially to those that have followed him from the first. it's just something that I would like happen as I look forward to someday meeting him and on an individual basis and not surrounded by a throng of people all at one time would be especially nice and meaningful.
Anyway, I did meet Leonardo's son about a year or two ago when he came with Jody Jackman promoting the very high quality of sakes that he had discovered during his stay there recently I believe.
It was a great pleasure to meet Robin as he was both very enthusiastic and passionate about these Italian wines that he sells. He smiled a lot, spoke with his whole body with many gestures and sweeps of his entire frame and hands as he waxed poetic about one wine or the other. He was pretty much equally enthusiastic about each and every one of these six or seven bottles. He did have to contend, however with me and all of my impressions old and spur-of-the-moment : and he handled that well as we bounced our views nicely off of one another with smiles, laughs and rebuttals,add-ons, whatever.
What I also liked about Robin was that the next day I received an email from him saying how much he enjoyed meeting and tasting his wines with me. He also sent fact sheets for each of the wines that I had purchased as well as offered to be of further assistance in any way that he could? I liked all of that : appreciated it as there is often nor follow-up afterward. It's rare the follow-up and yet so important in keeping alive a line of direct communication. Thanks Robin, you are one of the rare few that has done this and I for one really do appreciate it. It would be nice that at the end of a day when you next work the market that you spend spend an hour or two tasting with our customers and explaining the wines to them just as you did to me with your brochures and maps and fact sheets? Let me know so that we may plan this tasting in advance and so that I may get more people interested showing up for the event here one night.
But hey, let's not forget the wines that have inspired all of this blog in the first place! I really did like them, all of them but two in particular as they spoke to my particular palate that has evolved but stayed pretty much the same over the years. I will say before starting this though that it has been really nice to have in the past Gastone Zempieri, Nicki Neufeld, Patricio, David Pinzolo and Jody Jackman ( Jody tastes every month here and we love this as she is excellent at it ) with our customers. Leonardo, you are lucky to have such a great sales force as it is they that keep your wines in a store : at least my store as there are many fine wines out there to chose from today.
When I showed this picture above to Robin he mentioned to me h the white lights formed into a semblance of Edvard Munch's painting " The Cry " or is it " The Scream"? Anyway, he is right I saw it right away and was thrilled that he saw it first. Being an artist I can really relate to that. I like taking these artsy photgraphs that I hope add to the equatio of thngs that already out there about these various wines and d not simply cop them.I love capturing the color and clarity of the wines in a wine glass next to the bottles from which they come and with the labels on them as well.
I have always loved the ALLEGRINI Valpolicella. It's one of my very favorite Italian reds for all of it's finesse and elegance and silky, velvety qualities that are never hard or raw, gutsy, too intense. If anything the Valpolicella is understated and hold back some. It takes time to extract the subtleties here withing this medium-to-light-bodied dry red. And hey, I just learned something from Robin that told me about his conversation with the owner of ALLEGRINI. He said that he was told that cherries grow in the Valpolicella region here in Veneto. Is this also true in the Bardolino region? He says that any real Valpolicella or Amarone must have the taste of these cherries or else it is not the real thing? This is of course fascinating to me and I found the simple Valpoliceela filled with tones of these crisp and tart and toasty cherries : almost as if some of the Corvino grapes had been done with carbonic maceration. That's how fresh and bright and lively the 2008 vintage is : and for only $15.49 a bottle. It's a great value and a great crowd-pleaser, too. It's also now on the shelf and has been selling well for the last three days that it has been there along with the POGGIO AL TESORO dry white Tuscan " Solosole " Vermentino and the super Tuscan red " Le Sondraia " made with the Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon grape ( is there Merlot, too? ) that we are selling now for $45 a bottle is it? I don't think that it is ready to drink yet but I am happy to have it one our shelves for someone to buy and stash away fro another time say three to six years from now? I am guessing about the time it still needs to age : but I firmly believe that it will reveal the middle of the wine that just is not developed yet there in my opinion. I know that everyone today drinks their wines young : but I think that that is often a big mistake as they will never taste what they wine can offer as it is properly aged and mature?
