Monday, March 26, 2012

Dusting off the old blog . . . .

It's been a while since I posted. But there's some posting to be done following up on my recent trip to the Italian Alps. No, they don't grow Cab Franc there, though I did have a nice Friuli Cabernet Franc from Ca' Bolani, one of Zonin's properties, at lunch one day. What they do grow is Nebbiolo on the vertiginous terraces of the Valtellina valley. And damn is it delicious.

My hope is I can provide some useful info to the stray googler. But for the couple of you guys still following this blog . . . . stay tuned. The Valtellina is the most interesting wine region I've visited yet. And who knows, maybe I'll be motivated to post on a few interesting producers in New Mexico as a follow up.

4 comments:

Jeff said...

Nice--I really want to get out to the Italian Alps at some point in the near future. I'll look forward to seeing some more of your insights. Hope all is well...

Cabfrancophile said...

Everything has been going great, but NM isn't the most inspiring area for visiting vineyards. So I've been less inspired to write, though the wine shop we go to for tastings in Santa Fe is better than what we had in Santa Barbara.

You'd love it in the Valtellina region. The grocery store wine is Nebbiolo grown on slopes at altitude. And it costs about the same as your generic spoofed oak jam!

Jeff said...

I'm sure I would love Valtellina (I love pretty much all of Italy...). I loved Switzerland last year, and my biggest impression was that I might as well have been in the Alps in Italy or France because Switzerland was so expensive. All that nebbiolo sounds awesome!! Probably not much comes to the US I imagine :( I guess I'll just have to go check it out in person.

Cabfrancophile said...

You should be able to find an odd bottle or two at K&L is my guess. They are lighter in weight than Barbaresco and Barolo, hence the market is lighter. (Except the Sfursat, which are dried after harvest sort of like Amarone.) But if Loire reds can have a decent following, there's no reason why Valtellina can't. There's an ethereal quality to them, and much less rusticity and herbaceousness than other northerly regions.