Lambrusco is a mosaic of identities, with different souls. Traditional, yet paradoxically little known. Join me on a tasting journey as we discover true Lambrusco.

If you haven’t tried artisan craft Lambrusco you should and here’s why:

The resurgence of artisan and craft production provides a wide range of styles to explore that are cuisine friendly.

Lambrusco is a family of grapes mostly grown in Emilia-Romagna where iconic Italian cuisines originate – Salumi, Parmesan Cheese, Parma Ham, Balsamic Vinegar, Mortadella, Bolognese, Tortellini, Lasagna and Gnocco Fritto.

What grows together goes together.

Types of Lambrusco:

Lambrusco di Sobara (Modena) – most famous, abundant, most fragrant (wild violets), lightest in colour
Lambrusco Salamino – appearance salame, abundant, ‘best’ combination of grace & fragrance, power & body
Lambrusco Grasparossa (Castelvetro,Reggio-Emilia) – considered one of highest quality, ripener, deep colour
Lambrusco Maestri (Parma) – hardy, fruity creamy, appealing, deepest black/purple colour, complex

Recommendations

Medici Ermete ‘Phermento’ Lambrusco Metodo Ancestrale
Fermentation: refermented in-bottle
Varietal: Lambrusco di Sobara
Tasting note: opaque-y, pinky, layered with bright red fruits mixed with tree fruit puree, earthy, complex and totally engaging
Price: est $43 CDN

Villa di Corlo 2016 (DRY) Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro D.O.C.
Fermentation: in-tank ‘Martinotti’ method
Varietal: Grasparossa di Castelvetro
Tasting note: deep, dark, DRY, blackberry jam, iris florals, slightly tannic, a Modena classic
Price: est $27 CDN

Rinaldini ‘Vecchio Moro’ Lambrusco dell’Emilia I.G.T.
Fermentation: metodo classico
Varietal: 85% Lambrusco Grasparossa, 10% Ancellotta, 5% Marzemino
Tasting note: “the champagne of Lambrusco”, dry, deep purple fruits, cacao, red berries, firm frothy with a tight pearl
Price: est $40 CDN

As we celebrate #WorldLambruscoDay think about Lambrusco when you’re planning your summer picnics and celebrations!

Salute!

Until next time, you’ll find me where wine is always on duty and needs to make a good impression.

Tyler

#RealLambrusco #LambruscoSecco #WorldLambruscoDay2020 #SilenceoftheLambruscos #MetodoAncestrale #wine

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Like music, wine selections are influenced by mood and occasion, culture and personality.  And just like a good music playlist, my handful of recommendations are intended to expand your wine experience and share it with others.

Today’s wine groove: light, bright, sparkling, natural, wild, white, rose & red.

The wines mentioned below are available in British Columbia mainly through private retail stores, select restaurants and direct from the winery for BC wines.

Sparkling wine is a go-to wine for celebrations big and small and is incredibly versatile when considering cuisine pairings.  Here are two sparkling wines worthy of inclusion in your summer sparkling repertoire:

Nichol Vineyards Extra Brut Rosé

In honour of Canada’s 152nd birthday on July 1st, “Canada Day”, this is a stand-out sparkling wine from Naramata Bench, Okanagan Valley, BC, made from Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes. Delightful acidity, red berries, rhubarb and biscuits.  Est. $31

Medici Ermete Phermento Frizzante Secco Rosé

This sparkling Italian wine is made from 100% Lambrusco di Sorbara grapes in Metodo Ancestrale style, fermented in bottle with no disgorgement.  Its cloudy pink hue, rich frothiness and crisp acidity reflect the diversity of Lambrusco wine styles. Layered with bright red fruits mixed with tree fruit purée, this earthy and complex wine is wonderfully engaging. Est $37

White:  Kitsch Block Party 2018

A party in a glass. This white wine from Kelowna, BC, is a blend of Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir grapes.  Dry, delicately aromatic, orchard fruits and citrus.    Est. $25

Rose:  Domaine Vacheron VdF Le Rosé XVII 2017

This vin de France is a rosé made from 100% Pinot Noir grapes, is Demeter Certified Biodynamic, whole cluster, direct pressed, wild fermented, and four months in tank.  Complex, structured with pinot crunch, crisp and dry.  Food friendly with its delicate tannic structure. Charcuterie anyone? Est $60

Red:  Viña Ilusión ‘Prana’

A tempranillo from Rioja, Spain. Organic, carbonic macerated, wild fermented crushable tempranillo juice, this Joven style wine has fresh, juicy and broad tender fruit.  Think summer strawberries and cherries.  Est $29

Red:  Rust Wine Co. Gamay 2018

Winemakers in BC are having a go at Gamay and Rust Wine Co, from the Similkameen Valley, BC, has a stand-out. Wild fermentation, partial whole cluster, 1/3 carbonic maceration and aged in stainless steel produces a ripe yet fresh style.  Spicy aromas and flavours of peppercorns, strawberry jam, Bing cherry, chipotle and classic Similkameen earthiness, and bright acidity. It’s a versatile food wine – think Pacific salmon with grill marks, charcuterie or just slightly chilled on a deck with a view.  Est. $25

Red:  G.D. Vajra 2018 Claré J.C. Langhe DOC Nebbiolo 

Wow! This wine is ancient and futuristic at the same time.

