Wine Fictions

Sometimes wine sellers use certain words to warn customers about a particular wine that they think may not be the best or what exactly the customer expects. Even though this is something that I normally do with certain customers I could not hide some surprise as it was done to me last week. At a small wine shop with focus on Italian wines I was warned by the owner that this cuvée of Syrah and Merlot from Baglio di Pianetto was "special" when I was about to pay. I have to confess that I have grabbed the bottle in a rather subconscious way as it was on a promotion and had the 3 Bicchieri Gambero Rosso sticker on it and this is a distinction that I do trust. I have also had previous good experiences with Sicilian Syrahs and being theoretically slightly matured has sort of promised a more interesting experience where tertiary aromas should start showing. How special is it?, I have asked back.  Well, I would definitely have a steak with it, he answered. Translated, this means tha...

The other day I have found myself wondering which wine I needed to buy.  Even though the answer, on a first level, seemed quite obvious to me  that I did not need any more wine as my basement is considerably full and I am drinking considerably little at home these days. Still, I thought that a white Etna wine was missing in my collection as it is something that I always like to go back to. And what about an Alvarinho from Rheinessen? That can be quite an interesting thing to try and trick close friends on a coming tasting.  This confers my wine collection an almost library feeling to it.   But unlike what happens with books, at least with mine that I have an almost existential problem about getting rid off any book that has entered the premises independently whether I have read it or not,  with wines I do end up drinking them and acquiring new ones giving the feeling of a living entity to my enoteca ( I am terribly sorry about this but the feeble translatio...

 Last Tuesday I was at a wine fair promoted by one of the biggest German wine importers at one of the premium hotels in Hamburg. With a strong focus on gastronomy and small shops it was quite a mixed public, quite different in many ways to the habitués of masterclasses. Besides the tremendous offer, there was a couple of episodes which are still living inside me and that I would like to share.  The first one, I was at a South African stand and a man behind me pushed me and screamed to the person behind the stand that he wanted to try the Shyraz. I have quickly shared with him that he should try the amazing Pinotage before the Shyraz as it was surprisingly light and fruit driven. As an answer I got a lecture on how he was working for more than 50 years in the wine business and that there was nothing I could teach him about it. I have smiled and moved away. On another stand I have asked the person responsible for it if the Ribera del Duero that I was trying was a single graped T...

One of my absolute favourite stories around wine is the origin of the super Tuscans as I often puzzle customers at the shop by showing the price difference between a Chianti which obviously holds the DOCG stamp and a super Tuscan which does not have it. At a wine fair I once heard that German customers love stamps on wines. DOC, Organic, Demeter, Parker points, golden medal at the Berlin, Brussels, Paris Fair, you name it. Even though I often have a problem on generalizing people's behaviours,  this time I am forced to agree. I do not know how many times customers ask me whether a certain wine is organically certified. Whether it has won any prize or how many points it has scored by any relevant critic. When coming to Italian wines, I am often confronted with two major questions: what do I think about Maroni's point system; and does the wine have a DOCG certificate. About the first I am not going to make any comments for now and the DOCG seems to have a bigger quality value to ...

 How can what we read influence what we drink? If, on the one hand, it is already proven that listening to certain kinds of music can condition or influence not only how you perceive wine but also your shopping behaviour, as this study indicates ,  can reading also play an influence on your daily wine decisions. While recently reading Jhumpa Lahiri's Roman Stories   I was often confronted with a tremendous desire to have Italian wines. This feeling has grown so much inside me, that yesterday at a tasting in the shop where I work I have ended up choosing four Italian wines out of five I have given the guests to try.  Of course there was someone who has asked me the reason of my obsession and I just simply admitted that I was on the verge of finishing Lahiri's book. For the guests who knew me there was a complicity laughter. From the others, there was a rather puzzled look at me.  Nothing that you cannot conquer with the quality of Italian wines. Even though not a...

Sometimes I hardly find words to describe the multiplicity of worlds that we can find through a simple bottle of wine.  In this case, I have to first refer to the impressive social project developed by the Valdibella Cooperative  and its strong commitment to nature, to the quality of their local products and specially to their local grapes. This Acamante is no exception. Made from Perricone, it reveals intense red fruits with a light leather scent and spices. Its vigorous tannins make it a perfect wine for tomato sauce dishes or red meats like lamb. In fact, every new sip I had form this wine awoke in me new gastronomical ideas.  I have to confess that I ended up having part of it with a homemade codfish ceviche as I found its acidity matching the  lime juice marinade and the stronger texture of cod.  And as I start biding goodbye to the long Hamburg winter, I leave you this Claude McKay's To Winter for all the ones who will miss it:        ...

