Vinitaly Day 3: Praise Luca!
We actually slept in last night, catching the 10:00am train into Verona for a series of distributor meetings. We usually set up meetings with the American importers of Italian wines when we’re at the show because we wouldn’t be able to taste enough wines otherwise as there’s always a bit of ceremony when it comes to meeting with the individual producers (talk a bit, rinse the glass, pour the wine, talk about the wine, taste the wine etc., repeat…). So after a quick tasting of about 50 wines, including 05′s from Giacosa (good, not great) and a host of others, it was off to meet with some individual producers but with the importer rep in tow to speed things along.
We had some great visits. Maculan, a Bordeaux varietal specialist located in the eastern Veneto, was great. Fabulous wines, both on the red and dessert front, including new vintages of their legendary Fratta red (a powerhouse Bordeaux blend) and Acinonobili (the d’Yquem of Italy?). Great interview as well. A big time sleeper was their entry level red, Breganze, packed with fruit, color, extract, but superbly balanced, all for well south of $20. What a wine! After Maculan we headed off to Poggio Scalette, producers of one of our favortie Tuscan reds, Il Carbonaione. Their 2005 and 2006 were both great (shocker), the old vine Sangiovese (some of the oldest in Tuscany) really delivering a mouthful of layered, deep cherry fruit. Great stop.
Then, a Mortadella moment. Many people will tell you they go to VinItaly for the wine, meeting the producers, blah blah. Nope, the real reason people head to VinItaly are the Mortadella sandwiches. The previosu two days we were too late for lunch to get them as they tend to sell out by 12:15. This time, we were ahead of the pack and got the hook-up. Fresh Mortadella straight off one of those six foot long jobbers is beyond words. some of the finest, fattiest, salt-cured dream meats in the history of mankind. No mayo, mustard, olive oil, nuttin’, just some fine crusty bread and cholesterol raising “super baloney”. Lord, what a lunch.
We spent the afternoon seeing more suppliers, wineries etc until about 5:00. By this time we were feeling a little peckish. Good thing we set up a dinner and tasting with our “bud” Luca Currado, the owner/mind behind of Vietti. In case you didn’t know, we love Vietti wines and we love Luca and his wife Elena, they are driven, passionate, successful and genuine. Real people with real problems, reluctant rock stars. Good news in the Currado camp, Luca was feeling good about his son taking first place in the Italina downhill skiing competition…for nine and ten year olds! Hmm…seeing my 9 year old daughter flying down the slopes at 50 miles per hour would probably freak me out, can’t believe how Luca and Elena watch that. But, man, the thrill!
Anyway, quick tasting of the new stuff. All awesome, Dolcetto to Barbera to Barolo, you’ll be seeing the new releases in the store soon enough. These wines have some serious soul, you can almost taste the history dripping from them. And Luca gave us a compelling history of Piedmont on camera, with a particularly engaging story of how his father Alfredo got the whole Arneis thing going in Piedmont. Good geek stuff! After the tasting we headed off to dinner in downtown Verona, where we enjoyed some sweeeet ass…literally. It appears as if this new, bustling trattoria specializes in regional Veronese dishes and a pasta with a donkey ragu was one of the hits. Yup, donkey, asino in Italiano. Quite delicious, a bit like deer, venison or somesuch, lean but flavorful. Next it was a raw horse tasting. Hooray! Nothing like feasting on Mr. Ed, sans cooking. But you know what? Really good! Four different preps, a pounded crudo, a ground crudo with capers and such (my favorite), a flank style cut, and a lightly seared fillet. If I wasn’t so stuffed already I might have done the plate a little more proud but man, has horse come a long way since our last foray about a decade ago. After a quick finishing blast of Quintarelli 1998 Amarone (supernal) it was off into the night, back to Desenzano and another five hours sleep. Mille Grazie, Luca for a very special evening. Big day tomorrow…
Tags: European Grand Tour 2009, VinItaly
