Nothing feeds my heart, soul and mind like spending a few weeks in Italy. I’ve only just returned and I miss it already. There’s the villages and beautiful scenery, the daily rituals of caffe at the bar, aperitivo and a passegiata that, for us with a five year old, involved a daily search for the best gelati (Gelateria La Romana dal 1947 in Desenzano take a bow).

What else do I miss? The food (I don’t mean just restaurants), actually going out to buy food at markets and shops. It is inexpensive and high quality, even in the supermarket. And there are some things that always taste better – olive oil, butter, cheese, yoghurt, veal and chocolate to name a few.

There are a few things I won’t miss. Some of the shopping hours are archaic. I can understand it in Spain, where dinner starts at 10pm and you need a siesta in the afternoon, but not in downtown Alba. UHT milk in my morning coffee – yuk. The toll booths on the autostrada – it would be ok if the money was used to actually improve the country’s roads but, being privately owned, it actually makes a few very rich people even more rich.

But the one thing about Italy that I won’t miss is the storage of wine. In Italy, the land of wine, the storage of wine is, for the most part, appalling. So much so that the oldest bottles I enjoy whilst travelling usually come from the cellars of the wineries we work with. I won’t pay for older wines anymore unless I’ve seen the cellar of the restaurant or wine shop or been there before.

On this trip, in Barolo for example, I purchased a few current release wines that I knew had just hit the shelf. There they were, proudly standing upright alongside previous vintages. Why do so many enoteche and ristorante in Italy stand their bottles upright? When it gets bottled at the winery, it gets laid down for sometimes two years before being packaged for sale. So why then stand the bottle upright on a shelf for sometimes the same period, or even longer? One hot summer day, let alone the fluctuating seasons, is enough to ruin the wine.

It was the same story in Panzano in Chianti where the local enoteca , packed to the roof with a great selection that included lots of older bottles, stood every single bottle upright. In fact the most prized bottles had their very own lamp to shine on the labels!

I think the winery owners and winemakers themselves need to be more vigilant about how their wines are presented post sale. A consumer that unknowingly purchases a badly stored bottle is likely to blame the wine and not buy again. There must be millions of bottles stored this way around the country and I believe its an issue more serious than cork taint.

To ship our wines to Australia, they are stored at our climate controlled warehouse in La Spezia, then packed into a reefer (refrigerated) and, after arriving, they are unpacked into our climate controlled warehouse in Melbourne. We take the storage of our wine seriously, whether it be a container of Barolo or Montepulciano. Marco Ricasoli-Firidolfi from Chianti’s Rocca di Montegrossi said it best during his recent visit to Australia, “my wines here taste exactly as they do at the winery.”

With Vinitaly approaching, ‘getting on the sauce’ could refer to the days and nights of tasting, tasting and tasting some more. But this sauce is real, real tomato sauce. Next time you are at the supermarket, buying canned tomatoes or bottled sauce, check out the ingredients. You’ll find that most are full of thickening agents, sugar and preservatives. Not at Pomodoro Brothers!

This year we really stepped it up, with 360kg of Roma tomatoes – double our usual quantity.  When I tell my friends in Italy that we are making tomato sauce, they reply “why don’t you buy it from the shop like we do”! Its hard work, but the reward comes every time you open a bottle throughout the year. And around my house, pasta con pomodoro is on high rotation.

Making good sauce is a little like winemaking. Firstly, you need cold beer and lots of it! Secondly, you have to have great fruit. This years tomatoes were expertly sourced from an exceptional grower in Tatura and displayed all the hallmarks of a great vintage.  The fruit was in excellent condition with perfect physiological ripeness and we concentrated the pulp with some Amarone style drying – using the finest polystyrene boxes to store the tomatoes in a warm yet well ventilated garage to concentrate their sugar levels.

The sorting table is where it all starts, and here we are more rigourous than Gaja. Anything that doesn’t make the grade, we sell to the local cooperative. With miminimal intervention, the saucing begins (gravity feed and no pumps). At Pomodoro Brothers, we are more natural than Frank Cornelisen, preferring not to add anything (apart from a few basil leaves).