Of course the simple 2008 ALLEGRINI Valpolicella does not need to age any to be enjoyed : it is delicious now. It could evolve some perhaps over the year and reveal a bit more depth with more defined highs and lows but as it is so tasty now I am just telling people to enjoy it now in or outside, especially as it begins to warm up here this spring and into our Washington D.C. metropolitan area summer. It will get toasty hot and humid here and with a slight chill this 2008 ALLEGRINI Valpolicella will be a thrill and a delight with and without food!
I will have to talk later about the Brunello pictured above but I left my notes on it at work. It was young and still closed and tight and from my pint of view very much needing to be bought and put away to enjoy sometime much later in time. Ecellent and fled with promise : balanced buy way too young now, end of discussion. That's what I remember off the top of my head. Love the color, though and how the label mimics it here.
It's also a real pleasure to discover something " new " and that " new " for me started several years ago with Gastone Zempieri when he brought me another dry white that is represented b y Winebow Imports. It's the Ansonio or Ansonica dry white? I can't remember exactly now with a blue and white label that we used to sell for around $15. That's when the coast of Tuscany began to come really alive for me. At this same time David Bryant was representing another producer that made a dry white Vermentino and that started to bring things more into focus for me. The word " Maremma " was still not ringing a bell for me. It was my fault I must admit because I should have taken greater note even before then as more and more super Tuscan wines were being produced there to great grand fare and for many dollars, too. I, unfortunately have not embraced this band wagon wit the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes ( now the Cabernet Franc and the Syrah, too? ). My palate simply does not gravitate to these wines as I clearly love/adore and almost worship those from the Chianti regions using the Sangiovese, Mamolo, and occasional bits of the Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah grapes, even Grenache as in the Morellino di Scansano region.
I was fortunate this past October ( the last week ) to join my daughter in Milan and take the train down to Florence to enjoy a week with her in Tuscany and two days in Rome. It was incredible. The greatest impression on me besides that of Florence and Tuscany in general was how polite and helpful all Italians were when we needed assistance and that was frequently. I'd ask them something and it did not matter what age or sex or anything else as they would all stop and help us - and without attitude. Wonderful and so inspirational to my artistic temperament!
So, in this week I saw some of Chianti and Montepulciano ( TENUTA VALDIPIATTA ) and Montalcino. What an incredible experience for me to see some of the areas that produce some of my all-time favorite wines ever.
In 2005 I visited the area of Valpolicella with David Bryant and fell in love with it, too.
I still have not been to the coast of Tuscany and so perhaps when I do it will help to jump-start this slow engine of mine that is dragging it's feet to fully accept these " new " wine-innovations that taste so alien to me and do not remind me of the Tuscan wines that I dream of, live for and get all excited like a kid for...
I have given this some serious thought though and will speak of this once I get back to this delicious dry Vermentino " Solosole " white that comes from this same coast. I embrace that and the other Ansonica completely. The whites I like, maybe even love? I do really warm to them, however and they are tastes that my palate ratifies wholehearted, too.
This POGGIO AL TESORO " Solosole " Vermentino is also already on our shelves at $22 and I have already recommended and sold at least one or two bottles in the last three days or so that they have been there. It's got body, character and definition as well as balance and I can wrap my whole palate around it and enjoy the ride that it takes me on. Further, unlike it's red counterparts I can stick my tongue into it's center and stretch it out and jump and dive and summersault and spring and tumble and boom and shout and there's plenty of room with room to spare for me and all my mackinations, whatever they may be - whether academic or artsy or athletic. I like this, I live for this. I need this as there is plenty of me that needs it's space withing the context and confines of a wine. If there is not enough space as with the dry red superTuscans often then I just walk away. By this I mean that I encounter columns of flavors that deny me access to the center and middle of the wine that is supposed to reveal aspects of all of the wine's delicious and inviting components. Often I cannot gain entrance to enter into them as they are perhaps too young? I think that this is definitely some of the problem for me. Not all the problem but at least a third of the problem for my palate.
