Lea & Sandeman Italian Tasting
The start of the year are busy tasting months in the wine trade – it seems like there is one every day at times and some of them featuring so many wines that it can be quite overwhelming – especially for the palate! How perfect it was to attend the Italian Tasting of Lea & Sandeman in London recently. The location was the Getty Images Gallery, whose walls were filled with quirky photos.
Not only was it the excellent quality across the board of the wines, but the well-chosen small selection of producers that had been invited, gave them chance to really discuss their wines with visitors.
If you have not yet discovered Lea & Sandeman, they are one of London’s leading Independent Wine Merchants with four Branches in Chelsea, Kensington, Barnes and Chiswick – then you have a treat in store! Their advertising motto is “Most Original Wine Merchants” and that is certainly apt.
Lots of people getting into wine feel unsure about buying wine in an independent rather than simply picking it up anonymously from a supermarket. Reasons range from “Feeling embarrassed about not knowing enough” (if you know at least one wine you like – that will give their friendly staff somewhere to start suggesting other interesting wines in that style) Or “It will be much more expensive” ( Not True. Lea & Sandeman had Five Wow Factor Wines Under £10 in Victoria Moore’s article in the Daily Telegraph in February 2017).
So if you want to explore excellent value wines, unusual grape varieties or treat yourself to one of their selection of Fine Wines – get yourself along to one of their branches to find a wealth of interesting wines!
The Italian Tasting kicked off with some sparkling from Corteaura, a producer in Franciacorta in Northern Italy, (think Milan and along the map a bit towards Lake Iseo!), whose Pas Dosé Brut (with no dosage) was exactly the thing to invigorate the palate. Their Saten Vintage 2010 with extra time in bottle gave a full smoothness combined with a lovely apply finish.
Skipping to the other side of Italy, in Friuli Venezia Giulia, the wines of biodynamically certified Az Ag Visintini were a delight. The Ribolla Gialla 2015 with its slight spritz, good freshness and green apples would be an ideal apero. The Friulano (local variety used to be called Tocai until the Hungarians got defensive and had that banned) was a good example of the variety with its slight bitter almond nose. It needs time in bottle to really express itself, drink too young and will seem a little flat – so good to taste the 2014 vintage which showed also the complexity due to lees contact. The star of their wines was the Pinot Grigio 2015 – do not fall over in shock – I am not talking about the anodyne examples that flood the UK market, but real proper Pinot Grigio! It is “Ramato” so a gorgeous coppery pink tone that comes from the skins of the grape – and was bright and minerally in the mouth.
Continuing my geographical flit around Italy, the next wines were Luigi Maffini from Campania in the South. He hails from the beautiful unspoilt area of Cilento, and his cellars are not far from the ruins of the ancient Greek City of Paestum. I’ve followed his wines almost since their first vintage, and it has been great to see them develop into really exciting wines from local varieties of Fiano for the whites and Aglianico for the reds. The two Fiano’s appear almost to be different grape varieties, they were so different in the glass – the 2016 Kratos still so young was delicate pear drops and flowers, whereas the 2014 Pietracatenata was creamy, honeyed, rich, slightly spicy – a wonderfully balanced wine and would pair excellently with tuna tartare that I enjoyed last time I stayed in the Cilento (which incidentally is where Ancel Keys, who “discovered” the Mediterranean Diet based his research).
In the South of Tuscany is the region of the Maremma, and home to the relatively young estate of Fattoria di Magliano. Their Vermentino 2016 was all fresh, salty minerality and calling out for a plate of linguine with clams, the Illario Rosé made from 100% Sangiovese grapes was attractive strawberries & cream – showing well despite only having just been bottled. Their Morellino di Scansano called Heba (the ancient name for Scansano) almost 100% Sangiovese except for a pinch of 2% Syrah. Sangiovese in the Maremma tends to be more brambly and black than Sangiovese found further North in Tuscany, and this was no exception but had lovely easy drinking fruit possibly reflecting its winemaking in cement vats.
One Italian wine that still sadly divides a room when mentioned, is Lambrusco so I was very pleased to taste the wines of Monte delle Vigne. Their vineyards are near the beautiful city of Parma and their Lambrusco Classico was fabulous deep purple in colour and alive with blackberry fruit. Their Cru Lambrusco I Calanchi was a step up in seriousness and with lower residual sugar, is a wine to match perfectly with the many pork dishes and products of Emilia Romagna – The Classico would be heaven with a platter of Culatello and Salami whilst the Calanchi would match perfectly with pork belly slow roasted with fennel. Time for real Lambrusco to really have its overdue renaissance in the UK! Their Rosso 2015 of 70% Barbera and 30% Bonarda grapes won Italy’s revered top wine award, Tre Bicchiere and compared well with the Nabucco 2011 70% Barbera and 30% Merlot, lovely dark fruit, ripe slightly raisin-ness that would hook up quite happily with a spicy Lebanese lamb flatbread! To finish, their Callas 2012 from 100% Malvasia di Candia Aromatica, a lovely fragrant white only made in best years. The grapes are harvested later than usual (but not “Late Harvest”) giving a floral richness and depth which would go wonderfully with a plate of sweet yet salty Parma ham!
