Organic Vadiaperti Greco di Tuffo, $23
Pleasant note of bitter almond and apple blossom, full-flavoured white wine,
intense palate with fine orange-and-tangerine zest flavours, smoky,
mineral notes smoothing towards a honeyed finish.
Big RED of The Week, $19.99
A blend of 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Carmenere, 25% Merlot,
8% Petite Verdot, 3% Cabernet Franc. The base is Cabernet Sauvignon,
which provides structure, while Merlot delivers red fruit and vitality in mouth.
Carménère adds weight and softness, as well as spices that combine beautifully
with Petit Verdot’s smooth finish. Cabernet Franc brings elegance and persistence.
94 Points from James Suckling
A generous and rich red with round and chewy tannins. So much lovely ripe fruit
with currant and hints of walnut. Full and beautiful. Gorgeous wine. Drink or hold.
90 Points from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I found nice integration and balance in the 2015 Primus The Blend.
Matured in French barrique for 18 months. The oak is nicely folded into the fruit,
and the aromas and flavors are focused.
It has fine-grained tannins, good freshness and overall balance.
News Release: Monday, January 13th, 2020
News Release: Sunday, January 12th, 2020
News Release: Saturday, January 11th 2020
Tickets HERE!
News Release: Saturday, January 11th, 2020
Sensory Analysis: How to Talk About Wine Like a Pro on April 9th, 5:30-6:30, $25
Sensory analysis – describing wine
Terroir
Basic wine varietals
Winemaking techniques
Oak
Faults/returning a bottle
Interacting with your Sommelier
Call (828) 575-9525
Restaurant Wine Service Skills for the Home, April 16th, 5:30-6:30, $25
Service Skills
Opening a bottle of wine/champagne
Decanting
Aging wine
Serving temperatures
Wine glass shapes
Food and wine pairing in brief
Call (828) 575-9525
online HERE!
The classes can stand alone but taking both exponentially increases your wine knowledge and lexicon.
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There is a wrong way to get to Corzano e Paterno, and I took it. When I told Aljoscha Goldschmidt about my GPS misadventure he said, “That isn’t even a road for cars.” It was not. I spun through a riverbed of gallestro stones past alarmed German tourists and fishtailed up a nearly vertical hill track mostly travelled by mountain and motor bikes. I arrived at Paterno and met Aljoscha’s kind aunt, who broke the news that the winery had consolidated to the Corzano side of the valley a couple years ago. She resided on the side with the sheep.
When Aljoscha’s uncle Wendelin Gelpke retired from architecture and moved to Tuscany in 1972, he wanted to create a real farm, with animals, grapes, olives, grains: the possibility of a self-sustaining system. He bought Paterno from the Marchesi Niccolini in 1975. They acquired sheep “because cows are too big” and began making cheese. Today they sell a small range of really impressive and diverse cheeses. My favorite is Buccia di Rospo. It began as a mistake in the dairy: now the name is registered, because of imitators making fraudulent versions of their discovery. Today the family keeps 700 milk sheep (and several sheep dogs) at Paterno.
Corzano was added later. The hill faces Paterno across a narrow valley to the southwest of Florence. From Gelpke’s initial 5 ½ hectares the combined property has grown to 17 hectares. Three thousand olive trees take up much of the land, along with hay and cereals to feed the sheep. Forty years ago a fire destroyed some of the estate’s hillside olive groves. The family replanted these excellent south-facing slopes with vines.
Corzano e Paterno practice organic agriculture but are not certified as such. They produce 75,000 bottles of wine annually. They do a double green harvest: a rough one in July, then a finer adjustment later in the season once they have a better sense of the overall character of the weather for the season. “Fifteen years ago the grower with the most courage, the one who picked latest, that person made the best wine.” Goldschmidt said. “But that has changed. The climate has changed. It is now possible to end up with seriously overripe wines.”
At Corzano e Paterno the grapes are hand-harvested and triaged twice on vibrating sorting tables to remove all unhealthy fruit and detritus of harvesting. They sometimes use natural yeasts for fermentation, sometimes a mix of cultured and natural. “The (added) yeasts that begin the fermentation are never the ones that finish it. Yeast from the fields and the cellar always do that. The aromatic profile therefore stays close to the same.”
Corzano e Paterno makes many small experimental batches of wine to test this and other theories. Like what type of closure is best for the ageing of a wine, or if vineyard management strategies affect overall alcohol content. “It’s hard to affect it much.” Goldschmidt stated. “Sugar ripeness is the issue (and that is related to heat). All regions now have the same problem.” He thinks maybe planting some vineyards with different sun exposures may be an option in the future. Sites previous generations would have thought to be too cool or shady.
