[ Editor’s note: here’s one more from the vault of pieces sent to a magazine that didbn’t publish it or pay me; I’m running it here so that it’s not lost to posterity. Enjoy! ]
Not-So-Hidden Tuscany
One of Tuscany’s most dynamic – and endangered – wine regions is hiding in plain sight
Donatella Cinelli Colombini could be your Italian grandmother. Affable, generous, and quick-witted, Colombini is the matriarch of Fattoria del Colle, her family estate in the almost unbelievably charming area of Tuscany’s Trequanda, replete with accommodations on an estate that dates back to the late 1500s, cooking classes, three pool, a spa, and an upscale-farmhouse restaurant. She also also oversees production of the Tuscan wine label that bears her name.
But Colombini has another job: in some ways, she’s trying to save the future of what the Consorzio del vino Orcia calls “the most beautiful wine in the world.”
Donatella Cinelli Colombini
“The landscape here is a perfect harmony between history, man, and nature,” she remarks. “We have to preserve that. Every month, every wine producer here receives a call from a realtor asking them to sell.”
While you will almost certainly have heard of the winemaking gems of Montalcino and Montepulciano, you probably aren’t familiar with Orcia, the winemaking area that sits between them near Tuscany’s southern tip. The problem isn’t that Orcia’s twelve municipalities, formally recognized as a wine region in 2000, don’t make excellent wine; in many cases, Orcia’s reds rival those of its more famous neighbors, planted on vineyards that have been literally designed from the ground up for producing small quantities of high quality fine wine grapes, primarily Tuscany’s “native son” of Sangiovese. The problem is that Orcia is almost too amazing of a place in and of itself.
Thermal baths in Orcia
Orcia boats the kind of beauty that makes you think that you’ve stepped directly into a scene from Under the Tuscan Sun. Think sun-drenched hillsides lined with cypresses, dotted with tiny ancient towns like Pienza (housing a terracotta museum), terme thermal spas like those in S. Casciano dei Bagni and S. Quirico d’Orcia (yes, some of the spa treatments involve wine), and no shortage of gorgeous castle tower ruins along the routes between them all, replete with deep history and past political intrigue (the region once played host to the duke of Tuscany, who ordered the draining of the the valley in the 1700s to spur agricultural growth, but also used his time there to liase with his mistress). Orcia has seen travelers since the time of the Etruscans, and its castle and fortress ruins are a testament to the popularity of the routes within the area, where bandit attacks once were frequent. It has hosted religious pilgrims, popes, poets, archbishops, mercenaries, dukes, the Medici clan, and even Charlemagne. The landscape has remained relatively unchanged for the last four hundred years…
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I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes in a “mini-review” format.
They are meant to be quirky, fun, and (mostly) easily-digestible reviews of (mostly) currently available wines (click here for the skinny on how to read them), and are presented links to help you find them, so that you can try them out for yourself. Cheers!
- 2012 Ella Valley Vineyards Cabernet Franc (Judean Hills): An elegant, herbal, and spicy tug-of-war between gritty earth and silky plums. $28 A-
- 2015 Ella Valley Syrah – Petite Sirah (Judean Hills): Mineral, meaty, and mostly relying on its powerful force of ripe fruit complexity. $NA B+
- 2012 Ella Valley 32/35 Vineyard’s Choice Red (Judean Hills): With your eyes closed, you’ll think that you just walked out of a CA grocery with a bag full of blackcurrants, violets, & freshly-sharpened pencils. $NA A-
- 2017 Bat Shlomo Rose (Galilee): Grenache in zesty, peppery, pithy glory; you’d better be into strawberries, though. $28 B+
- 2016 Bat Shlomo Chardonnay (Judean Hills): Moving from floral reticence to peachy, toasty flashiness in almost record time. $42 B+
- 2015 Bat Shlomo Betty’s Cuvee (Judean Hills): Leathery elegance that could probably pass for Bordeaux; or, at least, will give you ample reason to look forward to the future of Bord’x reds in Israel. $69 A-
- 2014 Psagot “Peak” (Judean Hills): Rhone visits the Middle East, shows off its modern, lush, sexy side in the process. $48 B+
- 2014 Yaffo Winery Heritage (Ella Valley): Power, concentration, and enough red and black currants to fill your cornucopia basket. $NA B+
- 2015 Covenant Wines Syrah (Israel): Making a masculine, meaty, and mineral covenant with your Rhone-loving tongue. $75 A-
- 2016 Gva’ot Winery Merlot (Shomron): Merlot takes to higher altitude with chocolaty, vivacious and, well, plummy aplomb. $33 B+
[ Editor’s note: Following is a piece that a wrote for a magazine, but after waiting over a year for them to publish it and pay me, I’m giving up and putting it here so that it can see the light of day and you can get some insight into a region that doesn’t see a lot of media play. Enjoy! ]
Northern Spain’s “Small California”
Why your next favorite Cab, Merlot, or Gewürztraminer might just be coming from Somontano
Take a second or two, and think about your favorite Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, your go-to Chardonnay, even your last Gewürztraminer.
