Dinner with Giuseppe Vaira at Osteria Mozza - Tuesday, January 26th 2016 7pm

G.D. VAJRA WINE DINNER

with Giuseppe Vaira

The history of G.D. Vajra is one anchored in tradition and family values. Since the 1920s, the Vajra family possessed vineyards that only eventually became lucrative in the 1960s, after the Italian DOC system was formed and the popularity of Barolo went on the rise. By 1972, Giuseppe Domenico Vajra perfected his labor of love and formed the G.D. Vajra estate – a 40 hectare vineyard perched in the highest village of Barolo. The altitude here is the life force behind several wines, most notably their prized nebbiolo. With a matured ripening comes an innate elegance and intensity. The soil breeds the wines to be rich and fragrant. The climate lends to smaller batches, where the quality is palpable. As exemplified at the winery: “We believe in beauty, craftsmanship, attention to detail and creativity with respect for tradition” – and it shows.

Together with Giuseppe’s grandson, Giuseppe, we will embark on an exploration from this beloved winery – from Barbera to Barolo – alongside a five course menu from James Beard Award Winning Chef, Nancy Silverton, and Executive Pastry Chef, Dahlia Narvaez.

G.D. Vajra Wine Dinner

Tuesday, January 26^th 2016

7pm

Osteria Mozza’s Primo Ministro Room

6602 Melrose Avenue, LA 90038

$175 per person

excluding tax & service charge

Il Menu

NV Metodo Classico Rosé, “N.S. Della Neve”

First Course

2010 Langhe DOC, Riesling “Petracine”

2012 Langhe DOC, Riesling “Petracine”

SHAVED VEGETABLE SALAD with Bagna Cauda

Second Course

2009 Barbera Superiore DOC

2012 Barbera Superiore DOC

Tajarin with Pork ragù & Parmigiano Reggiano

Third Course

2009 Barolo, Cru Cerretta DOCG

2010 Barolo, Cru Cerretta DOCG

Squab Ravioli with pancetta & rosemary

Fourth Course

2008 Barolo, Cru Bricco delle Viole DOCG MAG

2010 Barolo, Cru Bricco delle Viole DOCG

Braised oxtail with celery

Fifth Course

2014 Moscato d'Asti DOCG

Meyer Lemon Panna cotta

The next generation

Little Aldo and big Giuseppe.

A tasting at Tre Monti with Vittorio Navacchia . . .

We dropped by to see Vittorio Navacchia at the Forli estate where they make mostly the red wines from Tre Monti.  Here are a few pictures from our visit.

Vittorio getting some Albana out of the Georgian amphora

Our beautiful little Pignoletto Frizzante (sparkling Grechetto) 

I like their mailbox.

Old training method called double something for these young Albana vines.

Does anyone want to go in with me on a shack in Italy?  This could be the place!

Sangiovese vines planted in 1968

This vine was planted the same year I was born.

Vittorio Navacchia

Slow Wine San Francisco . . . good fun was had by all . . .

A whole bunch of wines from my portfolio were selected for the Slow Wine guide this year but it is pretty expensive for the smaller producers to make it over this way and to NY etc so usually it is just G.D. Vajra that decides to make it.  And frankly, it is better for me to just have one of my guys here as it would get really complicated otherwise.  But maybe next year I will have them all come over and we can put them all on one side of the room and see how that works out.  In the meantime, here below are some pictures from before the tasting.

Bringing out the big map!

You are not funny, Justin!

Slow Wine likes G.D. Vajra

2013 Dolcetto Coste e Fossati

2010 Barolo Ravera - first vintage and sold out!

2010 Luigi Baudana "Cerretta" tastes really expensive.

Freisa, Freisa, Freisa . . . G.D. Vajra Kye` 2011

It all started here, with the G.D. Vajra Langhe Rosso Freisa "Kye`".  I had the choice between two producers from Barolo to be the first wines in my portfolio and I was agonizing over the choice.

Should I go with the one that I had already met in Italy and tasted all of their wines (shall remain nameless) or should I go with the one that I had just talked with over the phone and had only tasted their Barolo. (G.D. Vajra)

What to do?  What to do?

I asked an old friend of mine in the business what he thought I should choose.  He is well known and has been around a long time and has a great palate so I was ready to listen . . . and he told me that he had recently been in New York and had tasted an older bottling, like 1995 or something, of the G.D. Vajra Freisa and how it had blown everyone at the table away.  That it was by far one of the most memorable wines he had tasted in awhile.  And that G.D. Vajra would be his choice.

And so it became my choice.

