Tag Archives: Alan Tardi

A Walk on the Wild Side: A New Look at Lambrusco by Alan Tardi, CSW

  By admin | May 27, 2022 - 9:48 am | ,
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Today we have a guest post from Alan Tardi, CSW. Alan gives us a deep dive in the real Lambrusco as well as a preview of his upcoming session—A Walk on the Wild Side: A New Look at Lambrusco—to be presented at the 46th Annual Conference of the Society of Wine Educators. The conference is scheduled for August 10-11 in Coachella Valley (Indian Wells, CA).  

If you think Lambrusco is nothing more than a banal, reddish, cloyingly sweet bubbly, it’s time to taste again.                                             

It happened over and over again: The first wines of a given appellation to be exported to America from post-World War II Italy were the most commercial, inexpensive, readily accessible ones possible. Some of them became quite popular, though it was often more about an appealing name or jingle or the color or shape of the bottle than it was about the wine.

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In the 1960s and ‘70s, Americans started to become more familiar with and attracted to wine. At about the same time, a handful or two of visionary Italian wine producers began focusing on attaining a high-quality level of production and capturing the essence of their particular grape varieties and growing areas.

There are numerous examples of this but one of the best is Tuscany, specifically Chianti.

Prior to this time, the majority of consumers looked (often fondly) upon Chianti as a cheap, rustic wine in a straw-covered flask sitting on a checkered tablecloth next to a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. Then it got a makeover, shed its straw, slimmed down into a Bordeaux-like cylinder and became super, sexy and more expensive. Many other wines underwent a similar transformation (think Barolo, Valpolicella, Friuli whites, Southern reds) and subsequently garnered respect and appreciation in the marketplace.

This has not happened to Lambrusco. But it should and I have no doubt that it will. Here’s why:

  • Unique Terroir:
    • Lambrusco is a terroir-driven wine. It grows in a very limited part of North-Central Italy, specifically a small area in the center of Emilia with a tiny adjacent zone just across the Lombardy border.
    • The area where Lambrusco grows is quite unusual. While most grapevines perform best at higher altitudes up on steep slopes, Lambrusco prefers the flat plains or low hills of the Po River valley.
  • Ancient Origin:
    • Lambrusco is considered to be one of (if not the) oldest native Italian grape varieties, with its origin dating back to sometime around the Middle Bronze Age (c 1700 BC).
    • It is thought to have originated as a wild vine that was domesticated by a mysterious group of people who inhabited the western part of the Po valley around what is now the city of Modena.
  • Family of Grapes:
    • In fact, Lambrusco is not a grape variety but a family of grapevines that are closely related to one another but genetically distinct.
    • Thus, while they do have some basic characteristics in common, each one has its own distinct personality, and each has its own home within the larger perimeter of the defined growing area.
  • Variations on a Theme: In addition to the numerus subvarieties, there are many different production options:
    • Lambrusco may be made from one type of Lambrusco grape or blended with others, depending on appellation regulations.
    • There are a number of specific Lambrusco appellations as well as other generic regional appellations that include a Lambrusco-based wine.
    • Lambrusco runs the full gambit of sugar, from brut nature (no added sugar) to sweet.
    • It can be made frizzante (lightly fizzy) or full bubbly (spumante), using the Traditional Method (in bottle with disgorgement), Ancestral Method (in bottle without disgorgement) or Martinotti Method (tank).
    • Time on lees can range anywhere from days to years. And color ranges from pale pink to deep purple.
  • Food Friendly:
    • Emilia is considered to have one of the finest regional cuisines in Italy. The food is rich and full-flavored, and Lambrusco — whether fizzy or foamy, delicately pale and tart or dark, earthy, and tannic — provides the perfect accompaniment.
    • These same basic characteristics also make it an ideal partner for many other types of food, from pizza to barbeque, burgers, spicy Asian or Indian.
  • User Friendly: Lambrusco is
    • versatile
    • bubbly
    • relatively low in alcohol
    • very affordable
    • fun and enjoyable; sometimes simple and rustic, other times elegant or ethereal
    • undervalued and misunderstood (except by those in the know)
  • Decidedly Distinctive:
    • There is nothing quite like Lambrusco. It has its own unique flavor profile — earthy yet elegant, with a slightly wild streak — regardless of which guise it is wearing.
    • It is red (in various hues) and bubbly (in different levels of intensity) and has tannin. It is, one could say, something of an appealing anomaly.
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Alan’s session—A Walk on the Wild Side: A New Look at Lambrusco—is scheduled for Wednesday, August 10th at 8:45 am as part the 46th Annual Conference of the Society of Wine Educators, to be held August 10-11 in Coachella Valley (Indian Wells, CA). Click here to read about the extraordinary wines—as well as a few other treats that will be tasted as part of Alan’s session.

