Wine industry innovation: Italy after Brunello

De Vinis, the official publication of the Italian Sommeliers Association (Associazione italiana di sommelier – AIS), recently featured an interview with Luca Zaia, Italy’s new agricultural minister.

That Italy has a new government will come as no surprise to any of us; it is also a more right wing government and Zaia comes from the Northern League party – considered one of Italy’s most right wing political parties around.

But for the purposes of the post, I’ll leave politics aside as the intricacies of Italian politics are beyond my comprehension and serve no use here. A word of introduction though is required to put this interview into context.

Italy is virtually beyond crisis in Europe. It’s economy is at a stand still, or worse, in decline, it’s labour market is woeful and it’s losing ground to new EU entries and other stalwarts of the Union that have traditionally been countries that Italy could count on as being worse placed than itself (Spain, Greece and Portugal come to mind). The country is, in short, stagnating.

Why should agriculture then, be so important? The fluffy side of me says it’s about the long held and respected Italian lifestyle and Italian traditions. It should also be noted that this is not just for the south, but the north as well. It’s also a lot about money and the economy – who Italy will feed on its local turf, and who it will export to. And the wine industry goes to the heart of both.

The interview between De Vinis and Luca Zaia is relatively soft, but interesting all the same. The minister’s solution to the stagnation mentioned above can be summarised in one word: innovation.

Zaia says that what the Italian agricultural industry needs most is innovation. “Agriculture and whoever has anything to do with it, needs innovation from any point of view.”

At this point in my post it is prudent to keep in mind the Brunello di Montalcino scandal and all it stands for. I cannot here, take down everything that’s been written and said in recent months on this issue, but its impact in Italy is not to be underestimated. In future the episode will represent a culmination of Italian embarrassment, shame and anger that I hope will resolve itself in time. The concern over the image of the Italian wine industry both here and abroad can’t be overstated.

The minister says: “Italian wine needs investment and services, to be supported by a strong institutional presence in the international promotion of our wines.” He mentions that Italian wine has reached more than three billion euros a year worth of export for the country.

While Zaia doesn’t specify exactly what innovation will be undertaken and how, I think he’s hit the nail on the head as to the direction which Italy, and Europe generally, needs to follow. I’ll follow up this post in the next couple of days as it’s a theme I’ll likely return to. But in the meantime it gives us something to think about, while I search out some examples of Italian innovation in the agricultural industry that go behind “nice” agriturismi, culinary tours and Chianti wine tastings. Italy is, after all, a creative country.

Wine list pricing and BYO - what can the consumer expect?

After discovering this new Italian wine variety, “Gavi”, I thought I’d track it down in the supermarket to have a second tasting and perhaps record my tasting notes.

While there were a couple of options from different producers to choose from, I was looking for “Terre da Vino” Gavi as that what we’d drunk in the restaurant. I found it at an excellent price of five euros.

In fact, the price was so good, it highlighted the huge mark-up that our restaurant had put on the bottle. On the wine list, Terre da Vino Gavi was could be found for the princely sum of 15 euros. What’s more, the producer was not named so that it could be Gavi from anyone – in this case, you’re buying the wine style, not the producer, which is not so common in Italy. It would be like buying chianti from anyone, which would result in vastly different styles and pricing.

The price difference begs the question as to how much of a mark-up is considered good practice in Italy. My boyfriend and I had an argument about this, because he thought it was reasonable to expect that increase on a bottle costing five euros in the supermarket (which would in turn have put its own increase on the bottle).

He said it was unlikely you’d find that increase on a bottle costing 100 euros, but still we’re talking about a 200 percent increase! This is from a supermarket to a restaurant, so I’d be curious to know what the distributor prices it at.

While we will never see this in Italy, it makes a convincing argument for Australia’s BYO system here. In my opinion the Bring Your Own practice in Australia is appreciated by the locals and visitors alike, and has its place in middle range restaurants that can’t afford, or don’t provide for, an extensive wine list. I would not like to see it in more upmarket restaurants, but it is an innovative, and fascinating, aspect to the restaurant industry.

