year 21 number 111 - october 2017 - gamberorosso.it
WINE
T R AV E L
FOOD
Which are the 436 best wines of 2018? Amarone Culture Veronese winegrower Masi inaugurates a new museum. Masi is the Winery of the Year in our wine guide.
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Italians around the world The first guide to the best Italian restaurants abroad. Who are they? Plus, a Hong Kong feature
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The Consorzio Brunello di Montalcino celebrates its 50th birthday with tastings and seminars around the world
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year 21 number 111 - october 2017 - gamberorosso.it
WINE
T R AV E L
FOOD
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Which are the 436 best wines of 2018? Amarone Culture Veronese winegrower Masi inaugurates a new museum. Masi is the Winery of the Year in our wine guide.
Italians around the world The first guide to the best Italian restaurants abroad. Who are they? Plus, a Hong Kong feature
The Consorzio Brunello di Montalcino celebrates its 50th birthday with tastings and seminars around the world
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Italy seen from the tasting table by Gianni Fabrizio Food News Wine News Wine of the month and Twitter dixit Italian Restaurants around the world. The first guide Hong Kong and Beijing. 5 places for good Italian food Niko Romito: The five foods an Italian restaurant abroad must serve Vini d’Italia 2018. You’re really still doing a guide on paper? Yes! On the Real Madrid Tasting Team Where is Italian wine going? A lesson in 4 glasses All the 2018 Special Awards (and the 436 Tre Bicchieri) Masi, Mr. Amarone. Culture and roots Benvenuto Brunello
Territori che raccontano storie. SOWIRE MEDIA
VINO | OLIO | AGRITURISMO | EVENTI | RISTORANTE
www.gaslinialberti.it
Italy as seen from the tasting table The Italian wine world is in fine shape, as you’ll see on the following pages. Production has been brilliantly redirected along lines that are clearer and more easily understood by the consumer. Wines once again have a tight bond with their territory of origin. Today, most of our denominations are so strongly identifiable by their own chromosomes that the wines produced display a calming familiarity, even for less experienced drinkers. From this point of view, the search for drinkability, that is, for the pleasure a wine gives when tasted, has been an indispensable factor. Nevertheless, the individual territories and varieties must express their specific natures. For the same reason, the success of our greatest wines is real and undeniable. Numbers don’t lie. Our wines have become glamorous. The whirlpool of success that has engulfed them attracted the attention of both Italian and foreign investors. Our hope is that these investors are also wine lovers, not just entrepreneurs. Clearly an influx of capital can awaken many of our wineries – beauties, but still asleep. The story of winegrowing Tuscany in the 1970s and 1980s
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is a good example. For that winegrowing universe, in disarray because of the flight of sharecroppers from their land, the arrival of money and commitment from British, Lombardian, American and German investors allowed a world that was dying to revive, and over time, to succeed. Tuscan wines attained today’s peaks of perfection. Now there is a hovering fear of changes in style demanded by the newcomers. Their investments are based on economic projects, rather than productive ones, and the result has been an increase in the prices of quality vineyards. It has driven local producers out of the market, those who had been the flagbearers of their denominations for decades. The risk is that this type of outside investor is not interested in territoriality and tradition, and that the specific characteristics of a zone or a vineyard may be ignored. Clearly, winery techniques that avoid wine defects are welcome. But fashioning standardized, uniform wines for so-called international taste is not, and that is still a worrying possibility. — Gianni Fabrizio
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NEWS
ORDER FOOD. FACEBOOK’S NEW PLATFORM FOR ORDERING FOOD ONLINE A year ago, Mark Zuckerberg’s platform was already taking its first steps into the world of food delivery. The objective was to make Facebook more and more useful, even indispensable. A year later, the system is ready on a dedicated platform called Order Food, for the moment available only in the United States. Tests during the last year were essential to perfecting the system, which offers a catalogue of many specialized services without ever exiting the social network, for example Delivery.com, EatStreet and Slice. Functions such as geolocalizing the business and providing space for customer reviews give users the opportunity of evaluating a restaurant, assigning it from one to five stars. The new tools make it easy to scan results by location, price, opening hours, type of food and services offered (delivery or pickup on location). If the experiment works well in the United States, European delivery businesses will be competing to make agreements with Zuckerberg.
NOMA 2.0 WORK IN PROGRESS. RESERVATIONS OPEN IN NOVEMBER
In the months before the reopening of Noma in its new urban farm on the outskirts of Copenhagen, food fans are anxious to get a glimpse of Rene Redzepi’s work in progress. The Danish chef has been laboring with his team to rev up for the inauguration, which slid a few months due to archeological discoveries made during construction. Now the group is in the test kitchen full time,
developing new recipes for a menu dedicated to seafood and scheduled to be offered from February 1 to the end of May. Noma’s opening is planned for January, 2018, but in recent weeks, Redzepi has released photos and videos online to tickle the curiosity of his fans. A few days ago, one showed the offsite kitchen where, for the next three months, the brigade will be perfect-
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ing its new dishes. Meanwhile, Noma’s photo shows that the building is beginning to take shape. Details are emerging: the new restaurant will be open from Wednesday to Saturday, lunch and dinner with the same menu. Reservations online will open on November 16 at 2pm Copenhagen time. The pop-up restaurant, Under the Bridge, will be open until the end of October.
NEWS
NEW YORK MANGIA ITALIANO. THE NEW NISHI, VINI E FRITTI AND A SECOND PECORA BIANCA Cucina Italiana seems to be experiencing a lively new phase in New York (just as Gambero Rosso launches the first guide online dedicated to Italian restaurants around the world: Top Italian Restaurants). In the Redbury Hotel, Danny Meyer kept his promise and inaugurated the wine bar of his dreams, Vini e Fritti, inspired by Roman food and customs. An Italian-style enoteca, along with the new Caffè Marchio and nearby pizzeria Marta, it completes Meyer’s Italian repertoire. Vini e Fritti’s seating is on comfortable stools at tables and counter, and the food includes small plates such as fritto misto, housemade stracciatella, and marinated vegetables to be paired even with Champagne and sparkling wines.
In the mind of its creator, eclectic and entrepreneurial chef David Chang, Nishi was to be another piece in his successful Momofuku mosaic. Instead, despite expectations, the Chelsea location that opened at the beginning of 2016 proved to be a disappointing addition to the New York fusion food empire. An informal approach, a relaxed ambiance, and an unusual mix of top quality Korean and Italian food should have done the job, but a few months later, after a slew of negative reviews, Chang had to retreat and close up shop. Almost a year later, Nishi reopened its doors, having undergone a complete restyling in the name of comfort. Softer seating (booths!) replaced stools and benches. But the new menu is the real news. Nishi 2.0 is now focused on cucina italiana and its most celebrated traditions, especially homemade pasta. Chef Joshua Pinsky has always been a pasta devotee and recently his bucatini won a prize from the James Beard Foundation for the best plate of pasta in New York. “The last thing we want is to just add another Italian restaurant. There will be classics of Italian food, but with a lot of interpretation on the food end
from Josh of what Italian food could be,” said Chang. Among the choices at Nishi is a pasta tasting menu with four courses for $58, two selected among spicy beef pappardelle with mint, bucatini ceci and pepe, mezzaluna ricotta and chili-honey, and chicken liver agnolotti – plus two desserts. Main courses a la carte include whole branzino with herbed brown butter, tilefish acquapazza, BBQ pork ribs, and the most expensive - ($62) lobster fra diavolo, that is, fried lobster with garlic, chili and spaghettoni. The wines are largely from young European producers. Chang states that Nishi will be the restaurant that best expresses Momofuku’s philosophy.
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Italian fever doesn’t end with these two star entrepreneurs. A week or so ago, a second Pecora Bianca location opened. The restaurant founded by Mark Barak in the summer of 2015 in NoMad, Broadway at 26th Street, now has added a new, larger space in Midtown. Although it is only open for dinner at the start, it will soon follow the model of its older sibling, serving breakfast, brunch, and takeaway as well. Some of the ‘spuntini’ items include bomboloni with prosciutto, arancini, and meatballs, but also spaghetti al pomodoro, gnudi di ricotta with herbs, tagliatelle bolognese, gramigna with sausage and broccoli rabe, roast chicken, and steak with mushrooms, polenta and nduja butter. Completing the picture is a selection of Italian wines, aperitivos featuring variations on the Negroni theme, and an array of fruity, smoky and peppery cocktails.
NEWS
Wine tourism is smiling on France and Spain. Italy’s two main competitors in the wine market in 2016 saw remarkable increases in the number of wine-focused tourists visiting their countries. Spain welcomed 2.7 million visitors, an increase of 21% over the year before, according to data from Rutas del vino de Espaňa. This growth almost equaled the praiseworthy +25.7% registered in 2014 compared to the year before. In entrances to wineries and wine museums alone, tourists spent 54 million euros (+11%), not including food and lodging expenses. In general, the wine tourist who goes to Spain is not very winesavvy: 47.2% describe themselves as interested, 2.9% as beginners, and only 18.2% as wine lovers. As for France, the numbers are equally positive: 10 million wine tourists traveled in 2016, of whom 42% were from abroad (mostly Belgian and British), spending 5.2 billion euros, including all related travel expenses. Compared to 7.5 million visitors in 2009, the increase amounted to 30%. The number of foreign visitors, however, grew 40%, an average annual increase of 5%. The trend in recent years shows growing numbers of winefocused tourists from Asia. The most popular wine area for such visitors is Bordeaux, followed by Champagne, Alsace, Burgundy and the Loire Valley.
ph. Yonah mountain vineyards
WINE TOURISM. FRANCE AND SPAIN DOING WELL, GROWING BY DOUBLE DIGITS
USA. THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE WINE INDUSTRY IS ALMOST $220 BILLION WineAmerica, the National Association of American Wineries, recently unveiled a national economic impact study showing the wine industry’s total benefit to the American economy at $219.9 billion in 2017. The comprehensive study measured direct, supplier, induced, and total output including jobs, wages and taxes at all three levels. Of the total impact–$219.9 billion–the wine industry’s direct impact is $84.5 billion, the supplier impact $58.8 billion, and the induced impact $76.6 billion. Specifically, the wine industry supports a total of 1,738,270 American jobs with annual total annual wages exceeding $75.7 billion. The wine industry generates a total of $36.5 billion in total taxes, including more than $19 billion to the federal government and $17.4 billion to states and localities. In the fifty states (and wine is produced in every one), there are over 10,000 winery facilities. Each year, they are visited by 43 million tourists who spend more than $17.6 billion dollars. California has the largest expanse of vineyards in the country (85%) but grapes are grown on 677,629 acres of vineyards in 49 states (274,000 hectares). WineAmerica President Jim Trezise said, “We have long known intuitively that our industry’s economic impact was enormous, but it’s nice to now have hard numbers which illustrate that. As our industry grows, so will our many contributions to the American economy.” He pointed out that wine is a product that “preserves precious agricultural land, provides jobs, attracts tourists, generates taxes, and enhances the quality of life.”
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NEWS
INVESTMENTS. FINE WINE BETTER THAN CLASSIC CARS. ACCORDING TO THE KNIGHT FRANK LUXURY INVESTMENT INDEX, WINE’S VALUE GREW MORE. ITALIAN ONES, TOO. Classic vintage cars have had their day. It’s better to invest in fine wine. Wine performed better than any other luxury collectible in 2016. For the first time, growth in value of rare labels surpassed that of cars in the Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index, the British survey of the most important prestige collectibles. In particular, in 2016, the wine category grew 26%, compared to only 9% for cars. The top prices went to Bordeaux labels, with buyers competing from around the world. However, the increase in Bordeaux prices has not been constant. From 2012 to 2014, after a speculative bubble in 2011 thanks to Chinese collectors, a period of declining prices set in, reversed only in 2015. But it’s not only Bordeaux to see prices go up. Cult wines from California saw increases (+34%), thanks partly to consumer wine clubs that buy into the scarcest wines irrespective of release prices. The fine wines of Burgundy rose 31%, and the great labels of northern Italy, especially Piedmont, also did well, especially Barolo, which grew 28% (fourth place, after the wines of California, Bordeaux and Burgundy, beating out even Champagne). Similar performances are predicted for next year.
JAPAN. YOUTH AND WINE. A DANGER OR AN OPPORTUNITY? Japan’s marketplace is seeing changes in the way alcoholic beverages are consumed that represent both opportunity and danger for producers. A large number of new consumers, young but uninformed about wine, are entering the market and showing approaches sharply different from older wine drinkers. Inexpensive wine is becoming a more popular drink with the under-35 group in informal situations such izakaya-style bars (pubs with tapas-style food, very fashionable in Japan today). The analysts of Wine Intelligence have called it the “casualization of wine” to show how young Japanese drink less often, and mostly
when getting together in public. Compared to more adult drinkers who are more familiar and comfortable with wine and drink it more frequently, the youth know less about producing countries, regions, brands. Their approach to wine is often first with New World wines, low-cost entrylevel labels. However, although these young people drink little when at home, they are more frequent drinkers of wine in all on-trade occasions such as dinner in a restaurant or a drink in a bar at the end of the day. Wine is not something bought as a routine or planned for, but more likely a spur-of-the moment purchase in a convenience store such as 7-Eleven.
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NEWS
WINE OF THE MONTH CHIANTI CLASSICO NOVECENTO RISERVA ’14 DIEVOLE Ex-cellar price: 26.00 euros+taxes Dievole is located in the municipality of Castelnuovo Berardenga, a few kilometers from Siena. More than 150 of its 600 hectares are devoted to vineyard, making it one of the most significant players in the Chianti Classico denomination. A long cypress-lined road leads to the village and villa, the production centers, and to a wonderfully comfortable inn. In every direction lies a view of Tuscan woods, olive groves, vineyards and farmhouses. This beautiful property and its imaginative production choices are in the hands of Italo-Argentinian entrepreneur, Alejandro Bulgheroni. His great love for his land and its products led to a project focused on Important principles – improvement of his property, production that would succeed on international markets, and attention to environmental impact. The vineyards are meticulously managed and in the winemaking facilities, fermentation is exclusively in cement vats. Aging takes place in large wood casks. Despite a very difficult vintage year, Chianti Classico Novecento Riserva ’14 offers an absolutely clean aromatic profile, with intriguing hints of flint and sensations of iron alongside abundant, fragrant fruitiness. A juicy palate develops with continuity and reveals incisive, crisp tannin.