Claré J.C. is a Nebbiolo made according to a 1606 note from the House of Savoia jeweller Gian Battista Croce. This wine is a time-capsule into an era when Nebbiolo wines tasted fresher, lifted and slightly crisp. If you’re young-at-heart, brave and curious about Piemonte’s forgotten past, this is a wine for you.  100% Nebbiolo, 1/5 whole cluster, partial carbonic, finished in stainless.  A sensory thrill ride, slightly hazy, pale ruby red, crushed cranberries, Twizzlers, white pepper, red florals.  Est $40

Stay tuned for news about my upcoming seminars:  Love Gamay and Silence of the Lambruscos.

Here’s hoping these recommendations inspire you to expand your summer wine groove. If you’re up for sharing what’s on your summer wine play list, we’d love to hear it. Drop us a comment below.

Until next time,

Tyler

 

#summerwinerecommendations #wine #sparklingwine #canadaday #bcwine #similkameenvalleywine #staffpick #amazingrosé #roséallday #rosé #organicwine #biologique #rioja #lambrusco #piedmonte #nebbiolo #naturalwine  #GoGamayGo #tempranillo #bcgamay  #demeter #nicholvineyards #mediciermete #stilebrands #kitschwines #selectwinemerchants #viñailusión #sedimentarywines #rustwine #bacchusgroup #giuseppe_gdvajra #altus_wines

Having a growth mindset can be especially rewarding in the wine universe, and some would say this is particularly true as we strive to know more about the complexities, civility and celebration of Italian wine and culture.

I’ve been fortunate to visit Italy on a half dozen or so missions, to VinItaly as well as various specific regions.  Being in wine country, meeting with winemakers “in situ” is the best classroom – but not the only one – to peel back the many layers of Italian wine and culture.

I’ve had my eye on Italian Wine Central for a few years – I’ve always been impressed by their content and generosity as an open source for knowledge.  In January (2019), I enrolled in their Italian Wine Professional (IWP) course to expand and refresh my understanding of Italian wine. During the course, I came to realize that Vino Santo is a rabbit hole not fully illuminated in our information age. So, I gathered what I could from my own experiences as well as multiple other sources on Vino Santo. The result is the focus of this blog post, an abstract from my IWP presentation paper.  (To hear more from me about the IWP course, please read the end note.)

Vino Santo:  a famous and fascinating Italian dried grape wine

Vino Santo or Vin Santo, also known as “Holy Wine” or “Saints’ Wine”, has a long and storied history.  Its significance is that Vino Santo carries a unique and diverse identity in the Italian wine context depending on where you are in Italy.

• Vino Santo reflects the historical and cultural heritage that is essentially Italy.
• It’s directly tied to ancient religious practices and ceremonies of the Catholic church.
• It predates modern Italian wine law.
• Vino Santo defied capture by definition in any one particular wine law in any one specific region until 1997.
• 29 separate DOC exist in almost half the provinces of central and northern Italy. *
• One origin story of the name Vin Santo comes from the Greek island of Santorini, which the EU recognised as home of dried grape wine in 2002.
• Passito – or appassimento – is the name of the air-drying process and is borrowed from the Greeks, and is derived from Passum, the raisin wine made in ancient Carthage (Tunisia)

* A list of the provincial DOC and their disciplinare will appear in a future post.

Prior to 1997, Vino Santo was only permitted as Vino da Tavola in Italy, which is significantly different than its current multitude of DOC designations.

Provinces that produce Vino Santo include Tuscany, Umbria, Marche, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto and Trentino.  No other DOC wine comes close to matching the pan-provincial scope of this Holy wine. Tuscany is the most prolific province with 22 Vino Santo DOC not including the sub-zones or Riserva designations. For a place with zero wine law for Vino Santo prior to 1997, Tuscany has sure made up for lost time.

Style, Colour, Sweetness and Quality

Vino Santo can vary widely depending on grape varieties and production methods. While white grapes, such as Trebbiano and Malvasia in Tuscany, are most widely used, red grape varieties, such as Sangiovese, can be used to produce a pinky rosé style wine. When red grape varieties are used, the wine is often labelled as Occhio di Pernice “partridge’s eye“, which has its own DOC classification in several regions of Italy.

Sweetness levels vary from dry secco to off-dry abboccato, to the more common semi-sweet amabile, to very sweet dolce.   The wines can also be fortified with grape spirit added during fermentation, like Port or Rivesaltes. These fortified examples are labelled as Vino Santo Liquoroso.

The colour of wine can range from a pale to dark amber to even neon orange.  Various levels of oxidation from different aging requirements and practices develop different levels of rancio (nutty) and other volatile aromas and flavours.

Drying processes for Vino Santo are either on or off the vine, indoors on mats or carriages or tied together and hung from rafters. This is distinctly different from the heat-soaked southern Italian practice of dehydrating outside on mats in the direct sun.