I once explained this system to a fellow student in my sommelier course, who thought it was great from a consumer’s perspective but who would balk at implementing it in his own restaurant. The debate emerged after a lesson about the role of the sommelier and the mark-up that could be expected. The argument went that a bottle of wine is not an in-house production of the restaurant, and the consumer is purchasing an extraneous product for his drinking pleasure, a practice which no restaurant should exploit.

So, here’s to Australian BYO restaurants, and the hope that they will be recognised as a legitimate dining choice, while we ask ourselves how much extra we can expect to pay, without feeling like we’ve just been the victim of a swifty by the restaurant and its wine list.

International distributors of Australian wine

I have unfortunately discovered that my conundrum of how to find a good distributor Australian wine in Italy, with a respectable range is an ongoing one.

To give you an example, I’ll refer to some brief research I did yesterday on prices of Penfolds Bin 707, from the 90’s vintages. An email came through from British wine merchant Seckfords with some lots of 1993, 1994 and 1997 (I believe I recall) Penfolds Bin 707.

The lots, of six bottles, were available at a price of 50 pounds a bottle which isn’t a bad price. When buying from UK wine merchants most wines are offered duty paid meaning EU taxes are already included in the price, you don’t require any import numbers, no customs is to be paid on EU delivery and your only extra costs are delivery.

The 50 pounds turns out to be quite a reasonable price, but to come to this conclusion some investigation needed to occur. First of all I hopped onto the Robert Parker website to look at some vintage notes.

I’m not so interested in the points system, but I often find that Australian vintage notes are scarce and sometimes the site can be helpful on this front. It turns out that according to the site, the 1994 is the best bet for quality at this stage.

I then figured that there wouldn’t be much point in buying in the UK, if Italy had better availability, at comparable prices without the worry of organising a shipment.

I cannot, in all honesty, seriously comment on Austrade’s work in representing the interests of the Australian wine industry in Italy, so suffice to say they have a vino australiano website that lists the distributors of Australian wine in Italy.

Penfolds has an exclusive distributor in Italy, called Meregalli, who is conveniently holding a wine tasting day in Monza on Monday September 29. Despite the fact I’m supposed to be working that afternoon, I will endeavour to go.

But now price of a Bin 707 through Meregalli is listed, and there's no way of knowing whether they're a wholesaler or whether they also sell to the public.

So I also had a look at Peck, who sells at a whopping 143 euros for the 1998 vintage, and Enoteca Ronchi, who was reasonable enough at 126 euros for the 1993 vintage (over the hill?) and the 1997. The hunt continues...

Italian wine varieties: Gavi from Piedmont

I had a couple of friends stay with me over the last few days who, not only having bought me a nice bottle of merlot, introduced me to a new Italian wine that I never knew existed. And all this for a moment of Aussie humour.

My mate Gavin, in an excursion to the local supermarket, came across a wine called “Gavi” but decided not to buy it. On going out for dinner that evening, lo’ and behold! the wine was on the wine list.

After a bit of giggling at the wine table, we ordered the Gavi (changing the pronunciation from the Australian accent to something more likely to be comprehensible to the Italian waiter), and embarked on discovering an Italian variety I had never before encountered.

Gavi comes from the cortese grape, and the Piedmont region, province of Alessandria. The wine is DOCG classified and it is a white wine that I thought matched well to our food. Gavin reckoned it was like an Australian wine, and I think he was probably referring to how fragrant it was.

The merlot that was given to me is “La gioiosa et amorosa” from the Polegato family. This is an easy drinking wine, soft like a merlot should be and not as thin as most of the other more budget versions of this grape I’ve tried in Italy.

As I lack the memory of the producer of the Gavi we tried, I have resolved to carry a notebook with me everywhere I go that I’m likely to be wine tasting so I keep track of this stuff. But it’s likely to go on my list of wine white purchases in Italy and I recommend it, particularly if you’re looking for white wine options from Piedmont.

Burning the taste buds of a bragging colleague

Don’t you just hate it when you have a know-it-all colleague who’s stubbornness means you’ll never ‘win’…?

I was having a nice conversation today with our VIP work experience student (that’s how I like to call him – he’s the son of the sponsor of a Very Important Group in the world of wine), who was asking me about the best wine I’ve ever tasted.