About the speaker: Alan Tardi first got interested in wine while working as a cook and chef in some of New York City’s finest restaurants and this interest blossomed into a passion when he opened his own restaurant in Manhattan in 2001. While still working long hours in his restaurant, Alan became a frequent panel taster at Wine and Spirits Magazine’s New York office and began writing for the magazine. Over time he went on to write for numerous other publications including The New York Times, Sommelier Journal, Food Arts and Wine Spectator. In 2003 Alan moved to the village of Castiglione Falletto in Piemonte, Italy where he worked extensively in the surrounding vineyards and wineries and managed the town’s Cantina Comunale. His first book “Romancing the Vine: Life, Love and Transformation in the Vineyards of Barolo” won a James Beard Award for Best Wine Book of 2006. His second book “Champagne, Uncorked: The House of Krug and Timeless Allure of the World’s Most Celebrated Drink” (2016) received a Gourmand Best in the World Award. Alan holds a CSW from the Society of Wine Educators, IWS and Champagne Master certificates from the Wine Scholar Guild and is currently pursuing the WSET level 4 Diploma.

 

The Judgment of Orlando—SWE Conference Recap 2021

  By admin | August 26, 2021 - 11:33 am |
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Today we offer a recap of a session—The Judgment of Orlando—from the 45th Conference of the Society of Wine Educators, written by session presenter Alan Tardi

I recently had the pleasure of conducting a session at the Society of Wine Educators 45th Annual Conference, live and in person after a 2-year hiatus due to the pandemic. While I am always pleased to be invited to present at conference, this time I felt a bit jealous of the participants sitting in the ballroom.

Each person had their own well-spaced table, and on the table were 12 exceptional sparkling wines. Of course, I had 12 wines in front of me too, but I was standing up talking rather than sitting down tasting and, unlike the audience, I already knew what the wines where!

All of them—with one exception—were made using the Méthode Champenoise, known as the Traditional Method anywhere outside of Champagne. And, while I gave a brief discourse on the origin and evolution of sparkling wine, the audience embarked on a sort of treasure hunt, tasting through the wines in front of them, without having been given any indication of what they were.

Then we addressed each of the wines one by one: Is this wine Champagne or is it not Champagne? If it is not Champagne, is it from the Old World or New? More importantly, why? And what are these impressions and deductions based on?

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There were 4 Champagnes, 4 Old World sparklers and 4 New World, but none of the participants knew this and the tasting order was intentionally mixed up. All the wines were carefully selected and of extremely high caliber, and each of them was unique yet very representative of its specific place of origin.

From Champagne, there were two classic Maison and two grower-producers. Pierre Gerbais‘ “L’Originale” from the southern department of the Aube, was made from 100% Pinot Blanc (aka Vrai Blanc) from a vineyard planted in 1904, while Aurelien Laherte‘s “Les 7” was comprised of all seven permitted grape varieties of Champagne made from a base wine that came from a perpetual reserve started in 2003.

The 167th edition of Krug’s “Grande Cuvée” (base year 2011) was a masterful assemblage of the three principal grape varieties of Champagne consisting of 191 different wines, including a healthy amount of reserve wines going back to 1995. The iconic “Clos des Goisses” 2005 of Philipponnat (which traces its winegrowing origins back to 1522), was comprised of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from within the steep enclosed vineyard, a wine that many believe constitutes the first site-specific bottling of Champagne.