TWITTER DIXIT
T
JON THORSEN CARVING PUMPKINS WINELOVER STYLE!
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Lugana: History and the Consorzio History The history of the Lugana zone and its wine on the southern shore of Lake Garda goes a long way back – about 4,000 years back. Researchers believe that in this area, millennia ago, a rudimental beverage based on wine was already commonly consumed. Clearer evidence comes from Ancient Roman times. The zone, then called Retia, was famous for its wine. Roman historian Suetonius described the drink as “Emperor Augustus’ favorite”. In the Middle Ages, the work of systematizing wines and vineyards was taken on by the monastic orders, which shouldered the task of cataloguing the most important grape products in the zone of the lower Garda. A new wave of attention came under the Republic of Venice (1400-1500) when the Serenissima’s rulers began important land reclamation projects that rendered the Lugana territory particularly fertile and desirable, making the area more and more valuable. The first authentic document that attests to a trace of what would be Lugana wine is Andrea Bacci’s De Naturali vinorum Historia (1596). He was an enologist but also Pope Sixtus V’s physician. His book describes a wine in the Lake Garda zone made from the Trebulanum grape, almost certainly an ancestor of the present-day turbiana. July21, 1967 is the birthday of Lugana DOC, the first DOC denomination in Lombardy and among the first in Italy. In 1990, to strengthen the denomination and its producers, the Consorzio per la Tutela del Lugana was founded. It is headed today by Carlo Veronese, with Luca Formentini as its president.
The Consorzio The Consorzio per la Tutela del Lugana was established in 1990. Its objectives are to preserve and manage the precious uniqueness of Lugana wine, and at the same to promote, diffuse and enhance knowledge of the zone and its wine, both nationally and abroad. The Consorzio di Tutela is also responsible for promoting and showcasing the Lugana brand by participating in the most important national and international fairs. At the same time, it is charged with organizing events to communicate the image and quality of Lugana wine. The Consorzio is committed to safeguarding Lugana from unfair competition and market oscillation. That is why, for some time, the Consorzio has battled against the temptation, in periods of crisis like the present day, to lower prices, a move that would undermine the quality of the product and undercut the denomination’s image. The territory of the Bassa Garda, with its specific climate and geology, is one of the essential elements in Lugana’s success. The production area is limited. It includes the zones of Desenzano, Lonato del Garda, Peschiera del Garda, Pozzolengo and Sirmione. Lugano was the first DOC recognized in Lombardy and one of the first in Italy, further proof of the immense historic and cultural value of the area and its wine. History and a strong bond with its territory give Lugana wine a powerful personality, absolutely unmistakable, with a heritage that must be protected, and at the same time, enhanced. In
the next issue: Lugana, the
Wine
and its
AMERICAN WINE SOCIETY NATIONAL CONFERENCE & 50th ANNIVERSARY www.americanwinesociety.org November 2 – 4 | Mt. Pocono, Pensylvania Kalahari Resort masterclass and tasting table WINE BLOGGERS CONFERENCE www.winebloggersconference.org November 9 - 11 | Santa Rosa, California
Luca Formentini and Carlo Veronese
CAMPAGNA FINANZIATA AI SENSI DEL REG. UE N. 1308/2013 CAMPAIGN FINANCED ACCORDING TO EU REGULATION NO. 1308/2013
Types
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
EXPLORING LUGANA Part II
STORY
ITALIAN RESTAURANTS AROUND THE WORLD The Top Italian Restaurants guide, online on gamberorosso.it from the end of October, was created to bring order to the great swirl of Italian eating places around the globe. Often, Italian Sounding suffocates true Made in Italy. At the moment, 370 authentically Italian restaurants are reviewed in our guide. A growing team that bring new life to the philosophy of Italian food
by Lorenzo Ruggeri – drawings by Marcello Crescenzi
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STORY
A
question of seconds. A on an understanding of local tastes. question of mouth-feel. The Classics Details that reveal the Among universal favorites, we find viidentity of those working tello tonnato and tiramisù along with in the kitchen. Sensibila trio of products regularly used in ity, products, virtues and defects, we kitchens: burrata, ‘nduja and truffles. bring them with us wherever we go. A In the middle of a sea of improvised cook from Campania will always cook chefs and foreign chains that exploit something a little longer, even if he has our names (the stunning case of Vaworked in Hong Kong for twenty years. piano with its 180 restaurants in more Even if he’s never gone back. Traveling than 30 countries) there are islands of quite continutrue excellence. ously, and in a Today in Tokyo, WHERE ARE THE RESTAURANTS scientific manner, as in Hong Kong IN OUR GUIDE LOCATED? we have met with or San Francisco, fantastic, comic a visitor can have 35.6% Europe and in rare cases, experiences of tragic experiencItalian cucina 21.8% North America es. The Top Italthat are superior ian Restaurants to those available 19.4% Asia guide, sponsored in some cities in 9.5% Australia by Surgiva e Baour own country. rilla and online at 6.1% Central-South America We’re not exagthe end of Octogerating. It’s a 2.1% Russia ber, was created question of local to note authenculinary sensibil2.9% Middle East ticity, to recogity, but also of nize the work of investments that 2.6% Africa those who, outattract professide our borders, carry out research and sionalism and talent. A competitive bring added value to the original prodprocess takes off, more and more niche uct – pairing it, communicating about ingredients are imported, and the relait. All this is going on in a global context tionship with the neighboring countryin which Italian Sounding is more the side changes. “Good Italian restaurants norm than the exception. An estimated have multiplied disproportionately. over-100,000 eating places in the world The quality of chefs and the ingrerefer to our traditions, but only 370 at dients they use is much higher than the moment have been selected for the you might think. Here in California, guide. It’s a niche, certainly, but it shows small local farmers who produce fruit a change of pace within its offerings, and vegetables are more visible in reas a new generation of talented chefs, cent years and work closely with chefs, with energy and international vision, giving us a hand by growing products bring new life to the philosophy of Italthat were unfindable in California. ian food. They can now finally count on For example, I have a farmer planting the immediate availability of excellent Sicilian squash, violet eggplants and ingredients everywhere on the planet. Mediterranean herbs for me,” said AcItalian cucina abroad doesn’t make its cursio Lotà from the Solare Restaucase during evening galas with celebrity rant in San Diego. He recently won the chefs or brief collaborations and conBarilla Pasta World Championship. He sultations. Instead, it calls for serious, offers contemporary, curated flavors thoughtful food brought to the client, suited for a demanding clientele that day after day, well-explained, and based travels and understands the prices of
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SPECIAL AWARDS Restaurant of the Year Era Ora Overgaden Neden Vandet 33b Copenhagen +45 3254 0693 | era-ora.dk
Chef of the Year Alessandro Cozzolino del Grissini 2F, Grand Hyatt Hotel, 1 Harbour Road, Wan Chai - Hong Kong +852 2584 7722 hongkong.grand.hyattrestaurants.com
Pizzeria of the Year Bijou 10 Rue Dancourt - Parigi +33 1 42 57 47 29
Wine List of the Year Acquerello 1722 Sacramento Street San Francisco +1 415 567 5432 - acquerello.com
New Opening 2017 Rigò 277 New King’s Rd, Fulham - Londra +44 20 7751 3293 - rigolondon.com
STORY
Italian products and wines. The art of making pizza At the same time, the world is discovering the complexity of the Italian art of pizza. Ovens built according to Neapolitan dictates are multiplying even in Australia, along with carefully chosen flours and alternative doughs. Gourmet pizzerie, pinzerie – pizza napoletana has never enjoyed a golden period like the present one. Soft, airy dough and great wine lists – the pizzeria is becoming a place to drink with wine lists never seen in Italian pizzerie. An example is the one perfected by German sommelier Sebastian Georgi with his 485Grad project. In 2015, he opened his first place in the lively Latin Quarter of Cologne. At the end of the year, he doubled down in the southern zone
of Cologne. After a rousing success, he opened in Dusseldorf, and a few months ago, a second place in that city. They offer well-made dough, selected topping ingredients, and a range of Rieslings, Champagne and cult Italian labels at competitive prices. Pizza becomes a pretext for drinking good wine. Let’s look at Paris and the work of Gennaro Nasti. In 2015 he opened Popine, a Neapolitan pizzeria. A year later he realized that Paris was the right place for that venture. “Seeing the success of Popine, others opened
“I LOVE AMATRICIANA” AN ITALIAN CHEF FOR THE NEW YORK MAYOR “My favorite dishes? Spaghetti all’amatriciana, focaccia Genovese, pizza…my wife loves classic Italian pastries, from cannoli to babà al rhum.” New York mayor Bill De Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, chose Paola Aranci, a Roman, as their executive chef. She is in charge of the daily menus and those for gala events. Paola brings traditional Italian dishes to the table, with an occasional nod to the foods of other countries such as Thailand and Mexico. The Mayor and his wife were at the Italian Heritage Day dinner celebrated every year in October. At Gracie Mansion, the Mayor of New York’s official residence, Italian cucina is the star of the show. “The De Blasio family is very careful about their food,” explained Paola Aranci. “They love seasonal fruits and vegetables. They want very little fat and, above all, no waste in their kitchen.” New York’s head man shows the same preferences when he dines out as well, heading to Bar Toto in Brooklyn owned by Sicilian Pietro Sclafani and Pisillo Italian Panini, a classic Italian panineria in the heart of the Wall Street district. Carmel Pisillo, owner, created a special sandwich for the mayor that celebrates De Blasio’s maternal grandfather’s origins in Benevento: called the Sant’Agata, it features mortadella, pistachios, fior di latte mozzarella, fresh tomato, arugula and extra-virgin olive oil. – Liliana Rosano
YOU CAN CONSULT OUR GUIDE, TOP ITALIAN RESTAURANTS, FREE, CLICKING ON GAMBEROROSSO.IT/RESTAURANTS
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STORY
THE ILLUSTRATOR I wanted to isolate some cardinal concepts of the content of this examination of cucina italiana abroad and translate them into symbolic objects (iconic dishes, star chefs, fake Made in Italy..). I wanted them to be colorful, pop, and a little surreal, and to collect fragments of them into an opening rebus-like composition, then clarify by using them whole in the article, underlining the passages to which they refer. – Marcello Crescenzi
more than ten pizzerias in the city – one a month. I needed to standout, mark my territory, do something I loved. I created six types of dough. Each version brought with it a wine and an ingredient. I cooked on the pizza. I wanted clients to understand that pizza is culture. I have thirty places and a team worthy of a multistar restaurant, including even a sommelier. I have to give the product dignity. My clients have to come for an experience,” Gennaro explained. He imports everything from Italy, “Even the basil.” His wine list showcases 150 important wine labels. His sign doesn’t even say pizzeria, but in little over a year it has become a reference point in the city. In Rome, we find a series of noteworthy openings, on the pattern of San Francisco’s Montesacro, where Gianluca Legrottaglie created a delightful wine bar and pinzeria. In Moscow, they opened three within a few months, seeing the success of the pinzeria of a chef from Brescia, Valentino Bontempi. Pizza and vino is the winning team also at Luigia, with five pizzerias in Switzerland. “And soon we’ll open in Dubai. Finally, the market is ready to appreciate our Neapolitan pizza,” said owner Enrico
AFTER 12 MONTHS OF TASTINGS AND TRAVEL, WE TAKE STOCK. HERE ARE THE SPECIAL AWARDS FOR TOP ITALIAN RESTAURANTS
Restaurant of the Year
Era Ora – Copenhagen The Restaurant of the Year is located among the canals of Copenhagen: Era Ora. To sum up, it gave us the most complete culinary experience we enjoyed in 2017. Tradition and superb Italian ingredients went into a complex cucina with extraordinarily precise flavors. In the kitchen, the team is all Italian, all under 30 years old. Details make a difference: superb Umbrian olive oil, pungent, fragrant aromas, a light hand with pepper. The wine list – 90,000 bottles, all Italian – is the result of a visceral passion. Dishes are imagined as paired with wine from the start, and that can be sensed at the table. Even the basket of breads, all house-made, conveys sensations of other times and places, transporting us to a little town in the Italian provinces.
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Chef of the Year
Alessandro Cozzolino – Hong Kong We are in Hong Kong, Victoria Harbour, inside the luxurious Grand Hyatt Hotel. The award goes to Alessandro Cozzolino, Executive Chef of Ristorante Grissini. He began very young, and in Italy worked with Gaetano Trovato in Siena and Nino Di Costanzo in Ischia. At only 25 years old, he took on the challenge of this historic Italian restaurant in Hong Kong. Within two years, he has revolutionized it: Campanian flavors, mozzarella cart, air-dried tomatoes del piennolo. He cooks with a light hand, and his dishes are incisive and balanced. At twenty-seven, he already has abundant experience and talent. We are sure that sooner or later he’ll return to Italy and open his own restaurant.
