Verona, in northeastern Italy, is theatrically famous for being the setting of "Romeo and Juliet," the tragic tale of two love-struck but ill-fated teenagers. For a fan of wine, however, it’s now more famous as the home of Vinitaly, an annual wine trade show, competition and fair that is the largest in the world.
I’ve been there a couple of times, and it’s a glorious five days during which one happily endures extreme tests to palate, memory and, undoubtedly, liver. Later, I’ll tell you about a couple of meals with Vince and Tony Bommarito, who happened to be there at the same time as Ann and I. The show area covers 88,600 square meters (do the math yourself: a meter is three-plus inches longer than a yard), and we wandered in and out of seven giant tents, each almost as large as a football field, filled with tasting and sales areas for winemakers, distributors, importers and exporters. All were offering samples.
Vinitaly has been around for 41 years, and last year’s attendance figures were just staggering. With 4250 exhibitors from 22 countries, it drew more than 151,000 visitors from 102 countries, with 38,000 from outside Italy. There were 2650 journalists from 52 countries.
And after everyone leaves Verona, and takes some time to catch collective breath, Vinitaly goes on the road.
We received an invitation for a press tasting that took place in Chicago a few weeks ago, and since we hadn’t been on a road trip in about two months, we eagerly accepted. The tasting featured 11 spectacular wines from Italy (4), France (3), Australia (2), Argentina (1) and Portugal (1), each presented and discussed by its winemaker or an executive from its production house, with an overall theme of wine production in the face of extreme climate change. The discussion was led and moderated by Serena Sutcliffe, an English wine writer and one of the world’s best-recognized experts.
And the wines – in order of pour:
Roederer 2000 Cristal Brut Champagne, a spectacular sparkling wine, 55 percent Pinot Noir, 45 percent Chardonnay, bright and crisp, with splendid fruit and a nice mineral foundation. A classic French Champagne, the bubble is small and long-lasting, the finish long and smooth. A glorious wine, and for doubters, well, the famed Restaurant Lasserre, in Paris, will be serving it in December at a New Year’s Eve dinner whose cost is about $1000 a person.
Springvale 2007 Watervale Riesling, a charming selection from Australia’s Clare Valley. Served well-chilled, the wine has an intense feeling of lime and, as Sutcliffe described it in her notes, "juicy and succulent yet tightly structured." It’s youth heightens the flavor notes, and it is smooth and taut. Should be drunk young.
Chateau Palmer 2004 Bordeaux, one of the classic Margaux properties with a delicious offering of a wine just rounding into top shape, with a couple of years to go before it peaks. Even at this relatively early stage, it’s a rich treat, primarily Cabernet Sauvignon but with some Merlot and Petit Verdot for balance and to smooth down the rough edges. From a good vintage, with an aroma of ripe blackberries, this will be a great wine.
Domaine Fourrier 2003 Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru, a wonderful example of the wines of Burgundy from the Clos St. Jacques, in the northern part of the district. As usual for Burgundy, it’s 100 percent Pinot Noir, but winemaker Jean-Marie Fourrier has brought perfect harmony to the process, achieving a jewel-like quality. It’s different from the Bordeaux that preceded it in the tasting, but equally delicious, with fruit up front and a delicate nose of berries.
Marchesi Antinori 2004 Tignanello Toscana, a superb descendant of the first super-Tuscan, which changed the face of Italian wine forever. A blend of Sangiovese (85 percent), Cabernet Sauvignon (10) and Cabernet Franc (5), this is typical Tignanello, rich and full-bodied, from a vintage when harvest was a few weeks later than usual. It has the strength to stand up to the heartiest prime rib and the style to be a sophisticated aperitif. It’s a great wine with chocolate, too.
