The Land of Lombardia - from Franciacorta to the heights of the Valtellina

Welcome to the new blog. For one thing, the pink had to go. Every so often I would preview the actual blog, and I would wonder if I had been redirected to Barbie's Dreamhouse. I swear it didn't seem so on par with pepto-bismol when I selected it.

Regardless, it's done now. And so is dedicating entire blog postings to one winery - with sometimes 3 or 4 cantina visits in one day it's too hard. From now on they will be grouped together in an intelligent manner; for example, this posting is going to be about my rapid 3 days in Lombardia - minus the 24 hours spent in Lake Como. (Sorry you non wine-loving readers, you will have to wait for my Northern Italian surf 'n turf posting to hear about Como.) The wineries featured are:

Bellavista (Franciacorta)

Bellavista Franciacorta

Nino Negri (Valtellina)
Aldo Rainoldi (Valtellina)

VALTELLINA (Negri and Rainoldi)

So, to continue from where I left you hanging upon departing from Piemonte, after an afternoon and evening in Milan my friend Tasha (who had joined me from the States to drive through mountainous northern Lombardia) and I departed early to head to Franciacorta for an appointment at Bellavista. We were met by Alberto Chioni, the head of their marketing, for an in-depth tour of the cantina and an impressive lunch to follow.

The Franciacorta zone is very unique in that it is a glacial basin situated between the Orobie Alps to the north (which separate it from the more northerly Valtellina, which you'll hear about next) and the hills of Monte Orfano. Also included in this little pocket is the Lago d'Iseo, which helps moderatate the climate. indeed, when approaching by car the landscape is totally flat until you are within - which you don't even realize until you get out of the car and have a look around at the massive hills that seem to have just popped out of the earth, with mountains looming both around and beyond the lake to the north. As such, the soils were brought by the alps (in a glacial movement) and are a mix of clay and stone.

Like everywhere else in Italy, winemaking has been going on for centuries here, though it has only become an area with prominence in the last 50 years. Even in the 1960's there was mainly Piemontese varietals planted here (Nebbiolo and Barbera), with the wines labeled as "Pinot di Franciacorta". However, in the 60's a movement towards the production of sparkling wine ensued, and in the 70's it became the very first DOC (a nationally recognized wine zone in Italy) to dictate that the wines be made by motodo classico (traditional method that Champagne is made in with a secondary fermentation occurring in the bottle to create the bubbles.) Over time, it was also deemed that Franciacorta must come from Chardonnay, Pinot Nero and/or Pinot Bianco grapes, and that the wines must age a minimum of 18 months in the bottle - beating even the laws for Champagne! In 1995 the zone was elevated to a DOCG - the highest grade in Italy, and in 2003 the EU even recognized it as one of 13 protected appellations. What does that mean? That, like Champagne, the name "Franciacorta" is essentially trademarked, and is only permitted anywhere on a wine label if it comes from this zone in Italy and is a sparkling wine made by the metodo classico.
**The fact that I just used "sparkling wine" to describe it totally goes against everything that this appelation represents to the producers of Franciacorta. The true purpose is to hammer it in to peoples' heads that when they hear the word "Franciacorta" they should know what to expect, like Champagne. Think about it, if someone is going to offer you a glass of true Champagne, would they ask you, "Would like some sparkling wine?" Of course not. (The real tragedy is that you're far more likely to be offered a glass of "champagne" (I'm talking in the privacy of someone's home) and actually get handed a glass of something that's sparkling, but nothing like Champagne.) To add to their cause, the still wines of the zone - which were previously called "Terre di Franciacorta" have been changed to "Curtefranca" so as to not to further draw from the Franciacorta namesake and image. Capisci?

