Stefano Novello of Ronco Severo talks about the "sense of place" you can find in his wines because of the type of soil part 3 (in Italian)

Stefano Novello of Ronco Severo talks about the fermentation philosophy part 2 (in Italian)

Stefano Novello talks about the philosophy behind Ronco Severo part 1

Giuseppe Vaira lunch at Il Moro . . .

So, every once in a while, instead of doing the dog and pony show with a supplier, it is fun to get a group of people together to taste the new vintages of a wine and eat some good food together and look at the wines in the context of how they pair with food.  The modern way of selling wine on the wholesale side is you trot around with open bottles and taste wine buyers at their place of business and gauge their reactions and take orders or don't take orders depending upon how much they liked the wines.  But all of this is done in a pretty shallow fashion as the buyers don't have much time to devote to learning about the wines and the tastings are done fast and without food and there is little or no contemplation.  But if that same buyer can sit down with the producer, relax a little bit and get the chance to taste the wine in the context of a meal and be able to ask questions between sips of wine and bites of food, this changes the dynamic between the wine and the buyer and the winery.

Last week, I had a chance to have a group of buyers join Giuseppe Vaira of G.D. Vajra and Luigi Baudana at Il Moro in Los Angeles to share a meal and drink the new vintages of G.D. Vajra and Luigi Baudana wines.

Decanting really brings the young wines to life

Here is the list of wines for the day in the order we tasted them:
NV G.D. Vajra N.S. della Neve Spumante
2011 G.D. Vajra Dolcetto d'Alba
2010 G.D. Vajra Barbera d'Alba
2009 G.D. Vajra Barbera Superiore
2009 G.D. Vajra Langhe Freisa "Kye`"
2008 G.D. Vajra Barolo "Albe"
2008 G.D. Vajra Barolo "Bricco delle Viole"
2008 Luigi Baudana Barolo "Cerretta"
2008 Luigi Baudana Barolo "Baudana"

Below are some photos of the wines as we decanted them.

The Barolo "Cerretta" is tasting pretty darn sexy right now.

Freisa, Barbera, Barbera Superiore et al.

Freisa, Barbera d'Alba

Barolo Bricco delle Viole, Dolcetto d'Alba

The wine and food were a perfect match.  The Tagliata di Manzo was heavenly but I was one of the only ones to get it.  We must be in L.A.!

A great time was had by all and of course, a huge thanks to Giuseppe Vaira for his friendship and the greatness of his family's wines.

Giuseppe Vaira of G.D. Vajra Winery in San Francisco next week . . .

Giuseppe Vaira of G.D. Vajra winery will be pouring the 2008 G.D. Vajra Bricco delle Viole Barolo and the 2009 G.D. Vajra Barbera Superiore at the Slow Wine 2013 tasting in San Francisco  Monday, February 4th

12 - 4 pm

Terra Gallery 511 Harrison Street

Members of the trade can register here but there is no public tasting.  :-(