 More than any other time, Christmas is a time for special wines.   As many other people I have carefully thought about which wines to open in these special days. Always keeping in mind what I would be cooking I ended up choosing a welcome present I have got from my chief when I have started working at Andronaco.  Described by him as the best Italian wine in the market, I have decided to open it and prove whether he was right or not. Having a rather late harvest, it is quite fascinating to feel how both Sangiovese and Malvasia Nera reveal such a tremendous density revealing fascinating ripe cherries taste along with tobacco notes and a somehow blood depth. After having decanted for about an hour it was amazing to feel how the tannins got softer to a pleasant and full bodied experience.  I also recommend a reading of their technical sheet as it offers quite some interesting details not only on the wine facts but also how the whole making process was made. I have ...

  Before start reading this post, I would like to invite you to a have a look at this cartoon by Posy Simmonds which I came across while reading her Literary World. I have recently came across an article about the price a German citizen, who drinks an average of 20 liters of wine per year, pays   for a liter of wine: 3,64€   This same study also indicates that every second bottle of wine is bought at a so-called discounter (Lidl, Aldi, Netto, Penny) being Aldi the biggest wine retailer in Germany. This raises quite some earnest concerns to the ones working in the wine sector in Germany. The fast growing of online business has also represented, for many small businesses, quite a hard blow on their income and has even led to the closure of quite some.  That is the case of a small family business close to me. With a bit more than 100 years on the wine business, the Weinhaus Reimer in Wandsbek Markt will be closing doors till the end of this year. I know it is quite an ...

 Following my former post , I have decided to taste a 99 Luca Maroni points home.  Based on five of the most iconic autochthonous grapes from southern Italy, this is a wine with grapes from both Abruzzo and Puglia regions, which automatically classifies it as a VDT or table wine. This does not mean, in any way, that it is a low quality wine.  Much the other way round. This is the result of a careful work from two different oenologues in order to try to create a wine which can reflect the spirit and identity of  these grapes. For all those who have been in touch with Italian wines, you may have come already across Montepulciano, Primitivo, Sangiovese, Negroamaro or Malvasia Nera. This is quite a deep and full bodied wine with strong nutmeg and cloves taste, light tobacco and ripe berries which makes it quite an ideal partner for the colder days which have just invaded the north of Germany.  The wooden notes are quite predominant and it is, somehow, not a big surp...

 On Monday the 28th November, Luca Maroni , the famous Italian creator of, probably, the most known wine  classification point system in Italy, has been in Hamburg not only to present his concept but also to present some of the wines he considers most exciting in the current Italian market.  Set in the iconic Hotel Atlantic, it was a warming surprise to be welcome by Luca's sister as soon as I have got into the room. Besides three tables with wines which figure on Maroni's list , there were two seminars where Luca has explained some of the main features that have made him choose those wines. Besides the whole theoretical part, I have to confess that what has impressed me the most was his constant appeal to the most sensorial aspects of wine drinking.  Pleasure on drinking was set as his main point of both seminars, which may have annoyed some of the people who have joined them.   His invitation to always drink a little sip from each wine was received with s...

 One of the most fascinating things about Italian wines has to do with its rather intricate qualification system. To the traditional DOC or DOCG we are often confronted with IGT whenever "foreign" grapes are used. I will not go too deep into that, but I certainly recommend you a quick look here . For sure it is that these are not inferior quality wines as most clients often tell me whenever they insist on having the famous blue seal that DOC bottles have. Even though I often try to explain that DOC is not necessarily a sign of better wines, often showing that the Masseto bottle does not have a DOC seal, A good example of that it is this Cabernet Sauvignon from Tenuta S. Antonio de Castagnedi. With a mix between fresh and slightly dried grapes (apassimento) this is a voluptuous wine, presenting a deep dark red colour that enclosures tempting ripe red fruits as well as a hint of grilled green bell pepper. Now that Autumn is taking over the North of Germany, this is a tremendous...

 One of the things that has been going around my mind since I have started working at the wine shop is about the trust that customers lay (or not) on your abilities to identify their wine needs. It is quite interesting to make the right questions in the few seconds that the whole dialogue takes place and look for an appropriate answer within a rather short amount of time.  There are people who just blindly accept whatever you recommend them, the ones who are mistrustful and the ones who like to counterargument and get into some really nice wine discussions.  This Re Manfredi is one of the wines that I often recommend to all the ones who want a rather fruity and sweet wine without getting into  half dry ones. This is what I consider to be a wine out of the box where the sweetness of the Müller Thurgau offers an unique experience when allied to the volcanic soils of Basilicata. This makes it a perfect choice to accompany Indian or other spicy dishes. I find it really i...

One of the things that I find most impressive in wines is the way they age and acquire new tastes which often enrich the original one.  This is what happened when I first tried this Selvarossa Riserva 2013. Lost and forgotten in a box in the warehouse of the wine shop where I work, the sommelier has decided to open a bottle of it before deciding to put it out of the program making space for the 2017 vintage. In the glass we could see some of the effects of ageing such as some loss of colour and sediments. In the nose there was a walnuts, tobacco and some leather which promised quite a developed stage of fermentation. This was confirmed with the first sip which shown and full-bodied and rich red with very mature red fruits.  Fascinated by it, I soon started recommending it to several customers and it was soon sold out. When there were only two bottles left I had a young customer who was particularly excited with it as soon as he tried it. After getting the last two bottles, he ...