Other Old-World wines included the “Classic Cuvée” (base year 2011) from Nyetimber, located in Southern England in an area that is, geologically speaking, an extension of the chalky Paris Basin which plays a huge role in the northern Champagne growing area of the Marne. From Trentino in northern Italy, we had a 100% Chardonnay from a single vineyard about 600 meters above sea level that spent 8 years on the lees. This special bottling, made only in exceptional vintages, is named after the founder of the winery (1902) who went to Champagne, fell in love (with the wine), and was compelled to make a champagne-style wine in his homeland, laying the foundation for what is now known as Trento DOC.

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Something similar happened a century earlier when a member of the Raventós family—which traces its winegrowing activity in the Penedès area of Catalonia to 1497—returned home from Champagne in 1872 determined to make a sparkling wine using the Champagne method but with the native grape varieties of his region. It was a big success; many others in the area started to make it and Cava was born. Ironically, Raventós decided to withdraw from the Cava DO in 2012 because they felt that the integrity of the appellation they essentially created had been severely compromised. The wine we tasted was made of 100% Xarel.lo grapes personally selected by Josep Maria Raventós i Negra from the 2005 vintage which spent about 6 years on the lees.

There was also another wine from Italy, a sort of red herring in the form of a Prosecco DOCG made from very old vines in Valdobbiadene by Paolo Bisol of Ruggeri winery. What made it very unusual was that this wine spent four years in an autoclave on the lees (plus one year in bottle) which gave it some subtle autolytic hints resonant of something one might find in a vintage champagne. [This was an experiment; only 4500 bottles were made, they’re practically gone now and bottles for this event had to be sent from Italy.]

New World selections consisted of four prestige-level wines: “Cuvée Clive”, a Cap Classique from Graham Beck Estate, South Africa; Schramsberg “Reserve”, from one of California’s oldest non-mission wineries (founded 1862) that was re-born as sparkling specialist by the Davies family in 1965; “Le Reve” from Domaine Carneros, a winery started by Claude Taittinger in 1987; and “L’Hermitage” from Roederer Estate (founded 1982), offshoot of another highly respected and well-established maison of Champagne.

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With 12 exceptional wines to taste, deduce, critique and explore, we didn’t have time to go into great detail or compare peoples’ contrasting impressions of the wines. And, unlike the 1974 “Judgment of Paris” tasting organized by Steven Spurrier (RIP) in which cabernet sauvignon-based wines from California won out over Bordeaux in a blind tasting, there was no clear consensus in Orlando and participants were quite divided (or ambiguous) about whether a wine was Champagne or not, or whether it was Old World or New.

But that was perfectly fine. The structure of this presentation was not intended so much as a contest to determine the ‘best’ but rather as an opportunity sharpen our faculties of taste, make some deductions about what we tasted, and explore the impact of provenance and production method unhindered by prejudice — not to mention have fun and taste some great wines together, in person!

I do hope participants found it enjoyable and insightful.

P.S. If you weren’t able to be there, you might like to pick a few bottles and create your own ‘judgment’ tasting! Click here for a Wine List-Judgment of Orlando as presented by Alan Tardi

–Alan Tardi

You might also like to pick up a copy of my book “Champagne, Uncorked.” I’m offering SWE members a 25% discount off cover price (plus cost of shipping) and would be happy to sign it if you wish. Write to me at alantardi@aol.com and I will send you an order form. Click here for more information about the SWE Discount for Champagne Uncorked by Alan Tardi

Conference Preview 2018: Dueling Bubbles

  By admin | June 14, 2018 - 5:30 pm |
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Today we have a preview of a session to be presented during SWE’s 42nd Annual Conference, to be held on August 15–17, 2018 in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State. Our guest author is Alan Tardi, who tells us about his upcoming session entitled Dueling Bubbles: A Comparative Examination of the Two Most Popular Sparkling Wines in the World.

Champagne Mangoes?

Champagne Mangoes?

I hate it when the name of a famous or prestigious wine category is used as a benchmark for another one — usually one that is less famous or prestigious. And no wine has been subjected to this more often and in more ways than Champagne.

Sometimes the comparison is made out of context altogether: the mangoes that I buy are labeled “Champagne Mangoes,” presumably as a self-proclamation of their high quality (they don’t look or taste anything like Champagne but they are, in fact, really good). There’s also a type of table grape called “Champagne Grapes” apparently because of their tiny bubble-like berries (though these grapes are definitely not one of the seven — yes, seven! — approved varieties for Champagne).

