Shaking Hands with the Beach

The beauty of good Verdicchio is in its steadfastness. Alongside the dramatic flavors of garlic and basil often a wine built on a foundation of minerals will pair seamlessly. The Velenosi from the Castelli di Jesi is just such a wine. Terry Theise once said that drinking great Mosel riesling was like shaking hands with a mountain, if that's the case then drinking great Verdicchio is like shaking hands with the beach. The sandy soils of Angela Velenosi's vineyards hallmark for the region, make for a wine with terrific structure. In the hands winemaker Attilio Pagli the restrained white flower, almond and delicate fruit tones are revealed in perfect balance.

With the myriad of intense Italian flavors set against the neutrality of pasta, great Verdicchio is one which provides the mouth-watering counterpoint...just about perfectly. Of those, Velenosi is the real sleeper...restrained, subtly filigreed but, above all, steadfast.

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Something about Elena

I first noticed it during an extensive tasting of rieslings from Terry Theise portfolio. Most of the wines (grower champagnes included) were either organic or biodynamic and there was a similarity among all of them...vibrance, lift and a clear presence of high tones. There was just something "lively" about them. One of the most recent wines in the Row 95 portfolio to go Organic is the Campos de Risca. Though from the "Campos" group, the wine is from a small family estate in Jumilla run by the third generation, Elena Pacheco. Risca are large broken limestone rocks of which their vineyard is entirely comprised. These suckers aren't the smooth rounded boulders of Chateauneuf, they are rough cut, jagged and virtually impossible to walk on. Nothing else lives there,...weeds, bugs, and frankly I don't know why anything would want to. Mourvedre, however, loves it...the heat, those stones, no competition from pesky weeds, as Goldilocks...

The Soils of St. Nicolas de Bourgueil

Whether they come from Chinon, Samur or Bourgueil, Cabernet Franc based reds from the Loire conjure Laphroaig-esque impressions to knowing wine drinkers. They are often pungent, herbaceous, wildly complex wines with a small cult-like well-read fan-base. Not in the mainstream for sure. Just as Laphroaig is not indicative of all single malts, reds from the Loire region don't all share these same outsized traits. The wines from Xavier Amirault are just such an exception and it's not by accident that Vineyard Brands, an importer with deep roots in burgundy would be the kind of company to bring these wines into the United States. Land close to the banks of the Loire river is quite fertile and is reserved for cereals and pasture. Things begin to get interesting as one moves upwards from lower valley. Lower parcels in the Clos de Quarterons, the Amirault family's estate, have deep (up to 25 feet) gravelly soils which drain well and where generous ra...

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