Our wine guru Gary Chevsky enjoyed a tasting event for Italian red and white wines back in August, and shared his views with us:

“At the Chambers & Chambers trade tasting this week, I had a chance to visit and revisit many wines from all over Italy. Gourmet thin-crust pizzas from Lulu restaurant in the SOMA district of San Francisco complemented what seemed like 80-100 wines. About half the wines at the tasting were imported through Dalla Terra, founded by Brian Larky, a very funny dude. But funny is obviously not all he is – because Dalla Terra is a clever concept. They essentially eliminate one of the tiers in a 4-tier wine import distribution system, through their Winery Direct program.

In 1989 Brian returned to the U.S. after five years as winemaker at one of my favorite sparkling wine producers in the world – Italian estate Ca’del Bosco, who makes the top Franciacorta (in Lombardy) that easily rivals top Champagne. Even Ca’del Bosco’s entry-level cuvee “Prestige” is a perennial great value sparkler. Brian founded Dalla Terra Importers in 1990. Before working in Italy, he’d earned a UC Davis Fermentation Sciences degree and held production jobs in Napa Valley wineries such as Far Niente and Domaine Chandon. Don’t be fulled by the effusive smile – the dude is clearly not just a funny dude. Whereas a usual importer markup could be 30-40%, Dalla Terra’s fee is only 15%, and that’s enough for them to run a profitable business for the past 20 years. That’s because unlike a traditional importer who has to buy and hold the inventory from the producer, Dalla Terra are a broker.

The concept is relatively common with domestic wines, but quite innovative (and difficult to implement) with imports. They never buy the wine – they connect the winery with a local US state distributor (like Chambers & Chambers), so they never have to shell out the big bucks necessary to hold the wine. Nor do they take the risk of inventory not selling. That is, the risk sits with the winery; therefore it’s reasonable to assume that the winery would retain a larger piece of the pie by quoting a relatively higher price to the distributor than they would to an importer. It’s hard to say though. I went to Wine-Searcher.com – the world’s most trusted wine comparison shopping engine – to compare local US prices to those on the Italian market of some of Dalla Terra’s wines, such as Casanova di Neri and Vietti. I found there is about a 40-50% markup in US over Italy. I then looked at some other high-end Italian producers, such as Il Poggione, Fattoria di Felsina, and Marcarini imported though Southern Wine & Spirits, Wine Warehouse, and Empson USA respectively. US prices were 40% to 125% above the Italian prices. So the price benefits of Dalla Terra were not obvious to me, but this is by no means a scientific study, and I welcome comments from folks in the wine industry. In an interview, Brian told me that Dalla Terra have about 18 producers in their all-Italian portfolio, and in 20 years they haven’t lost one. “That speaks volumes for the type of business partner we are and the type of business we bring.” said Brian.

Here are the wines I particularly enjoyed at the tasting.

The Reds

Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino 2004. This was their basic “white label” Brunello. (The 2001 Casanova di Neri Brunello made a splash with their higher-end “Tenuto Nuova” cuvee by being Wine Spectator’s #1 wine of the year in 2006.) Had this basic Brunello at the tasting and, more importantly, at a dinner next day. The wine is from the excellent 2004 vintage and is showing very well – juicy fruit, good acidity, tasty tannins. Exploding with aromas and fruit flavors, the wine is light enough to even go with fish, thanks to the excellent acidity and medium body. Delicious.

Marchesi di Gresy Barbaresco “Martinenga” 2006. Sweet, charming, red fruit, beautiful strawberry / cranberry color, gentle Nebbiolo texture, and the most accessible of any 2006 Barbarescos/Barolos I’ve tried so far.

Vietti Barolo “Castiglione” 2006 – structured with slight menthol character, complex. It was the best wine match with the gourmet sausage pizza. The 2006’s are starting to open up. The 2005 “Brunate” didn’t have the menthol, but was also good. Dependable, top producer of Barolo, Vietti’s Barolo Lazzarito 2005 impressed me at the 2010 Tre Bicchieri tasting earlier this year. Their Barbera and Arneis are good too.