Now, five plus years later, after many vintages of Freisa under my belt, here is the newly arrived 2011 G.D. Vajra Langhe Freisa "Kye`".

Call or email me for your chance to taste the Freisa.

"In 2011 Freisa Kyè is surprisingly laid back and refined, with far less of the pure intensity and explosiveness it typically presents. Varietal notes are also a bit more in the background, at least today. Sweet herbs, mint, rose petal and orange peel are some of the notes that mark an especially elegant Kyè from the Vajra family." -- Antonio Galloni - Vinous

If you have never had a dry, savory Freisa of the first order, this is your chance.

Back label snafu . . .

When did I become an importer in Seattle, WA and when did Rinascimento Wine Company become someone else?  It is only 50 cs of wine with another importer on the back label . . .no big deal . . . right?  Hmmm, what to do, what to do . . . I think I am going to have to cover it up with a sticker . . . . (sigh) . . . that means a few days in the warehouse opening boxes for sure . . .

Favaro ROS

"La vigna è a 400 mt su terreno ripido e con tanti sassi di granito."
The vineyard is at 1200 feet on steep terrain and with lots of stones of granite.

"La vinificazione è fatta in tonneaux aperto e macerato per 3 settimane. Solo follature delicate e nessun rimontaggio."
The vinification is in open topped wooden fermenters and macerated on the skins for three weeks.   only delicate punch downs and no pumpovers.

"Poi rimane 14 mesi in barrique di 3 o 4 passaggi, nessun travaso."
Then it remains 14 months in three or four year old barrels, no racking.

"Messo in bottiglia senza stabilizzazione e filtrazione."
Bottled without filtration and cold stabilization.

"Un vino dove cerco eleganza e purezza."
A wine where I am searching for elegance and purity.

"Spero piacerà anche in California!"
I hope they like it also in California!

300 bottles made 

Camillo Favaro

Max saying Ronco Severo . . . almost . . . .

Tre Monti - Slow Wine Guide 2015

Harvest Photos from Praesidium in Abruzzo . . .

Antonia Pasquale sent us some great photos of the harvest at Praesidium.  Everything is hand harvested into crates.  The yield on these vines is tiny.  Looks like 2014 will be another good vintage. But we have to wait five years for it to be released!

Ottaviano Pasquale, winemaker for Praesidium with the fermenting Montepulciano and Cerasuolo in stainless
 

the grape must going into the basket press after fermentation 

2002 Comte Armand Pommard Clos des Epeneaux

Tasting pretty fantastic right now.  Very dark with lots of mint and root beer in the nose.  Clean and lively on the palate but pretty weighty.  Excellent.

The real rose` season is upon us!

It is boiling out there and the best thing I can think of to cool down is to drink lots of Italian Rosato by the pool.

I have just a few cases left of the following:

Favaro 2013 ROSACHEROSANONSEI Rosato (VdT) 180/15

90% Nebbiolo, 10% Syrah Hand-harvested grapes are fermented at cool temperatures and aged in stainless steel tanks for four months. This wines has great acidity and nice tension that backs up a fullish rosato with nice mineral notes. Aromatics are floral with strawberry and raspberry flavors seasoned with mint.

or the

This is a picture of 2012 vintage.  The 2013 is even better!

Cirelli  2013 Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo DOC 144/12

The Cirelli Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo 2013 is tasting great right now.  Lots of cherry fruit and acidity and a little bit of that salty terroir thing going on, too.  It is also a critter wine, notice the beautiful butterfly, which I am sure is recognizable to all as the sign of freedom and transformation (okay, I am reaching here . . .) but whatever.  The wine is good.

The grapes for this wine were grown specifically to be direct press rose` and that has some advantages.  Lower alcohol and higher acidity would be the most obvious.  And now that the weather is getting really hot, and our rose` season is finally upon us, this is a great wine for those hot days.

Ask for them from your local retailer or email me and I can tell you the best way to get them to your door..

Cheers.

Justin

The new single cru Barolo from G.D. Vajra - RAVERA

"It’s a true joy to introduce you to our new single vineyard bottling, Barolo Ravera. Ravera is a superb cru. Located in the southwest quadrant of the Barolo zone, the vineyard runs north to south across Comune di Barolo and Novello. It sits to the west, at the same latitude of Bussia and Ginestra in Monforte d'Alba and Falletto in Serralunga d’Alba. The dominant soil type here is “Arenarie di Diano”: a mix of clay and sands, which is especially rich in iron. This translates into a very vibrant yet dense Barolo that promises a fabulous evolution over time.

