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New Article Category: Italian Wines

I’ve started a new category for my blog articles. It’s about wine and it’s about time, right?!

Yep, it’s the category that captures all of the blog articles that I’ve created over the years that are concerned with Italian wines. I count 8 articles in that category.

If you click on the heading to the top right of this article titled ‘Index of Articles’, you will be taken to the ‘Index of Articles’ page…strange how that works, huh? If you scroll down a bit in the right-hand column of said index, you will find the new ‘Italian Wines’ category near the top…right where it ought to be.

To simplify things for today, I’ve summarized those 8 articles just below.

So, grab a bottle of your favorite Italian wine, open it, pour yourself a glass (if you need permission, you’ve got a standing approval from me), and read on. I list the articles beginning with the oldest, along with just a hint of what you find in the complete article.

Castello Brolio

08/25/2015

This article titled, “Beautiful Places Castello Brolio”, was written because of the importance of Castello Brolio to Tuscan wines. You’ve most likely enjoyed Chianti and Chianti Classico wines in the past…right? Well, they started right here at Castello Brolio. It was the castle’s owner, Baron Ricosoli, who created the formula for Chianti. After more than thirty years of research and experiments, he divulged his formula for Chianti in a letter in 1872.

As a reminder, the word “Classico” in Chianti Classico is not necessarily a designation of the quality of a wine, but is related to its geographic origin. It is a designation for wines grown in a certain place within the official Chianti region…it’s like the hole (Chianti Classico) in a donut (the overall Chianti region)…kind of. On the other hand, if you find the words “Riserva” after the words Chianti or Chianti Classico, you can assume that the extra aging has improved the taste of the wine.

Banfi Wines

05/24/2016

Castello Banfi sits proud south of Montalcio

Most of you know of my love for all things Banfi…be it the food, the castello, the borgo, the people, or the wine…they are all magnificent! In the article titled, “Stay Here, Eat Here, Drink Here: Banfi” you will get the full extent of what Banfi has to offer.

In the mid ‘70s, with earnings from their very successful importation of Riunite wines (remember, ‘Riunite on ice, that’s nice!’ commercials?), Brothers John and Harry Mariani went to Italy in search of the perfect place to start their own winery business…a business which has become an empire in the wine world.

A wine tasting is the best way to decide on your wine purchase

The prominent grape of the estate is Sangiovese, the same grape (among others) that is made into Chianti wine. But here, the wine of fame is Banfi’s Brunello. And then, Brunello isn’t the only wine made by the Mariani family, and you will find a good many of them available in the enoteca of the castello…like these that we tasted whilst there.

I don’t use the word ‘castello’ (i.e. castle) lightly. Yes, the estate is centered around a castello sitting atop a scenic hilltop, as seen in the painting, above. And within that castello, you will find Il Borgo Banfi (the hotel). I can’t recommend a stay at this lovely, peaceful place enough. We have such great memories of our time there. And, who wouldn’t appreciate just a wee bit of time away from wine tasting, sitting poolside in the Tuscan countryside? We certainly did…and to prove it, I’m sure you recognize Ellen’s toes in this photo.

Enjoying Your Italy-Bought Wine

02/02/2017

This article isn’t about a specific winery or wine type, though one does play heavily into the article. It is about spending a day being just a bit naughty, not doing anything other than relaxing and enjoying a bottle of wine that you purchased during one of your trips to Italy.

In this article titled, “Enjoying Your Italy-Bought Wine”, before we get to the wine that we sipped before a fire on a cold, winter day, you get the back story in the purchase of the wine.

There is the story of lunch at a fabulous restaurant in Radda in Chianti.

Then there’s the post-lunch drive on a Google-assured road that wasn’t much of a road after all.

And finally, we arrive for a wine tasting that turned to wine buying.

Ahhh, it was such a great day of enjoyment…both the day in Italy, and then the day at home, lounging away the day in our jammies. Give it a try…you’ll like it.

In addition to some of our favorite memories, this day’s activities led me to taking probably my favorite of all Italy photos, shown just below. The Tuscan countryside, just after an afternoon shower. Magnifico!

By the way, that same day in Italy led to these articles, also: Get Lost!, and Wild-Goose Chase. I hope you enjoy these two articles, too…it was a fun, frustrating, and then an interesting day.

Taking a Guided Winery Tour

09/03/2019

OK, first of all, who wouldn’t want to take a guided winery tour with Matteo? Right, ladies?

Beyond that, I can assure both male and female alike that getting around to the wineries of an area of Italy with a local, knowledgeable guide, is the way to go.