Coppola. Dubai, new food Mecca In 2018 Dubai will welcome a new restaurant from famed Modena restaurateur Massimo Bottura, while Niko Romito’s cucina will be on stage this fall. Nevertheless, the fine-dining restaurants opened by Italian chefs abroad sometimes have brief lives, less even than Italian governments. We were in Dubai twice recently, and cucina italiana seems to be firmly fixed in the past. When clients cross the threshold of an Italian restaurant, they want products that evoke our country. They want a travel experience in which they are reassured rather than surprised. Even Pinchiorri had to radically change its offerings in the city. “Many Italian restaurants are brought to Dubai without immersing themselves in the texture of this city, without
Wine List of the Year
Acquerello – San Francisco From Hong Kong to San Francisco. The Wine List of the Year award goes to Ristorante Acquerello, opened on Sacramento Street in July of 1989 by a Bolognese, Giancarlo Paterlini, and Suzette Gresham. Their wine list is so curated and wellwritten that we had to resist the urge to take it home. It even includes the disgorging date for individual cuvées. The selection is complete, not only in terms of the numbers of labels. It is done with love, including both great classics and less renowned producers that arouse curiosity. We noted an excellent selection of French sparkling wines and an amazing collection of Barolo and old vintage years of less familiar denominations, with many large format bottles as well. Wine service is impeccable, coordinated by son Gianpaolo. Prices are fair, given the context. The food, we almost forgot to say, is divine. Suzette reinterprets Italian flavors with a delightful, elegant hand. French, she would murmur.
Pizza of the Year
Bijou – Paris And now we come to the pizza chapter. The Pizzeria of the Year is Bijou in Paris. It is the latest Gennaro Nasti project. He has courage, daring and the ambition to offer something completely different. He cooks on his pizza and has a great time doing it. Nasti prepares six types of dough, offered as gourmet slices, a wine list with 150 labels and sommelier service. Cooking times and ingredients are excellent. Almost everything is imported from Italy, even the basil. Bijou offers a delightful experience that reminds us that pizza is culture, fun and can be astonishing.
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NOVEMBRE 2017
Opening of the Year
Rigò – London And finally, the restaurant Opening of the Year. We are in London, in the Fulham neighborhood where Chef Gonzalo Luzarraga and Francesco Ferretti got off to a good start. They don’t want their restaurant thought of as Italian, and, indeed, both French and Oriental influences play a part, but as soon as you taste their dishes, you understand that an Italian sensibility is at the stove. Extraordinary research has brought food from tiny artisanal workshops, especially from Piedmont, to the table. The wine list is simply brilliant, including bottles from little-known but outstanding Italian winemakers. Even in pairings there is an identity and sensibility that is all Italian, but it is cucina that looks out at the world and successfully avoids all labels.
STORY
THE FIVE FOODS ESSENTIAL TO AN ITALIAN RESTAURANT ABROAD In the project sponsored by Bulgari, beginning with the recent opening of my first restaurant with them in Beijing, I have tried to present concepts of great, classic cucina italiana using the iconic foods of our tradition. We have modified production processes with the goal of reducing fats and perfecting flavor. Everything has had to be standardized because the plan is to include all these foods in all the new openings of Bulgari abroad. We are seeking to re-establish true flavors. Anyone can put an Italian sign over the door, but they usually aren’t Italian, not in their ingredients, their cooking methods or their flavors. Why begin with the classics? Because this is zero hour. There’s very little true cucina italiana in the world, so we need to begin with the basics. The first five, in my opinion, are these. They must always be present in a high quality traditional Italian restaurant. 1. PANE Bread represents our culture, history, simplicity, tradition. Its ingredients are totally basic, but if you don’t have extensive experience, you can’t manage to make a bread that has our characteristics – a very crisp crust, and crumb that is creamy, sour and honeycombed. 2. SPAGHETTI AL POMODORO This may be the most representative Italian dish in the world. Therefore, it is the most difficult and, more than any other, it needs to be introduced and presented in its absolute truth. The spaghetti must be cooked in a certain way. Tomatoes must have tones of acidity, not
absorbing this soul made of 200 nationalities. You have to have a strong identity, bring it with you and communicate it to the consumer. Here too they want a productbased cucina. The challenge is to manage costs and personnel that comes and goes, while maintaining constancy,” commented Pietro Piero Giglio, manager of the new Borro Tuscan Bistro. The most popular dish? Pici all’aglione.
sweetness. Today, abroad, everyone eats overcooked spaghetti covered in sweet tomatoes that drown the pasta. 3. TORTELLINI IN BRODO In this dish, two great aspects of Italian culture appear: stuffed pasta and the concept of broth. These are culinary creations that are found elsewhere (for example Chinese dumplings in their broth) but ours are specific and completely different. 4. ARROSTO DI VITELLO Roast veal is the traditional Sunday family dish, an experience that all of us have shared –the holiday roast at the center of the table, sitting with family and friends. The interesting thing about veal roast is that it brings with it another star of Italian cucina, seasoned meat juices - intingolo. Generally, restaurants, even Italian ones, don’t serve meats in their own juices, since they are a result of the cooking process, but do serve gravy, which is another, more independent preparation, and more like a sauce from French cuisine. 5. BABÀ This sweet has become a national dessert. I could have thought of tiramisù, but I liked the idea of the babà because it is a very popular sweet but not a big deal abroad. Why not? Because to make babà takes experience, professionalism and expert leavening techniques. – Niko Romito
STORY
PHOTOGALLERY
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THE SURGIVA AWARD “TASTE&DESIGN” DEBUTS Surgiva and Gambero Rosso join to celebrate taste and its many forms in the best restaurants around the world Surgiva, the mineral water that enhances flavor, has always expressed Italy’s elegant style. It now joins Gambero Rosso for its “Top Italian Restaurants in the World” project, the exclusively digital, English-language guide dedicated to the best Italian restaurants around the globe. Along with the guide comes the Surgiva Award “Taste&Design”, a prize that will be awarded to the one restaurant in each city that best represents the universe of Italian food. The winning restaurant must stand out not only for the quality of its dishes and their presentation, but also for the design of its décor. Surgiva, playing an essential part in enhancing flavor, showcases all aspects of taste, from good cooking to style, reminding us that mineral water can make a difference. Thanks to its lightness, it is the perfect partner for a tasting of great dishes and great wines. Its elegant bottles become a design element on beautifully set tables.
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The Surgiva “Taste&Design” awards will be presented during the Gambero Rosso World Tour, which covers 17 countries and 34 events. The very first events took place on October 27 and 31, and awards went to Il Luogo di Takeuchi in Osaka and Faro in Tokyo. Il Luogo has been one of the most dependable and serious Italian restaurants since 2010, its cucina deeply rooted in Italian tradition, and its dishes carefully prepared and well-presented. Faro, on the 10th floor of the luxurious Shiseido building, is distinguished for its elegant, refined and modern ambiance which provides the setting for a cucina of well-defined, extraordinarily clean flavors. The next stops on the tour, starting in January 2018, will be Stockholm, Munich, New York, London, Dusseldorf, São Paulo in Brazil, Houston, Singapore, Bangkok, Seattle and Vancouver.
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2017
Vini d’Italia Worldtour 2017/2018 NOVEMBER
OCTOBER 25 27
SEOUL - Korea OSAKA - Japan
Top Italian Wines Roadshow Top Italian Wines Roadshow
03 06
TAIPEI - Taiwan BEIJING - China
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28
WARSAW - Poland
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HONG KONG - China
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13 23
SHANGHAI - China MOSCOW - Russia
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TOKYO - Japan
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COPENHAGEN - Denmark BERLIN - Germany MUNICH - Germany
FEBRUARY 08 LONDON – U.K. 28 CHICAGO - Usa MARCH 02 NEW YORK - Usa 06 LOS ANGELES - Usa 08 SAN FRANCISCO - Usa 12 MIAMI - Usa 17 DÜSSELDORF - Germany
APRIL 05 SÃO PAULO – Brazil 09 HOUSTON - Usa 25 DUBAI - EAU
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MAY 07 ZÜRICH - Switzerland 22 SINGAPORE - Singapore 24 BANGKOK - Thailand
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JUNE 04 SEATTLE - Usa 06 VANCOUVER - Canada 08 TORONTO - Canada
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COVER STORY
VINI D’ITALIA 2018. YOU’RE REALLY STILL DOING A GUIDE ON PAPER? YES! by Marco Sabellico – drawings by Maurizio Ceccato
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Does it make sense, in the digital age, to publish on paper the thirty-first edition of a guide? Yes, because it isn’t just a list of ratings, but a great fresco of Italian enology over the years. It is an essential tool for those who work with wine and for those who are passionate about it
N
ow that we’ve enthusiastically passed the thirty-year mark, here’s the new edition of Vini d’Italia, our thirtyfirst. When we finished our tastings, we asked ourselves, should we continue to print a guide on paper in the era of the app, the web, the smartphone and tablet? Gambero Rosso is also on digital TV, with programs that are broadcast today even in Switzerland and China. It’s on webTV, and, translated into English, it’s approachable from every corner of the globe. The Gambero is present on social media and its products live in the app world, including our wine guide. We have always been part of the third millennium and its new media. But in a liquid society, where liquid communication rules, we continue to make a choice that seems conservative – opting to turn out a book that has the dimensions and weight of a brick. Why? There are professionals and wine fans in Italy and the world that continue to ask us for it, proving that if con-
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tents are high quality, printed publications have an important role, even in the era of multimedia. The real motive behind the production of this thirty-first brick, however, goes a little deeper. For thirty years we have been telling the stories of the best producers of Italian wines. We annually note the characteristics of their best wines in a careful and precise way. We draw a chronological account, year after year, of the facts and happenings in that world. These thirtyone bricks construct a single, larger history, that of the new Italian enology that was born in the 1980s, which still has a thousand and one stories to tell about a thousand and one grapes and a thousand and one wines, each with its terroir to summon up. We don’t limit ourselves to laying out enological events, but we ask ourselves why things happen, what are the trends – in taste, technology, economics – that influence this important sector of Italian agriculture. We employ our critical spirit to read the present, certainly, but we try to
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THE ILLUSTRATOR The fusion between two visual, apparently dissonant elements, placed together in the same context, or as part of the same story, generates other narrations. In the same way, the iconic elements that come from a relatively recent past, mixed with the knowledge and nihilism of the present, complete their visual journey and their timeless story, unrolling new ones. That’s how I worked after being commissioned to illustrate this series of articles on the great Italian wines and on the newly-released Gambero Rosso guide. – Maurizio Ceccato
ON THE REAL MADRID TASTING TEAM Usually, for a post-guide roundup, you begin with “It was an important year…” The truth is, that was really true for me personally. Why? Because this was the year I returned to the Gambero Rosso, the guide where everything began for me (a few extra pounds ago). In between, I had the challenging, intense experience of working with my Espresso magazine wine guide colleagues. It is truly a great experience to be able to taste professionally again with what I describe as the Real Madrid, the championship team, of tasting panels, the Gambero. It would be hard to find anything more instructive, glass in hand. It’s no accident that out of these tasting sessions, certain themes and ideas emerge that then find confirmation in the vineyard realities of the individual regions, both at the level of climate change and their overall situations. What follows is my own personal experience of the tasting sessions for the Vini d’Italia 2018 guide.
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Let’s begin with Umbria. From the green heart of the peninsula, the series of Sagrantino di Montefalco labels from the excellent vintage of 2013 showed up with an extremely high level of quality. We saw an unmatched parade of focused wines, above all in terms of tannins, the true challenge for growers dealing with this rich and untamable variety. It was a benchmark year for this label. We saw how the 2015 vintage year, with its intense heat, rewarded the whites of the region with sunny and seductive profiles, yellowish wines with clean, juicy fruit. They were probably not the favorites of those who love whites with sharp acidity and Nordic profiles, but they were a good example of whites that would satisfy many wine lovers, marrying a typical continental profile with an unusually Mediterranean feel. The Abruzzo scene was different. Montepulciano lost its previously unchallenged leadership among regional types. It was challenged by Cera-
COVER STORY
THE GUIDE IN NUMBERS
45,000 21,600 53 2,485 1,959
wines tasted wines evaluated tasters wineries reviewed finalist wines
suolo and Trebbiano, and many tasters were enchanted by the improving quality of Pecorino labels. What emerged was a modern portrait of a region, the range of wines that this extraordinary territory can now offer. It no longer has to prove itself as a region of structured and full-bodied wines, but can showcase its fresher, easy to drink, easy to pair labels. The Abruzzese platoon is led by the great names of the denomination, but just behind is a fleet of well-armed wineries ready to take command of many palates. Another region to remember is Romagna, actually a region within Emilia-Romagna. Sangiovese, refined and full of character, is the ruling variety. These reds are now agile and juicy, no longer compressed and inhibited by a veil of wood aging. The process of searching for identity is well delineated, above all in terms of territory. They have had to communicate individual quirks and special climactic conditions in order to emerge from the shadow of nearby, worldfamous Tuscany. The situation is
436 110 99 1,526 10
Tre Bicchieri Tre Bicchieri under 15 euros Tre Bicchieri Verdi Due Bicchieri Rossi special awards
even more confused with Albana, a variety in which richness of styles, interpretation and versatility is the rule. That’s why this variety doesn’t manage to transmit a clear, sharp image of its type and its vintage year. The passito, or dried grape version, does better, and the average quality of the samples tasted satisfied expectations. One theme ran through all the post-tasting talk: drinkability is the real winning quality. The concept is so clear it seems almost overstated, but it’s an undeniable fact: the trend is towards wines that can play the role of a great and versatile table partner. Even among the more masculine and massive wines, my personal preference has shifted towards more agile wines, ones that are more relaxed in terms of tannins without losing character or detail, complexity or subtlety. For example, a Sagrantino could never be a Ciliegiolo and viceversa, but playing their cards in the search for the difficult balance between freshness and character is by now an obligation for all producers. — Alessio Pietrobattista
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1,943 446 419 25 238
Q/P wines (Best Buy) sustainable wineries organic wines biodynamic wines starred wineries
interpret, using our three decades of experience, the direction of trends. We attempt to glance into the future in a way that’s useful to wine professionals and fans alike. In other words, we try to tell the whole story of Italian wine. Italy and the world likes to hear that account, so much so that for years the guide has been translated into German, English, Chinese and Japanese. This confirms our belief that our efforts to read a phenomenon as complex as the world of Italian wine is credible, even authoritative, in the eyes of the rest of the planet. So, a reader who holds a Vini d’Italia guide in her hand knows that it is the result of a year of work by an expert team of tasters who have traversed all of Italy (including Switzerland’s Canton Ticino starting this year) tasting over 45,000 wines, interviewing producers and visiting wineries. Vini d’Italia is not just a collection of scores and ratings. For us, and we hope for our readers, it is much more.
