Wines of the Veneto
Fri. (5:30-7:30) & Sat. (4:30-6:30)
February 2 and 3
at Vino
FREE
See details below.
Meet Winemaker Serena Palazzolo
of Ronco del Gnemiz (Friuli)
and Taste Her Wines
Thursday, Feb. 8, 5:30-7:30
at Vino
FREE
Taste Serena’s blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio, “Bianco di Jacopo,” and her rare bottling of Schioppettino (among other wines).
To register, please send an email to events@vinosite.com.
Produttori del Barbaresco
Vertical Dinner
with Charles Scicolone
Monday, March 5
at I Trulli
$250 (inclusive)
A seven-course dinner paired with Produttori del Barbaresco going back to the late 1970s. Moderated by Wine Director Charles Scicolone.
To register and for more information, please send an email to events@vinosite.com.
Puglia dinner
with Michele and Charles Scicolone
Weds., April 18
at I Trulli
Details TBA.
To register and for more information, please send an email to events@vinosite.com.
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This Week’s Tasting: Wines of the Veneto
Come join us at Vino this Friday (5:30-7:30) and Saturday (4:30-6:30) for our FREE weekly tasting. This week we’re featuring wines from the Veneto.
Charles and the Vino staff will be pouring these wines (among others):*
- Bardolino Saint Valery 2005 Giarola, $12
Giarola’s Bardolino is made from Corvina, Rondinella, and Sangiovese grapes. Because of its proximity to the Lago di Garda, the Saint Valery vineyard site benefits from the excellent ventilation provided by the body of water and the cooler temperature also help the fruit to ripen more slowly and thus achieve greater richness and flavor. - Incrocio Manzoni 2002 Collalto, $16
The Incrocio Manzoni 2.15 grape (Manzoni Graft 2.15) was created by the famous Professor of Enology Luigi Manzoni in the 1920s by grafting the Prosecco grape and Cabernet Sauvignon. His intent was to use Sauvignon Blanc but a laboratory mistake led to the birth of this interesting cross of white and red. - Amarone 2001 Sant’Eugenio, $48
Arnaldo and Marta Galli of Capitel Sant’Eugenio are firm believers in terroir and tradition. The estate-owned vineyards for their Amarone were planted in 1969 when they launched their now historic winery. They use only indigenous, naturally occurring yeasts for fermentation and they age the wine in traditional large oak barrels.
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Featured Class:
Southern Italy: Ancient Grapes, Hidden Gems
Wednesday, February 28, 6:30 p.m.
“Nunc est bibendum.” (“Now is the time for drinking.”). This famous line by Latin poet Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 BCE) were probably inspired by the Aglianico del Vulture that he drank in his youth in Basilicata (the region that forms the insole of Italy’s boot). Indeed, he grew up in the shadow of Mt. Vulture where the volcanic subsoil of the highlands is ideal for creating mineral-driven, complex, structured red wine. From the writings of Latin authors like Pliny and Columella, we discover that southern Italy abounded in grape varieties and sophisticated vine-growing techniques. Indeed, when the Greeks began to colonize Italy in the fourth and third centuries BCE, they were so impressed with the Etruscan viticulture they found there that they called the Italic peninsula Oenotria, the “land of wine.” Today, winemakers in the south have “re-discovered” many of the ancient varieties through careful grafting of DNA culled from Roman ruins with modern-day rootstock. Vino and I Trulli’s Operations Manager Jim Hutchinson leads participants through a guided tasting of southern Italy’s ancient grape varietals.
To register for the class, please email register@vinosite.com.
*Wines subject to change depending on availability.
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Wine Opinion: An Amarone Is an Amarone Is an …
Please join us this Friday (5:30-7:30) and Saturday (4:30-6:30) for our FREE weekly tastings. This week, Charles and the Vino staff will be pouring wines from the Veneto.
For more information on this and other events at Vino, please email events@vinosite.com.
It is almost that time of year again when we make our annual pilgrimage to the wine fair in Verona, Vinitaly. It is the largest wine fair in the world and this year we are all going, Nicola, Jim Hutchinson (our Operations Manager), Jeremy Parzen (our Marketing Director), and myself.