Our beautiful block is shaped like an amphitheatre. We have been farming it since 2001 and produced Langhe Nebbiolo until 2008. In 2010, fate and nature smiled on us and we decided that this must be our debut vintage. Only 3,000 bottles will be released from this initial harvest.

Antonio Galloni of Vinous, rated Ravera as an “Outstanding” vineyard, which means, “Sites [that] often produce wines of true personality and class.” - G.D. Vajra

I tasted the wine at VinItaly this year and was blown away.  Maybe it was because it was new, maybe because it was Ravera, maybe because it was 2010 . . . I am not sure.  But for whatever reason, this wine tasted fantastic.

It will be arriving in October and I would like to see how it tastes then.

Vini Praesidium from the Abruzzo . . . coming to our shores . . .

I tasted these wines first five or more years ago or so at ViniVeri, one of the shadow conventions that take place the same time as VinItaly in Verona.  ViniVeri producers are usually practicing organic or biodynamic but aren't dogmatic about it like the producers at some of the other upstart fairs.  

At the time, I was just starting to import Italian wine and these wines caught my taste buds because they weren't like any other wine I had tried before . . .  or since.  But at the time, I just couldn't swing a brand like this and I was already selling the famous and respected wines from Emidio Pepe through another portfolio I represented, so it just didn't make sense.  And I only had tasted their current vintages at that time and not any of the older vintages.

I stopped by this year to taste their wines again, fully expecting that someone else would have picked them up by now, and to my surprise, they were still free on the West Coast, and they had their current selections, 2009 Montepulciano and 2013 Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo . . . but even more fascinating, they had some older vintages, the 2006 and the 2001.

And they blew my mind.  

The 2006 was as fresh as most wines straight after the harvest.  The flavors were so strong and so primal that I thought I was tasting a wine that was much younger. It all started to make sense.  This is what Montepulciano can be . . . a certain style to be sure, and not the last word on it, but wow!

The 2001 vintage had so much balance and so much finesse but at the same time power.  The expression "the iron fist in the velvet glove" sprang to mind and I couldn't get the taste out of my mouth. It lingered on my tongue and in my soul.

The next day, I had the pleasure of crashing a retrospective tasting of Emedio Pepe wines to celebrate his 50th year making his iconic Montepulciano d'Abruzzo.  We tasted: 1967, 1975, 1985, 1993, 2001, 2003, 2007. The wines were lovely. Some, of course, better than others. The 1967 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d'Abruzzo was the highlight.  A wine that had aged perfectly. 

Emidio Pepe- truly a lion of the wine business

But I must say, I couldn't get the Praesidium wines out of my mind.

Sometime your first instinct is the best instinct and I knew then that I had to have these wines for my portfolio.  Totally different from the wines of Francesco Cirelli which are made on the coast and are what I would call almost an avant garde representation of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, the wines from Praesidium are the exact opposite.  They need years to become accessible.  Years to open up and show their true character.  Years to blossom from something shy and awkward into something shining and true and good.

So here they are:

2013 Praesidium Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo                             
2009 Praesidium Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Riserva
2006 Praesidium Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Riserva
2001 Praesidium Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Riserva 
1998 Praesidium Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Riserva

The 1998 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Riserva, the 2001 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Riserva  and the 2006 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Riserva, are older vintages, always kept in their cellar, hewn from rock in the mountains.  The 2009 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Riserva is their current vintage, just released.  "Riserva" because it stays in the winery for five years before being released in the world. Two years in tank, two years plus in a mix of old slavonian botte and older barrique and then a year in bottle.

And of course, they make a Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo to rival all other Cerasuolos.  Bled off the fermenting Montepulciano after two days on the skins, it is almost too intense, more like a red wine than a rose` and will also reward a few years in the cellar.

From the winery: “We aim to create a true expression of the wine of this unique area using traditional and artisan methods in the vineyard and the cellar. We think that the wine, being a cultural product, born from the interaction between man and nature, has its own unique personality and it is necessary to allow the wine to express itself in the most spontaneous and natural manner. Our philosophy originates from the lifestyle led by our family since the beginning and passed down through the decades of farming work. In the vineyard, we have always tried to understand the needs of the land, by work that is aimed to assist nature, without forcing or manipulating it, and definitely without the use of synthetic chemical products. From having both the utmost respect of an area of land particularly appropriate for growing the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo vines, and the continuous research into the quality of the grapes, we reinforced the idea that the quality and the healthiness of the wine are strictly related. The artisan work in the cellar consists of reducing the operations to its essentials, which allows us to pursue our objective: produce, from the vinification of a single vine variety, a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo wine that is the most authentic expression of its native land.”