Join Ciao Asheville and Andy Hale as he hosts a presentation on his one week trip for wine professionals to Italy on Thursday, July 18th from 5:30 to 6:30 @MetroWines on Charlotte Street. The cost for the evening, including wine, is $35 (plus tax).

 

This trip, which Andy survived! is often called "The Murder March" because it, although gorgeous and tasty, IS an intensive immersion into Italian wine from the land to the wineries to the food pairings.

 

Andy has hard facts, legends, true stories and pictures. Together with this vicarious trip through Italy, we will pour wine from the wineries that hosted Andy including (I am not making this up!) the "make out" wine of Puglia! The hour presentation is told as only Andy can!!

When I was learning about wine, I thought that Barbaresco was sort of like “Diet Barolo,” useful for when you feel like drinking Barolo, but you don’t have the money for it and you want something cheaper. This is not the case at all! Barbaresco is a small commune to the Northeast of Barolo, also growing high quality Nebbiolo there. Barolo is known as the “King of Nebbiolo” and Barbaresco is the “Queen.” Compared to the Barolo, the Nebbiolo here tends to be slightly more delicate, elegant and pretty, but still retaining that core of leathery tannin that characterizes Nebbiolo. It took me a while to realize this about myself, but I like Barbaresco better than Barolo. I realize that is a controversial statement. Barbaresco is like a ballet dancer or an Olympic Gymnast; lithe, elegant and beautiful but with a power and strength that you wouldn’t expect from such a thin, elegant creature.

 

We drove to Marchesi di Gresy, one of the most iconic and old wineries in Barbaresco. They actually own all of the sub appelation Martinenga, making them a Monopole, which is very rare and special. We were met by the youngest generation of owners, a brother and sister, who took us on a tour of the winery, and then tasted us on their wines.

As predicted, the wines here were excellent! For whites, they showed us a Sauvignon Blanc and a Chardonnay from Langhe, which were elegant and mineral driven. I was reminded of Sancerre and Burgundy. We then tasted the Dolcetto, Barbera and several different Barbarescos. All were lovely, the Martinenga Barbaresco was one of the best I have ever had.

 

After the tasting, we were allowed to walk through the steep, hillside vineyards. I was impressed by the white, chalky soil throughout the vineyard. No wonder these wines had such excellent minerality! After our walk, we had a leisurely lunch until about 4:00 in the afternoon, and then headed to the ancient Medieval town of Alba for some shopping and, believe it or not, dinner and more wine. We arrived at the hotel in Milan around midnight again.

 

As I am writing this, I am sitting in the Milan airport waiting for my flight back to the USA. I got about 5 hours of sleep and I’m actually glad to not be tasting wine today. Yes, you can actually have too much of a good thing.  Before I left the USA, I joked that this trip might be similar to when you catch your kid with a bag of pot in their bedroom and force them to smoke all of it as punishment. Except in this case, instead of pot, it’s Italian wine. Fortunately, I haven’t lost my taste for Italian wine, although I may take most of the day off from drinking today and dry out a little. I feel certain that tomorrow will see me uncorking a bottle of Chianti or Nebbiolo again. 

 

This trip has been something I will think about for the rest of my life. I learned so much, and being able to set foot in the actual vineyards of these famous wineries was an almost religious experience for me. I made a lot of new friends from around the country; brilliant, funny and extremely knowledgeable about wine. It was fun to be able to make some really nerdy statements about wine like, “this reminds me of older vintage Madiran” or “this wine drinks like a St. Joseph, but this other wine is more like a Cote Rotie” and have a room full of people know exactly what I was talking about! I sincerely hope we are able to stay in touch and that our paths will cross again one day.

For now I’m looking forward to getting back home and sharing my adventures with all of you, after about 36 hours or so of sleep! Arrivederci a tutti!

 

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News Release: Saturday, June 8th, 2024

About: Bastille Day with Asheville Sister Cities & MetroWines

   The Asheville Sister Cities Saumur Committee will host its annual Bastille Day Celebration and Fundraiser from 2 to 4 pm on Sunday July 14, 2024 at Metro Wines latest venture, Quench! located in Reynolds Village in Woodfin. 

 

"This year is special for us @MetroWines in celebrating "a revolution in thinking" on Bastille Day. The Saumur Committee for the Asheville Sister Cities was our first partner, showing their faith in a small wine store, when we opened on Charlotte Street in 2013 and we have been amis since then," says Gina Trippi, co-owner of MetroWines. "And now, we open Quench! in Reynolds Village in Woodfin. So many said not to open a restaurant there. They said no one knows where it is! They said no one will come! We say if we build it, and we did! you will come. So, in the spirit of "a revolution in thinking" and friendship, join us on Bastille Day at Quench!
 
   And this year, the Saumur Committee says you will not want to miss a special art auction with original ceramics and other objets d'art. There will also be an exciting Saumur-themed raffle prize, generously donated by recent UNCA graduate in French and local artist Adrien Meierovitch.  

   There will be hors d’oeuvres (Charcuterie, fromage, crudités, fruits de mer) provided by Quench! Chef Sam Etheridge, paired by MetroWines with wines from Saumur, France in the Loire Valley. 