Geographically heading to Tuscany to one of my favourite small Tuscan producers, Il Poggerino which was hosted by the ever smiling and dapper winemaker Piero Lanza. Having tasted their wines which come from just outside Radda in Chianti in the heart of Chianti Classico, for several years it was great meet up with Piero in London. Poggerino was one of the first places that I encountered concrete eggs in Europe and Piero was fascinating on why he is focusing more on cement for his wines, as well as no small barriques but only large oak barrels. Il Labirinto 2015 was everything a Chianti Classico should be (in all but name!) – bright lively fruit and great purity. The Chianti Classico 2014 with its aging in large barrels still had a nice streak of acidity balancing the ripe plums and cherries. Piero has chosen a play on words for the “Nuovo” Chianti Classico 2014 – (uovo means egg and nuovo means new) – and this wine is aged 100% in the concrete egg vats, which keeps the wine in continual natural movement. It gives the wine a clarity and real sense of terroir unencumbered by oak. Although they follow biodynamic practises in the vineyard, they are not certified (simply down to all the paperwork involved!). His Riserva Chianti Classico Bugialla 2013 was excellent, drinking well now but with about another 4 years to reach its peak and then 15 years on its drinking plateau after that – still cherries and plums but backed up by leather and cedar smoky notes.
Tuscany is such a large region speaking from a wine point of view – so after Chianti Classico something very different from Bolgheri, the coastal strip of Tuscany so famed for its Super Tuscans such as Sassicaia and Ornellaia. But what heaven to taste again the wines of Le Macchiole, to show that the region is not all about Bordeaux style blends. Their Rosso 2014 was a powerful blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Syrah, but the wine that really impressed was their Paleo Rosso. A 100% Cabernet Franc with beautiful ripe fruit on the nose and a totally integrated, well balanced wine in the mouth – really outstanding, and as I found out last year in Tuscany, it goes very well with a simply grilled Florentine T bone steak! Comes with an not inconsiderable price tag, but I think well worth it – if you have a Bordeaux lover in your social circle and want to impress them with something different, this should tick all the boxes. The Messorio 2009 which is 100% Merlot showed how well this grape variety can perform with no hint of flabbiness, but the other wine that really made me smile was Scrio 2009. A micro production of Syrah it showed great elegance, slight hint of eucalyptus and dark chocolate.
Staying in Tuscany, for the distinctly different third wine region in a row, Montalcino, from where there were two producers. Fuligni whose Rosso di Montalcino 2014 had bright red fruit and would be the perfect wine with meat based pasta al forno. Whilst their Riserva Brunello from the much admired 2007 vintage was a great example of the classification, for me their star wine was the 2012 Brunello di Montalcino, which has bags of ripe fruit yet elegant and superbly balanced tannins. One to look out for. The second Montalcino producer Collemattoni showed a delightful 2011 Brunello with great balance, quite ethereal for a Brunello and ready for drinking now. I will be interested to taste the 2012 which should have more richness and sweeter fruit, with greater aging potential. Their Riserva Brunello Vigna Fontelontano 2010 was a bit of a beast in comparison but will be lovely with time in bottle. There is still a tannic dominance and it really needs food such as Peposa, a Tuscan Beef & pepper stew.
To finish, I was very pleased to return to my spiritual Italian Home, Piemonte – where I lived for five years. Sottimano are a producer that I have revisted several times and always been impressed with the quality across the board. After a delicious Dolcetto D’Alba with enough acidity to brighten the taste buds after all the previous tannins, the Langhe Nebbiolo 2013 was spectacular – a Barbaresco in all but name, it has enticing floral notes, a touch of garrigue and fine long finish – an absolute steal at the price under £20! If only there had been a plate of tajarin pasta and white truffles to hand, my perfect day would have been complete! What followed next was a mini Masterclass in the Barbaresco Cru’s of Sottimano – all of the 2011 vintage. Fausoni from 40 – 45 year old vines had good minerality with good red fruit and a hint of coffee, from its slightly sandy soils whilst Pajoré was the most intriguing Cru, slightly spicy tobacco and leather. Cotta managed to combine full bodied with elegance, slight hint of violets and a velvety finish. Curra had dense but ripe tannins, showing lovely salty almost liquorice flavours combine with spice and black fruits but still needs time, more so than the other Cru’s.