Corzano e Paterno is a perfect place. All the products show love from two generations of a family working a beautiful land.
When Tilio Gelpke was eight years old he was taken out of school, and a lifetime of working with sheep began. Tilio’s father, a Swiss architect, bought Corzano e Paterno in the late 1960’s. He imported 50 sheep from Sardinia, to clear the land of bushes. Tilio says goats would have been better. Sheep prefer grass, goats like larger vegetation. “Together they make a good team.” Tilio started learning from a Sardinian family that relocated to Tuscany with the initial animals.
We are talking in the middle of a milking parlor. It is loud, aromatic, and a fine balance of order and chaos, similar to watching people get onto a subway train, or file into seats at a large theater. There is bustle followed by placid moments of chewing and the methodical attachment of pumps. The sheep file in and jostle for favorite positions: they don’t like wet spots on the floor. I feel the same way. When an animal with four legs slips, limbs go in all directions its head ends up smacking the concrete. A free two-day-old lamb wanders through the milking in progress, then down to us in the center of the room. It’s amazing how alert and active this little creature is in comparison to barely awake human newborns. They register a similar level of cuteness, in my opinion.
Tilio attaches pumps and checks microchips in the first stomach (sheep have two) with a handheld device to verify identities and record production levels. Today he is the angel of death. Animals that are very old (generally over 12 years,) have malformed teats, or simply do not produce average levels of milk, are marked with a dark green stripe. It is the stripe of imminent slaughter.
“If an old animal dies on the farm I have to pay 50 euros to dispose of it,” he says. “If I only get 10 euros from the butcher… I hate it, I hate dealing with them, I’d rather make illegal sausage on the farm, but the regulations make us do stupid things. People can buy a pig and slaughter it at their property to make sausage, but I cannot do the same with my old animals (without violating EU codes.)
“Fifty years ago there was so much concentration of productive food: it was a garden.” Tilio says everything was grown here, not just olives and grapes. People had to maximize the potential of the land. “Each stone you see, someone has turned it a few times. How far do I have to go back to find an era like this? Probably before the Etruscans.” Across more recent millennia the land had to be more intensively farmed, to support the population density of Tuscany. Tilio says that until the last century 20 people would live on the production of 10 hectares of land, while giving 50% of the harvest to their aristocratic masters. “It was slavery,” he says. But it made people wring every ounce of productivity from their territory. Vines were trellised along fruit tress, and vegetables co-planted between the vines, and anywhere else that wasn’t too rocky or steep.
“Romans had a dependency on grain. Florence could not have had the Renaissance without a greater concentration of crops.”
It is initially unsettling to have a long conversation about the wastefulness of modern Tuscan agriculture surrounded by dairy sheep and pasture land, in a region whose most striking visual characteristics is abundant and often scrupulously cultivated olive groves and vineyards. But Tilio’s point is we must take a longer perspective. “In the 1950’s someone with 50 sheep would have a wealthy family.” His family have 650. His neighbors have productive land planted with olive trees that they do not use anymore, because the labor is too expensive, even to produce valuable Tuscan oil. The way they farm does not support them.
Tilio casts his life as the story of a struggle to regain some productivity for the farm. He built the first stable in 1986. “Corzano e Paterno still has animals because I am stubborn. At first I was also the only salesman for the cheese. The stress and reality of what we were doing first came when they (his cousin Aljoscha Goldschmidt and his partner Toni) had a ton of cheese.”
“My cousin said we must throw it all to the pigs. I threw none away.”
Tilio learned quickly that his market for their farmstead cheese was not the grocery store. “Fresh cheeses lose weight. Retailers don’t like it, which is why they prefer industrial cheese.” Restaurants in Florence were a much better market, able to sell a selection of diverse pecorinos. The dairy thrived, and today they can barely keep up with demand.
Tilio says the he mainly takes issue with the emergence of industrial cheese that tries to look like artisanal cheese. The ubiquity of these products in Italy sounds similar to what you find on a casual grocery store tour in America.
“Cheese makers have no secrets. It’s something we have been making for 10,000 years.” A mistake created their first “signature” cheese, Buccia di Rospo. Instead of tall round pecorinos the cheese came out as squat bloomy disks. The expression Buccia di Rospo was used by Aljoscha to say the cheese was rotting: literally “It’s toading off.”