I am talking in generalities here I know. I need to be more specific. I will, too when I get back to Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits where I have left my notes and I will add more concrete information and detail. For the meantime humor me and try and understand what I am saying and where I am coming from.
It was great to see Robin spread this map out on our store floor here by our tasting table. I placed my Reidel wine-tasting glass on it to give it a personal and specific touch. It looks good there filled I believe with the POGIO AL TESORO " Sondraie " ( Bolgheri ) dry red blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Antichi Cloni Syrah, Cabernet Franc & Vermentino. Azzurra told me that Walter Allegrini that passed way was the inspiration for bringing the Cabernet Franc to this region to be used by POGGIO Al TESORO. Unfortunately he has passed away recently I am told. I am very sorry that I never got the chance to meet him as I believe I would have greatly enjoyed that.
I first tasted it with Azzurra Berrotti ( pblic relations, azzura.berretti@paggioaltesoro.it ) when she came with Jody Jackman perhaps six or so months ago? Check my blog on their visit using my search engine on this blog to read about that.
Azzurra left me a nice color prochure on that visit which I brought home and remembered just now that I had it. I am looking at it now and it will help me thankfully with some of the details that I need to be more accurate and complete here. I love this, really I do. Everything links together and everything builds on another to become what it will.
By the way for more technical info on TENUTA POGGIO Al TESORO go to : Cantina, Via del Fosso, 33 - 57022 Donoratico Castagneto Carducci - Livorno - Italia. Tel : +39 0565 773051 - Fax : +39 0565 776740 www.poggioaltesoro.it , info@poggioaltesoro.it ; Wine shop : Via Bolgherese 189 B - 57022 Castagneto Carducci , Livorno - Italia Tel : +39 0565 765245 - Fax : +39 0565 765749.
I am a huge fan of the Cabernet Franc grape and have championed it in the Loire Valley now for most of my adult life. That's France, of course and I have never tasted it to better definition and whole, complete , extension except for in the Loire Valley. Therefore to try it other places I always compare : sorry! So, if it's not as good or better than in the Loire Valley ( Saumur, Saumur-Champigny, Chino, Bourgeuil and St-Nicolas de Bourgeuil then it just does not hold my attention : simple as that.
Here in Bolgheri and Bibbona ( what is that? I do not know! Sorry - there is simply so much to know today that it is hard to keep up ) on the coast of Tuscany they are blending it and in the towns of the Loire Valley they are making 100% Cabernet Franc wines : I love those the very best! So, I will keep an open mind and see what occurs here in both Bogheri and Bibbona.
Robin and Azzurra please tell me more about Bibbona? Clue me in on this last wine of yours that is called " Valle di Cerbaia " and tell me about this Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc blend? That sure is an odd blend for me? Have I tasted it yet? I might have : I taste so many wines and that's why I take so many pictures of the labels to include in my many blogs like this one. It's hard to keep up on any level anymore as the world is exploding with wine choices that I want to champion as long as they are not massed produced and made simply to sell cases of wine no matter what is inside the bottle.
I want to have and taste the individuality of the various indigenous grapes whether I like them or not : I want the choices and many of them. We should have them : we should be able to accommodate and promote and sell, drink and enjoy them : there's always someone out there for everything, every wine - let's make the connections and connect the dots. That's my job and I embrace it wholeheartedly, really I do.
I must say that being an artist I really love the pictures that they have included here in this color brochure. It's well-done except for the descriptions of each of the wines : they should be there with a paragraph on each at least. It's not so easy to piece it all together from the lovely Italian and all the technical data that in my opinion could be better explained and amplified where necessary to draw the proper attention where needed. Having said this : the pictures are wonderful, really.