 Following my former post, I can only say that the best way to try different wines is always to get a nice round of friends and make a tasting. When coming across my new job I soon had a couple of friends who have organized a blind tasting of Italian wines. Even though the temperatures in Hamburg have reached the 38 degress making it rather inviting to taste white wines there were also a couple of nice reds that I really needed to know and taste.  Starting with the prosecco that I have described in the previous post, we soon moved to some white from Custoza, a Catarrato from Sicily and a Lachrima Christi. Even though the temperatures were not too inviting we haven't resisted to move forward to some reds where, again, we travelled all around Italy, starting with a Sicilian Nerello Mascalese, going to a super blend from Tuscany and ending with the wine which was, for me, the highlight of the evening, this outstanding Nebbiolo. Being one of the world class grapes that Italy prod...

After quite a long and morose inner process I have decided to give up teaching and I will soon embrace a new step professionally by working at the wine section of an Italian importer in Hamburg.  I have to confess that the temptation of working with wine has always been there and became stronger in these last months leading me to this final decision.  Being so, I have already started fighting my gaps of knowledge about certain regions and styles and the ones reading this blog will probably start being bombed with extensive reviews of Italian wines in the following posts as this one may well be an example. One of the wines I miss more tasting information is about sparkling wines. After a quick check I have just realized that I have only written one single review about a sparkling wine in this blog.  Being so, it was for me quite obvious where to start when approaching the  topic on an Italian point of view: Prosecco. With its name deriving from the village of Prosecco...

 An evening in Berlin I ended up entering a wine bar just round the corner where I was staying and I could not be better surprised with I came across: Balera is a small and cozy Italian wine bar with a focus on Nature Wines.  The service and consulting was excellent and I was fascinated with the possibility of getting the wines from a tap as well as a deposit system where you could just come and fill the bottle again.  The whole concept of the shop is quite interesting and this was the place where I ended up buying this Frizzante, exclusively made with the Garganega grape.  Being Italy an almost endless source for autochtonous grapes, I have decided to try this one, seduced by the description of the volcanic soil as well as to try a, for me, new grape of which I knew nothing about. In the glass it has revealed itself rather turbid which is not uncommon at all, taking in account that it is a nature wine. In fact, I really have appreciated its seducing golden colour w...

One of the main advantages of living in Germany is to have a relatively easy access to wine from different regions of the world. This allows an almost infinite possibility of deepening our knowledge about not only the regions, but also about its specificity and grapes. This was the major reason that took me to buy this Tenuta del Morer. This and a pretty nice conversation with a worker from an Italian import supermarket in Bonn who has recommended it to me. As soon as the wine invaded my glass I was fascinated by its pale straw colour and by its intense perfume that seemed to fill the whole living room.  In the mouth it revealed itself different than I expected but rather fine and elegant, revealing a firm body with delicate complexity of tastes from bitter almonds to light citrus. Its ending was rather long and seducing, making it a perfect match for seafood.  Being Friulano also known as Sauvignon Vert there were a lot of aspects concerning this wine that became clear to me....

 One of the things that I often experience when buying Italian wines is the recognition of my lack of knowledge about their grapes, specificity of the territory and an almost complete feeling of diving into the unknown.  That is as well as part of the fascination of buying them. This personal discovery of new worlds and sort of empiric gathering of information in order to try to understand what I have in my glass has been one of the most exciting wine experiences I have been through in these last times. In this particular case, I knew Chardonnay and Viognier and I could not resist to see how they would react to the warmer climate of Sicily as well as to the mix with the autoctonous grapes.  The result was quite positive, I must say. Pure freshness with a delicate citrus taste, making it a perfect pairing for summer dishes, with a special focus on seafood. Still, it shows quite a nice character due to its flowery taste and pleasant, long ending. A great wine to accompany ...

 From all the specific sorts of soils you can have to produce wine, I have to confess that the volcanic is one of the ones that thrills and intrigues me the most.  First I have to confess an extreme amazement of seeing how the grapes can grow and develop to an excellency point which can produce unique wines, full of character and extreme minerality.    Based at Etna´s foot, this Vulkà is not an exception.   Tremendously lively in taste, it presents a very stable body, with some fine herbs along with pear and apple, making it an elegant and seductive wine.    A perfect match for seafood or lighter summer meals.  So far, one of my highlights of this summer that seems to have come back to Hamburg.   Along with it, a poem by Francisco Alarcón to make it a perfect evening:   every tree a brother every hill a pyramid a holy spot every valley a poem in xochitl in cuicatl flower and song every cloud a prayer every rain drop a miracle every...