Finally, the harvest is over for another year and we can honestly declare a 2012 a five star tomato vintage. Buon appetito!

I love this time of the year - not because its summer and Campari o’clock comes around early, or that every meal gets grilled on the barbecue, I love it because its when we set up the next twelve months and plan the years events, travel schedules (this year will see us spend a combined four months in Italy) and order our new wines. Read more »

No new post from me today but instead, links to a couple of pages reviewing and talking about Italian wine. I read both of these guys blogs regularly and, if you love Italian wine, recommend you do too.

Tom Hyland at Learn Italian Wines puts Grattamacco 2008 (just arrived here) into his top wines of the year for 2011.

And, over at On the Wine Trail in Italy, Italian Wine Guy Alfonso Cevola visits Bellavista in Franciacorta.

Happy reading

Today, I am feeling nostalgic.  This year Trembath & Taylor turns 18. Not old, but in the wine industry that’s like dog years. In 1994, following two years in Milano, Michael Trembath and Virginia Taylor returned to Australia and established their business, specialising in the wines of Italy. Their office was on level one of the historic George Hotel in St Kilda and I started working at the Melbourne Wine Room on the ground level. At the time, I knew very little about wine, let alone Italian wine, yet something with these two people resonated with me. I was fascinated by their passion, enthusiasm and knowledge of the wines of Italy and it wasn’t long before I was learning Tuscany before Barossa Valley. I knew then that one day we’d end up working together and its been a wonderful journey.

Read more »

I’m making a list and checking it twice. Perbellini Pannettone, check. Marcarini Moscato, check. Prawns, check. Bellavista, check. Whilst our Italian friends will be making their way through the snow and gathering around the fireplace, we’ll be playing beach cricket and chilling our reds in the fridge. Here’s what’s on the menu at three of Italy’s great wineries. Buon Natale.

FRANZ HAAS in Alto Adige, from Franz Haas

Alaskan Salmon, fished by Franz’ cousin, Champagne Sous Bois Billecart Salmon

Soup with gnocchetti, Pinot Bianco 2009 Franz Haas

Fillet of beef baked in bread crust, Barbaresco Martinenga 1999 Marchese di Gresy

Panettone Perbellini and biscotti from Franz’ mother, Moscato d’Asti 2010 Saracco

PODERI COLLA in Piedmont, from Pietro Colla

It’s common knowledge around our office that Bruna Colla is one of the finest cooks in the Langhe. A meal at the Collas is always a treat, but you better pack a spare stomach because its so good, an extra helping simply cannot be refused. The wine choices here will of course be Piedmontese, coming from a cellar stocked with more than a few gems from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. That reminds me, don’t drink the 64’mate – save it for our Easter lunch!

Antipasti

Pat di fegato e di selvaggina, Flan di topinambur con fonduta

Cotechino con pur di patate, Zampone con lenticchie

Primi

Agnolotti al plin burro e salvia and Agnolotti in brodo

Secondi

Cappone bollito

Dolce

Panettone and  Bonet dla nona

Frutta secca, mandarini

POGGIO ARGENTIERA in Tuscany, from Gianpaolo Paglia

This year Gianpaolo is having a big family Christmas in Justine’s home town in the UK. It kicks off “in a traditional rave in the nave at the local abbey, when Justine will sing ‘Messiah’ with the choir. On the 24th, my Italian parents will be joining us and Mamma will bake lasagne to enjoy with a bottle of Capatosta Morellino di Scansano 2009.”

On Christmas day, the children will graze on chocolate and sweets with the odd crisp or two for dietary variety. The rest of us will have scrambled egg and smoked salmon for breakfast. Us adults will have an aperitif with a glass of Donnhoff Norheimer Kirscheck Riesling Spatlese 2002, and turkey with Bellamarsilia Morellino di Scansano 2010 (voted by The  Independent as the ‘best wine to go with turkey’). We’ll also have venison roasted with juniper and a glazed ham with Pommard 1er Cru Les Jarollieres 1999 Nicolas Potel.  Christmas pudding with Lalicante vino da tavola passito should send us into a calorie surfeit  slumber until boxing day, when we’ll have a good long walk followed by  a cold table of the ham (revisited),
Melton Mowbray pork pie, walnuts, cheese, more cheese, homemade bread and a small cherry tomato to share.”