Our wine-travelling day with Matteo was spent in the Langhe area of Piemonte, in the heart of the Barolo wine area. If you plan to do a bit of wine tasting in Italy, you will find guides like Matteo (well, maybe not exactly like Matteo) throughout the Italian wine area.

Our first stop of the day was at the Aurelio Settimo winery. Here, Laura showed us both the traditional oak casks, as well as our first sighting of a glass-lined, concrete casks. Usage depends on the wine you are making, and the flavor you want to impart in that wine.

Next up was the DaMilano winery. Well, we didn’t actually tour the winery, but we spent a good bit of time, and money, at the DaMilano enoteca, where Alicia helped us sip and purchase. And, we were very pleased to find that DaMilano also produces the white wine called Arneis, which we had fallen in love with in the town of Nieve.

Next up was the Schiavenza winery. Here, Matteo’s buddy Waldo produces great wine in small quantiles. And, what’s Leslie measuring in the photo? Waldo had just told us how the casks were cleaned after being emptied. He says that he climbs through that little arched opening and brushes and hoses out the casks…and he wasn’t kidding.

And finally, we ended our day at the Giovanni Rosso winery. Here we had another new experience in wine tasting. Not only did we taste wine from the Giovanni Rosso bottles in their tasting room, but Francesca also tapped right into one of the wine casks for our tasting enjoyment…enjoyment you can see here on the faces of Matteo and Craig.

I neglected to tell you that we had a mid-day lunch at Trattoria Schiavenza. Sitting on the terrazza, we spent a bit of time with watercolors, painting the beautiful Piemonte-Langhe countryside.

Going to Italy? Going to taste a bit of wine? Check out Taking a Guided Winery Tour.

Renato Ratti Winery

09/17/2019

If you want to visit a winery that is state of the art…both in design and in presentation, then you definitely need to visit the Renato Ratti Winery.

Your entrance to the green-roofed Renato Ratti winery

First of all, the winery has been placed carefully into a hillside below the town of La Mora, where an environmentally-friendly green roof and gravity-fed winery have been expertly accomplished.

Next, you will find one of the most creative of winery introductions in a video developed by Pietro Ratti that is both fun and informative.

Christine takes us deep in the cellars of Renato Ratti winery

Then, take the tour of the wine making facility below you, deep down in the hillside.

Next, let Christine lead you through a series of vintage Barolo wines, where you can stick your nose in a glass and taste great wines. This way, you get to see how the ‘nose’, tannins, taste, and color change over time as a wine ages in-bottle. By the way, it changes in a good way! At least for Barolo wines.

And, note the view from the tasting room…probably the most magnificent in all of Italy as it frames the vines of the Nebbiolo grapes.

Finally, snap a photo with your hostess Christine, and engaging owner, Pietro Ratti.

Allegrini Winery

01/07/2020

It’s time to learn about appassimento! And where better than at the Allegrini Winery? That’s a rhetorical question, by the way, as there is no better answer than at Allegrini.

The Villa della Allegrini sits just north of Verona, in the heart of the Valpolicella area…known for both Valpolicella and Amarone wines. And, then there’s their own Palazzo della Torre wine.

Palazzo della Torre is made using the appassimento process. Appassimento means ‘withering’, and that’s what happens to some of the grapes as they are raisinated, or dried for about 3 months.

Here you can see Olmo as he describes the crappy (sorry, pardon the language) soil in which Allegrini’s grapes are grown. Mineral, rather than organics desired by most farmers, are the key to a healthy wine-making grape.

Wondering what a grape looks like during the appassimento process? Check out this photo.

Amarone wine is also made with the appassimento process. And, unlike the marvelous Brunello of Tuscany, which uses just the one Sangiovese grape, the production of Allegrini’s famous Amarone wine uses a blend of four different grapes.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a view of what I would call, ‘The King of the North’…a bottle of Amarone, lying comfortably upon a pillow of withering grapes, ready for you to gently lift it up and then savor it.

Michele Chiarlo Winery

01/21/2020

Our last winery visit will be to the Michele Chiarlo winery. Here, not only did we visit the winery, but also the vineyards.

We started at the La Court vineyard pictured above in the eastern portion of Piemonte. Beautiful, isn’t it?

We met Alberto at the vineyards, where he explains the layout of the vineyard, and the importance of south- vs north-facing vines, and the compass points in between.

Then, it was on to the winery and tasting room. Leslie listens closely to find out more about their Arneis white wine. And seeing the bottling room was fascinating.

DOCG, DOC, IGT & DOG

11/17/2020

The most recent article concerning Italian wines dealt with government-issued geographic and quality guarantees.