As for Bellavista, the company was founded in 1977 by Vittorio Moretti who was the owner of a large construction firm, and wanted to make wines from property owned grapes - a "grower-producer", if you will. At this point the company is mammoth - with 187 hectares and 13 more added this year! However, having visited the winery I can vouch for the fact that everything is still being made in a very artisinal manner. For one thing, they were still using the old-school Marmonier press until not so many years ago, though they have now switched to a vertical press. They keep the musts of each vineyard separate during tank fermentation, and the juice for sparkling wines see a minimum of 6 years in old french barrels - and that's before they enter the bottles for the secondary fermentation! Not to mention, the bottles are all still riddled manually, and their grand cuvee, the Vittorio Moretti, which is only made in exceptional vintages, is bottled with a natural cork for it's fermentation and aging. (Alberto said that the disgorging of these bottles is particularly entertaining, as it requires 2 people in water-proof jumpsuits wearing helmets with a large protective face shield.) I did not, unfortunately, get to see the vineyards, but I can only guess that as much anal-retentive care goes into them as it would be a bit of an paradox if they were neglecting them or harvesting by machine.

MOVING ON... see, try as I might, I can't abridge to save my life.

In the interim of Franciacorta and the Valtellina we stopped in Lake Como to take in the breathtaking views of the lake. In doing so, we traveled the entire western shore of the lake and around the very top. I passed through dozens of adorable little lakeside villages, and can honestly say that anywhere you choose to stay around that lake is magnificent. As I traveled east along SS38 it wasn't long before I began seeing vineyards etched into the mountainous northern wall. Yet, we were a good hour from our destination near Sondrio, where the Valtellina Superiore vineyards are. I guess I didn't realize how far the actual DOC zone stretched!

At Negri I have to admit I was a little disappointed to find out that the winery had long ago fallen out of the Negri's hands and has now rifled through several big-business hands, to it's current owner, Gruppo Italiano Vini. Not to say that this is bad, but... there's something to be said for meeting the family that has for their lifetime - and probably their parents and grandparents, too - worked the vines, handed down the land, and possibly pulled the purse strings tight to erect a cantina. The cantina did spend its first 80 in the family, though - started in 1897 by Nino and then taken over by his son, Carlo. However, when Carlo passed away no one in the family wanted to take over and it was sold in 1974 (to the bank of Switzerland. Cha-ching!) One thing that big money can do is to help to preserve and expand, and as such the original house that the Negri's lived in is still there in all its glory.

They export 70% of their annual production (which I have in my notes as 850,000 bottles, but I can't find evidence to back that up, so let's leave it at that.) They own 34 hectares of vineyards in Sassella, Grumello, Inferno and Valgella, which produce a little over 1/4 of their fruit. Interestingly enough, they also are the proprietors of a co-op of local farmers where the rest of their fruit hails from. I assume this is the situation because, similarly to the steep vineyards in Valle d'Aosta, many people have small parcels of land, but don't have the means to produce on their own (nor do they have enough fruit to). At least, I tried to make this analogy to our guide, Urbani, but he didn't seem to grasp what I was getting at. (That's what I get for choosing to study a topic in a foreign language.)

All the details of ownership aside, the wines still speak for themselves. And after a full degustazione I can say I left with a smile on my face. Their wines are especially interesting because they use many different vessels for the production and aging. Steel vats, cement tanks (though this was more of a practice in the past), french oak, american oak, and botte in every size imaginable (made of slavenian oak - different from slovenian, as Aldo Rainoldi clarified the next day).

Last but CERTAINLY not the least, a morning tour at Aldo Rainoldi, given mainly by Aldo's business partner, Fabio, but with some face time with Aldo at the end - mainly our driving tour of the vineyards and a local castel.

At Rainoldi it's still a family run operation, though this Aldo is the nephew of the Aldo Rainoldi that started the company in 1925 - who was the son of winemaker Giuseppe Rainoldi. So, it's in the blood here. (And Aldo has a baby boy, so hopefully there's another generation on deck to take over some day. Good thing they were baby-proofing at Ca'Rizzieri :)

They use large barrels with, yes slAvenian oak, not to be confused with the more commenly seen SlOvenian oak, which borders Italy along Friuli in the northeast and long ago infiltrated the country with their oak casks. To be honest, I didn't even know there was a country called Slavenia - and apparently either does google maps, it asked me if I meant Slovenia. (Ironically, I can't decide who I feel worse for - Google for not knowing about an entire country, or Slavenia who's identity has been reduced to oak barrels.)

