On Wednesday, March 4, the wines of over twenty Italian wineries were featured in New York City, at an all-day affair specifically targeting young sommeliers of the city’s many fine restaurants as well as other prominent wine professionals, including educators, communicators, and importers.
From about ten in the morning to four in the afternoon, over thirty wine professionals took part in three very different masterclasses devoted to:
- Native Italian Wine Grapes, Crossings and Hybrids: from Ancient to Modern Times, it’s “In with the Old, but also In with the New”.
- World Wine Leaders: Meet Cristiana Tiberio and Sabrina Tedeschi and Their Trailblazing Wineries and Wines.
- Understanding the Greatness that is Verdicchio and the Castelli di Jesi Terroir: Categories, Styles, Ageworthiness.
In the first masterclass, many different wines made with different grapes were tasted. Italy is a bastion of tradition and it should defend its heritage of myriads native grapes carefully; at the same time, the twenty-first century has brought a whole set of new challenges and so the country’s farmers and winemakers are dealing with new challenges and solutions. In this remarkable and truly unique tasting, the Old met the New: Nebbiolo and Barolo, Sangiovese and Brunello, Nero d’Avola and Sicily; but also grapes that are making a comeback and those being increasingly planted (Freisa, Riesling, Perricone, Moscato Bianco along with brand new exciting varieties such as the Solaris, Bronner, and Johanniter hybrids. Ian specifically selected wines for their role in setting absolute benchmarks for the country’s wines: GD Vajra (and Luigi Baudana), a winery that brought Vergne’s Bricco delle Viole and Serralungas’s Costabella crus, among others, to everybody’s attention; delivered a new style of Freisa; and who first launched Piedmont’s Riesling Revolution (did you know that following in Vajra’s pioneering footsteps, there are over forty quality Riesling wine producers in Piedmont today?): Cogno, who opened everybody’s eyes on the fine Barolo potential of the Novello commune and its Ravera grand cru; Castiglion del Bosco, who launched a “Rosso Revolution” by being the first Montalcino wine estate to produce three different Rossos to better express Montalcino terroirs not just by way of Brunello; Cadgal, a quality leader in Moscato Bianco production, with ten years old-plus library releases of Moscato Bianco wines as well as deep riverbed-aged wines; Feudo Montoni, whose selezione Vrucara Nero d’Avola is reputed to be the isalnd’s highest quality Nero d’Avola biotype and who has launched wines made with the Perricone, Grillo and Inzolia varieties to new heights; and Vigneti Vinessa, breaking new ground with the likes of Bronner, Johanniter, Muscaris, Prior, cabernet Cortis, and Solaris. You’ll be the first to have the world’s foremost Italian grape expert break down the fine wine potential in Italy of these new varieties and their wines.
The second masterclass featured Cristiana Tiberio and Sabrina Tedeschi, respectively of the Tiberio and Tedeschi wine estates, are well-known to both wine professionals and the wine-loving public at large for their production of many excellent wines. What is perhaps less common knowledge is the amazing amount and level of research and study these two wineries have engaged in over the past few decades in an effort to discover not just new biotypes and varieties and how they might, or might not, adapt to their estate-specific terroirs, but also to investigate the aromatic molecules and winemaking potential of all their varieties relative to different natural environments. In a ground-breaking round table session and tasting, Cristiana and Sabrina will take you on a voyage through which you’ll learn not just about the authentic Trebbiano Abruzzese, Pecorino CE, Turchetta, Corbina, but also about the aromatic signature of specific grape varieties and how different varieties express different levels of the likes of ethyl-acetate and ethyl-vanillate in different vineyards independently of different yeast and oak regimens used. Twelve amazing wines in this tasting, including Tiberio’s Fonte Canale and Pecorino Quarmarì and Tedeschi’s Ga.Ry white, an Amarone Monte Olmi 2018 and an old wine from the Tedeschi private library, Amarone Monte Olmi 2011.
Last but not least, the third masterclass was essentially a “Everything you wanted to know about Verdicchio but were afraid to ask” moment. Verdicchio is one of Italy’s greatest white grapes, but has to live down a horrible reputation and survive the mistrust of people after decades and decades of cheap, industrially made wines that were nothing to write home about. It’s a real pity, because Verdicchio wines are amongst the most ageworthy Italian white wines of all: twenty-plus years is not at all a stretch, and most well-made Verdicchio wines reach that ripe old age comfortably. However, extreme ageworthiness is but one of the aces up Verdicchio’s leafy sleeve: like few other Italian white grapes, it also expresses terroir remarkably well, such that a wine made with grapes grown in the commune of Cupramontana will be completely different from one grown in the territory of Staffolo or Morro d’Alba. Last but not least, Verdicchio is a very plastic grape variety, one that allows many different wine styles, from fresh and crisp, to luscious and rich to late-harvested. There is a whole world of Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi wines out there for you to learn about and try: this unique masterclass featured sixteen (16!) different Verdicchio wines of the classic, single-vineyard and Riserva categories that provided a definitive Verdicchio-drinking educational experience. Featured wineries included Casalfarneto, La Staffa, Lucchetti, Marotti Campi, Montecappone, Tenuta di Tavignano, Vignamato, and Villa Bucci.