I love the two on the front cover and the back : the front shows the sea there on the coast and the back cover shows the gravelly/stony soil that the vines are planted in - like in Graves, Bordeaux, France. I also like the three or more circles of pictures that show the juxtaposition of the land and the large ones of the rows of vines are stunning, especially lined by Cypress trees and I guess tended by the huge machines that pick and help to protect or nourish the vines? Actually there are Cypress trees but there are also the olive trees that border the vines? I think that's right. I still have not tried the olive oil. Perhaps that will be brought to me next? Some baguettes from Firehook Bakery on our block along with some nice extra virgin Tuscan olive oil : what could be better? Not much. I do remember the days that Gastone would invite me out to lunch to the Two Amys or Sorriso - that was nice, too.
I also love the picture included of Walter Allegrini. It's a good picture. But the picture of everyone at POGGIO Al TESORO does not name the people and I think that that is a big mistake : name and give credit to those that make POGGIO Al TESORO what it is. The whole world should know and be made aware of this. And when you get down to it my favorite p
The pictures I prefer are perhaps those of all the grape clusters hanging on the rows of vines and ready for harvest - along with the pictures of the harvest that follows. That's an image or series of images that promises so very much and that I find irresistabe really.
You look at these brochures carefully after the people leave like Azzurra and Robin and you see the olive oil and the Agro which must be some type of grappa-like product and you wonder what it tastes like and why they did not bring it along to taste? Then I see the " W " dry red wine which must be made from mostly Cabernet Sauvignon and named after Walter Allegrini? I am guessing as I did try the " W " dry red Bogheri wine the last visit with Azzurra and then I found it needing time to age before drinking as well as I did with the Sondraia red blend.
Respond to this blog in the comment section and tell me once again more about the " W " as I cannot recollect all the facts about it ad it is not covered completely here in the color brochure.
I took many pictures and these are but just a few and I will post this blog later this evening to at least get it out there in part. Later I will addmore pictures and perhaps more text. It will depend on time as I seem to have very little these days and the weather here sure is wonderful and making me want to be outide working in my garden and not typing away down here in my basement at home in northern Virginia. It's now Easter Sunday here on April 4th, 2010 and we just finished our meal. I cooked a leg of lamb with some shish kebob of shrimp and onions and various colored peppers : really tasty and it hit all the spots well. I drank some of the 2002 New Zealand Escarpment Pinot Noir that worked quite well with the lamb while my wife and daughter enjoyed the current vintage of the Max Di Lenardo dry white Friuli Sauvignon Blanc. It's 8:07 PM and it's now dark outside but all day it has been sunny and bright with baby blue-clear skies and just a delight to be outside in shorts and a t-shirt.
So I promise to give the Sondraia more of a chance and to see what develops over time with it. I may grow to like this style more and it certainly deserves a chance as it is another " terroir " and another set of circumstances that deserves a fair shake. I just want to be able to enjoy it more and not feel as if it is pushing me away from it and making access to it more difficult.
Thanks Robin, Jody and Azzurra for all that you three have done to make these new Bolgheri wines come alive for me. They are beginning to take form and shape and personality for me now and I want to see how they grow up and age and develop and express their new and true identities in this soil of rocks and earth close to the Tuscan coast The vines are still by-and-large young I must assume and so they have a whole life ahead of them as the vines age and mature and express the soil and the " terroir " in new and exciting ways. We are at the beginning pretty much of this new journey and I am glad to be along for the ride.
I leave with some Italian text that I find here in this color brochure on the Le Sondraia :
" Il vigneto Le Sondraia , piu vicino al mare, e i piu grande Tenuta con circa 50,000 ettari (43,50 in produzione attualmente ) ed esemplifica l'idea di come la varieta d terren presenti a Poggio al Tesoro consenta di ottenere una diversita di combinazioni di uve ed una consequente produzione vinicola in grado di fotografare fedelmente il potenziale di Bolgheri. " It goes on and I understand most of this. Of course you are all more than welcome to translate this into English i te comment section at the end of this blog for all of us.
So, in leaving let me just say once again that this is simply the start to a beautiful relationship! I started years ago back in the mid 80's supporting Winebow's Italian portfolio and I have never stopped. In general I always like to buy from it first and if there is any money left over then I buy from the other Winebow selections outside of the Italian wines.
P.S. Stay-tuned for more text and pictures. I have more coming soon ...
Cheers e a presto, TONY
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