Vietti Barbera d’Alba “Scarrone Vigna Vecchia” 2006. Wonderfully balanced, rich, plush Barbera that tips to the much-maligned modern style, yet the delicious factor is undeniable. The most expensive Barbera I’ve ever seen ($75-100 retail). Rare, from a tiny lot in the prime Nebbiolo-caliber vineyard in Castiglione. More of a curiousity item, in my opinion, since in that price range, the wine has to be hand-sold to affluent buyers, looking for something “different”, and will be competing with high-end Barolos and Brunellos. For those who are willing to shell out big bucks for “something different”, there are options in Taurasi (from Campania), Sagrantino di Montefalco (from Umbria), and Etna Rosso (from Sicily) that come to mind before Barbera. Good wine, tough sell.

Roccolo Grassi Valpolicella Superiore “Roccolo Grassi” 2007. Single vineyard. Solid.

Roccolo Grassi Amarone “Selezione Antonio Castagnedi” 2006. All three of the Roccolo Grassi wines (including a white, mentioned below) were excellent. A producer to pay attention to. The 16-17% alc. the Amarone didn’t taste hot at all.

Selvapiana Chianti Rufina Riserva “Bucerchiale” 2006 – from a great vintage in Tuscany, excellent structure and texture, medium body. The detractor was notable heat on the palate – and lo and behold, the wine was a whopping (for a Chianti) 14-15% alc.

Cherchi Cannonau di Sardegna Rosso 2009 – good example of the native Cannonau grape of Sardinia. Very drinkable and food-friendly.

Vignalta “Gemola” 2004 – “Super-tuscan” from Veneto! (blend of Merlot and Cab Franc) – flagship of the Vignalta portfolio, well-balanced fruit/veggie, right-bank-Bordeaux like. Liked it both times. Nice effort.

The Whites

Italian whites are a myriad of grape varietals and regions. Generally unoaked or low-oaked, crisp, food friendly, and quite interchangeable. I find Soave (from Veneto), Arneis (from Roero, Piedmont) and Ribolla Gialla (from Friuli) generally to my highest liking. But I enjoy many others depending on the particulars.

Vietti Arneis 2009 – good.

Roccolo Grassi Soave “La Broia” 2007. All three Roccol Grassi’s wines (including two reds mentioned above) were good.

Inama Soave Classico Superiore “Vigneti di Foscarino” 2007. More generous (but tasteful) oak treatment made this wine richer, more complex, more serious than a typical Soave, clearly showing the range of the Garganega grape of which Soave is made. Very good.

Marco Felluga Collio Bianco “Molamatta” 2008. Blend of Pinot Bianco, and the native Tocai Friulano and Ribolla Gialla.

A tasting like this reminds me how much I love Italian wine. And the photos of those pizzas next to the above-mentioned vino make me salivate. It’s almost lunch time here. I’m hungry. How about you?”

Our friend Nancy Yos, of blog At First Glass, kindly shared with us her thoughts on a 2006 Vobis Tua Barbera d’Asti from Cantine Volpi. Nancy has been blogging for three years and her posts cover a wide range of wines and regions. 

2006 Vobis Tua Barbera d’Asti

Producer: Cantine Volpi s.r.l., Tortona, Italy.

Light bodied, briny piquancy — tart, underripe raspberries – a little tarry or smoky — needs food

2nd day: mellowed and silkier

Barbera d’Asti is both a grape and a DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) but note that smaller case b-barbera is the grape, while capital B-Barbera d’Asti refers to the DOC, in the lovely Piedmont region of northwest Italy, spelled in Italian Piemonte. If Italy generally conjures up images of sunshine, rolling hills, Rome, Renaissance art, and pasta, for Piedmont in particular we ought to think instead of mountains (the Alps), rushing rivers (the Po), drifting fogs, of industrial Turin, and oddly enough of rice and corn cultivation. Both are major crops here (think risotto and polenta). 