Vini d’Italia 2018 pages 1008 price 30 € available in bookstores, newsstands and on gamberorosso.it
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WHERE IS ITALIAN WINE GOING? A LESSON IN 4 GLASSES by Eleonora Guerini - drawings by Maurizio Ceccato
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I
talian wine is in good health. It’s an everyday, ordinary fact, but – it should be pointed out – it wasn’t at all true twenty years ago. The proof is in the numbers (but not only in economic data). The sector has increased the value of wine and wine grapes production from more than three billion euros in 2005 to almost five billion euros today. The number of small and mediumsize wineries has increased, which has had an extraordinary impact on re-populating the countryside. The social fabric of areas often far from well-known zones has improved. We need, though, to move away from numbers and talk about quality to understand what this success is made of. Years of tasting, reasoning and reflecting have brought greater definition to an image composed of territoriality, drinkability, unpredictability, and love. Italian wine today is successful because it tells a story and, a little, because it is daring. Here are a few examples (and a few glasses) to explain further…
Drinkability. A liquid is meant to be drunk. But…not so many years ago, it took a mental knife and fork to handle the density, ripeness, concentration and opulence of wines, with their excessive richness, sweetness and overdone oxygenation from wood. An immoderate use of international varieties, even where they weren’t allowed, or, worse, even where they weren’t necessary, but rather harmful, was commonplace. From the north to the south, the wines seemed to come out of a concentrator (and in many cases, they really did!). The New World had suggested a model that risked bringing Italian wines into the depths of homogenization, lack of personality, a soulless imitation of something far away and in fact, not very interesting. But in recent years, wines are sought out because they are light-hearted, airy, joyful, vibrant and crisp. They impress because of their acidity, balance, sapidity and tension. Consumers feel the impulse to finish a bottle, rather than just look at it. Producers have to know how to translate this feeling, whether the wine is from nebbiolo, schiava or corvina grapes.
Territoriality, Drinkability, Unpredictability, Love. These 4 concepts shape Italian wines’ pathway to the future. Taste them in four glasses
Te r r i t o r i a l i t y. The new phase is built on the continuous and relentless search for the ties between a wine and its territory of origin. That’s an expression that a neophyte might find completely incomprehensible. Wine is a product of its territory, its vineyards, soil, air and microclimate. The tie, therefore, would seem unavoidable. But wine is also the result of a relationship between human beings and their territory, and therefore depends on a cultural reading. It has taken years to understand how important this card is. It might be the only card, and not only for expensive wines. It is essential to transmit in the glass the origins, and therefore the originality of a wine, a mouthful that breathes and transmits the moods of a place, its bond with its vines, but in a contemporary interpretation of tradition, with the understanding that wine is an emotion, and not just a beverage.
(Romagna Sangiovese Castrocaro e Terra del Sole Crete Azzurre ’15 – Marta Valpiani).
Unpredictability. When the grammar is firmed up and technical aspects nailed down, when the right trajectory has been found and form is fully expressed – that’s the moment in which a deliciously anarchic move can have its say, when the winemaker can dare to deviate from the well-traveled road, explore the one less-traveled by. Unfortunately, what often happens is that the winemaker starts down an unknown path without keeping the main road in mind. Generally, the producer needs some luck to achieve good results. But this isn’t worth talking about. What is useful is to explain
(Barolo Villero ’13 - Brovia)
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how exciting it is to find wines that move outside the norm, to point out courage and originality that surprises us, helps us forget the rules we know. These wines can pluck on cords we didn’t know we had. Such moments don’t come from big names or important denominations. Where we didn’t expect an emotion (like coming around a curve that hid a breathtaking landscape), the discovery affects us with the adrenalin of a daunting challenge. We serial tasters, avant-garde interpreters of what’s to come, constantly feel the need to reward labels that were unthinkable until a few years ago.
criticism, and is willing to excuse defects and evident lack of skill. But what does convince us is the passion that this trend generates. The world of the ‘natural’ can be extraordinarily fascinating because all the players, from the producers to the final sales people, are deeply committed. To feel part of something you believe in, to fully accept its principles, to adhere to something that transcends the limits of the product itself – all this generates a sense of community and belonging that communicates efficiently to the public. Even if hearing those who believe deeply in these wines speak reminds us sometimes of a riding a bicycle downhill without brakes, the effect is touching. We like their almost fanatic ardor, the power of their emotion, and we think the rest of the wine world can learn from that.
(Il Fric ’16 – Casebianche).
Love. A great deal has already been said about the natural wine world. There’s no point in repeating reasons why the movement, although it has offered many interesting experiences, doesn’t convince us. It is sometimes only ideological, lacking self-
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(Maremma Toscana Ciliegiolo Vigna Vallerana Alta ’15 – Antonio Camillo)
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ALL THE 2018 SPECIAL AWARDS (AND THE 436 TRE BICCHIERI)
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LOMBARDY - RED WINE OF THE YEAR VALTELLINA SUP. SASSELLA ROCCE ROSSE RIS. ’07 - AR.PE.PE. – pag. 36
PIEDMONT - SPARKLING WINE OF THE YEAR MARCALBERTO EXTRA BRUT MILLESIMO 2MILA12 M. CL. ’12 - MARCALBERTO – pag. 38
TRENTINO - SUSTAINABLE VITICULTURE AWARD - FERRARI – pag. 42
VENETO - WINERY OF THE YEAR - MASI – pag. 32 EMILIA ROMAGNA - BEST BUY ROMAGNA SANGIOVESE SUP. SIGISMONDO ’16 LE ROCCHE MALATESTIANE – pag. 40
TUSCANY - SOLIDARITY PROJECT AWARD - MONTENIDOLI – pag. 44
CALABRIA - UP-AND-COMING WINERY - SPIRITI EBBRI – pag. 43
TUSCANY GRAPEGROWER OF THE YEAR STEFANO AMERIGHI – pag. 41
CAMPANIA - WHITE WINE OF THE YEAR FIANO DI AVELLINO PIETRAMARA ’16 I FAVATI – pag. 37 SICILY - SWEET WINE OF THE YEAR MALVASIA DELLE LIPARI PASSITO ’16 CARAVAGLIO – pag. 39
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MISTER AMARONE: CULTURE AND ROOTS
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he love story that ties the Boscaini family to Valpolicella goes back centuries. The first documents that mention the name are from 1772 when Vajo dei Masi, a valley between Marano and Negrar, in the heart of the classic Valpolicella zone, came into the family’s possession after a marriage. Since then, the Boscaini have always made wine. “Every generation contributed,” said Sandro Boscaini, president and CEO of the group. “Time consolidates your relationship with a territory, it lets you know the land where you live inch by inch. In the winery, work habits consolidate, even if they
have to be rethought as technology evolves. Tradition, not traditionalism: our history in two words.” A family and Valpolicella This year, the Winery of the Year award goes to this family. They have inextricably tied their name to the story of Valpolicella and its most celebrated wine, Amarone. In seven generations, they have led it from the Age of Enlightenment to international markets. Overall production today is over twelve million bottles, with a turnover of more than sixty million euros and sales that reach 120 countries around the world. Besides
the historic Masi brand name, the Group also includes Serègo Alighieri, Conti Bossi Fedrigotti in Trentino, Bell’Ovile in Tuscany, Masi Tupungato in Argentina and the most recent acquisition, Canevel Spumanti, specialists in Prosecco Superiore from
6 wineries in the group 12 million bottles annually 60 million euros annual revenue
120 countries to which it exports
WINERY OF THE YEAR Masi -
Sant’Ambrogio di Valpolicella (VR) masi.it - @masiagricola
MASI
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3
4
2
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Conegliano Valdobbiadene. Since 2015, the winery has been on the Italian stock exchange, but has always maintained its family house character. Sandro Boscaini has worked at the winery since the 1960s, when, fresh from his study of economics, after a thesis about enlarging the Verona Agriculture Fair into what became Vinitaly, he joined his father Guido and enologist Nino Franceschetti and transformed the Paolo Boscaini e Figli winery into Agricola Masi. Beside him today, along with his brothers Bruno and Mario, are his children Raffaele and Alessandra, and his niece and nephew, Anita and Giacomo. 1. Planting a rooted vine 2. Sandro Boscaini 3. Amarone Campolongo ‘99 4. Il Masi Wine Bar Restaurant in Zurich 5. The barrel cellar of the Tupungato project in Argentina 6. Raffaele Boscaini
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7
A grand team effort Masi is synonymous with Amarone, and today the group is the leading producer of this historic Veneto wine. “Masi has always had a great sensibility,” continued Sandro, nicknamed Mr. Amarone in the wine world, now also the title of his biography. “We have consistently innovated tradition without forgetting it. My father created Campofiorin, a ripasso wine in which dried grapes were added to a batch of Valpolicella wine for a period of extended maceration. That product changed the economy of this territory. I founded the Gruppo Tecnico Masi in the mid-1980s. It is team of enologists, agronomists, chemists, marketing experts and other specialists that does research and is constantly in touch with universities and international organizations in order to improve Masi wines but also, in general, those of the Venezie, which is our territory.” The work of this group, led today by Raffaele Masi, has spurred a series
of studies that have deeply affected not only the winery but the entire territory. The most important studies are those that deepened the understanding of grape drying at a microbiology level, explored the DNA sequence of the corvina grape, rediscovered top-quality ancient local varieties such as oseleta, selected indigenous yeasts for the fermentation of Amarone, and perfected the grape-drying technique Masi uses today (NASA, natural appassimento super-assisted). Each year these results are presented and made available to all in a course at Vinitaly during the celebrated Masi Seminars. Masi Amarone today is an ancient wine of extraordinary modernity that comes from curated vineyards chosen from the best exposures in the classic zone. It is a sumptuous and mouth-filling wine that entrusts its softness to glycerin rather than to sugar, where the wood of maturation is fundamental, but never prevails over the fruit. Fruit is always healthy
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and not veiled by volatile sensations but sustained by the wine’s noble rot. The wine reflects its terroir and its stateof-the-art appassimento - grape-drying on bamboo racks - that creates the illusion of sweetness. Long maturation in Veronese 660-liter barrels is perfectly suited to the wine’s evolution. Alongside the most well-known label are the Famiglia Boscaini crus: Campolongo di Torbe (since 1958), Mazzano (since 1964), Recioto Mezzanella since 1967, and Vajo Armaron della Serègo Alighieri since 1979. Once again playing a pioneer role, in the 1980s, Masi’s Campofiorin replaced the use of pomace for Amarone with half-dried fresh grapes, acquiring a stylistic clarity that has been imitated by all. We could continue for pages about the specific qualities of the Masi wines, vineyards and wineries, and how the group has successfully explored appassimento in wines with different personalities, origins and varieties.
2000
2003 – New distribution channels: Masi opens at Duty Free and at Travel Trasportation
7. Grapes drying on racks 8. Masi Wine Discovery Museum 9. A bunch of uva corvina, the basic Amarone grape along with corvinone and rondinella
Looking through the album of prizes is impressive. The Fondazione Masi is further committed to the spreading of the Veneto’s cultural values by means of two series of publications, one historical and the other technical, as well as a quarterly review in Italian and English, “Le Venezie – Cultura e Territorio,” distributed around the world to a network of journalists and influential personalities. As if that wasn’t enough, the Premio Speciale Fondazione Masi showcases the talent of the best interpreters of the Veneto’s musical repertory in co-promotion with the Concorso Internazionale di Musica da Camera “Salieri–Zinetti”. For fifteen years they have been giving scholarships to musicians who focus on Veneto’s music. The Fondazione also puts out a prestigious series of recordings, “Espressioni delle Venezie.” Almost 250 years after the birth of their firm, the Boscaini family, for all that they have done until now, certainly deserve an award. Masi is our Winery of the Year.
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1979 – founding of Gruppo Tecnico Masi for research into grapes and vinification techniques
1970
9
1990
1999 – Masi launches Progetto Tupungato in Argentina in the valley at the foot of the volcano of the same name
1973 – beginning of collaboration with Serego Alighieri 1972 – establishment of Masi Agricola
1964 – Sandro Boscaini joins the firm
1960
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2017 – The Wine Discovery Museum is opened in Lazise in Tenuta Canova 2016 – Masi takes over 60% of Canevel Spumante: it’s time for Prosecco 2015 – Quotation in AIM Italia (Stock Exchange) 2014 – Certificazione Elite on the Italian Stock Exchange 2013 – Purchase of Tenuta Canova on Lake Garda
2007 – partnership with Conti Bossi Fedrigotti 2006 – Alcedo SGR Investment enters Masi
1950
Wine and Culture At the heart of this success is Boscaini’s insight: explore your own roots, look for your own identity in the history and culture of the territory. The culture of the Venezie, that is, doesn’t only mean having vineyards in Friuli, in Veneto or in Trentino. “It means creating structures in the world that tell our story through our wines in the places we build, for example the wine bar in Zurich or our Tenuta Canova in Lazise on Lake Garda, or the initiatives that bring the members of the Investor Club to our winery every year. Through our wines we transmit values, as we did 36 years ago with the Masi Prize, which is now managed by its own autonomous foundation. It was founded to recognize exponents of the Veneto culture, and over the years it grew, leading to two other awards with worldwide impact, the International Prizes Masi Civiltà del Vino and Grosso d’Oro Veneziano, awarded to people who have distinguished themselves in the grand world of winegrowing and those who have promoted that culture as a means of understanding among people.”