Hard question, but I’ll come to that another time. Anyway, he was actually quite interested in Australia and I expect being young he hasn’t yet been contaminated with the general snootiness of the rest of Europe to Aussie wine.

He was asking me about the drought problems when my colleague piped up mumbling about some oenologist he once met who said that Australian wine was all tainted with chemicals. I didn’t catch the whole story.

I asked: “Have you ever actually drunk any Australian wine?” To which he said: “I’ve tried to minimise any damage in that area.” Which I took to be a no. And on saying so to him, his response was: “You’re destroying the world with chemicals”, and the evidence of this is “it’s a known fact”.

Profound philosophical stuff for a Thursday afternoon. It disappoints me that despite all the good quality wine in Australia, will still can’t get ourselves respected through the wilful ignorance of our European counterparts. We’re talking about someone who works in the wine industry and it’s disturbing that there is no desire to develop the palate with other worldly adventures.

Maybe I’ll have to accept the fact that generally, Europe doesn’t care about Australian wine. The upside is that Australians don’t really give a frig about stuff from Europe either. And that’s a great thing for both consumers and producers in Australia as enjoying local wine is exactly what we should be doing.

A recent discussion on our Ozwine group forum showed that drinking habits in Australia are generally kept close to home and no-one strays too far from the back paddock. I don’t mind so much but in the interests of diversification, it would be nice to see the old world and the new get to know and appreciate each other – rather than mud-flinging chemical accusations.

Finding French wine in Australia (to then import to Europe)

Who says the Europeans know better than us? Welcome to the new world, in all its laidback professionalism.

I’ve had the rather strange situation of contacting an Australian wine shop, all the way from Italy, as part of our famous ongoing acquisition of Romanee Conti (2006 vintage this time). I expect it put a wry smile on the face of the guy who owns the shop.

Anyway, the point of this post is that my boss, in asking me to do this, requested that I make specific enquiries as to the “security” of these bottles – that is how they would be transported, covering them with insurance etc.

The thing that amuses me is that while Rathdowne Cellars might be small fry compared to what we’re used to, they were far more pleasant and professional in their response than other interactions I’ve had.

We’re very good at buying willy nilly all over the world, and the idea that more care was required just because we were considering a purchase in Australia, narked at me just a little (see my comments on jet lagged wine from the US for example).

Rathdowne Cellars gave me a quote on shipment from Australia to Italy which was not necessarily cheap, but neither was it outrageously expensive.

No cheaper shipping options are available though. Why? Because in the words of Cameron Kidd, store manager: “This is via my preferred air carrier with door-to-door freight. We do not use cheaper options like sea freight, as for small quantities I cannot guarantee it will go in temperature controlled containers.”

And to think I couldn’t even get wine shipped from England to Italy, with Christie’s (largest auction house in the world) preferred shipper in a refrigerated truck.

Picchi rosé vs Bloodwood "Big Men in Tights": Big Men wins

I’m just finishing off what is probably my last rosé for the summer as temperatures are already dropping and I’ll head back into more red wine drinking.

But I’ve managed to find myself a fine Italian rosé from Picchi, producers in the Oltrepò Pavese region. It’s a region just south of Milan, around the city of Pavia which is making a name for itself with its efforts in riesling. Most of the riesling comes from the “italico” variety and not the “rodano” variety, generally considered the more prestigious of the two grapes, though you can find some of the latter around.

I found the Picchi rosé in my local bottle shop, and the owner of the shop was happy with the purchase as he buys directly from the wine maker. It’s not a shop with a large choice but it turns out the owner is informed but not a snob, who understands the price range you’re looking at and doesn’t try to flog you his expensive stuff because no-one else will buy it.

The Picchi rosé is made from “rara” grapes which is a native Italian variety, and it has a lovely rosy, soft raspberry colour, with brilliant clarity. In my opinion, it is exactly what the colour of a rosé should be.

It is light on the nose with perfumes of red fruit, particularly raspberry, but the best thing about this wine is its acidity. It really leaves you with a clean palate, and none of that sweet aftertaste some rosés suffer from.

