Liquid Assets By David Swartzentruber.

Enotria was the name given to Italy by the Greeks , meaning the "land of wine." Italy is truly that, a land with four million acres in vineyards.

Italian wines are extremely popular in Portland. The large Italian-American community has a fondness for them, and the subsequent large number of fine Italian restaurants here feature them.

On the down side, an occasional wine scandal in Italy reinforces an image of Italian vino that is of jug quality and carelessly made.

Aware of this problem, Italy enacted the Denominozione di Origine Controllata laws in 1963. These rules, which are similar to French and German regulations, set standards of production for each wine type. _In addition, a higher classification, DOCG, "G" for guaranteed) allows for a special government seal to be affixed to bottles of a few wines considered to be of outstanding quality.

At this writing, only four wines have been designated DOCG: Barbaresco, Barolo Brunello di Montalciano, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, and most' recently, Chianti Classico.

In addition to these categories, some of the newest and most exciting Italian wines are simply labelled "Vino da T avola." These are wines that have been made with grape varieties native to France which defy the traditional Italian standards. The most notable example of this is Piero Antinori's Tignanello and Sassicaia, wines containing all or portions of Cabernet Sauvignon, the Bordeaux grape. These wines can't be called chianti because of the use of the French grape.

Moving south to Tuscany, all of the major chianti producers have their fine red wines available. Antinori, Ruffino, and Brolio all produce excellent chiantis. However, the most interesting chianti on the scene is from a smaller producer, Nicholas Monsanto. His chianti is produced from a single vineyard, "II Poggio," and the label is a beautiful painting of the Tuscan countryside - a wine sure to be remembered by your guests.

Brunello di Montalcino is Italy's most expensive wine. Although the wines of the Biondi-Santi family who actually developed the strain of grapes responsible for Brunello are not available here,

The Wines of Enotria

two other superior Brunellos are. The Brunello from Villa Banfi is silky and elegant. The Brunello of Fattoria de Barbi has been produced for 200 years. Each neck label has a registration number written with a ball point. Leave it to the Italians! It would be impossible to mention or catalog all the good Italian wines available. However, I'd like to focus on those wines which show unusual qualities to me.

From the Piedmont comes Barolo, made in a variety of styles. "Old Style" Barolo is a powerful, longlived wine which, when young is often described as being "liquid charcoal." This style is epitomized by the wines of Rinaldi - very expensive, very big.

In a somewhat more elegant style, the Barolo of Bruno Giacosa is legendary.

Next door, as it were, is Barbaresco, produced from the same grape - the Nebbiola - but in a more accessible style.

The name in Barbaresco is Angelo Gaja. His wines really brought Barbares co into prominence. Other good producers in our market are Ceretto and Franco Fiarina.

Further to the south, near Naples, the T ourasi of Mastroberardino has developed a cult following in this country. Grown at high altitudes on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, T ourasi ages "into a brick red elegant wine.

In white and sparkling wines, Italy is improving her quality of wine but also perhaps losing some of the older, more authentic qualities that distinguished and made Italian white unique. Fresh and fruity Italian Chardonnays and Sauvignon Blancs compete with Californian and French products. Whether the new style of Italian whites is here to stay, awaits the vote of you, the consumer.

In sparkling wines, Banfi and FaziBattaglia both produce Brut-style sparklers that are considerably drier than the traditional Asti Spumante. Quite appealing and stylish, but something new for Italy.

The most expensive Italian sparkler available here is a Brut by Bruno Gia- " cosa made from 100-percent Pinot Noir - another one of those French grapes.

If you sample any of the above it should make your next few weeks a stimulating adventure into the wines of the world's largest wine producing country.

conch meat than they realize, owing to the rumored presence of the cremecolored meat in all sorts of famous canned clam chowders. "Clams break up when they're canned, so they need something more durable, for consistency," she explains.

Even Snow's Clam Chowder? we ask.

That undertow smile again.

"In Rhode Island, conches are an Italian specialty - conch salad. Everywhere but at a gourmet place you'll see conchs, because at gourmet places they see them as too pedestrian. Actually, you see conchs as far north as Cape Cod. That's where the natural barriers are between ecosystems."

Any children? "No, cats. I took one on the dragger once, and we went out and gave him some fish on the deck, some nice butterfish, but then we turned around and saw him pulling on a jumbo fluke, three feet long, and that thing was worth money, so we put a stop to that. .

"T ook one out in the winter. Gray Boy. Let me tell you, you do not want to be on board with a seasick cat. "After the (37-foot) Novi came the. dragger, a mixed dragger, 74 feet. We went gill neeting: sea trout, weak fish, striped bass, mackerel, whiting. But that was 12 year_sago. I was 21 then."

Ever catch anything strange? "My friends have caught airplanes, World War II airplanes."

How about you? "A washing machine!"

What color was your first dragger? "What year?"

What do you mean? "We change the colors all the time. You can be 15 to 20 miles out, trying some fishing shoals, and if the word gets around, you're in trouble; you know: 'I saw So and So over there,' and they just sort of descend on you. The fog can clear the next morning and you can find yourself surrounded by 20 other boats. That's why we change colors."

You mean, like a stealth boat? Your reputation precedes you way out there, 20 miles out, just a patch of blue, tar from the sight of land? "The word gets around. Everybody changes colors. We're not doing the best and we're not doing the worst. But we're very pleased with the Fish Auction."

How long do the boats stay out

Barbara Stevenson aboard the Drake. 1 .E

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there? "About 14 days."

Do you still go out there? "No. I take care of keeping the bills paid. My husband (co-owner of the company) does contracting to keep the boats in repair."

Do you miss it after all those years? "I couldn't sleep through haulbacks," says the intensely competitive Stevenson. "I'd feel my blood pressure going up - you know - 'What do you mean he got one more fish than I did!' I'd get too excited."

What could be improved about Portland Harbor? "The dockage is very scarce, even worse than Newport, Rhode Island, and I don't find that amusing at all. Another reason that Portland hasn't attracted more business is the lobster law on size and the fact that you can't land them."

What do you mean?

There are prohibitions only in Maine against landing lobsters you've caught with a dragger. Here's an example: Say I've come to Portland and I've been fishing on the Grand Banks, 100 miles from here, and I've caught 40,000 pounds of fish and dragged up 666 pounds of lobster, with the lobster being worth about $2,000. I have to go over to Boston or Gloucester or New Bedford or anywhere else that will accept those lobsters. Otherwise, I have to dump them out before coming into port. Obviously, it's a big pain in the neck. It happened to us the first part of May . We'd dragged 955 pounds of lobster, which were running $4 apiece then. It took a day to detour the boat to Provincetown, Massachusetts and sell the lobsters, but it was definitely worth it."

Both your boats are out now. How often do they go out? Are your crews full-time employees? "Each boat makes about two and a half trips a month and has a crew of less than 10. Technically, none of the crew are employees; each gets a percentage based on gross and expenses, paid at the end of each trip."

Any problems with border conflicts near Canadian waters? "They're instructed to stay well away. There are other firms who don't make a specific point of telling their crews to stay away."

Are you living in Portland right now? "We're living temporarily at the Lafayette townhouse right now. We're all spread out. We have storage in Gorham, a 40' x 70' building."

How successful have you been so far? "There's a maxim that a boat should at least gross what the boat's worth in a year. We're working at keeping up with that maxim. We're not noticeably at either end of the success spectrum."