Regardless, Rainoldi saves the flashy french barriques for their Sursfat, Crespino, and Inferno Riserva, and the barrels are only used up to a second passage (the fancy french way of saying that thier barriques see only 2 vintages). For those of you that don't know, Sfursato is a type of wine made only in the Valtellina that involves laying the grape clusters out to dry in a place called a "Fruttaio". (but, p.s. the shortened version, "Sfursat" is technically dialect!) Thus far in Italy I've seen fruttaios that were located in anything from warehouses, to large lofty rooms over the cantina, to entire wings of the fortress (Dal Forno).

Alright, my plan to not get lengthy is clearly failing. So I'm gonna wrap this up with this last comment.
So, I learned that these stone walls that break up the steep vineyards are actually called "Scisto". Without these walls - that basically turn the steep mountainside into stairsteps of short rows of vines - the area would be unworkable. On a seperate note, one of the Valtellina Superiore vineyards, the Inferno, is named as such because it's rocky soils increase the temperature to the extent that it becomes like an oven. Upon actually getting to see this famed vineyard I was surprised to not see the ground scattered in jagged rocks. I asked Aldo, and according to him the rockiness comes from rocks that are actually beneath the soil (also visible in some areas jutting out of the ground - see album), and the sheer amount of shisti (the stone walls) due to the steepness.
See, it looked like I was going into 2 seperate directions there, but I brought it all together.

I wanted to close with this funny little video of driving in the valtellina, stealing apples, but I've tried twice now and wasted almost 2 hours killing time on line waiting for it to finish upload, and no dice. Sorry, blame Google. First Slavenia, now this!

Piemonte Round-up (a.k.a. La Spinetta parte due)

If Giorgio Rivetti saw that picture I'm sure he would not be happy. There's a very good chance he may, in fact. But, rest assured after he goes racing into the cellar at Grinzane Cavour, where his precious Barolo rests in brand new barriques (that, as you can see in the photo, I have marred with an over-flow) he will find no trace of the err. That's because Stefano can make miracles happen. (If only he could do the same to so many shirts I have!)

My last week at Spinetta I worked mainly in the cantina filling and emptying barriques. I would like to say that I got pretty good at it, but evidence exists to fight that statement. Not to mention, it's not necessarily difficult, it mainly requires patience, though the filling of the barrel is definitely the harder task of the two. For one thing, it's a listening task - you musk keep your ear by the opening on the barrel to listen for when it's almost full. But let me tell you, there's nothing like keeping your face over the only outlet for all the acidic fumes coming off of freshly fermented barbera - Mamma Mia! My eyes would burn, and my nostrils tingled! All the same, it was a task deemed appropriate for the girl from New York who has no experience working in a winery.

However, lucky for me, I was able to enjoy some time in Piemonte that did not include wincing over barrels of fresh barbera. My first weekend there, for example, Suzanne returned from Milan (where she is studying for a masters at Bocconi), and we headed to La Morra, in the Barolo zone, for a sunday degustazione at Mauro Molino with Martina Molino. When we were there she informed us that there was actually a big festival going on in town with almost all of the producers in La Morra tasting the masses on their 2005 Barolos (and usually their other wines, too). There are some pictures of this in the album here, amongst others (the first few being from before I arrived at Spinetta - whilst we were still in Northern Piemonte.) Like the previous albums, be sure to watch the captions for a better explanation, though my favorite picture definitely hails from Enzo Boglietti's booth where we were served by a boy (presumably his son) who was probably 9. Only in Italy!