The fair this year takes place the last week of March and the weather is always rainy and cold. It has a way of coming quicker than you think and since we are going to do wines of the Veneto this week for our weekly tasting, I thought that we could discuss Veneto wines but also the fair.
When we come back in April, we will give you an update on the fair and this time, from three or four different points of view.
Since the wine fair takes place in Verona, it is easy, if one wants, to take some time off from the fair and visit some of the winemakers in the Veneto. Part of the problem is that most of them are at the fair. However, some of them have special events and will send a bus to pick you up so you can spend a pleasant afternoon or evening at the winery tasting the wines and eating the local food.
One year at the fair, we were very pleased with the wines from Le Ragose, a winery that makes excellent Amarone and Valpolicella Classico. Unfortunately, they were being brought into the United States by another company. After some negotiations, they agreed to make our own private label using their family name, Galli. All went well and the wines were on our shelves and selling. Then one day, out of the blue, Nicola received a letter from an attorney representing the Gallo winery of California. The letter stated that the name Galli was “too close” to the name Gallo and, therefore, it stated, that Nicola had to “cease and desist” selling the wine. Not wanting to endure the wrath of the great wine company of the west, Nicola decided to contact the Galli family and tell them the problem. They responded by making a new label and now the wine is called Capitel Sant’Eugenio. It’s named after a lovely small chapel, devoted to Sant’Eugenio (St. Eugene), which lies on the Galli family estate.
Even though the wines have gone through three different labels, they are great wines, having all the characteristics of Amarone and Valpolicella Classico. These are traditional-style aged in large botti, the old oak casks that we at Vino prefer over new barrique. The botti give you all the big luscious flavor or Amarone but at the same time you still have the good acidity and a wine that can go with food. Last year, we drank Capitel Sant’Eugenio Amarone by the Galli for Thanksgiving.
In the immortal words of the great bard Shakespeare, who, although he never traveled to Italy, knew it well and loved the country: “an Amarone by any other name…” But don’t tell the Gallo family.
–Charles Scicolone, Wine Director, I Trulli and Vino
Charles would love to hear from you: please email him at charles@vinosite.com.
Posted by Vino NYC 
Last week, we spoke about how the Italians make wine to suit almost every taste and every occasion. They can make wines that are very traditional, make wines that are very international in style, and many wines that fall in between. If someone comes into Vino and says, “I want a wine that tastes like a Californian wine,” or “an Australian wine,” or a wine from almost anywhere in the world, we can almost always find a wine to make that person happy.
We have to admit: we were a little surprised when a writer from New York called to tell us that Nebbiolo and Croatina (a grape that we also know fondly as Bonarda) have significant quantities of melatonin, a hormone that, among offering many other possible health benefits, can help the mind unwind. Do we care all that much about melatonin? No. But we sure do like how these wines taste.
Often, people will ask the same question when they come into Vino: Why do you just carry Italian wines?
In the late 1860s, the Iron Baron Bettino Ricasoli hailed Sangiovese as the grape that “married best” with the Tuscan soil and he wrote the first official formula for Chianti, with Sangiovese as the primary grape for the blend. In the 1880s, Tancredi Biondi Santi produced the first Brunello di Montalcino by experimenting with growing sites and different clones of Sangiovese. The Brunello grape (also known as Sangiovese Grosso and Prugnolo Gentile), he discovered, was ideal for making long-lived, complex red wines. In the 1960s, Nicolo’ Incisa della Rocchetta, owner of the legendary race horse, Ribot, released the first vintage of Sassicaia as a vino da tavola or table wine, the first Super Tuscan. Inspired by the wines of Bordeaux and its famous Graves terroir (named after the “gravelly” soil), he had planted Cabernet Sauvignon in the pebbly soil of Bolgheri (hence the name Sassicaia from the Italian sassi meaning “pebbles”). In the twenty-first century, the legacy of these historic wines continues to resonate across the globe. Some would even say that they should be credited with the current renaissance and overwhelming popularity of Italian wines today. Wine Director Charles Scicolone leads participants through a guided tasting of some of Toscana’s greatest wines.
Lazio is known for Frascati but what people don’t realize is that it is one of the best places to grow French varietals. These red varietals, basically, Cabernet and Merlot, in my opinion, do better in Lazio than in any other part of Italy and even better than in some places where they are the native grapes.
Vino NYC