For its part, our glass of Barbera d’Asti represents a sort of little brother in a hierarchy of Piedmont’s red wines, ranking below the great Barbaresco and the still greater Barolo, both named for their places of origin within Piedmont but vinified from the nebbiolo grape — which in turn is named, it seems, for the drifting fogs (nebbia). Barbera can be either Barbera d’Asti, as we have here, or Barbera d’Alba; the latter is considered just slightly more of a heavyweight than the former, which seems to be why Barbera d’Asti is an everyday what’s-for-dinner wine in this part of Italy. Barbera d’Alba is also another DOC.

Like so many Italian red wines, except its powerhouse big brothers Barbaresco and Barolo, a Barbera has that tart, light, berry-like flavor and a texture that seems a little grainy and rough, as if a few seeds of a fresh raspberry had found their way into the bottle and added their own little interesting zip there. 

Wine books always emphasize that Italian wines like this, tending to be thin, fresh, and acidic, are meant to be drunk with a meal and not treated as a free-standing cocktail, which is often how we drink syrupy, barbecued-fruit California cabernets or merlots. Karen MacNeil in The Wine Bible writes rapturously of the Piedmontese food that would go with a Barbera, or even better, with its muscular big brothers, Barbaresco and Barolo: heavy meat dishes, thick risottos, eggy fresh-made pastas dressed only with butter and sage leaves or, if you are lucky and are visiting in the fall, with shavings of white truffle from Alba. The truffle’s spectacular taste, MacNeil explains in a sidebar, has been studied in science labs, and has been found to derive from some sort of chemical that is also present in the testes of men and bulls. Experienced people hunt for them at night in secret, with specially trained white dogs. Wasn’t there a commercial jingle that used to assure us Italians have more fun?

Indeed they seem to, and another of Italy’s most fun wines, Moscato d’Asti, is also a product of this same Piedmont that gives us our very serious Barolos and our zippy Barberas. Of this, I can provide just one quick tasting note: it’s flying off the shelves in grocery stores now, outperforming even queen Chardonnay and princess Pinot Grigio. 

Vobis Tua, we are told, is Latin for “as you like it.” We like it. Retail: about $10-$12.

Every two years in Turin, Slow Food hosts the Salone del Gusto. This is the mother of all food events and draws over 150,000 visitors. The program for the 2010 event (October 21-25) was recently released (only in Italian) so I wanted to use my blog to highlight this excellent food event.

This event is special as the stars of this food expo are the small-scale food producers from all over the world that showcase their products.  Moreover, it is about the people just as much as it is about the excellent food as the event enables like-minded producers and buyers to connect in the search for quality food.

Visitors can discover and taste Slow Food Presidia products and cuisines from all over the world, attend some of the hundreds of Taste Workshops, participate in conferences and learn from chefs in the Theatre of Taste program.

The program for the event is 50 pages so if there was a specific food/wine etc that you were interested in seeing if there is a workshop on, I suggest you click here to review the program. Also, it is important to highlight that some of the events are not in Turin but in the surrounding Langhe valley.

Definitely worth highlighting is the Sala Slow Wine which is held every day of the event, from 11am to 10pm, with the last entrance at 8.30pm. This consists of an enoteca dedicated to wine lovers who will have the opportunity to choose from 300 well known labels for tastings. Every day international wine makers will host presentations and famous chef Davide Scabin, from Combal.Zero restaurant in Rivoli, will introduce his creations. The €50 ticket gains you access and allows you 15 tastings.

Also, I have highlighted a few workshops that sound yummy but also focus on products around TorreBarolo but as I said, this is only my view and the selection is vast.

L’eredità del Barolo – October 21 at 7pm €45

The next generation of 4 of the main Barolo producers present this tasting event, comparing previous vintages, and introducing some new ones: Augusto Cappellano – Barolo Rupestris 2004 and 1998; Roberto Conterno – Barolo Cascina Francia 2006 and 1996; Maria Teresa Mascarello – Barolo 2005 and 1995 (magnum bottle), Pietro Ratti – Barolo Rocche 2007 (preview, though not commercially available until 2011) and 1997.

Barbaresco d’ autore – October 21 at 4pm €30

A retrospective view on the work of Alberto di Gresy, in charge of La Martinega winery in Barbaresco since 1973. The workshop will focus on how he transformed a relatively small family run winery into one of the main Barbaresco labels. Tastings of: Langhe Rosso Virtus 1998, Barbaresco Gajun 1999 e Barbaresco Camp Gros 1990, all in magnum bottle.