2010
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1950-1955 – New headquarters in Gargagnago, the beginning of exports to Europe and North America
1772 – Boscaini family purchases the Vaio dei Masi vineyard in Valpolicella and begins to produce wine
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HIGH-ALTITUDE NEBBIOLO
T
he Pelizzati Perego family has been involved in the Valtellina wine world since 1860. Its history was a complicated one, and ended in 1973 with Arturo and his brothers deciding to sell the brand and the business, dividing up their 5o hectares of vineyard. But in 1984, Arturo realized it was a pity to waste that valuable patrimony, and started again with his 10 hectares of vines. When the first winds of change began to blow, with the arrival of barriques and the production of denser wines, Ar.Pe.Pe. winery chose instead to swim against the current and maintain tradition with the wines they harvested, releasing them to the public only after many years. When Arturo died in 2004, the fifth generation - Isabella, Guido and Emanuele – carried on energetically. Isabella handles public relations (“I spread the word about the winery and bring the world to Valtellina”). Emanuele has inherited their father’s talent as an agronomist and enologist. Guido is in charge of social media. Today, the winery has 13 hectares, with 9 in Sassella, 3 in Grumello and one in Inferno. Their focus is traditional agriculture attentive to the environment, and selection of grapes in a way that allows the winery to offer true mountain wines. One particularly significant element is this selection policy. Ultimi Raggi comes from the vineyards growing at the highest altitude, around 600 meters above sea level, from grapes over-ripened on the vine. The general philosophy is to have the greatest respect for the vintage year and its potential, limiting the top wines to 3 or 4 releases within 10 years, when the grapes are able to undergo maceration that lasts between 40 and 120 days to guarantee many decades of longevity. Aging, which takes place in old barrels with staves of oak, chestnut and acacia, lasts from 3-4 years followed by long bottle-aging before release. The secret of the success of this winery lies in its having always held to a rigorously traditional style, without paying attention to passing fashions. Its wines are inimitable classics. – Gianni Fabrizio
The first vintage of Rocce Rosse dates back to 1984, when Arturo decided to select the grapes of a vineyard in Sassella located between 400 and 550 meters above sea level. Six years after the harvest, he released the bottles on the market. Average annual production now varies from 12,000 to 19,000 bottles. Our Red of the Year has a brilliant mediumgarnet color, barely evolved. Aromas are complex, with warm notes of tobacco and soot joining hints of plum, tar and licorice. The palate is graceful but powerful and persistent, with rich fruitiness, great freshness, and dense, deep tannins. An exciting version of mountain nebbiolo.
13 hectares of vineyard 80,000 bottles 11 labels
RED WINE OF THE YEAR VALTELLINA SUP. SASSELLA ROCCE ROSSE RISERVA ’07 - AR.PE.PE
GAMBERO ROSSO
38
OCTOBER 2017
Ar.Pe.Pe.
Sondrio arpepe.com - @arpepe1860
COVER STORY
Smoky and volcanic, Fiano di Avellino Pietramara ‘16 displays an intense smoky quality. It offers a range of aromas, with hints of grain, straw and mint. The palate is energetic and rhythmic, and the finish is a crescendo of crystalline elegance.
A SMOKY WINE WON HEARTS
T
16 hectares of vineyard 100,000 bottles 9 labels
he White Wine of the Year takes us to the Irpinia zone, to Atripalda. Even in a vintage year like 2017, the harvest began only on September 28. At the head of one of the most solid wineries in Campania we find Rosanna Petrozzielo, her husband Giancarlo and brother, Piersabino Favati. “We were all doing something else,” Rosanna told us, “when we inherited the family vineyard. In 1994 we obtained permission to replant, and we sold our grapes to others. I worked in a bank, my husband was in real estate. We remodeled the house and fell in love with the vineyard. It had a perfect exposure. Everything pointed in one direction.” In 1999, the Favati family began to make their own wine. “In 2000 it went well, so in 2001, in January, I left the bank, took a sommelier class in February and in April went to my first Vinitaly event. Since then, I’ve never left the countryside.” Fiano di Avellino Pietramara comes from a concave, five-hectare vineyard with a southern exposure and 2,500 vines planted per hectare. “Since
last year we have taken over the management of another vineyard, four hectares of fiano, 800 meters away from the first property, but with the same exposure and soil.” Both have a great deal of limestone and some layers of clay. “the 2016 year was difficult here in Irpinia. We had it all, freezes, hail…We harvested fewer grapes, but they were excellent. In the last two years we haven’t made Etichetta Bianca, our Fiano Riserva.” Is the Pietramara 2016 a hint of the future, with its penetrating smoky note? “The first year that we exported to America was 2002. The importer called us. He said that clients noticed smoke in the wine. He asked us what it came from. We were just beginners, my husband and I. We didn’t sleep all night. We thought it was something really serious,” Rosanna smiled. That breath of smoke was a result of the enological sensibility of their winemaker, Vincenzo Mercurio, and his ability to bring the territory into the wine subtly, without making it the protagonist. – Lorenzo Ruggeri
WHITE WINE OF THE YEAR I Favati
Cesinali (AV) cantineifavati.it
FIANO DI AVELLINO PIETRAMARA ’16 I FAVATI
GAMBERO ROSSO
39
OCTOBER 2017
COVER STORY
METODO CLASSICO, A QUESTION OF STYLE
I
n the middle of the 1990s, a producer from the Langhe zone of Piedmont brought a bottle of classic spumante into our Rome office. “A slightly crazy friends of mine in Barbaresco makes it, but it’s really worth tasting,” Angelo Rocca told us. He understood good wine. We tried it and immediately reviewed it in our magazine. Speaking on the phone with its maker, Piero Cane, an enologist who worked for a grande maison, we were swept away by this small edition made purely for love of the product. At that time, he made barely 4,000 bottles a year, and its name was a fusion of those of his two sons, Marco and Alberto. His little vineyard was in Calosso, and it was planted with pinot nero and chardonnay vines. Over the years, we continued to follow Piero’s life. Today he has five hectares between Calosso and Loazzola, he recently bought a beautiful amphitheater of land on a hill, and has vineyards in Cossan and in Santo Stefano Belbo. Over the course of 25 years, his output grew to 30,000 bottles and five labels. “The wonderful thing,” Piero said to us recently, “is that my sons believed in this. They are passionate about the project. Alberto became an enologist. Marco looks after the commercial side. I couldn’t have asked for more.” We decided to give an award to the style of these wines, their precision, structure, clarity, balance and minerality, qualities we find both in Pas Dosé Blanc de Blancs and in the Rosé, but also in Sansannée and even in Nature Senza Solfiti. Marcalberto Extra Brut Millesimo2Mila12 has something extra. It’s very good, but it also has the flavor of a wonderful family story, a challenge overcome. For us, it’s the Sparkling Wine of the Year. – Marco Sabellico
The wine has a lovely pale, brilliant strawyellow color and subtly elegant bubbles, the result of 40 months of resting on its lees. The nose is complex and vibrant with notes of red berries and golden delicious apples interlaced with boisé and citrus fruit notes on the finish. The palate is deep, savory and fruity. Effervescence is creamy and its vibrant freshness carries it to a long, spicy and complex finish. A wine to fall in love with.
5 hectares of vineyard 30,000 bottles 5 labels
SPARKLING WINE OF THE YEAR MARCALBERTO EXTRA BRUT MILLESIMO2MILA12 - MARCALBERTO
GAMBERO ROSSO
40
OCTOBER 2017
Marcalberto
Santo Stefano Belbo (CN) marcalberto.it
COVER STORY
ANTIQUE WINE, CONTEMPORARY SWEETNESS
N
ino Caravaglio has worked especially hard on his Malvasia in recent years. “I began with the idea that a market in severe crisis like that of sweet wine would appreciate a versatile wine, focused more on elegance and freshness, than one all muscle and structure,” he explained. So he paid careful attention during the harvest to ripe grapes with acidity that would stay high even after the ritual of drying on racks. At the same time, he avoided excessively high degrees of alcohol or sugar residues that would lead to a cloying effect. The variety with which Malvasia delle Lipari is produced probably came to Sicily with the Greeks during various colonizing periods in southern Italy beginning eight centuries BC. Genetically it is the same variety that produces Greco di Bianco in Calabria and many similar wines around the Mediterranean. Professor Attilio Scienza has theorized that the grape from Lipari is the same one that was used for a sweet wine called Monemvasia made in the Peloponnese. Malvasia delle Lipari comes mainly from the Aeolian island of Lipari, but also from vineyards on Panarea and Vulcano. Caravaglio has just planted five hectares of vineyard on another of the islands, Stromboli. An authentic vignaiolo, Nino began producing wine in 1992, vinifying practically in his living room the only hectare of vines he owned at the time. Now he has a little more than 15, spread out among 40 different parcels. All are cultivated strictly organically. – Massimo Lanza
Malvasia delle Lipari Passito ’16 is a wine of rare elegance. The nose is rich and complex, with notes of candied citrus fruit, apricot, peach, medicinal herbs and lavender, on an iodine-mineral background. The palate is a masterpiece of balance between sweet but full-flavored fruit and alcohol, with a fresh acidic vein that amplifies the luscious pleasure of each sip and accompanies the mouthfeel through to the long, long, fresh finish.
15 hectares of vineyard 2,500 bottles
of Malvasia delle Lipari of .500 l
6 labels:
2 reds, 3 whites, 1 sweet
SWEET WINE OF THE YEAR MALVASIA DELLE LIPARI PASSITO ’16 - CARAVAGLIO
GAMBERO ROSSO
Caravaglio
Malfa – Isola di Salina (ME) caravaglio.it
41
OCTOBER 2017
COVER STORY
Dedicated to Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, a 15thcentury nobleman immortalized in a portrait by Piero della Francesca, this Sangiovese Superiore is made from grapes grown on the hills behind Rimini, Riccione and Coriano. The terroir is characterized by fairly deep soil rich in gray and brown clay. The 2016 vintage is very interesting, both for its quality and its style. Its aromas are linear and clean, finely embroidered on notes of wild berries, watermelon and orange, while the palate is juicy and fresh. Wonderfully easy to drink.
INTERPRETING THE TERROIR
I 800 hectares of vineyard 700,000 bottles 25 labels, which include
12 reds, 8 whites, 2 sweet, 1 passito, 3 bubblies, 2 sparkling
t’s not just one wine. The entire range of wines from the cooperative Rocche Malatestiane is impressive, a sign that there is a concrete, focused project at work, capable of producing significant results. The vineyards of this winery lie on the hills facing the Adriatic behind Rimini, a resort at its peak of popularity at the end of the 1950s. The Malatesta name belonged to the aristocrats that ruled the city between the 13th and 15th century. Today, 500 grapegrowers cultivate 800 hectares of vineyard. The overall project starts here at the Val Marecchia in Cattolica and extends towards the northern border of the Marche region. The soil is varied, a complex mosaic dominated by sangiovese, a variety perfectly suited for the contemporary goals of the Rocche winery. The project began in 2011 with the launching of “Terre Riminesi del Sangiovese”, a major overhaul that is changing the image of the cooperative and its very identity. Selection of ripe grapes from the best-suited properties, following a precise classification scheme, led to a series of different labels, including this one worthy of a celebration. – Antonio Boco
BEST BUY Rocche Malatestiane
Rimini lerocchemalatestiane.it
ROMAGNA SANGIOVESE SUPERIORE SIGISMONDO ’16 - ROCCHE MALATESTIANE
GAMBERO ROSSO
42
OCTOBER 2017
COVER STORY
This is a magnetic wine which takes its time to open. Believe us, the wait is rewarded. It’s no accident it received a Tre Bicchieri award. Aromas dance and turn, with striking elements of ripe fruit – currants, cherries and blackberries – then elegant spicy details. The palate is coherent, three- dimensional, savory and refreshed by a good balsamic undertone. Enviable substance and length reinforce the mouthfeel.
THE SYRAH PROJECT
S
tefano Amerighi, one of Italy’s foremost winegrowers, has launched in Cortona a project related to Syrah. Without taking any shortcuts, Amerighi has manage to create an iconic wine by following a meticulous path, passionate and original, since 2002. It begins, obviously, with the land, namely a parcel in Poggiobello di Farneta, in the area of Cortona that is best suited for viticulture. Within the property are two distinct hills with southwestern exposures, which, when he bought them, were unplanted and used as pastureland. That was the foundation for his project. The next
was the selection of syrah clones from the Rhône Valley, the time-honored cradle of this variety. The vineyards were cultivated according to biodynamic methods right from the start, based on clear ideals of agricultural sustainability. The vines are still fairly young, so their future could be even brighter. In the winemaking facilities and the cellars, vinification is also natural, respectful of the terroir and able to deliver authentic wines. The grapes are left whole and in part are pressed by foot, before being transferred to cement vats for spontaneous fermentation sparked only by indigenous yeasts. A fourteen-month period of maturation takes place in both wood and cement before unfiltered bottling. – Antonio Boco
8.5 hectares of vineyard 28,000 bottles 2 labels
GRAPEGROWER OF THE YEAR Stefano Amerighi
Cortona (AR) stefanoamerighi.it
STEFANO AMERIGHI
GAMBERO ROSSO
43
OCTOBER 2017
COVER STORY
Trento Brut Giulio Ferrari Ris. del Fondatore ‘06 is the 22nd Tre Bicchicri awarded to Cantine Ferrari. This parade of awards solidifies the position of this wine among the monuments of Italy’s wine production. The 2006 vintage was a great one. “It was one of those continental climate years that made Giulio Ferrari fall in love with this part of Trentino more than 100 years ago,” said Marcello Lunelli. Emblematic of impeccable winemaking, it is the symbol of mountain Chardonnay, grown on a vineyard 600 meters above sea level. It rests on its lees for ten years, and then offers notes ranging from the exotic to walnut hulls; its profile is regal and its finish quite moving.
