Hi

If you are in the wine trade (ie restaurant, retail or wholesale wine business) there is a tasting of Brunello at the Grand Marquis hotel in NYC. Its from 1pm to 5pm. I am going there and will report back on the wines I taste. The wines will be mostly the 1998 Brunello and 2001 Rosso as well as assorted Super Tuscans. There will be approximately 48 producers.

1998 is a very difficult year. Some producers, Uccelleira and Ciacci Piccolomini made extremely good wines indeed (not up to 2001, 99, 97 standards but very early maturing). Others were not so lucky. In a vintage like this it will be exciting to see who did well and who did not. The 2001 Rosso are sure to be stupendious. In a vintage like that, the rosso are closer to Brunello in quality than the price difference would suggest. I will be buying a lot of 2001 rosso. A few of the wineries are bringing a bottle or two of the 1997 riservas. The 1998's and 1997 riservas are allowed to be released January 2003. Rosso are not regulated as to how long they must be held so most wineries will release their 2001's as soon as they sell thru their 2000's.

2000 for Rosso can be spectacular to dreadful because it was so hot and the vintage much compressed. If a winery could not get its grapes harvested and processed quickly, it would up with an insipidly overripe wine (with a lot of sugar) without a lot of ripe grape character (ie flavor). If a winery was able to get the grapes in properly, the resulting wine will be lush and rich.

I will post my notes as soon as I get them transcribed. I will also add notes on 1997's that I tasted in Italy.

If life is an opera by Puccini... I want to be Calaf!

Have a good time in NYC Dean!!

Pauline from Slow Travelers

I trained up to NYC early Monday AM. After some shopping at Century 21 (Broadway and Courtland, a bargain hunters dream of a clothing department store- Hugo Boss suits for $399 that were over $1000 at the majors, but I digress... ). Off to the tasting. It was put on by the consorzio del Vino di Brunello di Montalcino. Something like 48 producers were there each showing off their current or next vintage Rosso di Montalcino and their 1998 Brunello. Some had 1997 Riserva's and some had their Super Tuscans. I tasted for 3 full hours, trying almost 80 wines! I spit every sip but 3. I hit all but three tables.

After the tasting, I headed off to meet up with David at 'ino. We had some crostini (winter squash and asiago, roasted tomato and homemade ricotta, fennel) and panini (tomatoe mozzarella and prosciutto, and one other that I forget) along with a lovely carafe of an excellent dolcetto/barbera blend. Even thought it was our first time of meeting, David was already a friend from our conversations here and some e-mails we have been sending back and forth. David shares my insanity.... ooooops I mean passion for opera. He is an opera singer himself and it was great sitting and chatting with someone so knowlegable and who doesn't think I'm weird because of my newfound love of opera.

Then I went to Esca, Mario Batali's fish restaurant. I sat at the bar and chatted with Howard, their wine buyer who I met up with at the tasting. He gave me a few tastes of some special wines that he had open. One, a white from Bolgheri, Grattamarco was truly spectacular. Its imported by RObert Chadderton. Probably a little hard to get. I had fresh Maine sea urchin with a bot of lemon and Olio di Monte Vertine, perhaps my favorite olive oil. Then halibut cheeks with sage and rosemary. Last was home made tagliorini (thin cut pasta) with fresh Alaska King Crab and a drizzle of olive oil. When you get to NYC, Esca is a must if you love seafood. A caffe mokka and then off to catch the train back to DC.

I have written up my tasting notes. As soon as I proof them, I will post them. I ahve also just about finished my "Impressions of Brunello" article and a trip report from our recent trip.

If life is an opera by Puccini... I want to be Calaf!

Dean - you got to meet David before I did!! But Steve and I have him for a whole five days at Christmas. (I assume he has cleared his schedule to spend every minute with us.)

Pauline from Slow Travelers

Pauline:

I hauled out that old red carpet from the depths of my closet and I expect it'll be ready when you arrive.......

David, usually in NYC