Tilio also implicates man as the root of problems interacting with the greater environment. Locals complain of the reappearance of the occasional wolf. “We have (problems with) wild animals because agriculture has changed. Wolves follow the wild boar, deer. When I started (working life at Corzano) we had pheasants. Those were the large animals you would see. Now we have wild boar as big as a pig. When you see them on a motorbike I say ‘please, you first.’”
Hunters imported larger boar from central Europe. They thrive in the food-rich fields of Chianti, growing fat on the Sangiovese grapes from vines they vandalize. “When I was a child they were hill animals, small, to get between rows. The Hungarian ones give birth twice a year.” And now they become overabundant.
Tilio has lived through boom and bust years in Chianti. “It’s an Italian disease. When something is working well they can spoil it in a very short time.” I hear this kind of shockingly deprecating language from many farmers working in Italy. “1973 was a terrible vintage and they sold it like it was a normal wine, and killed the market. Then it took many years and someone with money, it was Antinori but it could have been anyone, to fix it again.”
He then gets positive “We learn so much out of growing food.” We are outside, sharing stories of trips to Morocco, cheese making friends in New Jersey, minutae of farm life. A sheep dog wanders between us. “He thinks of himself as equal to us, a peer.” Tilio says, indicating the dog. “I call him but he will not come. But he has a job to do.” I realize I’ve been here a long time, and it’s still not 8am. Time to depart. My work day is starting.
His sister Arianna makes the wine. The way she speaks about it “I am still learning from Joshi,” you’d think it was her first year. She’s been in the cellar since 2004. She was born on the farm, it was her father’s, and her mother still lives at Paterno, close to Arianna and her brother. https://www.
TICKETS: HERE!
News Release: Friday, January 10th, 2020
Taking it back to when Zin was easy drinking and no thinking! Dry farmed, head trained, gnarly zinfandel vines farmed by the Tollini family that were planted in the 1970's in the heart of Mendocino are no bull! Easy tannins and bright natural acidity carry the layers of juicy fruit and zesty spice. Whether having a dinner party, barbecuing, relaxing after work, or on a weekend getaway, there's never a wrong time to make it old school.
Peterson Winery has been producing wine in Dry Creek Valley for 30 years and, like most wineries in the Valley, produces Zinfandel as well as other wines. Yet a closer look shows that is where the similarities end.
Owner Fred Peterson is an iconoclast with an old world winemaking philosophy and a reverence for sustainable farming. The Peterson approach is to capture the essence of vintage and vineyard—a philosophy they call Zero Manipulation—with low tech, yet high touch, to produce wines of a place, wines with soul. The evolution of Peterson wines and winemaking accelerated when
Fred’s son Jamie became assistant winemaker in the summer of 2002. In 2006, after moving from the tiny red barn on Lytton Springs to Timber Crest Farms, Jamie was given the overall responsibilities as winemaker. As a winegrowing team, Fred and Jamie assess the grapes from each vineyard and vintage as the season progresses, evaluating how the weather, soil and site are interacting for the particular vintage. At Peterson winery, the winemaking process begins while the grapes are still on the vines. Zero Manipulation is a discipline the Petersons follow to capture the character and balance of inherent in the grapes. Zero Manipulation means using the most gentle, traditional winemaking practices possible to maximize the flavors, aromatics and texture of the wines. Fred and Jamie celebrate vintage differences and don’t tweak or homogenize the wine to obtain consistency of flavors, a common practice in mass-market wineries. For Fred and Jamie, Peterson Winery is all about the wines. But if you look a little deeper, you’ll see the heart and soul that goes into every bottle.
Making great wines is all about balance.
It starts in the vineyards, where we try to achieve a balance from bud break in the spring until the grapes are picked in the fall. Balancing the canopy, the crop load, the sun exposure, the hang time, and the few hundred other details involved in managing a vineyard are what need to be considered to achieve balance.
Once the grapes are picked, it is then the winemaker’s responsibility to continue the balancing act in the cellar. All the variables that Mother Nature gave us during the growing season need to be considered because they affect the grapes and the approach to winemaking for that vintage. If you keep a good handle on the growing conditions of the season, you have fewer preconceived notions of what the wine should taste like because you’ve already been dealing with all the realities of that vintage.
With the winemaking underway, now the balancing act involves questions like how much oak to achieve the proper intensity in the wine,what type of oak best enhances the flavors in this wine, how often should this wine be racked, or does this wine need blending?
At Peterson Winery we practice the philosophy of Zero Manipulation.