What region was emblazoned on the labels of those tasty wine? Paso Robles? Washington? Chile?
Chances are very good that the word “Somontano” was not the area printed on the label. And yet, chances are also very good that this relatively small northern Spanish Denominación de Origen has been growing those same fine wine grapes longer than the more famous regions that produce your favorite versions of those same wines.
Somontano’s ancient Alquézar
Like most of the wine regions in Western Europe, viticulture in Somontano was probably established by the Romans, and also probable predates reliable written history, extending back to the second century BC. That it took the region until 1984 to become an officially recognized Denominación de Origen (DO) is, in a way, indicative of the minor identity crisis that defines the modern Somontano. At a time when “uniqueness” is the marketing battle cry of most luxury fine wine regions, Somontano is the odd man out.
Of the grapes officially permitted in the DO, only three (the white Alcañón, and reds Moristel and Parraleta) are indigenous. A few others (such as Garnacha and Tempranillo) are Spanish in origin but not native to Somontano. The rest are a hodgepodge of some of the wine world’s most famous – and decidedly not Spanish – grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Pinot noir, Chardonnay, and Gewürztraminer.
What makes Somontano such an awkwardly difficult topic in marketing meetings is the same thing that makes many of its wines so good: the place has a great climate growing famous international grape varieties. As winemaker Jesús Artajona Serrano, from Enate (one of the founders of the Somontano DO) puts it, “we are in a small California…”
Read the rest of this stuff »
I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes in a “mini-review” format.
They are meant to be quirky, fun, and (mostly) easily-digestible reviews of (mostly) currently available wines (click here for the skinny on how to read them), and are presented links to help you find them, so that you can try them out for yourself. Cheers!
- 2015 Brotte Domaine Barville Chateauneuf-du-Pape (Rhone): Exactly what you signed up for – black cherries and earthy funk – only without having to pay over fifty bucks. $37 A-
- 2015 Les Dauphins Cotes du Rhone Villages (Cotes du Rhone Villages): Bright, pretty, peppery and capable; just don’t expect much more than delight and you’ll be fine. $14 B
- 2014 Marco Felluga Molamatta Collio Bianco (Friuli-Venezia Giulia): Fresh, nutty, tangy, and food-friendly; I think I might be in love. Seriously. $24 B+
- 1991 Caves Sao Joao Quinta do Poco do Lobo Arinto (Beira): Everything about this is completely crazy, in all of the better senses of the word. $55 A-
- 2015 Trinity Hill Black Label Syrah (Gimblett Gravels): You’ll bitch about this being on the lighter side, then you’ll pour yourself several more glasses of it. $30 A-
- 2016 Tongue Dancer Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast): Juuuuuuust the right mix of sultry and energetic to get most of your own juices flowing. $49 A-
- 2015 Stewart Cellars ‘Tartan’ Red Blend (Napa Valley): “This wine is so self indulgent.” [ Proceeds to finish the entire bottle on his own ]. $50 A-
- 2016 Heitz Cellar Chardonnay (Napa Valley): How in the f*ck are they not selling this for over $50? Shhhh! Don’t tell them!!! $26 A-
- 2014 Chateau Montelena “The Montelena Estate” Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley): Pretty much everything that’s right about Napa, including its mystique, in bottled form. $160 A
- 2015 Cowhorn Vineyard “Moonraker” (Applegate Valley): Gritty, grippy, brambly, linear, floral Grenache/Syrah/Tempranillo blend that’s the wine fun equivalent of eating really good spicy food. $55 B+