La Spinetta & La Vita Piemontese

In the album you can also observe Giovanna Rivetti - my "hostess" in Piemonte, as well as her hens - and the rooster, not pictured, that served as my alarm clock during my stay. It's amazing, in New York I learned to block out the sounds of ambulances, car horns, and noisy bars. In Piemonte, it was farm animals. (I'll have you know, though, by the end of my time there I was successfully sleeping through that damn rooster!)

One thing slightly unfortunate was that I was unable to visit as many producers as I would have liked because it was harvest (vendemmia) and all were busy - including me. I had a rapid tour at Eunaudi (which is really a beautiful estate!) and a wonderful lunch with the Altare's. My last day in Piemonte (a day I was actually supposed to be in Milan with my friend, Tasha, who had arrived the previous day from the States) we got to also visit Chiara Boschis at the E. Pira e Figli cantina - which was much better than anything we could have done in Milan.

Right before I left I was also lucky enough to catch a friend who was an amazing resource to setting up this trip - Mark Fornatale, Italian Wine Portfolio Director for Michael Skurnik Wines in NYC. We got to spend the afternoon at the Bra Cheese Festival, and then that night dive into the ENTIRE Barolo portfolio of Marc DeGrazie for 2005 and 2006 at the cantina of Fratelli Ravello(!!!) (So you know, these were not opened for us, this was in honor of Steve Tanzer's visit - whom I was lucky enough to meet earlier that week during his appointment with Giorgio (I played the sommelier for that appointment :). We were just part of the free-loading crew that came by afterwards to partake in all the open bottles of delicious, amazing barolo.)
The final added bonus of over-lapping time with Mark was attending a dinner my last night with all the Barolo kids. It was a "bring a bottle blind" kind of event, and I'm happy to say that I did pretty well. Go me! But, more than that, it was a wonderful chance to get to hang out with everyone on their own turf versus when they're being dragged around New York. In fact, my luck served me well in that I got to sit with Chiara Boschis, who was every bit as fabulous as you might expect, and the reason for pushing back that Milan arrival one more day to visit her cantina.

All in all an amazing visit in Piemonte. I felt welcomed (and enthusiastically invited!) by everyone I met, and at this time I have many open invitations to return... which I just might have to do before I depart. It was nice to be able to work as well as offer my service skills at Spinetta (not only as a tour guide for english speaking visitors, but also during a few dinner parties and, of course, the Steve Tanzer appointment), as it allowed me to give back a bit to the overwhelming generosity I received. It was definitely an experience I will never forget, and I can only hope to continue the friendships for years to come.

Here are a few short films from the time in Piemonte. They are very rough, but they offer a more real-time experience. Enjoy!

Bra Cheese Festival

Ghemme vs. Gattinara (Cantalupo & Antoniolo, Piemonte)

Any great lover of Italian Wines (who has taken the time to get to know the lesser known areas of Gattinara and Ghemme in northern Piemonte) can tell you that they are completely different wines. But then, consult a map, and you see they are just accross the river Sesia from each other. And what's more, they are made with the exact same grape - Nebbiolo!

Visualizzazione ingrandita della mappa
So what gives? Why is it that Gattinara shares similarities with it's stong-willed siblings, Barbaresco, Carema, and even some Barolo's, while Ghemme strikes the palate more like a Burgundy?

From what I can understand, the main difference is their soil composition. In Gattinara they have volcanic soils that are mainly composed with porphyr and also some granite. The hills are steeper, they see more rainfall than their neighbor, and the day to night temperatures vary more. The high level of minerality in the soils helps preserve acidity, and overall the wines are capable of producing the powerful identity more commonly attributed to the Langhe.

In Ghemme the soils were brought by glacial movements, and as such they have much more rocky, mountain deposits that have come together with a chalky, sand-like binding component. Alberto Alunno stopped the car at one point and directed me to break a chunk of soil from the exposed hillside. It was light tan in color, and though initially firm would crumble into a pile of dust without a lot of effort. Now, as much as I'd like to make a general comparision to the soils of Burgundy here (or, as the French call it, "Bourgogne"), there just no way to do that as the regions most famous selling point is that the soils vary from one vineyard plot to the one right next to it, and even within the same vineyard sometimes. However, (generally speaking) what they have in common is their clay base (though more limestone in Burgundy) and sandy or gravely composition, which helps drain the soils and maintains a certain level of elegance in the wines. For a better visual of how close these areas lie, refer to the photo below.