Arnaldo Caprai 2003 Sagrantino di Montefalco comes 100 percent from the Sagrantino grape, not as well known as Sangiovese or Corvina, but one with a history that includes written records from the days of Pliny the Elder. The vineyard is in Umbria, in central Italy, and the wine has an aroma that speaks of the spices of southern Asia. On the palate, it is rich and soft, with round tones and more spice. There’s a slight bitterness in the aftertaste, but that’s one of the qualities of the grape, and it serves as a reminder that the glass is almost empty and it’s time for some more.
Planeta 2005 Santa Cecilia, from Sicily, is a rich red wine made 100 percent from Nero d’Avola grapes, like the Sagrantino in being unfamiliar to most Americans. It is fermented in stainless steel, then spends a year in French oak barrels before bottling. The aroma is bright, as befits a young wine, and displays hints of fig and strawberry. There is some tannin on the tongue, but it passes quickly and leaves a well-polished brightness and a good finish.
Bodega Noemia 2004, an Argentine entry, is made of 100 percent Malbec, a prime grape in the nation. The winemaker, Hans Vinding-Diers, has had a remarkable career for a 38-year-old man. Of Danish descent, he was born in Stellenbosch, South Africa, in the heart of that nation’s grape-and-wine industry. He attended Oxford University, but learned to make wine in Australia and now is trans-oceanic, serving as winemaker for both Italian and Argentine companies. Working in two hemispheres, he is able to make wine all year round. His Malbec, which spends two years in new French oak, is a rich violet in color, with an aroma of berries and hearty, dense flavors.
Torbreck 2004 Run Rig Shiraz-Viognier, from the famed Barossa Valley of Australia, blends juice from red and white grapes, but with 96.5 percent Shiraz and the remainder Viognier, the result is a wine with a dense color, with purple edges. Mint, black cherry (Ann says blackberry) and smoke are evident in the rich, enticing aroma, and the wine, with 30 months in French oak, has a remarkable, ingratiating flavor that is almost like the burnt ends of Arthur Bryant’s unmatchable Kansas City barbecue. It’s different, but boy, is it ever good, and then polishes things off with a long, beautifully balanced finish.
Masi Agricola 2003 Costaserra Amarone Classico, one of the great Italian red wines, comes from the hills around Verona, also home of Valpolicella wines. It’s a blend of Corvina (70 percent), Rondinella (25) and Molinara (5) grapes, the clusters placed on bamboo racks in special lofts (none on ground level, where some St. Louis lofts can be found) for four months before pressing and fermentation. Four-fifths of the wine is aged in large Slavonian oak barrels, the remainder in smaller barrels of both French and Slavonian oak. The color is deep ruby, the aroma speaks of ripe stone fruit and the flavor is smooth and clean, with the richness one expects and a long finish with touches of cinnamon along the way. It’s a beauty.
Taylor’s 2005 Quinta de Vargellas Vintage Port, from the Portuguese wine center of Douro, the wine involves a blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesa, Tinto Cao, Tinta Barroca and Tinta Roriz grapes, vinified in open granite tanks and bottled some two years after harvest. Sweet berries lead in the aroma of the dark red wine, fortified with brandy and finished to 20.1 percent alcohol. Dark fruit like berries and plums are the leading flavors, and like all elegant Port, this one shows an impressively long finish.
The winemakers and principals in the wineries, many family members, also spoke about their expectations for the future, in the face of climate change that may affect all the world’s winemakers. All have ideas for change in the plantings and in the industry as a whole, and we’ll discuss them and listen to them in a future wine piece, hopefully within two weeks.
And the Bommaritos? One of our visits to Vintitaly coincided with a visit by the brothers. We prowled the fairgrounds for lunch one day, stopped at a delicatessen where hams and sausages hung en masse, were transfixed by a mortadella more than a foot in diameter and feasted on sandwiches. And then we planned dinner, with Vince saying he would find the place. A couple of days later, he took us to the dining room of a hotel in the lakeside town of Sirmione, telling us he had visited its kitchen earlier in the day and that it fit his demands. Well, it did, and dinner was remarkable – plus a surprise to us when he picked the dining room of the rather modest hotel where we were staying.
–Joe