If you’re me, when you get an invite to attend a guided tasting of Ornellaia’s 2012 “L’Incanto” release (and some past vintages) with Giovanni Geddes da Filicaja and winemaker Axel Heinz at 620 Loft and Garden in NYC in May, you accept.
Also, if you’re me, when they name a wine “L’Incanto” (“the Enchantment”), you expect them to put pixelated references to Minecraft on the label. I am sad to tell you that didn’t happen, my friends. I know, right? C’mon, even first graders know the Minecraft references now (not that those consumers should be Ornellaia’s market…).
I am not sad to report, however, on the wines that we tasted during that session, most of which were excellent (as you will read in a few moments). I am sad to think that several of you reading this will flame me for liking these wines, though I am quite sure that will happen. Having said that, I incite you to consider the following insight:
That Amici’s Associate Winemaker Bobby Donnell was speaking truth to me – and not just laying out the typical wine country cliché – was evidenced by the total lack of anything resembling Napa Valley “Why, yes I DID!” pomposity in Amici’s vinous Calistoga hamlet.
Maybe it’s due to owner John Harris’ down-to-earth influence, consulting winemaker Joel Aiken’s humility, or the winery’s somewhat-off-the-beaten-path location (or all three), but the Adult Wine Disneyland factor is pretty much approaching the zero line when it comes to graphing the espritof Amici’s Cabernet production. Their reds are certainly Napa-esque fruity and powerful, but they’re also often tinged with energy, depth, and nuance. They wear lace in all the right places. And based on the asking prices, they got the laces at a discount (by Napa standards, anyway).
Trailer, but not trash
But the above is also a nice way of saying that when you visit Amici, you’ll see… trailers. With barrels and space heaters in them. That’s where Aiken and Donnell house “a whopping ten tons” of production using whole berry fermentation, mostly for experimentation (though some portion now makes it into the Napa Valley Cabernet and Reserve Cabernet production). The reason? Outside trailers are the only room that they have left.
As Donnell put it, “the nickel tour involves bathroom, too!”
For my dinero, though, that’s all just fine. A lack of showcase winery adornment is more than made up in the experience that you’ll have in the bottle of typical Amici Cab, which offers the better aspects of NV red with a number on the price tag that’s about 33% lower than what we ought to expect from something that has Napa printed prominently on its label.
Yearning for lofty marble columns, classical music, and pomp and circumstance? You’ll have to look elsewhere. Fancy classic rock music playing while a smoker servers up BBQ fare out back beyond the trailers? Then Amici is your place, and these just might be your wines…
I am, as I’ve noted ad nauseam lately, insanely behind on my producer/feature write-ups. That streak continues unabated at the moment, but this time it’s in favor of actually bringing you some vino recommendation (you’re welcome!).
I recently had the great pleasure of being a panelist speaker at the enormous VINO215 Italian wine trade and tasting event in NYC. I’ll get to some highlights from the tastings in a few moments, but first I wanted to tell you with as much humility as I could muster that my panel TOTALLY KILLED IT. I mean, look… we had… THIS:
That’s just Awesome with a capital A, (in the words of Martin Short’s Ed Grimley) “I must say!”
Which is, of course, my humorous attempt to tell you that I thought that my fellow panelists and moderator totally killed it in talking about the intersection of wine and music, and that I was basically just trying to keep up with them.
Of course, VINO2015 was chock-full of enough tasting opportunities to pickle all of your livers several times over, and so here are my takes on a few that turned my wine-geek-critic-type-guy head (with apologies in advance to the VINO2015 organizers, who focused on Southern Italy, while I apparently focused on Northern Italy, as you’ll soon see). Also, for those of you complainy-pants who constantly moan that I never talk about inexpensive wines, this your chance to bite it! (I mean that respectfully… I think…)…
I’ve been lax in my wine review coverage throughout the start of 2015 here on 1WD. This is not due to a lack of material (I have late 2014 visits to Red Car and Amici in the coverage pipeline, as well as a tasting of a couple of magnums around the Winter holidays, so the material is stacking up), but I’ve got so much going on on the positive end (professionally) and the negative end (personally) that I haven’t been able to get it together to do those items justice.
Not that I’m starting now, alas.
BUT…
I tasted something recently (courtesy of a business lunch with local Philly wine guy Bob Trimble) that I found intriguing enough to at least temporarily release me from the dreaded lack-of-formal-featured-reviews rut.
As it turns out, the little number that Bob and I drank over lunch has a negative story of its own, and one that, in retrospect, might be undeserved…
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I am not sad to report, however, on the wines that we tasted during that session, most of which were excellent (as you will read in a few moments). I am sad to think that several of you reading this will flame me for liking these wines, though I am quite sure that will happen. Having said that, I incite you to consider the following insight:
The Best Wine Maps in the wine biz!