Looking at Gattinara from the hills of Ghemme

But when all is said and done, I have only my own experiences with these wines over the past few years, coupled with the ones I had here to base my ideas on. And in tasting through both current vintage line-ups, it was clear that Antoniolo's Gattinara's offered up more acidity, spice, licorice, fresh leather, and cherries, while the Ghemme's struck that certain "barnyard" note that is so commonly associated with Burgundy. (Being so young there was also a lot of cigar-box smokiness and even a floral aspect, but really nebbiolo in a class of its own :)


What was comforting to see was that both wineries had remained in the family and were onto their second or third generation, with roots dating even further back. At Cantalupo I consider it second generation, but that's only in regards to the current company, Antichi Vigneti di Cantalupo, which was founded in 1977 by Carlo Arlunno and his son, Alberto. The Arlunno family has been in the area since the 1500's, and land has passed down from each generation to the next. The land had some vineyards - the wines were produced under the label "Antonio Arlunno", but the families main business was the construction of new homes; and, according to Alberto, the wines were quite simple.
However, after Ghemme got the DOC in 1969 Carlo decided to turn the winery into the families main business, and so he replanted the vineyards and even bought more land. The company was changed to Antichi Vigneti di Cantalupo in 1977 (which translates to "The Old Vines of the Laughing Wolf") to establish itself as a higher quality, more serious cantina than the previous "Antonio Arlunno". In the mid 80's Alberto took over as winemaker, and has only increased the quality of these wines with each passing vintage. Here he is pictured on the cover of the album from Ghemme.

Cantalupo (Ghemme, Piemonte)

I was fortunate enough to pick up a 1996 "Collis Breclemae" Ghemme at the cantina and shared it with some of the guys I worked with at Spinetta - Andrea Rivetti being one of them. Everyone agreed it was one of the best (if not the best) bottle of the evening. (And there were several bottles that night :) My biggest regret is that I only got one bottle instead of a 6-pack.

As for Antoniolo, they had an interesting back-story, as well. Their family also was historically from the area, and had vineyards. But, after phylloxera completely wiped out the vineyards around 1910, Lorella (Antoniolo)'s great-grandfather was among the other farmers of the area to abandon their now defunct vineyards and head to a city in search of work. He settled in Rome.
However, after WWII his son, Mario, (Lorella's grandfather) decided to return to the region of his families roots and be part of a massive replanting of the area with American root stock. Amazingly, Lorella said that before the phylloxera there had been near 4,000 hectares of planted vineyards as opposed to the 1,300 - 1,400 that exist in the zone today. Antoniolo's vines all range from 30-40 years in age, and they produce wines under 2 DOC's: Gattinara (a DOCG) and Coste della Sesia for their nebbiolo normale, rosato, and erbaluce. Also interesting about Gattinara is that the actual city was historically a fortified one - meaning all the vineyards are technically outside the city walls, while the cantina (and their home) is located in town. Lots of other fun facts in the album below.

Antoniolo (Gattinara, Piemonte)

After Mario Antoniolo started the cantina in 1948 he passed it onto his daughter, Rosanna, and it is now in its third generation with her children, Alberto and Lorella (whom Suzanne and I were lucky enough to have lead our tour, and then eat lunch with.) At Antoniolo there is also the option of picking up some older vintages of wine - mainly because the family makes sure to set aside 600-700 bottles each year for themselves... Which doesn't even compare to the 5,000 bottles Rosanna set aside in 1961 when she gave birth to Alberto!
The good news is that at the cantina many older vintages are available for purchase. All the more reason to get there! (I picked up a 1979 Vigneto San Francesco, personally :)