The importance of these designations is one of quality control…Italy doesn’t want inferior wines being produced that would lower the already very-high bar of Italian wines. Thus, the governments involvement in the wines produced in Italy.

As this was recently published in November, I will assume that you read DOCG, DOC, IGT & DOG in the very serious state of mind in which government decrees should be carefully examined…so I won’t dwell on it here.

That’s it for today. Is that bottle empty, yet? No? Then get back to work on it! Meanwhile, I’ll cover the multitude of wine-producing grapes of Italy soon.

In closing, here is a toast of San Angelo Pinot Grigio from Banfi. This toast is to your continued health in 2021, and to your successful exit from 2020. Until next time…

Ciao for now,

Steve

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A Visit to Michele Chiarlo Vineyards and Winery

Index of Articles

This was the first winery stop on our most recent trip to Italy. We were drawn here because our most favorite and excellent dessert wine is Michele Chiarlo’s Nivole, Muscato d’Asti. Our kids have called it ‘liquid Heaven’.

This collage was created from Michele Chiarlo wine labels

“La Court is the perfect symbiosis between nature, the landscape and the efforts of man”

Our trip started with a visit to the Monferrato-area vineyards to see where the Barbera grapes are grown, and we then followed up with a wine tasting at Chiarlo’s winery.

So, where are we actually? We are in northern Italy in the region called Piemonte (Piedmont in English for some reason). Within the region of Piemonte is the Barolo area south of Alba, where Nebbiolo grapes are grown for Barolo. But right now, we are in the northeastern area known for the Barbera grape used in, non-other-than, Barbera wines. As we are close to the town of Asti, the Barbera wine produced here is known as Barbera d’Asti…and there are some other Barbera wine names associated here, too, as I’ll explain below.

The actors in this 3-act play are: my lovely wife, Ellen; sister- and brother-in-law Leslie and Craig Johnson, who are wonderful travel companions; and of course, me. And, there is a guest appearance by none other than Alberto, our host for the day.

Act One: The Vineyard of La Court

In this photo, you see the beautiful vineyards of La Court.

The copse of cypress dead-center in the photo were planted in the mid-1800s and are the symbol of the La Court vineyards. I use the term vineyards, instead of the singular vineyard, as there are eight different vineyard plots seen situated around the farmhouse at the upper-left of the photo. Each of the eight is planted in Barbera grape vines, but the grapes grown in the various vineyards are each handled and vinified differently to produce four different DCOG wines.

[I’ll cover what DCOG means in another article, but for today’s purpose, it means that the vineyards used in the four wines must face this direction or that, must have a certain slope, maximum production per acre, etc — all to protect the name and reputation of a particular Italian wine type, which in this case is Barbera d’Asti…think of a government-sponsored Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval…that does still exist, doesn’t it?]

For our visit, Alberto parked at the old farm house and we walked under the Le Orme archway toward that ancient copse of cypress.

You can see that the vineyard to the left of the path has recently been replanted with new vines

As we strolled, Alberto explained the layout of the vineyards and the wines produced from each of the areas that surrounded us.

Grapes in these vineyards are picked by hand, and not every cluster of grapes is worthy of being selected for harvest…like this cluster which was passed over during the previous week’s picking.

I’m kind of glad that these were of inferior quality, as we got to sample them right off the vine…and they were sweet and tasty.

At the time of our visit, workers were busy planting new vines in the northern-facing vineyard.

And that soil? Yes, it is typical of Italian vineyards in that it is high in mineral and low in organics. As their website suggests, it is called “astiane sands'’, and it consists of calcareous clay marl of sedimentary marine origin, with good presence of lime and sand, rich in microelements, in particular magnesium.”

This particular set of hillside vineyards is unique in Italy, as it is also known as the Art Park La Court. This art park is said to “celebrate the marriage of wine and art set within a landscape recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.” Besides the archway under which we started our walk, there are other works of art throughout the vineyards.

The most interesting of the art works are the helmeted “wine row pole heads” found at the end of many of the rows of vines. Here are a smattering of these artistic accouterments, each decorated with a different species of animalia. As always, if you click on a thumbnail image, you will get a larger view.

The surrounding countryside is as picturesque as you would want as you visit an Italian vineyard.

Here is the bark of a 170-year old Italian cypress

The old farmhouse is a picturesque fixer-upper that I found to be artistically endearing. Here is my digitally-painted rendering

Act Two: The Winery

Michele Chiarlo’s Barbera winery is situated in the town of Calamandrana.

This is the winery where the Barbera grapes are vinified into the various Barbera-related wines produced by Michele Chiarlo.