120 hectares of vineyard 4,450,000 bottles 15 Metodo Classico labels
HOW WINES SAVE MOUNTAINS
“I
n a small region like Trentino, using sustainable methods in winegrowing is fundamental,” commented Marcello Lunelli, vice-president of Cantine Ferrari, about the Gambero Rosso award. “Seventy percent of our region is mountainous. The rest is made up of agriculture, industry, service industries, cities and villages. A great responsibility for the environment rests on the shoulders of those of us who work in agriculture.” That is why in 2009, the winery began its conversion to organic farming. Today its entire vineyard is certified organic. But it’s not enough. “We work with about 600 grapegrowers who grow their grapes according to a protocol (UNI 11233) that we call “Protocollo Ferrari di Viticoltura di Montagna e Salubre”. It is a guide that proceeds by graduated levels of attention to sustainability that our grape providers must observe in order to consign their grapes to us.” Trentino is among the most advanced regions in terms of respect for environmental protection. Since last year, it has adhered to the Ministry of Agriculture’s Sistema di Qualità Nazionale di Produzione Integrata. This protocol provides certification of production processes that join good farming practices to sustainable use of fertilizers and pesticides so as to guarantee the economics of agriculture at the same time as it assures low impact on the environment. “Our entire community is committed to a pathway of attention, even intellectual, to the environment,” said Lunelli, “and we at Ferrari are particular attentive to this theme. And after this award, we’ll do even more.” – William Pregentelli
AWARD FOR SUSTAINABLE VITICULTURE Cantine Ferrari - F.lli Lunelli
Trento ferraritrento.it
- @ferraritrento
CANTINE FERRARI - FRATELLI LUNELLI
GAMBERO ROSSO
44
OCTOBER 2017
COVER STORY
A CALABRIAN FIRST
T
en years ago it would have been difficult to imagine assigning the award for upand-coming winery to a Calabrian firm. At that time, everything in Calabria seemed immobile, although the region has millennia of winemaking history and perhaps the richest patrimony of wine varieties in Italy. Very few wines were presented to our regional panels and they were always from the same few wineries that often were not shining examples of stylistic rigor and quality. It was in this context that three friends, Pierpaolo Greco, Damiano Mele and Michele Scrivano, united by a passion for wine, decided to take over the management of a small vineyard in the Lappano municipality. “It was crazy, thinking about it now,” said Pierpaolo, who looks after the enological aspect of the winery. “We were involved in completely different work at that time. But the idea of making a wine that was all ours excited us. Overcoming our first difficulties, we used an old carpentry shop of my grandfather’s, and in 2005, we vinified Appianum for the first time.” The idea of selling their wine came a few years later. “Our primary problem was to find a space to use as a facility. A couple of years passed before we found an old, unused movie house in Celico. We fell in love with it at first sight and taking on a great deal of debt, we adapted it to use for winemaking. We had no doubts about our production philosophy, though. Michele, Damiano and I decided right away that we had to continue making natural wines and not give into the marketplace of the time that was not interested in that kind of wine.” Once they had the vineyards and the winery, they had to choose a name with which to present themselves to the market. “This was also a group decision,” they agreed. “We didn’t want to take ourselves too seriously, despite our financial issue. The idea of making ‘liberated’ wines didn’t appeal to us, so we opted for Spiriti Ebbri (Inebriated Spirits) because winemaking requires time and discipline, but doesn’t exclude imagination, dreams, madness….” – Massimo Lanza
From the up-andcoming winery of 2018, we spotlight three wines: 1. Neostòs Bianco 2016 From pecorello grapes, this Tre Bicchieri wine is fascinating for the intensity of its bouquet: fruit, white flowers, iodine, saffron and fresh hints of Mediterranean herbs. On the palate it displays a lovely sensation of fresh sapidity wellgrafted on tonic and vibrant fruit, which slowly gives space for a deep and very long finish. 2. Neostòs Rosso 2015 Elegant, rich in fruit and balsam on the nose, the palate registers a lovely return of creamy fruit but well enveloped in fresh, savory acidity, tight, clean tannins and a fine finish of unusual aromatic persistence. It won Due Bicchieri Rossi. 3. Neostòs Rosato 2016 Elegant Mediterranean blend of indigenous Calabrian varieties with a touch of merlot added. A pale and brilliant cherry color, on the nose clean and complex aromas of Mediterranean herbs and berries. The palate is powerful but elegant, harmonious, savory and richly fruity. Due Bicchieri.
2.50 hectares of vineyard 20,000 bottles 5 labels: 1 red, 2 rosés, 2 whites
UP-AND-COMING WINERY Spiriti Ebbri
Spezzano Piccolo (CS) spiritiebbri.it
SPIRITI EBBRI
GAMBERO ROSSO
45
OCTOBER 2017
COVER STORY
WHEN GENERATIONS MEET IN THE VINEYARD
“W
e are a big family on a little planet.” That’s how Elisabetta Fagiuoli commented on our award for Progetto Solidale. This is the first time the Gambero Rosso has given an award to her winery, Montenidoli. Elisabetta’s project emerges from the desire to build a more just way to live as human beings. Her comment continued, “We have to eliminate egoism and obstacles that prevent living together not only in a civil manner, but also in harmony with nature.” Our award goes to her commitment to Sergio Il Patriarca Onlus, a non-profit foundation dedicated to Sergio Muratori, a poet and elementary school teacher. Together, they brought new life not only to the vines and the olive trees,
but also to many people who came visiting Montenidoli and made sense of life starting with this sentence: “How poor I became since I decided I wanted to be rich.” Fagiuoli’s foundation is open to those who believe that in a healthy relationship between the generations, between the young and the old, people can find a way of life that’s worth living and recounting. Today, two properties in the upper part of the Montenidoli estate are already a live, concrete reality. The foundation, after completing a structure dedicated to the old, aims to build a site set aside for the young. From the relationship between the generations, a more harmonious, cohesive and united society can emerge.. – Gianni Fabrizio
MONTENIDOLI, VERNACCIA AND TRIASSICO Immediately after the purchase, in 1965, of the Montenidoli farm in San Gimignano, thanks to an inheritance from her grandmother, Elisabetta realized that to complete what was turning out to be a solidarity project where young and old, through better understanding each other, would learn to live better, great sums of money were required. So she and Sergio made that property a real model winegrowing estate, as well as a welcoming home for young people with difficulties. Today, the 24 hectares of property produce a wonderful Vernaccia Tradizionale that won a Tre Bicchieri award and permits the estate to sustain the Foundation. In the upper part of the property, called Le Pianore, at 450 meters above sea level, 23,000 sangiovese vines were planted. The wine that comes from this vineyard, cultivated with criteria of absolute naturalness and calling for minimum intervention during vinification, Triassico (bottled in a few hundred magnum bottles) attained peaks of great elegance in the 2015 vintage.
24 hectares of vineyard 100,000 bottles 11 labels: 6 reds and 5 whites
SOLIDARITY PROJECT Montenidoli
San Gimignano (SI) montenidoli.com
MONTENIDOLI
GAMBERO ROSSO
46
OCTOBER 2017
A GUIDE OVER 1200 OVER LEADING A GUIDE TOTO THE LEADING 1200COMPANIES COMPANIES PRODUCING FOODSTUFFS IN ITALY
An indispensable tool for foodies but even more so for industry insiders promoting the best of Made-in-Italy worldwide
www.gamberorosso.it
ALL THE TRE BICCHIERI 2018 VALLE D’AOSTA Valle d’Aosta Chambave Moscato Passito Prieuré ’15 La Crotta di Vegneron Valle d’Aosta Chambave Muscat Flétri ’15 - La Vrille Valle d’Aosta Cornalin ’16 Rosset Terroir Valle d’Aosta Nebbiolo Sommet ’15 - Les Crêtes Valle d’Aosta Petite Arvine ’16 - Elio Ottin Valle d’Aosta Pinot Gris ’16 Lo Triolet PIEDMONT Alta Langa Brut Zero Nature Sboccatura Tardiva ’11 Enrico Serafino Barbaresco Albesani S. Stefano Ris. ’12 Castello di Neive Barbaresco Crichët Pajé ’08 Roagna Barbaresco Maria di Brün ’13 Ca’ Rome’ Barbaresco Martinenga Camp Gros Ris. ’12 - Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Grésy Barbaresco Montaribaldi ’13 Fiorenzo Nada Barbaresco Nervo ’14 - Rizzi Barbaresco Ovello ’13 Cantina del Pino Barbaresco Ovello ’14 Cascina Morassino Barbaresco Pajoré ’14 Sottimano Barbaresco Rabajà ’13 Bruno Rocca Barbaresco Roncaglie ’14 Poderi Colla Barbaresco Serraboella ’13 F.lli Cigliuti Barbaresco Sorì Tildin ’14 Gaja Barbaresco Vallegrande ’14 Ca’ del Baio Barbera d’Asti Bricco dell’Uccellone ’15 - Braida Barbera d’Asti Sup. Epico ’15 Pico Maccario Barbera d’Asti Sup. Nizza Riserva della Famiglia ’09 Coppo Barbera d’Asti Sup. Sant’ Emiliano ’15 - Marchesi Incisa della Rocchetta Barbera d’Asti Sup. V. La Mandorla ’15 - Luigi Spertino Barbera del M.to Giulin ’15 Giulio Accornero e Figli Barolo ’13 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo Bricco Rocche ’13 Ceretto Barolo Brunate ’13 Enzo Boglietti Barolo Brunate ’13 Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo Cerretta V. Bricco ’11 Elio Altare Cascina Nuova Barolo del Comune di Barolo Essenze ’13 - Vite Colte Barolo Falletto V. Le Rocche Ris. ’11 - Bruno Giacosa Barolo Gabutti ’13 Gabutti Franco Boasso Barolo Ginestra Ris. ’09 -
Paolo Conterno Barolo Lazzarito Ris. ’11 Ettore Germano Barolo Monfortino Ris. ’10 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Monprivato ’12 Giuseppe Mascarello e Figlio Barolo Monvigliero ’13 F.lli Alessandria Barolo Ornato ’13 - Pio Cesare Barolo Paiagallo Casa E. di Mirafiore ’13 - Fontanafredda Barolo Ravera Bricco Pernice ’12 - Elvio Cogno Barolo Resa 56 ’13 - Brandini Barolo Ris. ’10 Giacomo Borgogno & Figli Barolo Ris. ’11 Paolo Manzone Barolo Rocche dell’Annunziata Ris. ’11 Paolo Scavino Barolo Sarmassa V. Bricco Ris. ’11 - Giacomo Brezza & Figli Barolo Sarmassa V. Merenda ’10 - Giorgio Scarzello e Figli Barolo Sottocastello di Novello ’12 - Ca’ Viola Barolo V. Lazzairasco ’13 Guido Porro Barolo Vigna Rionda ’10 Figli Luigi Oddero Barolo Vigna Rionda Ester Canale Rosso ’13 Giovanni Rosso Barolo Vigna Rionda Ris. ’11 Massolino Barolo Vignarionda Arnaldo Rivera ’13 - Terre del Barolo Barolo Villero ’13 - Brovia Barolo Villero Ris. ’09 - Vietti Boca ’12 - Le Piane Bramaterra ’12 - Noah Colli Tortonesi Timorasso Fausto ’15 - Vigne Marina Coppi Colli Tortonesi Timorasso Ombra di Luna ’15 Cascina Salicetti Costa del Vento ’15 Vigneti Massa Dogliani Papà Celso ’16 Abbona Dolcetto di Ovada ’15 Tacchino Erbaluce di Caluso ’16 Podere Macellio Erbaluce di Caluso Le Chiusure ’16 - Benito Favaro Gattinara Osso San Grato ’13 - Antoniolo Gattinara Ris. ’12 Giancarlo Travaglini Gavi del Comune di Gavi GG ’15Cantina Produttori del Gavi Gavi del Comune di Gavi Monterotondo ’15 - Villa Sparina Gavi V. della Rovere Verde Ris. ’15 - La Mesma Ghemme V. Pelizzane ’11 Torraccia del Piantavigna Grignolino del M.to Casalese ’16 - Vicara Marcalberto Extra Brut Millesimo2Mila12 M. Cl. ’12 Marcalberto Moscato d’Asti ’16 Paolo Saracco Moscato d’Asti Canelli