It makes such a difference having the actual producers there to chat to in depth about their wines – but obviously not all their Italian suppliers could be involved and so there was also a Self pour tasting table, where there was one complete gem hiding away amongst the whites - Lugana Felugan Feliciana. Sadly I’ve been more disappointed than impressed with many bland Luganas, but this one sang from the glass – it was creamy, white flowers on the nose and full bodied in the mouth – just the thing for a relaxed lunch of simply grilled fish on the shores of Lake Garda!
An excellent tasting from Lea & Sandeman showing the great diversity of Italian Wines.
https://www.leaandsandeman.co.uk
Lazio Cookery with Palazzo Tronconi
Despite having a wonderful job that allows me to travel frequently to some of the most spectacular vineyard locations around the world, such as admiring Pinot Bianco vines against a dramatic backdrop of the Dolomites or maybe tasting outside a cellar on an isolated promontory in Campania with views across the bay to Capri, I am still an enthusiastic armchair traveller – especially if it’s about a foodie destination! Travel Guidebooks jostle for space with Recipe Books on my overcrowded bookshelves and so what nicer on a mizzling grey March morning, than to be invited to a recreation of a little gourmet part of Lazio in the heart of the Surrey countryside – without having to take a plane to Rome!
The kind invitation to the cookery class was courtesy of Bookings For You , who represent some gorgeous holiday rental properties throughout Italy, France and Croatia and one of their partners is Palazzo Tronconi, who came to the UK this week to introduce themselves.
Palazzo Tronconi is hidden away in a small unspoilt medieval village, Arce in Lazio about halfway between Rome & Naples. Owned by the very enthusiastic Marco Marrocco, he was joined on this gourmet experience by Leonardo Grimaldi, Head Chef who runs cookery courses at the Palazzo and Giuseppe Marcuccilli, Master Baker.
Marco is also the winemaker and very passionate about the natural aspect of winemaking. His vines are all cultivated not only organically but also bio-dynamically following the principles of Rudolph Steiner, but as Marco pointed out, far too many people are sceptical of biodynamics – so he prefers to let his wines be tasted first, stand on their own merits – and only afterwards tell the consumers about biodynamics! I’m a great believer in biodynamic wine but was slightly concerned when I saw all the references to natural wine, and feared that I might be presented with ghastly orange wines ( a wine fad I hope fades soon)! Thankfully, Marco shares my lack of enthusiasm for this fashionable style of wine, and instead makes his wines naturally and as I discovered later, wines that paired so well with the food.
Head Chef Leonardo decided to demonstrate five different dishes to showcase not only some great local products from their region, but also his own philosophy that less is more when you have great products, keep it light and uncomplicated. Wishing to truly recreate his food, they travelled to Rome Airport with five suitcases stuffed with homemade jam, carefully wrapped eggs, olive oil and even bringing their own pasta pan!! As this was in a Fiat Panda, it puts an Italian slant on the old joke “How Many Chefs can you fit in a Mini!!!. It was impressive how much of the produce local to their region were DOP certified (the peppers, eggs, garlic, even the potatoes!). A shame that endless paperwork & bureaucracy seems to have delayed so many of our own traditional British foods from gaining this seal of authenticity and protection.
To welcome us, tantalising aromas of freshly baked bread courtesy of their Master Baker Giuseppe wafted through the kitchen and which to kick start the taste buds, was drizzled generously with Palazzo Tronconi’s olive oil – rather delicious with a fresh green herbal character, reflecting that the olive groves are also cultivated following biodynamic principles.
The antipasto was a modern take on an Italian classic, baccala mantecato, dried salted cod cream, which was a staple in the past for villages in the hinterland, miles from the coast and fresh fish. Having been soaked for several days to remove the salt, Leonardo kept the mashed potato and flaked cod apart and layered it in a “cheffy” tier, unlike the usual blend of the two. But the real genius was the dusting of their local pepper from Pontecorvo, which gave an elegant kick to the finished dish.
Two of the grape varieties planted at Palazzo Tronconi are only found in a 50 km radius, so truly indigenous and the others are also not well known. The vineyards were planted in 2011, and 2016 is their fourth harvest. To start, we opened a bottle of their Fregellae, a white blend of Maturano, Pampanaro and Capolongo. I’ve only ever encountered the red version of Maturano last year in Rioja at Contino, Pampanaro in a fairly rare Castel del Monte wine in Puglia and Capolongo was a new one on me! Fregellae is named after a powerful Roman Colony that was based near their village of Arce. A glorious rich golden hue thanks to 30 hours of skin contact and one third of the wine being aged in acacia oak barrels, the wine has a wonderful food friendly sapidity plus good minerality. In line with the natural wine ethos, he does not use selected yeasts but carries out wild yeast spontaneous fermentation. Marco served his white wine noticeably warmer than is the norm (he suggests serving at 12 degrees) as colder temperatures bring the tannins to the fore, which can cause a bitter taste. A complex wine with attitude and character, which needs food and was the perfect foil for the salt cod.