We are now about 4 miles from the La Court vineyards where we learned of the land where the Barbera grapes are grown.

We drove by this sign three times before seeing and saying, “Oh, there it is!”.

Alberto took us through the wine-making process where grapes are pressed for their juice and then undergo fermentation in these stainless-steel tanks.

After fermentation, the wines are aged in barrels…some large and some small.

The barrel just below holds a Nizza wine. It will age in this barrel for 18 months. But a Nizza Riserva will barrel-age for 30 months.

The wording on the white label of ‘Atto a Nizza’ translates as ‘Nice Act’ in English

Though the wine making is an ancient art, the bottling is strictly modern, as you can see below.

And the wine that is being bottled at this moment? Why, it’s the Barbera d’Asti made with grapes from the just-visited Le Orme vineyards that we visited just moments before…and that we will be sampling in just a moment.

Act Three: The Tasting

I have to admit that this is my favorite part of a winery visit…the tasting.

Here is the tasting room, with the full line-up of wines that Michele Chiarlo produces.

Leslie is attentive to Alberto as he explains the intricacies of the wines, but I’m busy tasting this nice, white Arneis…and look at those lovely legs left on the glass because of the viscosity of the wine. This is the day that we fell in love with Arneis, as mentioned in a previous article here.

Also, we were able to taste the La Court Nizza Riserva, which had its grapes grown a the La Court vineyards just visited.

Though Nizza is made from the Barbera grape which, in this case, comes from vines planted in 1976, the overall vinification methods of this Nizza wine started recently in 2014. So it is a relatively new type of Barbera wine.

At the 50 acres we visited earlier in the day, only 7 acres are dedicated to the growing of the grapes destined for Nizza.

They recommend drinking Nizza with agnolotti with a wild rabbit sauce, tagliolini with porcini, roasted veal, or well-matured cheeses. It’s been awhile since we whipped up a wild rabbit sauce (like, never), so I would drink this with just about any Italian pasta. I mean, why not…right?

The next tasting was Le Orme, Barbera d’Asti. This is the wine which we had just observed being bottled.

This wine is readily available in the US market and we’ve had it at numerous restaurants.

The wine has been aged for 16 months, or “16 mesi” in Italian.

The color is ruby red with hues of violet. It is described as “elegant and intense, with notes of fresh mature red fruit, such as cherry and currant.” To me, it tastes like a nice red wine.

In case you want to be told what to drink this with, they suggest “Pasta with tomato, pizza, Livorno style fish, and white meat”. I’ll have a glass with my pizza, please.

At some point above, I suggested that one of the reasons we visited Michele Chiarlo was our familiarity with their dessert wine, Nivole.

Nivole is a Moscato d’Asti wine…meaning it comes from the white muscato grape and is from the Asti area of Piemonte. Asti is the number one place for the production of moscato-based dessert wines. And, Michele Chiarlo’s Nivole is recognized as the very best of the moscatos.

This wine has a brilliant straw color. After pressing the grape, the must is stored in a tank at 28°F and is followed by slow fermentation in an autoclave at a controlled temperature until the alcohol content is right at 5%. During this process, a part of the carbon dioxide developed during fermentation remains “entrapped”, giving the wine its mild, natural effervescence. Before bottling, it then undergoes a process of micro-filtration to give the wine its clarity, purity and stop any further fermentation of the yeasts. Many Moscato d’Asti wines are almost as effervescent as a prosecco, but Nivole’s bubbles are pleasantly subtle.

I’m not much on ferreting out notes of floral, tobacco, certain minerals and such in red wines, but I’m definitely into the velvety, apricot-like taste of Nivole.

Here is something that encouraged us to bring back several bottles of Nivole. In the USA, a 375ml bottle (half of a typical bottle of wine) costs almost $20. At Michele Chiarlo’s wine shop, a full size, 750ml bottle costs just over $10. And, being a sweet white wine, it keeps a good while in your refrigerator with the top screwed on.

The white muscat grapes for Nivole are grown up near Asti, and the lay of the land is very much different than that at La Court. In the photo below, you can see the vineyards for Michele Chiarlo’s Nivole, Moscato d’Asti. Just gorgeous, isn’t it?!

Michele Chiarlo Winery

I know that you didn’t enjoy our visit to Michele Chiarlo as much as we did, and I’m very sorry about that. But amends can be made. Just go there for a visit yourself! I know you will enjoy it. And say ‘Hello’ to Alberto from the Johnsons and the Burketts.

Ciao for now,

Steve

p.s. Feel free to leave comments below!