What do you do at harvest time if you are part of a family wine business, but are highly allergic to pollen?

If you’re Alessio Inama, son of Azienda Agricola Inama‘s Stefano Inama, you hoof it to the major wine markets, and take media types like me out to dinner so that we can taste your wines. Which is how I got to meet Alessio at Philly’s excellent Fishtown-area haunt Root last week.

Alessio describes his father as “a crazy man,” and certainly he has a rep in the wine world for possessing the quintessentially Italian trait of bucking convention (which is second only to the quintessentially Italian trait of adhering almost blindly to tradition). This is fortunate for anyone who loves eclectic northern Italian white wines, as Inama is now well-known as producing the thinking person’s Soave. Alessio quoted his father as saying “the first step to making a great wine… is to fire the accountant.” It’s hard not to like such a character (unless you’re his accountant). Especially when he also makes Carmenere (more on that in a minute).

Back in the 70s, Soave had its heyday, being one of the most recognizable Italian wine regions, if not its most famous white wine regional brand. As in all such things, insipidness and market hangover ensued, and by the 1990s Soave wasn’t much considered as the world turned to Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay (though Soave remained popular in its home country). It was during the heyday in the`70s that Alessio’s grandfather, Giuseppe, began buying up small, lava basalt hillside lots in the Soave Classico region (today they own about 30 hectares).

Today, Soave is a bit of a bell curve. At one end, you have insipid, forgettable quaffers; in the middle, a large production of capable, often very good, almost always refreshing sippers best enjoyed in the warmest months; on the tail end, a small number of producers who push the region’s Garganega grape to its physiological – and philosophical -limits…

Read the rest of this stuff »

image: fix.com

In what will come as a surprise to no one, Fix.com has published the companion piece to my Italian White Wine Grapes article, The Grapes Behind Italian Red Wines.

That one definitely fits right into the saw-it-coming-from-a-mile-away-bro category.

Having said that, I think that the geeky among you will be pleasantly surprised by my grape picks from central Italy on down. And can we get a major shout-out to the Fix.com graphics team here? I mean, they did a killer job of representing the different grapes and their flavors (check out what the did for minerality… just… awesome).

The full infographic is embedded below for your enjoyment, but you’ll need to head on over to Fix.com for the full text.

Cheers!…

Read the rest of this stuff »

As I’m recovering from mouth surgery, I am currently into my second consecutive week without a sip of vino. This scenario has created something angry and sinister very deep inside my psyche; the type of thing that is best left in its evil slumber and not forced upon the fragile, gossamer-like veil that separates what we know of as civilized society from its dark, savage underbelly.

So, yeah, I have some hate happening.

As a result, I am waaaaaay behind on writing up my recent wine travels, finishing up my paying gigs, tasting through samples, and what-have-you.

Despite the angry railing against the heavens, I did manage to pen a little love letter to some of my favorite Italian white wine grapes for Fix.com, titled The Grapes Behind Italian White Wines. Long-time 1WD readers will not be surprised to find Fiano and Carricante on that list. The full-on infographic format of the article is embedded below after the jump, but the curious among you will want to head over to Fix.com for the Full Monty on the article, which contains some geek-tastic bits of history and trivia about the grapes, and about Italian wine in general.

Enjoy!…

Read the rest of this stuff »