Sophia Loren once famously said of her appearance “Everything you see, I owe to Spaghetti” and true enough pasta is the lifeblood of Italians. Marco was horrified that Chef Leonardo was only cooking 80 grams a person – far too little for an Italian! But Chef had two pasta dishes to show us – a classic Carbonara sauce and then a modern Deconstructed Carbonara. Like lots of people, I have had the unfortunate experience of variations of Carbonara (not all pleasant!), with the addition of cream and even once in Manchester with Mushrooms as well! Now, everyone to their own style of pasta sauce, but please just don’t call it Carbonara if it has cream in it! Using wonderful dried Rigatoni pasta from Otranto in Puglia (a beautiful coastal town to visit if you ever in the region!), made in the traditional way. When buying dried pasta, look out for Pasta Sbronzo on the label, which means the moulds used to shape the pasta are made of bronze and as with this producer, Benedetto Cavalieri, the process they use eliminates the mechanical destruction of the gluten, which is why this style of pasta tastes so much better than the industrially produced quality and also the slightly rough surface of the rigatoni means that the sauce clings to the pasta so much better! With so few ingredients in the sauce, they all have to be of excellent quality, hence why Chef carried over 20 eggs lovingly packaged in his airline luggage! They are Aconaetana, which is a style of wild hen, truly free range and given to laying eggs in hard to reach places such as up trees! Named after the town of Ancona, with white shells – the best substitute would be free range duck or goose eggs. Combined with the Guanciale and very generous amounts of Pecorino Romano and some Parmesan, it was totally sublime!
The deconstructed version, with the ingredients layered in individual serving bowls – the fried guanciale which was then dehydrated into crumbs, the eggs & cheese whisked until a zabaglione style mousse – very tasty but I’ll stay in the traditional camp!
Main course was a little later than planned as there was so much discussion going on and interrogation of the Chefs over use of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and I was chatting to Giuseppe who as Master Baker and being trained in my spiritual Italian home of Turin, had some great ideas for grissini – including one made with Vincotto (thick syrupy grape must) – which will be on the menu these weekend at my place!
As we prepared for the main course, there was an unexpected visitor in the garden, a sparrow hawk chasing his prey into the conservatory window – an unusual but effective method of killing his lunchtime pigeon. In line with true sustainability, the Chefs were heard discussing if it was time to change the main course to pigeon!
The local pig is the Caserta Black Pig, similar to those in Spain who yield such delicious Pata Negra. The pigs take twice as long to grow and mature as the more widely raised white pigs, and this difference in the flavour and texture was clear on tasting the main course of black pig stew which had been cooked for over two hours in Marcos own red wine, Zitore. Named after a pet name for Uncle Salvatore, this lively red is made from the Lecinaro grape variety, which means plums in the local dialect due to the large berry size of the clusters. It’s not a well-known variety (even the exhaustive Wine Grapes Book by Jancis Robinson which features 1368 different grape varieties did not have it listed!). Usually this variety gives paler red wines, more leaning towards Pinot Noir in colour, but the climate conditions of the 2015 vintage gave this wine a much deeper black cherry shade. On the nose, red fruits, slightly peppery followed up by a delicious chewiness, plums with a touch of vanilla and the perfect combination for the black pork stew, for which the official tasting terminology seemed to be “lots of yummy noises!”.
To finish off this gastronomic insight into the food & wine of the region once known as Ciociaria, Chef brought with him some of their homemade strawberry jam from the Kitchen Garden at Palazzo Tronconi. Firm pears were cored, filled with the jam and then poached in their red wine Mocevo. The natural fruit sugars from the resulting wine syrup was lightened by a judicious grating of organic lemon zest (their own of course!).
The passion and natural hospitality of the Palazzo Tronconi team shone through, including their humour and their pride in their region’s food & wine. Sartorially speaking, there was an amusing contrast between the professional chef’s whites of Leonardo & Giuseppe with the more relaxed winemaker style - the rather un-Italian footwear choice of Marco – flip flops & socks! But what a wonderful day to celebrate the produce of this little known region. Just one note to self, remember never discuss Italian Football with a Chef who has a knife in hand!!
The 18th Century Palazzo Tronconi has just five guest rooms in its agriturismo. In May, they are opening a restaurant at the property, headed up by Leonardo. If you like exploring places off the beaten track, this might just be for you with the Abbey of Montecassino, Roccasecca Castle and Casamari Abbey just a short drive away. Also there are good foodie days out such as a rather early start for a visit to a buffalo mozzarella producer. So next time I am in Rome, I’ll be checking out the property and naturally to try the Marcos wines in situ and paired with yet more delicious dishes from Leonardo & Giuseppe!
For more details visit:
Www. Palazzotronconiholidays.com