 

   Tickets are $46 for ASCI members and $55 for non-members plus NC sales tax. tickets are Limited. Act NOW! All proceeds will support ASCI programming and Saumur Committee projects, including the upcoming educational career-development exchange. To kick off the program, Saumur student Camille Hudon, recent graduate of the tourism program in Saumur, will be our guest of honor.  

 

Go HERE for tickets:

https://ashevillesistercities.org/event/2024-bastille-day/

 

I have read so much about Barolo and Barbaresco, studied maps of single vineyards, read about the culture, the unique language they have there, the climate, the food. Basically I have been a huge Piemontese nerd for over 20 years and the idea of actually getting to go there has got to be up there with, I don’t know, a literature dork getting to go visit Narnia or Lothlorien or a movie geek getting to visit the Mos Eisley Cantina on Tatooine or something. In other words, the idea of setting foot in the actual vineyards that I have read about for decades seemed so exciting and surreal.

 

We started our day at the urban winery of Enrico Serafino, which was located in the Alte Langhe, to the North East of Barolo proper. To make Barolo, you have to have a winery located within the DOCG area, although Enrico Serafino has been making Barolo for over a hundred years and they are grandfathered in. The manager of Enrico Serafino, Nico, greeted us at the entrance. He was sharply dressed in a wine-colored paisley suit, a suit that only an upper-class Italian could pull off, smoking the end of a small cigar. He escorted us through his winery, showing us the old tunnels under the building.

 

Afterwards we gathered in his office for the wine tasting, a recent Wine Spectator magazine was opened to a photo of him sniffing a glass of sparkling wine. 

As we drove through the hilly landscape of Barolo, I was surprised when our tour guide Kristen, announced that we weren’t going to the Vietti winery initially, we were going to meet the winemaker and export manager in the hilltop town of Diano D’Alba. We departed our bus and walked up, up, up, eventually getting to a small park at the very highest point of the town, we were literally eye level with the belltower which rose above the huge cathedral in the town.

 

The winemaker Eugenio and Urs, the export manager greeted us with wine glasses and began to explain the landscape of the Barolo region that spanned around us. They pointed out each of the small cru’s of Barolo while we tasted wine from those small vineyard areas. They pointed out the terroir differences of each area; the closeness to the river, the sandy soil here, the wind from the Alps flowing unobstructed through this area, while we tasted the wines which were made from the grapes in each tiny vineyard. It was an absolutely incredible thing to see the small little square patch of green, sometimes they were about a dozen rows of grapes or so, and to try the wine made from it. It was hard to believe that such a small patch of grape vines could even produce a bottle of wine at all! This was hands down the best wine tasting I have ever had in my life, and I think I’ve probably already said that in my previous journal entries.

 

After this unbelievable tasting, we went to tour the winery of Vietti in the Medieval town of Castiglione Falletto. We walked through the ancient tunnels and cellars under the building and tasted the rest of the wines that they make. Their Barolo’s were excellent, of course, but they make serious, ageable Barbera as well! After the tasting we had another multi course meal, accompanied by Vietti’s wines. The Timorasso was very good, but extremely difficult to get, and we had the opportunity to taste some extremely old Barbera and Barolo’s that evening. The meal was excellent and the wines, outstanding.

 

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News Release: June 7th, 2024

About: Tasting with Torres Winery, Chile

 

Join us on Monday, June 24th from 4 to 6pm @MetroWines to taste 4 wines from Miguel Torres, Chile, "at the bar" and "on the house." Daniel Marquez, the US Sales Manager will host the event "at the bar" and "on the house." Daniel Marquez will pour and discuss a Sparkling Brut Rosé, a Carignan, a Carmenere and a Sauvignon Blanc.

 

With a presence in over 100 countries, the Miguel Torres family winery has established itself over the past 30 years as one of the main producers of high-quality wines, through its products’ identity, respect for the environment, and social responsibility. And more often one of the bottles has received over 90 points from Robert Parker!

 

About the Winery: 

Miguel Torres, Chile, was founded in 1979 by Familia Torres, who has produced wine in Spain for over 150 years. Being the first foreign winery to establish itself in Chile, Miguel Torres introduced in the country the use of stainless-steel tanks in fermentation and French oak barrels for aging, technologies that opened a new horizon for the Chilean wine industry. 

 

The pioneering spirit of Miguel Torres Chile is more alive than ever guiding projects such as Estelado, the first sparkling wine made with Pais grape which led the rescue of traditional but forgotten varieties, or ¨Empedrado¨, first Pinot Noir from slate soil in Chile and one of the most challenging projects of the winery. From the North down to Patagonia, Miguel Torres Chile seeks for the best terroirs where every growing region has its own stamp on the wines. Miguel Torres Chile is actively committed to the environment and to the people; all its vineyards are certified organic, and it is one of the biggest wineries certified with Fair Trade. Today, Miguel Torres is leading the recovery of ancestral varieties from the South of Chile, rescuing a unique heritage of the traditional winemaking. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUYU8mO_W4I