I’m not a rosé drinker by nature and I was quite snooty about the wine at the beginning of my wine drinking experience because I considered rosés some dodgy half-way point for who couldn’t decide between red and white.

But they have their place in the wine spectrum, though I prefer mine exclusively for summer drinking, in the right dose and with the right food. While it would be interesting to try it, Antonio Galloni writes of the Vie di Romans from Ciantons which he says is a rosé “with the structure to stand up to the richest of foods”; which in my mind is not what I look for in a rosé, this being aged in oak and bottled without filtration.

My rosé drinking was awakened in 2007 by Bloodwood’s “http://www.bloodwood.com.au/styles.htm” – what a marvellous name and a great addition to the Bloodwood portfolio! The guy at the drive-in bottle shop in Orange, Australia, deceptively knew his stuff and said it was a wine that once opened, required finishing because it was a glass-refiller. And he was right.

From what I remember of this wine, it had more of deep cherry colour, and wonderful roundness in the palate, along with some great complexity for a rosé – in the end, I don’t think rosé is an adequate label. Big Men in Tights was much like its name – a great package hidden in humble red, and for anyone who hasn’t yet read Stephen Doyle’s descriptions, what the hell are you waiting for?! A sample for this wine: “Keep the dastards honest, stick this in the fridge, splash it in a glass and remind yourself once more, all this will pass!”

Photo | Bloodwood

Move over Romanée Conti, Mornington Peninsula pinot has arrived!

Not quite, but I am nearly over the moon after reading Neal Martin’s piece on his visit to the famed Romanée Conti cellars. Neal writes for Wine Journal on Robert Parker’s website, and you have to subscribe to read the articles, which means I can’t produce a link here.

But I will faithfully quote the writer who is probably the envy of many wine writers, drinkers, traders etc. who consider the Domaine as the Mecca of wine around the world, as he is one of the few to have had a personal tour of the cellar (at least he makes it sound very exclusive).

Anyway, he met the “self-effacing proprietor Aubert de Villaine” and had a little tour and a little taste of Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Duvault-Blochet, La Tâche and Romanée-Conti from the barrel.

After some tasting notes, or bragging, about the above-mentioned wines, Neal says:
“I then ask him about his quote that: ‘Pinot Noir not tasting of anything’, a phrase I know is completely taken out of context, but pertinent and a truism all the same. He describes Pinot Noir as being “elusive”, a grape difficult to cultivate outside Burgundy; a grape that responds and obeys its terroir.
“Have you had any good experiences outside Burgundy?”
“A Chalon ’69,” he replies and then upon further consideration. “Otago. Some nice Pinot Noirs from Oregon and Mornington Peninsular.”

And there you have it! Australia gets a humble and little known geographic treasure into the books of the world’s greatest pinot noir winemaker.

P.S Perhaps my joy was more overcome by gloating to my Italian colleague who works with me in a largely French-tinted company which snubs anything new-wordly and which is buying bucket loads of Romanée-Conti 2005. I said “If you ever want to thumb your nose at Aussies wines again, just remember that Australian pinot was cited by Aubert de Villaine. I don’t see any Italian pinot mentioned.”

Italy's restaurant industry in crisis: waiters abandon the profession

The weekend edition of Milan’s newspaper Corriere della Sera, had a great piece on the crisis in Italy’s restaurant industry. The feature article examined the fact that the profession of the waiter is in serious decline.

The article revealed that old-style service and waiters can now only be found in upper-class restaurants as people, especially young people, abandon the profession. And I should imagine the same goes for being a sommelier.

The reasons behind the move away from the service industry as a full time job include the low pay, most of which is also what Italians call “black money”, meaning you’re not on the books. Statistics show that nearly 36 percent of people working in this industry are in unregulated work circumstances, meaning while many taxes go unpaid, wait staff are unlikely to receive the minimum 1,000 euros a month for 40 hours a week work, as stipulated by law.

Italy’s institute for hoteliers reveals that in hospitality schools, 70 percent of students are choosing the kitchen, rather than the dining room, as their choice of profession; meaning that chefs have a boost in image, while waiters struggle to increase their ranks with professionals dedicated to a career.

