Since we’re still in Tuscany for our menu this month ( and will be for the first week or so into February), I thought it might be pertinent to comment on a Tuscan wine.  

Now, I’m a sucker for a good, cheap, gluggable Chianti, but let’s face it : sometimes a cheap Chianti isn’t going to do it for me.  Sometimes I want something with a bit more substance.  If I’m going spend twenty-twenty-five dollars on a bottle, most often times it won’t be on a Chianti.  I want Chianti to taste fresh, beaming with raspberry and fig fruits, and a little dirty.  I don’t want to spend more that fifteen dollars for that.  That’s Chianti.  For me, Chianti is supposed to be refreshing not overly tannic and astringent.

Now at Brunello we arrive at the other end of the spectrum.  Christ, it’s one of Italy’s greatest hits, unequivocally.  Despite the Brunello scandal of last year, it still remains dear to us Americans, as it is one of the highest selling high end wines in our market.  But who in our current economic landscape can drop fifty plus (to the stratosphere, really) on a Brunello that will be rough and surly for the next five years?  Granted, there are some Brunello producers that make their wines to be consumed at a younger date, but for me, I’d rather drink Rosso di Montalcino (Uccelliera makes a brilliant one) if I want to drink Sangiovese Grosso young.  

So here’s the segway to Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.  I love Joseph Bastianich’s succinct quip about Vino Nobile and it’s relationship Chianti and Brunello : “Like most middle children, Vino Nobile strikes a balance between its more extreme siblings, and is often times more interesting because of it”.  From the vineyards surrounding the town of Montepulciano, a small hamlet south of Siena and to the east of Montelcino, Vino Nobile is made primarily Sangiovese (locally called Prugnolo Gentile), but is typically filled in with a little Canaiolo or Malvasia.  While I think it’s a bit fatuous to say that Vino Nobile is the forgotten wine of Tuscany, all I’m saying is that it’s often overlooked.  To me though, it hits all those aromatic high notes that good Chianti hits, but without the sometimes searing acidity.  It also is more often that not a little more full bodied than Chianti, but not as full bodied as Brunello. Simultaneously, Vino Nobile isn’t nearly as tannic as Brunello, and can be drunk much younger.    

The other night I had a bottle of Valdipiatta’s 2004 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.  I’ll share my tasting notes:

1st Taste : A little closed, but presence of plummy and cherry fruit.  Smokey leather.  Tannins are a little bitey, good acid though.

First Impression: Needs food. Preferably a wild boar you just harpooned and are now roasting over an open fire.  If not plausable for your circumstances, a steak or pork loin will have to do.  Something with fat and blood.

With food (seared pork tenderloin/sauteed kale with pearl onions/roasted potatoes with thyme): Plays off the thyme extremely well.  A natural with pork.  The acid cleans the palate and the tannin cuts the fat.  Everything is less exaggerated when food in on the table.  The tannins aren’t bitter and have developed more fruit tones.  The acid is very pleasant, and all three Fruit/Acid/Tannin are all integrated nicely.    

Well, that’s my two cents on that.  Hey Anthony . . . tag, you’re it!

Michael

I’m very much into my routine.  Each day at Tabla, I do the books from the prior night before I do anything (besides throwing on the IPOD and a little James Brown), but today was an exception . . . I’m doing this . . . and here’s why:

While walking in today, I noticed a stack of wines on a dolly on the sidewalk and Stanley, the route driver for Zancanella, waiting patiently in his truck for me to arrive.  “You know what I love about my job? I get to sit around and listen to NPR waiting around for you guys.” Sorry if I threw you under the bus there, Stan.  On Stanley’s dolly there was the shipment of a wine that I tried last week that I was just about to bring onto my list, the 2007 Conti Seroli Salis, Torre della Sirena.  A white wine made entirely from indigenous red grapes from Lombardy, Italy.  Yes, I know unabashedly, that I’m a cork dork.

I have tasted some great wines in the past two weeks that I’m excruciatingly excited about.  I’m bursting at the seams to talk about them, to anyone who will listen and then try them.  Again, as I said before, this is a barrel-fermented white wine that is made from the Rossola and Pignola grapes of the Valtellina region in northern Lombardy, at the foot hills of the Swiss Alps.  To check out photos of the vineyards, go to www.paoloboselli.com and search under producers for Conti Sertoli Salis.  There’s some amazing pics of the terraced vineyards amid beautiful mountain scapes in the background.

OK then, about the wine, though.  What is it like?  Well, nothing, really.  But it’s not weird or cerebral or any other useless description.  If you like Cal Chard, you may like this wine.  If you like Oregon Pinot Gris, you may like this wine.  I know for a fact that if you like Alsatian Riesling or Chenin from the motherland, the Loire, you WILL like this wine.  It’s very tropical.  With notes of lemon curd, pineapple, and even banana.  But it’s not silly and overly fruit forward.  Sure, it’s body is creamy as a result of the malo it goes though, but the minerality in this wine shines through all that oak.  It’s so pleasing to me that I’m going to pair it with the scallop dish on this Tuesday’s upcoming Wine Flight (Blood Oranges).

So there it is.  Look for more of these random bursts of wine rhetoric in the near future.  I know for a fact I’m going to have something to say about a new Cabernet Franc from a Samur Champigny property (I’ll keep it a mystery for now) and its importer, in the near future.  Until then, I’ll be seeing you tableside if you have questions about the list.  And now back to the books . . .

Michael