Our definition of Zero Manipulation is using the gentlest winemaking techniques possible to maximize flavors, aromatics and the original essence of the wine. The less you do in the course of a wine’s tenure in the cellar, the more of the grape’s and vineyard’s essence you’ll have to bottle. Every time you do something to a wine, you take out a little of what you started with.
By John Kerr
of The Asheville School of Wine
News Release: Friday, January 3rd, 2020
"Last year, Ciao Asheville started its Italian film series with Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita. To begin 2020 it is fitting that we begin with a movie that is often described as Felliniesque. This film, aptly named The Great Beauty, is directed by Paulo Sorrentino, and is filled with beautiful images of Rome. Some have also described the movie as “La Dolce Vita in technicolor, for the Berlusconi era"! Released in 2013, it won both an Oscar and Golden Globes awards for Best Foreign Language Film as well as many other international awards.
On one level, it is the story of Jeb Gambardella (played by award winning Toni Servillo) who is reflecting on his life (as he lived it, or as he could have lived it) as he turns 65. Having written one very successful novel, he has been living the high life and coasting ever since. Much of the story is told in connected episodes that include commentaries, poetic dialogues and images that make up Rome - both the gorgeous and the decadent.
But on another level, this movie can also be viewed as a story about the city of Rome and Italy. Has Italy lived up to its history and potential? The movie shows beautiful images of Rome (from ancient history) along with some of the shallowness of modern Rome, (the life that Jeb is now a part of). Pictures of the overturned ship, Costa Concordia, play a part in this story of Jeb and Italy as well as other scenes that make you stop and think. Runtime: 140 minutes."
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"Sparkling Rose Tasting"
Saturday, December 28th
from 10am to 7pm @MetroWines
and, as always, on the house!
Forbes Magazine Says: "Step up to sparklers. You get the same advantages,
since these wines are served chilled, and in many cases they pair even better with food,
rosé champagnes are one of the world’s great food wines. Well, when it comes to celebrating, there is no more time-honored beverage choice than sparkling wine.
Best of all, you don’t have to stop when summer ends, as sparkling wines are well suited
for many other occasions, holidays, brunches, and year-round enjoyment."
** BIG WHITE of THE WEEK **
Lis Neris Sauvignon Blanc 2015, Friuli
At Lis Neris, while the winery offers excellent red wine, the focus is on white wines.
And well it should be as the conditions at the winery are perfect for white wines.
John Kerr of The Asheville School of Wine says:
Grapes grow in gravel beds 150 feet deep covered in breezes off the Mediterranean
and glacial waters that roll down the mountains.
*** Teaching Moment ***
Friuli-Venezia Giulia is where Italian, Germanic and Slavic cultures converge.
The wines produced here in Italy's far north-east reflect this merging of cultures.
Often shortened to just “Friuli,” the area is divided into many distinct subzones,
including Friuli Grave, Colli Orientali del Friuli, Collio Goriziano and Carso. $25
Casadei, Tuscany, Italy
"A Lighter Red"
A blend of 60% Syrah, 20% Grenache and 20% Mourvedre.
This wine is powerful, yet supple and elegant. The nose opens with intense berry
and cassis fruit, highlighted by notes of dark chocolate and tobacco.
Firm and silky upon entry, the palate is equally intense with chewy and sweet tannins
and a very persistent finish with dark berries and sweet spices.
$26.99 at Ace online, $22.98 at Vintage online, $20.99 at wine.com
Back on Planet Earth, $18.99 @MetroWines
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Tickets: HERE!
News Release: Friday, December 20th, 2019
Bone & Broth Italian Wine Dinner
January 20, 2020
Greeting
Cantine Povero Spumante Extra Dry
First Course
Fattoria Poggerino Chianti Classico 2015
Eggplant Roulade
Eggplant | Mascarpone | Chevre | Pine Nuts | Parsley | Balsamic Reduction | Red Bell Pepper | Arugula
Second Course
Ventisei Rosato Tocana 2018
Grilled Squid Salad
Marinated Grilled Squid |Mixed Greens | Cucumber | Heirloom Carrot | Grilled Lemon | Citrus Vinaigrette
Third Course
Piancornello Rosso di Montalcino 2016
Mushroom Gnocchi
Gnocchi | Oyster Mushroom | Crimini Mushroom | Bechamel | Crispy Pork Belly | Parmesan | Feta | Rapini
Fourth Course
Cascina San Lorenzo Moscato d’Asti 2018
Biscotti with Crème
Almond Biscotti | Crème Anglaise | Poached Pear, Apricot, and Cherry | Pistachio Dust
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