Salami d’Italia – October 22 at 4pm €20

Every region in Italy has its own salame. This workshop provides an introduction and overview of the best regional products: salame delle valli tortonesi, salame di Fabriano (Presìdi Slow Food), ventricina del Vastese, fiorettino reggiano, sopressa di Fagagna, finocchiona di San Miniato, soppressata calabra.

I magnifici Novanta di Sandrone – October 22 at 7pm €45

A tasting and tribute to Luciano Sandrone, one of the most celebrated and well-known Barolo wine producers. This event will be extra special as Luciano will personally guide you through some of his best Barolo Le Vigne vintages from the 90s’: 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999.

 Parmigiano Reggiano e Porto – October 23 at 7pm €25

Two symbols of the best European gastronomy will meet and you will be shown how time changes and affects these products. Four releases of Parmersan (15 months, 22 months, 28 months and the well aged 36 months) will be put together with the best Port, different vintages and types, presented by the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto.

If you are interested in participating in any of the workshops etc, I strongly recommend you book way in advance as these events gets sold out well ahead of the opening.

Salone del Gusto is held simultaneously with the Terra Madre world meeting of food communities.

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about Alba as a classic regional Piemonte town. One reason I am a big Alba fan is due to the numerous foodie and wine events the city host throughout the year. Given TorreBarolo is just a 15mins car ride to Alba, it is easy to get there and enjoy these events for a few hours. Moreover, given the size of Alba, these events are low-key affairs where you don’t have to worry about queuing to sample a selection of wines or walking endlessly around a huge convention center.

The International White Truffle Fair that commences in October for 2 months is well known and attracts serious foodies given the passion that exists for this mysterious musty smelling fungus. One event that is less well known is Vinum, Langhe and Roreo’s annual wine festival. Vinum’s function is to showcase the mom and pop wineries as well as the regional stars. As many of the smaller wineries don’t export outside the region, I see Vinum as an excellent opportunity to familiarize myself with the vast offerings from the local producers. Also exciting is that the producers use Vinum as the event to release new vintages of Barolo and Barbaresco.

Recently Alba hosted the 34^th edition of Vinum and although I was able to attend, being 7 months pregnant did put a damper on being able to enjoy any of the tastings. The set up this year was different than other years I have attended as this year the organizers decided to contain all the events within three separate marquees/exhibition centers. (I must say I preferred this to walking through the streets of Alba looking for the various kiosks).

This year’s three areas were divided into the following:

Palavinum 1: hosted the “Grand Langhe and Roero wines”. For €12 you would get a ticket book to taste 10 wines, a wine glass, a pouch to carry your wine glass in, a bottle of water and discount vouchers. For an incremental €4, a 2^nd person could join you. Given the quality of wines in this exhibition hall, it looked like a deal to me, especially since I never saw many tickets exchanged and think that as long as you had a pouch and a glass you could go on tasting.

Palavinum 2: hosted both wine and food and was titled “Appetizing Encounters”.  The price for this event was the same as Palavinum 1. The difference with this marquee was that the wines weren’t exclusively from the Langhe/Roero region and were from Piemonte in general, however, most of the placards I saw were of local vintners.  Given I didn’t recognize many of the wineries in this marquee I am going to make the broad statement that this is where the smaller mom and pop wineries exhibit. Also in this marquee there were numerous food producers offering samples of everything from my favourite Castelmagno cheese, to the special Bra salsicca to the delicious local “Torte alla Nocciola” (hazelnut cakes). 

Palavinum 3: hosted the big dogs and instead of kiosks to walk around and sample various wines, there were set times for events and the prices reflected the prestigious wines on offer. For example, there was a retrospective of great Barolo vintages where participates sampled 16 wines for €40. Palavinum 3 events were spread over two days and there were many special events during these days to enhance your knowledge and appreciation of the region’s world famous wines.

Vinum extends over the last weekend in April and first two weekend of May. Mark your calendar for 2011 so you don’t miss out on this excellent wine lover event!