“A nice bottle of 20 yrs old Tawny Port (to be selected) will also accompany the end of meals. And of course some Champagne La Grand Dame Veuve Cliquot 1999.”

Franco Ziliani, leading blogger, writer and commentator on Italian wine, recently interviewed me for the AIS – Associazione Italiana Sommelier - on all things Italian wine in Australia. Click to read in Italian or a transcript here in English.

Grazie Franco, it was an honour to be asked.

Tickets to the 2012 Melbourne Food & Wine Festival went on sale recently, and if you love Italian wine there is one event that you DO NOT want to miss out on. Barolo Bar. The bar will ‘pop up’ at the Bellavista Social Club (above Becco) for three nights during the Festival, serving a selection of 30 Baroli (and some Barbareschi) by the glass. Read more »

Late Autumn in Italy’s Piedmont is a sublime time of the year. The rush of harvest is over, vines are bare and the air is crisp, with snow beginning to fall on the Alps. The buz in Alba shifts from grapes to one of the world’s most expensive ingredients, the famous white truffle, or tartufo bianco. Black truffles, be they Italian, French or Australian have nothing on this pungent nugget of goodness. I don’t normally travel to Italy at this time of the year so when I did so last year, the only meal I ate that was without a slice of truffle was breakfast. I ate them every which way:- shaved over risotto, pasta (tajarin in Piedmont), eggs (baked and fried), fonduta and carne cruda. At Barolo Rosso in the village of Barolo, Chiara Boschis called the waiter over half way through my tajarin and had him pile my plate once more with truffles - the best second helping ever!

Eating truffles is a strange experience in that so much of the flavour is in the smell, and it invades your every pore. The generous shavings atop these very simple dishes can turn a humble fried egg into a dish of beauty. No complicated michelin starred cooking required here, just take a dish made in every home in this region, and shave away.

Given that a meal at one of my favourites, Sosta Cucina, is cheaper and more convenient than an airfare to Milan, we heeded the call when Maurice told us of his new delivery. You can take your pick here of shavings on risotto, tagliolini or egg and polenta. At $11 per gram, I suggest 4-5 grams to really enjoy them.

start here

pre-shave weigh-in

shave

post shave weigh-in

8.05 grams of shaved truffle later (for two) and this is one of the best dishes you will ever eat. And you must, absolutely must enjoy this with a glass of Nebbiolo.

There has been a bit going on at Barolo’s E.Pira lately. This is an estate that we like to refer to as Chiara Boschis E.Pira as we feel that Chiara’s impact on one of Barolo’s historical estates deserves co-naming.

Following the sale of her family’s Borgogno winery, she has recently been joined by her brother Giorgio, and together, they have acquired new vineyards in some of the regions most prized crus. In 2009, Chiara purchased part of the Conterni vineyard in Monforte, which came with old vines of Dolcetto, Barbera and Nebbiolo that Chiara will be replanting, parcel by parcel, over the next few years. A recent re-drawing of some of the Barolo boundaries has also resulted in Conterni being re-classified as Mosconi. Chiara’s first vintage of Nebbiolo from this estate was 2009 and she chose to release it as Langhe Nebbiolo rather than Barolo. Langhe Nebbiolo by name (and price!), baby Barolo by structure. The first few cases went to my cellar, and there are a few left.

But it gets better…..with Giorgio on board, this sister-brother team have secured parcels of Liste (Barolo), Ravera (Monforte) and Gabutti (Serralunga), with plans to mature the wine in botti as a multi vineyard blend. This is a return to tradition in more ways than one, as blending from several vineyards, and/or communes, was once the norm in Barolo. Click here to read the blog from David Berry Green, Chiara’s UK importer and Barolo resident (yes, I’m more than a little jealous) and listen to Chiara explain the philosophy behind the botti and the new vineyards.