Sant’Ilario ’16 - Ca’ d’ Gal Moscato d’Asti Casa di Bianca ’16 Gianni Doglia Nizza La V. dell’Angelo ’14 Cascina La Barbatella Roero Arneis Cecu d’la Biunda ’16 - Monchiero Carbone Roero Arneis Le Rive del Bricco delle Ciliegie ’16 Giovanni Almondo Roero Gepin ’13 Stefanino Costa Roero Valmaggiore V. Audinaggio ’15 Cascina Ca’ Rossa Ruché di Castagnole M.to Laccento ’16 - Montalbera LIGURIA Colli di Luni Vermentino Costa Marina ’16 - Ottaviano Lambruschi Colli di Luni Vermentino Lunae Et. Nera ’16 Cantine Lunae Bosoni Colli di Luni Vermentino Sup. Fosso di Corsano ’16 Terenzuola Dolceacqua Beragna ’16 Ka’ Manciné Riviera Ligure di Ponente Pigato Albium ’15 Poggio dei Gorleri Riviera Ligure di Ponente Pigato Bon in da Bon ’16 - BioVio Riviera Ligure di Ponente Pigato U Baccan ’15 - Bruna LOMBARDY Brut Rosé - Monsupello Extra Brut Farfalla - Ballabio Franciacorta Nature ‘61 ’10 Guido Berlucchi & C. Franciacorta Brut ’12 Lo Sparviere Franciacorta Brut Arcadia ’13 - Lantieri de Paratico Franciacorta Brut Museum Release ’07 - Ricci Curbastro Franciacorta Brut Naturae ’13 - Barone Pizzini Franciacorta Brut Satèn Soul ’11 - Contadi Castaldi Franciacorta Dosage Zéro Vintage Collection ’12 Ca’ del Bosco Franciacorta Pas Dosé 33 Ris. ’10 - Ferghettina Franciacorta Pas Operé ’10 Bellavista Lugana Molin ’16 - Cà Maiol OP Brut Pinot Nero ‘More ’13 - Castello di Cigognola OP Brut Top Zero - F.lli Giorgi OP Dosage Zero Vergomberra ’12 - Bruno Verdi OP Pinot Nero Brut M. Cl. Cuvée della Casa - Francesco Montagna Bertè & Cordini OP Pinot Nero Rosé M. Cl. NorEma ’13 - Calatroni Pinot Nero Arfena ’15 Andrea Picchioni Valtellina Sforzato Albareda ’15 - Mamete Prevostini Valtellina Sfursat Carlo Negri ’15 - Nino Negri Valtellina Sup. Dirupi
Ris. ’14 - Dirupi Valtellina Sup. Sassella Ris. ’13 - Aldo Rainoldi Valtellina Sup. Sassella Rocce Rosse Ris. ’07 - Ar.Pe.Pe. CANTON TICINO Ticino Merlot Musa ’14 Fawino Vini & Distillati Ticino Merlot Vinattieri ’13 Vinattieri Ticinesi TRENTINO Ritratto Rosso ’13 La Vis Valle di Cembra San Leonardo ’13 Tenuta San Leonardo Teroldego Rotaliano ’15 De Vescovi Ulzbach Teroldego Rotaliano Pini ’13 Roberto Zeni Trento Brut Rotari Flavio Ris. ’09 - Mezzacorona Trento Brut Altemasi Graal Ris. ’10 - Cavit Trento Brut Conte Federico Ris. ’12 - Bossi Fedrigotti Trento Brut Giulio Ferrari Riserva del Fondatore ’06 Ferrari Trento Brut Rosé +4 ’09 Letrari Trento Dosaggio Zero Ris. ’12 Maso Martis Trento Opera Nature ’11 Opera Trento Pas Dosé Balter Ris. ’11 - Nicola Balter ALTO ADIGE A. A. Chardonnay Lafóa ’15 Cantina Colterenzio A. A. Gewürztraminer Auratus ’16 - Tenuta Ritterhof A. A. Gewürztraminer Brenntal Ris. ’15 Cantina Cortaccia A. A. Gewürztraminer Nussbaumer ’15 - Cantina Tramin A. A. Lago di Caldaro Cl. Sup. Pfarrhof ’16 - Cantina di Caldaro A. A. Lagrein Abtei Muri Ris. ’14- Cantina Convento Muri Gries A. A. Lagrein Staves Ris. ’14 Tenuta Kornell A. A. Lagrein Taber Ris. ’15 Cantina Bolzano A. A. Müller Thurgau Feldmarschall von Fenner ’15 Tiefenbrunner A. A. Pinot Bianco Sanct Valentin ’15 - Cantina Produttori San Michele Appiano A. A. Pinot Bianco Sirmian ’16 Cantina Nals Margreid A. A. Pinot Bianco Tyrol ’15 Cantina Meran A. A. Pinot Grigio Giatl Ris. ’15 Peter Zemmer A. A. Pinot Nero Schweizer ’13 - Franz Haas A. A. Pinot Nero Trattmann Mazon Ris. ’14 - Cantina Girlan A. A. Santa Maddalena Cl. Antheos ’16 - Tenuta Waldgries A. A. Santa Maddalena Cl. Rondell ’16 Glögglhof Franz Gojer A. A. Sauvignon Renaissance ’14 Gumphof Markus Prackwieser A. A. Spumante Brut 1919
M. Cl. Ris. ’11 - Kettmeir A. A. Terlano Sauvignon Quarz ’15 - Cantina Terlano A. A. Val Venosta Riesling ’15 Falkenstein Franz Pratzner A. A. Val Venosta Riesling Windbichel ’15 Tenuta Unterortl Castel Juval A. A. Valle Isarco Grüner Veltliner ’16 - Pacherhof Andreas Huber A. A. Valle Isarco Riesling Kaiton ’16 - Kuenhof Peter Pliger A. A. Valle Isarco Sylvaner ’15 - Garlider Christian Kerschbaumer A. A. Valle Isarco Sylvaner ’16 - Köfererhof Günther Kerschbaumer A. A. Valle Isarco Sylvaner Aristos ’16 - Cantina Produttori Valle Isarco VENETO Amarone della Valpolicella Cl. Calcarole ’13 - Guerrieri Rizzardi Amarone della Valpolicella Campo dei Gigli ’13 Tenuta Sant’Antonio Amarone della Valpolicella Cl. ’13 - Allegrini Amarone della Valpolicella Cl. ’13 - Brigaldara Amarone della Valpolicella Cl. ’09 - Cav. G. B. Bertani Amarone della Valpolicella Cl. ’11 - Secondo Marco Amarone della Valpolicella Cl. ’13 - David Sterza Amarone della Valpolicella Cl. Albasini ’10 - Villa Spinosa Amarone della Valpolicella Cl. Campolongo di Torbe ’11 - Masi Amarone della Valpolicella Cl. Capitel Monte Olmi ’11 F.lli Tedeschi Amarone della Valpolicella Cl. Monte Ca’ Bianca ’12 Lorenzo Begali Amarone della Valpolicella Cl. Ris. ’07 - Giuseppe Quintarelli Amarone della Valpolicella Cl. Sergio Zenato Ris. ’11 - Zenato Amarone della Valpolicella Famiglia Pasqua ’13 Pasqua Cecilia Beretta Amarone della Valpolicella Vign. Monte Sant’Urbano ’13 Viticoltori Speri Bardolino Cl. Brol Grande ’15 - Le Fraghe Bardolino SP ’13 Albino Piona Breganze Cabernet Due Santi ’14 - Vigneto Due Santi Capitel Croce ’15 Roberto Anselmi Cartizze Brut V. La Rivetta Villa Sandi Colli Euganei Rosso Gemola ’13 - Vignalta Conegliano Valdobbiadene Rive di Ogliano Brut Nature ’16 BiancaVigna Custoza Sup. Amedeo ’15 Cavalchina Custoza Sup. Ca’ del Magro ’15Monte del Frà Lugana Molceo Ris. ’15 Ottella Riesling Renano Collezione di Famiglia ’12 - Roeno
Soave Cl. Calvarino ’15 Leonildo Pieropan Soave Cl. Contrada Salvarenza V. V. ’14 - Gini Soave Cl. Monte Carbonare ’15 - Suavia Soave Cl. Staforte ’15 Graziano Prà Soave Cl. Sup. Vign. di Castellaro ’15 - Cantina Sociale di Monteforte d’Alpone Soave Sup. Il Casale ’16 Agostino Vicentini Studio ’15 - Ca’ Rugate Valdobbiadene Brut Nature ’16 - Silvano Follador Valdobbiadene Brut Rive di Col San Martino Cuvée del Fondatore Graziano Merotto ’16 - Merotto Valdobbiadene Brut Rive San Pietro di Barbozza Motus Vitae ’15 - Bortolomiol Valdobbiadene Extra Dry Giustino B. ’16 - Ruggeri & C. Valdobbiadene Rive di Colbertaldo Asciutto Vign. Giardino ’16 - Adami Valpolicella Cl. Sup. Campo Casal Vegri ’15 - Ca’ La Bionda Valpolicella Sup. ’13 Marco Mosconi Valpolicella Sup. Ripasso Campo Ciotoli ’15 - I Campi FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA COF Picolit ’12 - Livon Collio Bianco ’16 - Colle Duga Collio Bianco Fosarin ’15 Ronco dei Tassi Collio Bianco Giulio Locatelli Ris. ’15 - Tenuta di Angoris Collio Friulano ’16 Russiz Superiore Collio Friulano ’16 Schiopetto Collio Pinot Bianco ’16 Doro Princic Collio Pinot Bianco ’16 Villa Russiz Collio Ribolla Gialla di Oslavia Ris. ’13 - Primosic Collio Sauvignon ’16 Tiare Roberto Snidarcig Collio Sauvignon Ronco delle Mele ’16 - Venica & Venica FCO Bianco Identità ’15 Leonardo Specogna FCO Friulano Liende ’16 La Viarte FCO Malvasia ’16 Paolo Rodaro FCO Pinot Bianco Myò ’16 Zorzettig FCO Pinot Grigio ’16 Torre Rosazza FCO Sauvignon Zuc di Volpe ’16 - Volpe Pasini Friuli Friulano No Name ’16 Le Vigne di Zamò Friuli Grave Pinot Bianco ’16 Vigneti Le Monde Friuli Isonzo Friulano I Ferretti ’15 - Tenuta Luisa Friuli Isonzo Sauvignon Piere ’15 - Vie di Romans Lis ’15 - Lis Neris Malvasia ’13 Damijan Podversic Ograde ’15 - Skerk Ribolla Gialla Brut ’13 Eugenio Collavini Vintage Tunina ’15 - Jermann
EMILIA ROMAGNA Colli di Parma Rosso MDV ’16 - Monte delle Vigne Colli di Rimini Cabernet Sauvignon Montepirolo ’13 San Patrignano Lambrusco di Modena Brut Rosé M. Cl. ’13 Cantina della Volta Lambrusco di Sorbara del Fondatore ’16 Cleto Chiarli Tenute Agricole Lambrusco di Sorbara Leclisse ’16 Gianfranco Paltrinieri Lambrusco di Sorbara Secco Omaggio a Gino Friedmann ’16 Cantina Sociale di Carpi e Sorbara Lambrusco di Sorbara V. del Cristo ’16 - Cavicchioli Reggiano Lambrusco Concerto ’16 Ermete Medici & Figli Reggiano Lambrusco Secco Marchese Manodori ’16 Venturini Baldini Romagna Albana Passito Scacco Matto ’13 Fattoria Zerbina Romagna Albana Secco I Croppi ’16 - Celli Romagna Sangiovese Castrocaro e Terra del Sole Crete Azzurre ’15 Marta Valpiani Romagna Sangiovese Modigliana I Probi di Papiano Ris. ’14 - Villa Papiano Romagna Sangiovese Sup. Il Sangiovese ’16 - Noelia Ricci Romagna Sangiovese Sup. Oriolo ’16 - I Sabbioni Romagna Sangiovese Sup. Sigismondo ’16 Le Rocche Malatestiane TUSCANY Al Passo ’14 - Tolaini Altrovino ’15 - Duemani Ameri Governo all’Uso Toscano ’15 Podere San Cristoforo Baron’Ugo ’13 Monteraponi Bolgheri Sassicaia ’14 Tenuta San Guido Bolgheri Sup. Grattamacco ’14 - Grattamacco Bolgheri Sup. Ornellaia ’14 Ornellaia Bolgheri Sup. Paleo ’14 Le Macchiole Bolgheri Sup. Sondraia ’14 Poggio al Tesoro Brunello di Montalcino ’12 Biondi Santi Tenuta Il Greppo Brunello di Montalcino ’12 Brunelli Le Chiuse di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino ’12 Le Chiuse Brunello di Montalcino ’12 Corte dei Venti Brunello di Montalcino ’12 Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino ’12 Salvioni Brunello di Montalcino Giodo ’12 - Giodo Brunello di Montalcino Poggio al Vento Ris. ’10 Tenuta Col d’Orcia Brunello di Montalcino Ris. ’11 - Le Macioche
Brunello di Montalcino V. Schiena d’Asino ’12 - Mastrojanni Carmignano Ris. ’14 Tenuta Le Farnete Cantagallo Carmignano Ris. ’14 - Piaggia Chianti Cl. ’15 - Badia a Coltibuono Chianti Cl. ’15 Borgo Salcetino Chianti Cl. ’14 Castello di Albola Chianti Cl. ’15 Castello di Monsanto Chianti Cl. ’15 Castello di Radda Chianti Cl. ’15 Castello di Volpaia Chianti Cl. ’14 - Le Cinciole Chianti Cl. ’15 - Le Miccine Chianti Cl. Belcanto ’15 Fattoria Nittardi Chianti Cl. Brolio Bettino ’15 Barone Ricasoli Chianti Cl. Casavecchia alla Piazza ’15 - Buondonno Casavecchia alla Piazza Chianti Cl. Gran Sel. ’14 Tenuta di Lilliano Chianti Cl. Gran Sel. Riserva di Fizzano ’14 Rocca delle Macìe Chianti Cl. Gran Sel. V. del Sorbo ’14 - Fontodi Chianti Cl. Lamole di Lamole Et. Blu ’14 - Lamole di Lamole Chianti Cl. Montaperto ’15 Fattoria Carpineta Fontalpino Chianti Cl. Novecento Ris. ’14 - Dievole Chianti Cl. Ris. ’14 Bandini Villa Pomona Chianti Cl. Ris. ’14 - Brancaia Chianti Cl. Ris. ’14 Val delle Corti Chianti Cl. V. Istine ’15 - Istine Cortona Syrah ’14 Stefano Amerighi I Sodi di S. Niccolò ’13 Castellare di Castellina Lupicaia ’13 Castello del Terriccio Maremma Toscana Alicante Oltreconfine ’15 - Bruni Maremma Toscana Ciliegiolo V. Vallerana Alta ’15 Antonio Camillo Maremma Toscana Rocca di Frassinello ’15 Rocca di Frassinello Montecucco Sangiovese Poggio Lombrone Ris. ’13 Colle Massari Montevertine ’14 Montevertine Morellino di Scansano Madrechiesa Ris. ’14 - Terenzi Morellino di Scansano Ribeo ’15 - Roccapesta Nobile di Montepulciano ’14 Tenute del Cerro Nobile di Montepulciano ’14 Maria Caterina Dei Nobile di Montepulciano ’14 Salcheto Nobile di Montepulciano Asinone ’14 - Poliziano Nobile di Montepulciano Il Nocio ’13 - Poderi Boscarelli Oreno ’15 - Tenuta Sette Ponti Orma ’14 - Orma Petra Rosso ’14 - Petra Pinot Nero ’14 Podere della Civettaja
