Thursday, April 3, 2014

Traveling with Wil

When I learned that my son Wil's spring break preceded Vinitaly by a week, it was obvious I had to bring him to Italy. He's been asking me all his life to travel overseas. It was time.

After two lovely days in Roma, we rented a car and drove to Castelnuovo dell'Abate to pay a visit to the Fantis. Before I get into that, I must mention that Massimo Alois arrived in Rome for dinner with us at our usual restaurant, "Vito's." He brought with him a tank sample of his 2013 "Caiatì." It was, without a doubt, the finest Caiatì they've yet made. Fantastic acid supported mineral-laden, deliciously elegant palgrello bianco. The finish lasted well over a minute.

Back to the Fantis: the pleasure of seeing these old friends was as great as the pleasure of tasting the astonishing 2012 Rosso di Montalcino, the first shipment of which left on Monday for Minneapolis (the 2011 sold out at the winery painfully quickly). The vintage is not for the faint of heart - beautifully structured wines with a bit more color than usually found in Flavio's rossi. This is obviously a very special vintage. (Wil agreed.)

Tea gave us a tour of the winery's new frantoio...where fruit from the azienda's 3000 olive trees is turned into oil. It is quite an investment for the family, and quite unusual to find a private frantoio at a winery as small as La Palazzeta, in my experience. The oil from the 2013 harvest (not completed, as the frost beat them to a great deal of fruit in December) is fragrant, spicy, very special. We'll bring some with our next shipment.

Great new packaging on all the wines. More importantly, overall quality continues to soar as the younger generation (Luca and Tea) begins to move into greater responsibility at La Palazzetta. Very exciting things ahead.

- JBK