So, like, what is this stuff, anyway?
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 with you via twitter (limited to 140 characters). They are meant to be quirky, fun, and easily-digestible reviews of currently available wines. Below is a wrap-up of those twitter wine reviews from the past week (click here for the skinny on how to read them), along with links to help you find these wines, so that you can try them for yourself. Cheers!

• 14 Colome Estate Malbec (Salta): Witness another mineral-laden exhibit of how well this rowdy grape adjusts to high altitude living. $25 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 16 Colome Torrontes (Salta): It's on the viscous side, but the jasmine-&-peaches combo hits the spot poolside on a hot Summer's day. $16 B >>find this wine<<
• 15 Mt. Beautiful Sauvignon Blanc (North Canterbury): Once again, we find these guys delivering bouquets that live up to their name. $16 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 14 Franz Keller Schwarzer Adler Pinot Blanc (Baden): Need a pick-me-up? Grab this gorgeous lil' thang, & everything will be peachy. $27 B+ >>find this wine<<
• NV Louis Pommery California Brut (California): Crisp green apples, shiny wet stones, a slice of fresh lemon, & a promising beginning. $27 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 15 Siduri Yamhill-Carlton Pinot Noir (Yamhill-Carlton): A bargain demonstration of loveliness juxtaposing focused, stern seriousness. $36 A- >>find this wine<<
• 13 Artesa Estate Reserve Carneros Pinot Noir (Napa Valley): Lofty, wild red berries, grounded in the solid, dark, and dense earth. $40 A- >>find this wine<<
• 16 Martin Ray Rose of Pinot Noir (Russian River Valley): Delightful is the name of the game being played here; and well-played it is. $25 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 14 Jack Winery Diamond Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley): Here witness the Valley in all of its juicy, irresistible glory. $100 A- >>find this wine<<
• 14 Jack Winery Sauvignon Blanc (Napa Valley): A serious effort that gets weighted down by its attempts to get a bit too serious. $50 B+ >>find this wine<<

Like most musicians (ask me how I know), Luca Formentini has a day job.

That job would be helping to helm his family’s wine business in Brescia: Selva Capuzza.

As far as day jobs go, the one with an office that’s actually a picturesque vineyard spot about four kilometers from the shores of Lake Garda, in the heart of Lombardy’s Lugana winemaking territory doesn’t seem so bad. To wit: he soft-spoken (by Italian standards) Formentini usually has a wide smile plastered on his face. After tasting his family’s Lugana offerings, you might have one, too.

2017 marks the 100th harvest for the Formentini family, who now focus on the Lake Garda region’s indigenous varieties, and with whom I tasted during a media trip to the region earlier this year. In the 1980s, they changed the name of the business to reflect the locality, and their main focus is the annual production of about 250,000 bottles of the decidedly tricky white Lugana.

Selva Capuzza’s Luca Formentini

Lugana’s has few better vectors for displaying its mischievous side than in the Formentini family’s wines. Tropical, vibrant, and mineral-driven in its youth, there’s little (other than the acidic scaffolding) in the young Selva Capuzza Lugana releases to betray the honeyed, toasty, and dazzling treat that awaits the more patient among us when a Lugana from a great vintage is allowed to rest on its haunches for several years…

Read the rest of this stuff »

So, like, what is this stuff, anyway?
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 with you via twitter (limited to 140 characters). They are meant to be quirky, fun, and easily-digestible reviews of currently available wines. Below is a wrap-up of those twitter wine reviews from the past week (click here for the skinny on how to read them), along with links to help you find these wines, so that you can try them for yourself. Cheers!

• 16 Marco Porello Camestri (Roero Arneis): Delicious, mineral, and damned if it won't be demanding some of your attention RIGHT NOW. $15 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 13 I Sodi Chianti Classico Riserva (Tuscany): Pretty much all the classic Chianti elements, just packaged in modern-looking wrapping. $NA B+ >>find this wine<<
• 15 Cantele Primitivo (Salento): It's simply impossible not to like something this juicy, this herbal, & this willing to over-achieve. $14 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 15 Calitro Primitivo di Manduria Ausilio (Salento): If authenticity is your benchmark, then there's an open seat for U on this bench. $NA B+ >>find this wine<<
• 13 Frank Family Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley): Blackberry truffles, with the gritty cocoa dust sprinkled all over them $53 A- >>find this wine<<
• 15 Siduri Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir (Santa Lucia Highlands): Nothing shy about the friendly personage that this is fronting. $35 B+ >>find this wine<<
• NV Ferrari Brut Rose (Trento): Strawberries with almond shields, and steely, bright, elegant electric armor, all ready for battle. $33 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 14 Kim Crawford Small Parcels Wild Grace Chardonnay (Hawke's Bay): Fresh fruit that's bigger than its heavy, rich adornments. $30 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 15 Luca Ferraris Opera Prima (Ruche di Castagnole Monferrato): Fresh, focused, extracted, & potently powerful. Dark cherries FTW! $35 A- >>find this wine<<
• 13 Cutruzzola Vineyards Gloria Pinot Noir (San Luis Obispo County): She is powerful, spicy, and dark; think meat, people, think meat! $42 A- >>find this wine<<

The latest episode in the Barbera: In The Glass series is now live at MyNameIsBarbera.com, and in it I continue my conversation with Vinchio and Vaglio‘s Tessa Donadieu. This time, we focus on the next “level” of the Barbera quality pyramid in Monferrato (which, as I have written before, I don’t think is a “pyramid” per se, but whatever): Barbera d’Asti.

This will, of course, be the level of Barbera with which the majority of those reading these words and viewing this vid will be most familiar. And with good reason; it’s basically the Michael Jackson of Italian red wine (hell, maybe of fine red wine, period).

For the record, I don’t actually moonwalk in this vid. But rest assured that I’m diligently working on it…

Cheers!