Upper class establishments, including luxury hotels, are becoming the last bastion for professional waiters in Italy. The owner of Harry’s Bar in Venice, Arrigo Cipriani says: “Waiters providing service take away 35 percent of earnings. The cost of personnel on the whole is 53 percent, compared to 29-31 in England.”

Admittedly, Harry’s Bar has a total of 78 employees, 23 of which are waiters dedicated to service only. It’s a big establishment, but as revealed by other restauranteurs and hoteliers, it’s difficult to find professional staff.

For me this is not a problem restricted to Italy. I worked some dodgy waitressing jobs in Sydney and none of the owners paid taxes on their staff, and none of the establishments paid award wages. In Australia, as in other countries, it’s considered the part time job for students, which is why many restaurants have appalling service and extremely high staff turnover.

Even students though, are shunning the profession, as reported by a café in Sydney a while ago who couldn’t even get a backpacker to do the day shift at $20 an hour; I used to waitress at half that.

Apart from limited social time and skipped weekends, the waiters’ profession can be rewarding if you have the right training and work in the right place. I think you have to love the grind of it, though, and you should always come away from your shift with at least one gratifying episode.

As shown in the Corriere article, being a waiter is now reserved for really top notch Italian restaurants. The profile on Umberto Giraudo, head waiter at Rome’s three Michelin star restaurant, La Pergola, reinforces this. La Pergola is the Rome Hilton’s restaurant and Giraudo has had the opportunity to learn different languages and travel the world with his profession. He now works with internationally renowned chef Heinz Beck, and has served some of Italy’s VIPs, once receiving 1000 euros as his biggest tip.

But I think at this level we’re talking complete devotion, not just dedication, to the art of being a waiter. And who wants to skip their Saturday night for low pay to cop a rude customer and a boss who’ll work you into the ground?

Food and wine matching: Franciacorta sparkling match

I had a wonderful weekend, making dinner (two courses with a bought third course from a local pastry shop) and playing with some wine and food matching. It took some imagination as I spent a week just thinking about the menu, let alone the wine to go with it.

First course was pasta with saffron and bresaola, a special cured beef among some of Italy's greatest salame and cold cut meats. The spicy saffron should offset the sweeter bresaola.

The wine match turned out to be a bit of a challenge and my colleague and I mulled it over in the office. We discarded anything that was too alcoholic or full bodied, preferring a wine with higher acidity such as a riesling. Our enoteca, or wine shop, had a gerwutz traminer, sauvignon or champagne available.

After my colleague made a couple of phone calls to some expert drinkers, one of whom frequently eats in Michelin star restaurants, it was settled that a champagne would be the best bet, to clean the palate.

Given that champagne is a little out of my budget, and my local wine shop didn't have any, I went with a Docg Franciacorta brut from Le Marchesine. It turned out to be a good choice. The wine is a chardonnay, pinot bianco and pinot nero blend, with a floral bouquet and some strong bread overtones. I was particularly impressed by the perlage though, very fine and elegant.

The second course was beef fillet with a side sauce of tomatoes, french onion and sultanas and side dish of potatoes with rosemary. I didn't do any specific wine searching for this, pulling out a bottle of Triacca's "La gatta" 2001 vintage, which I already had at home.

Triacca lies in the northern region of the Valtellina valley, though I will write more on the valley later as it's a special place for me. Valtellina wines are made exclusively from the nebbiolo grape. "La gatta" is a reserve wine, which in Italy means it has undergone a longer ageing period prior to bottling. This went through 30 months in oak barrels, six months in steel vats, and finally another three months in the bottle.

This provided some good drinking pleasure as an intense wine but with good structure. Both the alcohol levels (13%) and the tannins were well-balanced.

And we pass to the third course which was a slice of ricotta cake and a "delizietta" which is cake with marmalade in the centre and curshed nuts and honey on the top. I opened a bottle of sweet that was given to me, a "Recioto" from the Cantina Valpolicella.

The Recioto is a sweet red wine, from local grape varieties, which has a strikingly intense, sweet but spicy nose. I was well impressed, and it made for a great match. The special thing about this wine is that the grapes are put out to dry before the wine making process begins. This is called "appassimento" and is a common practice in Italy, even for some of the big reds made for longer ageing.