Some Vino Santo winemaking traditions use a madre (mother sediment), like sourdough bread, for fermentation.

 Pravis Vin Santo Arèle – one of the world’s greatest sweet wines

(photo credit Tyler Dawson @ VinItaly)

My tasting notes:  mesmerizingly succulent sweet wine with flavours of peach, pineapple, lime, white flowers, hazelnuts, almond paste, tropical fruit jelly, and vibrant fresh acidity with rich complex viscosity and sweetness. Long, persistent and crescendo finish with the high acidity. Pictured here with a Colomba di Pasqua, a dove-shaped Easter Cake similar to Panettone with candied peel and pearl sugar. This is a classic pairing especially served around Easter Week.  Vino Santo is also commonly enjoyed with biscotti.

A very rare gem of a wine that is bound to raise your spirits and quite likely to re-adjust your perspective on how amazingly alive Vino Santo can taste.

Additional Information:

Winery: Pravis
Region: Trentino
Denominazione: Trentino DOC Vino Santo
Varietal: Nosiola
Winery Special Name: Arèle
Vintage: 2005

This particular wine owes its name to its production process: the Nosiola grapes are left to dry on special wooden racks called “arèle” up to their crushing period, which is carried out during the Settimana Santa (Holy Week). The mosto (juice) so obtained is fermented and remains for at least three years in oak barrels that get topped up to reduce excessive oxidation.

It is produced using Nosiola grapes, a prized and exclusive variety to Trentino. Only the loose straggly clusters are selected, that is the bunches with large, distanced berries and sufficiently ripe to ensure a high sugar content.

While the grapes are left to dry on racks, noble rot or in Italian, muffa nobile (Botrytis cinerea) will concentrate and impart the distinctive honeycomb aroma and taste it is prized for. The combined action of time, air and noble rot on the grapes result in a 50 to 80% weight loss: this means that with 100 kg of fresh grapes, yield only 15-18 litres of nectar for making Vino Santo. After crushing the grapes, the must is separated from the sediment, decanted and racked into small oak barrels. Here natural fermentation begins, which will progress very slowly because of the high sugar content.

The wine is aged for a minimum of 50 months. The annual production of Trentino DOC Vino Santo is generally not over 50 thousand bottles per year.

Grazie mille. Thank you for sharing my interest in Vino Santo. For client appreciation, education, market entry and program strategies, please contact me here.

Until next time,

Ciao!

Tyler

To date, there are about 330 certified Italian Wine Professionals (IWP) internationally.  I was very pleased with the curriculum, the dialogue, the exam and my result – IWP, Honors designation.  There are many learning options available for anyone interested in advancing their Italian wine knowledge. Contact me if you’d like to hear more about my recommendations.

Research sources for this article include:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305882453_VINSANTO

https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2018/12/the-complete-guide-to-vin-santo-e-part-i

https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2018/12/vin-santo-e-part-ii

https://winefolly.com/review/vin-santo-wines-of-italy/

#Vino Santo #driedgrapewine #Holywine #Italianwine #dessertwine #sweetwine #passito #apassimento #EasterWine

I’m excited to connect and align with organizations who have a real focus on CX. CX is the de facto acronym for Customer Experience, an intentional strategy and integrated process that aims to provide clients with consistent meet-and-exceed experiences when they interact with you. Kapow!

Education and entertainment through shared experiences – and with a relevant takeaway – is where Tythewineguy ‘enotainment’ fits into this story. Since wine, food and culture are all common interests, weaving them together in a client event creates magic. Think enriched connections and shareable stories.

For years clients have put their trust in me and value the expertise I bring to compliment their in-house teams and support their engagement initiatives through what I’ll call WX – aka Wine Experience.

Here’s a snapshot of recent events to get you thinking about adding WX to your CX mix.

Natural Born Thrillers – aka the natural wine movement

Working with this international professional services firm for many years on their tech sector client events is a delight. A forward-looking and innovative approach to wine themes and selections align with the DNA of this group. Curating and animating a range of organic, biodynamic and natural wines is definitely on trend and provided more than a few ta-dah moments for the 130 guests.

French Pop Classics

When this luxury real estate company wanted to take their agents wine knowledge to the next level for the benefit of their clients, we looked no further than Chablis.  Chablis is the archetype of cool climate Chardonnay, an iconic French wine and place that is revered not only in Paris but around the world.  The outcome of this tightly curated experiential tasting for 25 was increased knowledge and understanding of the different tiers of Chablis, and an appreciation for the weight, concentration and majesty that is Premier Cru and Grand Cru Chablis.

Outtake:  Billaud-Simon 2014 Chablis Premier Cru Montée de Tonnerre and Billaud-Simon 2013 Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos

If you want your CX to include WX, then I’d love to connect and curate an experience uniquely tailored to your client needs.

Until then.

Tyler

#naturalwine #chablis #winetasting #guestenrichment #cx #customerexperience #wineexperience #tadah #wineguide #winepro #wineseminar #wineeducation