And sometimes other beverages that are not even wine attempt to usurp Champagne’s luster, such as “Miller High Life, the Champagne of Bottled Beers.” [The campaign was originally launched in 1903 when, it could be argued, very few Americans had any first-hand experience with Champagne — many didn’t even have much experience with beer in a bottle — and even the very lowest rung of the champagne ladder was economically out of reach for most of them. Beer, however, was not, and this one was pale and frothy and came in a clear slope-shouldered bottle just like you know what. The moniker was abandoned in 1989 in exchange for “America’s Quality Beer Since 1855” but less than a decade later ‘Champagne’ was back on the label and remains there to this day.]

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When it comes to wine, most American consumers now understand that there is something a little bit fishy about the very idea of “California Champagne” though many would still have a hard time articulating exactly what it is. But many American wine drinkers still feel the need to put one wine category up against another in order to get a handle on it: Pinot Noir is the new Merlot; crisp Pinot Grigio is the au courant alternative to over-oaked Chardonnay; Prosecco is the new, hip, economical, everyday alternative to old, stuffy, expensive, special-occasion Champagne.

Worst of all is when two inculpable beverages are thrown into a competitive arena like two gladiators thrust into an all-out fight to the dregs.

So why, you rightly ask, would I do it in my SWE conference session title?

Okay, I admit it: I came up with the “Dueling Bubbles” title solely to catch your attention and, perhaps, whet your bubbly appetite. (And it worked, didn’t it?)

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The honest truth is no duel is going to take place on my watch: in fact, the two wines have no quarrel at all, much less a need to fight it out. In my presentation, just like in that soundtrack from Deliverance, the two categories will alternate back and forth between one and the other in a sort of playful intertwining in which the two voices will be clearly distinct, mutually informative, mutually respectful and completely non-combative.

The fact is that there’s a big difference between competition (not to mention overly creative marketing) and comparison.

We wine drinkers compare things all the time. Every time we try to nail down something we’re smelling or tasting in a wine, we do so by comparing it to something else we have smelled or tasted before, and we naturally evaluate wines on the basis of others we have previously experienced. In a similar way, comparing two different types of wine can be very interesting and very useful in helping to better understand them. But there certainly doesn’t have to be a winner or loser.

I think we can all agree that Champagne and Prosecco are two very different wines. Even more important to note is that Champagne and Prosecco are two totally distinct and individual winemaking traditions, unlike many other sparkling wines — including three other Italian appellations — that were created in direct imitation of the French icon.

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The differences between Champagne and Prosecco are obvious: grape varieties, growing area and (for the most part) production method (not to mention price category). But what is really surprising and insight provoking are the similarities in the origin and evolution of the two categories, albeit on a different timeline.

Delving deeply into the history of Champagne while researching my book “Champagne, Uncorked: The House of Krug and the Timeless Allure of the World’s Most Celebrated Drink” (Hachette 2016), I started having frequent episodes of déjà vu in a sort of time/space/language warp, encountering over and over again essential commonalities between Champagne and Prosecco despite their significant differences and near complete independence.

And that’s what this session is all about.

I won’t go into details of what these commonalities are — for that you’ll either have to attend the session or, if you can’t make it, look for the presentation slides on the SWE website following the conference. I will say, however, that the end result will be a much deeper understanding and appreciation of both wines, especially Prosecco. And I’ll also give you a preview of the exceptional wines and wineries that will be featured (barring, of course, any delivery snafus).

Here they are:

  • Adami — Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore “Giardino” Asciutto
  • Bellenda — Conegliano Prosecco Superiore “S.C. 1931” Metodo Classico
  • Bortolomiol — Rive di S. Pietro Barbozza Brut Nature “Motus Vitae”
  • Cá dei Zago — Valdobbiadene Prosecco Col Fondo
  • Gregoletto — Colli Trevigiani Verdiso Tranquillo
  • Mongarda — Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Extra- Dry “Rive Alte”
  • Nino Franco — Grave di Stecca
  • Sanfeletto — Conegliano Prosecco Tranquillo “Gastalda”
  • Silvano Follador  — Valdobbiadene Superiore di Cartizze Brut Nature
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About the speaker: Alan Tardi, former NYC chef and restaurateur, has long worked as a freelance journalist authoring articles about wine and food for numerous publications including The New York Times, Wine & Spirits Magazine, The Wine Spectator, Decanter, Sommelier Journal, and Food Arts. In 2003, Alan moved to the village of Castiglione Falletto in the heart of the Barolo region in Piemonte, Italy, where he spent several years working in the surrounding vineyards and wineries through all phases of the growing and production process, an experience which completely changed his perspective on wine. In 2009 Alan began frequenting the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco winegrowing area and, after successive visits during which he developed a rapport with many local farmers and producers, as well as principals of the governing Consortium, was named first ever US Ambassador of Conegliano Valdobbiadene in January 2015. His first book, ‘Romancing the Vine: Life, Love and Transformation in the Vineyards of Barolo’ (St Martins Press, 2006) won a James Beard Award for Best Wine and Spirits Book of 2006. And a new book, “Champagne, Uncorked: The House of Krug and the Timeless Allure of the World’s Most Celebrated Drink” (Hachette/PublicAffairs 2016) recently won a Gourmand Best in the World Award in the French Wine category.

Alan’s session, Dueling Bubbles: A Comparative Examination of the Two Most Popular Sparkling Wines in the World , will be offered on Thursday, August 16, 2018 at 10:30 am as part of the 42nd Annual Conference of the Society of Wine Educators to be held in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State.

 

Conference Preview 2018: Icons of Barolo

  By admin | June 9, 2018 - 8:46 am |
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Today we have a preview of a session to be presented during SWE’s 42nd Annual Conference, to be held on August 15–17, 2018 in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State. Our guest author is Alan Tardi, who tells us about his upcoming session entitled Icons of Barolo.

I am pleased to report that the line-up of wines for my session “Icons of Barolo” is essentially set and it is indeed a stellar one, representing exceptional wineries and definitive vineyard sites, as well as a range of wine making styles and a variety of different vintages. Here’s a preview:

Marchesi di Barolo is the historic winery in the heart of Barolo that used to belong to Marchese Carlo Tancredi Falletti di Barolo and his wife Giulia Colbert-Falletti. This is one of the actual places where the wine that came to be known as Barolo was born and Cannubi is one of the oldest and most revered sites in the entire winegrowing area. [Barolo “Cannubi” 2011]

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The castle in the nearby town of Verduno is another site that could rightfully be called a birthplace of Barolo: It once belonged to Carlo Alberto, King of the Savoy dynasty and father of Vittorio Emmanuel II who would later become the first king of the Unified Italy (and create his own winery in Serralunga called Fontanafredda). General Staglieno, who oversaw winemaking for the king’s estates and is credited with refining enological practices in order to make a fully fermented dry Barolo, actually lived at the Verduno castle while overseeing the royal cellars in nearby Pollenzo. The castle was eventually acquired by a successful Verduno winemaker named Gian Battista Burlotto who was one of the founding fathers of the Barolo appellation. Verduno represents a distinctive geologic formation of the Messinian age in the Barolo area and Monvigliero is the town’s most renowned vineyard. [Barolo “Monvigliero” 2014]

The Elvio Cogno winery in Novello, right next to Barolo, occupies a subzone in the eastern part of the town known as Ravera. Here, besides waging a campaign to get an old local grape variety called Nascetta recognized under the Langhe appellation (and thus helping to save it from extinction), they have also focused on the cultivation of the three main subvarities of Nebbiolo — Lampia, Michet and Rose — in different sections of their estate. Michet, it has been determined, is actually a virus-affected version of Lampia while Rose, long esteemed for its incredible delicacy and pronounced aroma, is actually a genetically distinct cultivar. Elvio Cogno is one of very few producers to make a 100% Rose Barolo in exceptional vintages from a parcel of old-vines. [Barolo “Vigna Elena” 2006]

La Morra

La Morra

Over in La Morra, Roberto Voerzio could be viewed as both iconic and iconoclastic. While many refer to him as a ‘modernist’ he is actually a free-thinker who has developed a very unique approach to achieve a traditional objective of expressing the uniqueness of each terroir in his wines. He plants very densely and prunes very shortly, realizing an incredibly low yield of grapes from his vines. One might logically expect this to produce over-concentrated imbalanced wines, and in most peoples’ hands that might well be the case. But while Voerzio’s wines are indeed intense, they are also perfectly balanced, multi-layered, long on the palate and full of finesse. They are also reflective of the site they come from and have the capacity to evolve over a long period of time. [Barolo “Fossati Case Nere 2007”]