Rosso di Montalcino ’15 Baricci Rosso di Montalcino ’15 Capanna Rosso di Montalcino ’15 Palazzo Rosso di Montalcino ’15 Uccelliera Saffredi ’14 Fattoria Le Pupille Sapaio ’15 - Podere Sapaio Siepi ’15 Castello di Fonterutoli Terre di Pisa Nambrot ’15 Tenuta di Ghizzano Valdarno di Sopra Galatrona ’14 - Fattoria Petrolo Vermentino ’16 San Ferdinando Vernaccia di S. Gimignano Sanice Ris. ’14 - Vincenzo Cesani Vernaccia di S. Gimignano Tradizionale ’15 - Montenidoli Vigorello ’13 - San Felice Vin Santo del Chianti Occhio di Pernice Fonti e Lecceta ’11 - Torre a Cona Vin Santo di Carmignano Ris. ’10 - Tenuta di Capezzana MARCHE Castelli di Jesi Verdicchio Cl. Lauro Ris. ’15 - Poderi Mattioli Castelli di Jesi Verdicchio Cl. Salmariano Ris. ’14 Marotti Campi Castelli di Jesi Verdicchio Cl. San Paolo Ris. ’15 - Pievalta Castelli di Jesi Verdicchio Cl. San Sisto Ris. ’15 - Fazi Battaglia Castelli di Jesi Verdicchio Cl. V. Il Cantico della Figura Ris. ’13 - Andrea Felici Offida Pecorino ’16 Tenuta Santori Offida Pecorino Artemisia ’16 Tenuta Spinelli Offida Pecorino Mida ’16 Maria Letizia Allevi Offida Rosso Vignagiulia ’14 Emanuele Dianetti Piceno Sup. Morellone ’12 Le Caniette Rosso Piceno Sup. Roggio del Filare ’14 - Velenosi Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Cl. Sup. ’16 - Bucci Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Cl. Sup. Insolito del Pozzo Buono ’15 - Vicari Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Cl. Sup. Misco ’16 Tenuta di Tavignano Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Cl. Sup. Podium ’15 Gioacchino Garofoli Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Cl. Sup. Qudì ’15 Roberto Venturi Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Cl. Sup. V. V. ’15 - Umani Ronchi Verdicchio di Matelica Cambrugiano Ris. ’14 - Belisario Verdicchio di Matelica Mirum Ris. ’15 - La Monacesca Verdicchio di Matelica Petrara ’16 - Borgo Paglianetto Verdicchio di Matelica Vign. Fogliano ’15 - Bisci
UMBRIA 05035 Rosso ’16 Leonardo Bussoletti Adarmando ’15 Giampaolo Tabarrini Cervaro della Sala ’15 Castello della Sala Montefalco Sagrantino ’13 F.lli Pardi Montefalco Sagrantino Collenottolo ’13 Tenuta Bellafonte Montefalco Sagrantino Collepiano ’13 - Arnaldo Caprai Montefalco Sagrantino Fidenzio ’12 - Tudernum Orvieto Cl. Sup. Il Bianco ’16 Decugnano dei Barbi Torgiano Rosso Rubesco V. Monticchio Ris. ’12 - Lungarotti LAZIO Baccarossa ’15 Poggio Le Volpi Biancolella Faro della Guardia ’16 - Casale del Giglio Fiorano Rosso ’12 Tenuta di Fiorano Frascati Sup. Eremo Tuscolano ’16 - Valle Vermiglia Habemus ’15 - San Giovenale Montiano ’15 Falesco Famiglia Cotarella Poggio della Costa ’16 Sergio Mottura ABRUZZO Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo Fonte Cupa ’16 - Camillo Montori Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo Myosotis ’16 - Ciccio Zaccagnini Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo Piè delle Vigne ’15 - Luigi Cataldi Madonna Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Amorino ’13 - Castorani Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Mo Ris. ’13 - Cantina Tollo Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Ursonia ’13 - Il Feuduccio di Santa Maria D’Orni Pecorino ’16 - Tiberio Pecorino Casadonna ’15 Feudo Antico Trebbiano d’Abruzzo ’13 Valentini Trebbiano d’Abruzzo Sup. Notàri ’15 - Fattoria Nicodemi Trebbiano d’Abruzzo V. del Convento di Capestrano ’15 Valle Reale MOLISE Molise Aglianico Contado Ris. ’14 - Di Majo Norante CAMPANIA Caiatì ’15 - Alois Campi Flegrei Falanghina Cruna deLago ’15 - La Sibilla Campi Flegrei Piedirosso ’16 Agnanum Costa d’Amalfi Furore Bianco Fiorduva ’16 - Marisa Cuomo Falanghina del Sannio Janare Senete ’16 - La Guardiense Falanghina del Sannio Svelato ’16 - Terre Stregate Falanghina del Sannio Taburno ’16 - Fontanavecchia Falanghina del Sannio Taburno ’16 - Fattoria La Rivolta Fiano di Avellino ’16 -
Colli di Lapio Fiano di Avellino ’16 - Fonzone Fiano di Avellino Alessandra ’12 - Di Meo Fiano di Avellino Alimata ’15 Villa Raiano Fiano di Avellino Pietramara ’16 - I Favati Fiano di Avellino V. della Congregazione ’16 Villa Diamante Greco di Tufo ’16 Cantine Di Marzo Greco di Tufo ’16 Donnachiara Greco di Tufo ’16 - Pietracupa Grecomusc’ ’15 Contrade di Taurasi Il Fric ’16 - Casebianche Sabbie di Sopra il Bosco ’15 Nanni Copè Sannio Sant’Agata dei Goti Piedirosso Artus ’15 - Mustilli Taurasi ’13 Feudi di San Gregorio Trentenare ’16 San Salvatore 1988 BASILICATA Aglianico del Vulture Don Anselmo ’13 - Paternoster Aglianico del Vulture Il Repertorio ’15 Cantine del Notaio Aglianico del Vulture Sup. Cruà ’13 - Basilisco Aglianico del Vulture Sup. Serpara ’12 - Re Manfredi Cantina Terre degli Svevi Aglianico del Vulture Titolo ’15 - Elena Fucci PUGLIA Castel del Monte Rosso V. Pedale Ris. ’14 - Torrevento Gioia del Colle Primitivo 17 Vign. Montevella ’14 - Polvanera Gioia del Colle Primitivo Marpione Ris. ’13 - Tenuta Viglione Gioia del Colle Primitivo Muro Sant’Angelo Contrada Barbatto ’14 - Tenute Chiaromonte Gioia del Colle Primitivo Ris. ’14 - Cantine Tre Pini Gioia del Colle Primitivo Senatore ’11 - Coppi Oltremé ’16 - Tenute Rubino Orfeo Negroamaro ’15 Cantine Paolo Leo Primitivo ’15 - Carvinea Primitivo di Manduria Raccontami ’15 Vespa Vignaioli per Passione Primitivo di Manduria Sinfarosa Zinfandel ’15 - Felline Salice Salentino Rosso Per Lui Ris. ’15 - Leone de Castris Salice Salentino Rosso Selvarossa Ris. ’14 Cantine Due Palme CALABRIA Grisara ’16 - Roberto Ceraudo Masino ’15 - iGreco Neostòs Bianco ’16 Spiriti Ebbri Terre di Cosenza Pollino Moscato Passito Mastro Terenzio ’14 Feudo dei Sanseverino
SICILY Astolfo ’15 - Assuli Cerasuolo di Vittoria Giambattista Valli Paris ’15 Feudi del Pisciotto Contrada Sciaranuova ’15 Passopisciaro Etna Bianco ’16 Planeta Etna Bianco Alta Mora ’16 Cusumano Etna Bianco Fondo Filara Contrada Monte Gorna ’16 Cantine Nicosia Etna Rosso ’15 - Tornatore Etna Rosso ‘A Rina ’15 Girolamo Russo Etna Rosso V. Barbagalli ’14 Pietradolce Etna Rosso Zottorinoto Ris. ’13 - Cottanera Faro ’15 - Le Casematte Malvasia delle Lipari Passito ’16 - Caravaglio Mandrarossa Cavadiserpe ’16 Cantine Settesoli Passito di Pantelleria Ben Ryé ’15 - Donnafugata Quater Vitis Rosso ’14 Firriato Rosso del Soprano ’15 - Palari Shymer ’14 - Baglio di Pianetto Sicilia Bianco Maggiore ’16 Rallo Sicilia Catarratto V. di Mandranova ’16 Alessandro di Camporeale Sicilia Nerello Mascalese Tascante ’14 - Tasca d’Almerita Sicilia Saia ’15 - Feudo Maccari Sicilia Syrah ’15 Feudo Principi di Butera SARDINIA Alghero Torbato Terre Bianche Cuvée 161 ’16 Tenute Sella & Mosca Cannonau di Sardegna Barrosu Franzisca Ris. ’14 Giovanni Montisci Cannonau di Sardegna Mamuthone ’15 Giuseppe Sedilesu Cannonau di Sardegna Senes Ris. ’13 - Argiolas Cannonau di Sardegna Sincaru Ris. ’14 - Vigne Surrau Carignano del Sulcis 6Mura ’12 - Cantina Giba Latinia ’11 - Cantina di Santadi Vermentino di Gallura Sup. Costarenas ’16 Masone Mannu Vermentino di Gallura Sup. Maìa ’15 - Siddùra Vermentino di Sardegna Stellato ’16 - Pala Vermentino di Sardegna Tuvaoes ’16 Giovanni Maria Cherchi Vernaccia di Oristano Sup. Jughissa ’08 Cantina Sociale della Vernaccia
STORY
STORY
BENVENUTO BRUNELLO. HONG KONG WELCOMES MONTALCINO’S WINE by Eleonora Guerini
GAMBERO ROSSO
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G
ambero Rosso is proud to present one of Italy’s most prestigious Italian denominations in Hong Kong’s exclusive Asia Society Hong Kong Center. Steeped in history, cultural significance and natural beauty, the 1.3-hectare site was originally built for ammunition storage by the British Army in the mid-19th century. Through careful conservation, restoration and adaptive reuse, it was successfully transformed into a cultural, artistic and intellectual hub Thus, in harmony with the mission of this international organization, pledged to create connections, communication and cooperation between people and institutions, this special place is the natural setting for an event such as
GAMBERO ROSSO
this one. Gambero Rosso will introduce a splendid aspect of the rich culture of Italian wine, as produced by the eighteen Montalcino winemakers who will present their Brunello di Montalcino ’12 in tastings, meetings and a seminar. The program includes a Gala Tasting involving the complete production of each winery. It will also provide an opportunity to meet the winemakers behind these bottles. Eleonora Guerini, curator of Gambero Rosso’s wine guide, Vini d’Italia, along with J. C. Viens and representatives of the Consorzio, will lead a Masterclass to examine Brunello di Montalcino in depth, exploring its history, territory and characteristics by means of a guided tasting of the wines made by the wineries present.
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The Consorzio Brunello di Montalcino Founded in 1967, the year in with the DOC was recognized, the Consorzio is an association of producers who aim to protect the uniqueness of the wines made in their territory. This year the Consorzio is celebrating its fiftieth birthday around the world, with tastings and seminars in partnership with Gambero Rosso. The Consorzio has represented, over the years, a most rigorous and effective tool for regulating and controlling production, overseeing relationships among the producers in the territory, communicating with the national and international press, and showcasing the qualities of a uniquely Tuscan area in which the unquestioned star is the sangiovese grape. The Montalcino grape growing zone includes 3,500 hectares of vineyard of which over 2,000 are devoted to Brunello, for a total of nine million bottles. Seventy percent are exported to Brunello fans around the globe. The Consorzio represents all the zone’s 258 wineries.
GAMBERO ROSSO
PARTICIPATING WINERIES BARBI BELPOGGIO CAPANNA CAPARZO CASISANO TOMMASI FAMILY ESTATES CERBAIA COL D’ORCIA CORTONESI LA MANNELLA FANTI IL POGGIONE LA FIORITA MÁTÉ MOCALI PIETRAROSSA SASSODISOLE SCOPETO DEL CAVALLI TENUTE FRIGGIALI E PIETRANERA VILLA I CIPRESSI
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GAMBERO ROSSO www.gamberorosso.it SENIOR EDITOR Lorenzo Ruggeri PHOTO EDITOR Rossella Fantina LAYOUT Maria Victoria Santiago CONTRIBUTORS Stefania Annese, Antonio Boco, Gianni Fabrizio, Eleonora Guerini, Massimo Lanza, Laura Mantovano, William Pregentelli, Lorenzo Ruggeri, Marco Sabellico PHOTOGRAPHS AND DRAWINGS Chiara Buosi, Maurizio Ceccato, Marcello Crescenzi, Fabrizio Perilli, Maria Victoria Santiago GR USA CORP PUBLISHER & PRESIDENT Paolo Cuccia Advertising GAMBERO ROSSO S.P.A. via Ottavio Gasparri 13/17, 00152 Roma tel +39 06 551121 - +39 06 55112206 fax +39 06 55112260 Advertising director Paola Persi email: ufficio.pubblicita@gamberorosso.it Gambero Rosso and are registered trademarks belonging to Gambero Rosso S.p.A. GAMBERO ROSSO is a Registered Trademark used under license by GR USA CORP Copyright by GAMBERO ROSSO S.P.A. 2017. All rights reserved. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. GR USA CORP is not responsible for loss, damage, or any other injury as to unsolicited manuscripts, unsolicited artwork or any other unsolicited materials. October 2017
a www.gamberorosso.it/international & international@gamberorosso.it f Gambero Rosso International