Moving eastwards, Castiglione Falletto is located squarely in the middle of the Barolo zone and thus a meeting ground of the area’s two principal geologic ages, the Serravalian and the Tortonian. The Villero vineyard, one of Castiglione’s oldest and one of the most prestigious of the entire area, is decidedly more Serravalian, with compact clay, marl and limestone along with a moderate slope and west-southwestern exposition. This is a relatively large vineyard with some 15 proprietors, one of whom is the Oddero winery in the Santa Maria hamlet of La Morra. Oddero is one of the oldest producers in Barolo, tracing its winemaking origins back to the 18th century, and over time has acquired holdings in many of the region’s most acclaimed vineyards. Their winemaking approach, while refined over the years, remains staunchly traditional and very consistent, thus showcasing the unique features of each Barolo site. [Barolo “Villero” 2008]

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Right across the road from Villero is another vineyard that, notwithstanding its close proximity, is completely different. Rocche, another ancient and esteemed vineyard of the Barolo region, is more Tortonian in configuration. The vineyard is very narrow, quite long and extremely steep because it sits atop an east-facing cliff, and the vines end at a 40- to 50-foot drop straight down to the Perno River below. The topsoil is extremely shallow with a high amount of sand and blue marl, and underneath is pure rock, resulting in wines that, though typically lighter in color and lighter-bodied, have always been valued for their eloquence and perfume. Rocche was also one of the very first wines to be bottled as a single-vineyard in the early 1960s. The Brovia winery was founded in Castiglione Falletto in 1863 and is located near Rocche, at the foot of Villero vineyard where they also have a plot. [Barolo “Rocche di Castiglione” 2010]

Serralunga

Serralunga

The village of Serralunga, located on the eastern edge of the zone is decidedly Serravalian territory and Vigna Rionda is the emblematic vineyard of Serralunga as well as one of the most prestigious of the entire zone. Here, the steep slope and full southwestern exposure combined with the older soil composed of densely compact clay, lime and marl over limestone, create Barolos of enormous intensity and depth with a firm tannic backbone and taut musculature. The aromas may be a bit withdrawn at first but reveal themselves gradually over time and the wines have amazing longevity. Massolino winery, founded in Serralunga in 1896, has a long and close connection with the Vigna Rionda vineyard, so close in fact that they named their winery after it! [Barolo “Vignarionda” Riserva 2009]

Overall, if you connect-the-dots between these remarkable wines, visionary winemakers and emblematic vineyard sites, a vivid constellation of a magnificent winegrowing area emerges that you can not only see and admire but also taste.

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About the speaker: Alan Tardi, former NYC chef and restaurateur, has long worked as a freelance journalist authoring articles about wine and food for numerous publications including The New York Times, Wine & Spirits Magazine, The Wine Spectator, Decanter, Sommelier Journal, and Food Arts. In 2003, Alan moved to the village of Castiglione Falletto in the heart of the Barolo region in Piemonte, Italy, where he spent several years working in the surrounding vineyards and wineries through all phases of the growing and production process, an experience which completely changed his perspective on wine. In 2009 Alan began frequenting the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco winegrowing area and, after successive visits during which he developed a rapport with many local farmers and producers, as well as principals of the governing Consortium, was named first ever US Ambassador of Conegliano Valdobbiadene in January 2015. His first book, ‘Romancing the Vine: Life, Love and Transformation in the Vineyards of Barolo’ (St Martins Press, 2006) won a James Beard Award for Best Wine and Spirits Book of 2006. And a new book, “Champagne, Uncorked: The House of Krug and the Timeless Allure of the World’s Most Celebrated Drink” (Hachette/PublicAffairs 2016) recently won a Gourmand Best in the World Award in the French Wine category.

Alan’s session, Icons of Barolo, will be offered on Friday, August 18, 2018 at 3:00 pm as part of the 42nd Annual Conference of the Society of Wine Educators to be held in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State.