Recent climate models project that many cherished wine regions will vanish in our lifetime. Rising temperatures and increasing pressures on water supply may serve as a death knell to some of the finest terroir we know; terroir after all is the perfect balance of slope, soil, weather, and climate. Although certain elements are more or less fixed, shifting temperatures lead to diminished water, vines that ripen in entirely new ways and yield wines whose sense of place no longer remains. Watching the Google Earth demonstration below, one can see just how dramatic this will be for vignerons and wine drinkers alike.  

Maybe this just means we ought to invest in the western slopes of the Rockies? Jokes aside: it is not all doom and gloom however, as there are many who in the face of such challenges are embracing more sustainable methods of tending their vines and making their wines and perhaps as others catch on, this shift in our impact might turn around this trend toward a warming planet. This but is one of the many reasons we are committed to Sustainable, Organic, and Biodynamic wines and why many of those winegrowers in the finest regions are following suit, adopting these deliberate methods and being rewarded by the results.

Best food and wine pairing in the world?  

Boeuf Bourgignon with La Tache? Sauternes beside an unadorned peach? Spatelese Riesling with wild boar? Champagne and caviar? Nah...

Our perennial favorite remains champagne and potato chips; that’s right: potato chips. Everything about their salty savor and crispy texture seem purpose built for a mouthful of gently bubbling champagne with its refreshing acidity and its leesy, floral fruit. All who set their tables with sparkling wine soon find an ideal match for fried foods like croquettes, calamari, fritters, tempura, salty fries, oyster po-boys and of course the ready snack food: potato chips.

Something about champagne’s tingling effervescence and zippy acidity answers the fried crunch of a crispy chip. Champagne washes away the salty snap of each bite invigorates the appetite and prepares you for the next bite until bag or bottle are emptied. What’s more is that potato chips are easily found ready-to-go everywhere and unlike laborious fried foods these demand nothing but ripping into a bag and leave no lingering odor about your kitchen and on your drapes.

Most amusing of all is that this pairing flies in the face of hoity-toity, highfalutin traditions because these two are at the opposite ends of the culinary spectrum. Like the Cinderella of food pairings, the highborn champagne finds it match in the humble potato chip and we’re all swept away by the pair of them.

Speaking of a pair of them (a pair of people people COME on!), here is Marilyn Monroe and some guy in Seven Year Itch manoeuvring with some champagne and potato chips... 

Nebbiolo of Piedmont

The highest echelon of Italy's noblest variety

in three ways: Langhe, Barbaresco, & Barolo 

NEBBIOLO  

Nebbiolo is one of the great red wine varieties. Of the highly regarded red wine grapes it is probably the least adopted by winemakers worldwide jealous of the complex, big wines it makes. The Piemontese guard against prolific export of cuttings but even more significantly many vintner and winemakers feel that Nebbiolo is even more difficult to work with than Pinot Noir.

Its sensitivity to both soil and geography, exacerbated by the number of Nebbiolo clones available, yield wines that vary widely when grown in only slightly different locations. Nebbiolo ripens very late in the season needing the best exposures in order to reach maturity. This fact along with Nebbiolo's distinct preference for calcareous soil leaves good sites something of a rarity. In fact, only 3% of the acreage under vine in Piedmont is Nebbiolo making it, as world-renown wines go, a rare duck indeed.

Wines made from Nebbiolo are typically dark, tart, and tannic. The best smell of cherries, violets and black licorice or truffles and have rich, chewy, deep and long-lasting flavors. Good Nebbiolo can harmonize with the richest, strongest-flavored meats and stews, as well as dry, aged cheeses that may be too strong or distinctive for other wines.  

LANGHE  

When Nebbiolo is planted in Piedmont but beyond the borders of Barbaresco and Barolo, the wine is labeled "Nebbiolo Langhe" -a category of astounding value that can express Nebbiolo in its youth and thanks to gentle ingenious winemaking may be enjoyed early after release while your Barbaresco and Barolo rest and ripen in the cellar. Of all those we've tried, two Langhe Nebbiolo stand out above the rest.

 Marchesi di Gresy 2010 Martinenga >>> is a single vineyard jewel offering an unoaked Nebbiolo bearing the soul of this singular variety and Vietti 2009 Perbacco >>> is actually declassified Barolo that owner Luca Currado makes from the barrels that do not make it into his Castiglione Barolo -both here today gone tomorrow Nebbiolo well worth exploring.

BARBARESCO 

Often mistaken as its own varietal, Barbaresco is in fact a celebrated town in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Some of the world's most intricate and long lived wine comes from this picturesque enclave and its beauty compounds when you've tracked this memorable wine to its source only to find that its birthplace proves to be as moving as the Nebbiolo wine you crave.

Nebbiolo ripens earlier here than Barolo which allows for earlier drinking reds but with their telltale tannins and ample acidity, Barbaresco is really at its peak five to ten years after harvest. In earlier times Barbaresco played second chair to Barolo, but over the last twenty years in particular, Barbaresco has shown its lofty aromatics, its structural gravitas and its beguiling ability to evolve through fruit and hardwoods to earthen floral notes as well and sometimes better than its neighbor.

Barbaresco always stands tall but two that are head and shoulders above the rest are the Rizzi 2007 Barbaresco >>> for its telltale Nebbiolo fragrance and its precocious approachability while the Paitin 2008 Sori Paitin >>> is beginning to hum with a haunting finish that's at once floral, woodsy, earthen, and hypnotic but sure to evolve into new dimensions in the coming decade.

BAROLO  

This light colored red completely belies the rich tannins and the fully fragrant wonders of Barolo. Made from Nebbiolo in Piedmont's DOCG of Barolo, these are among the great wines of the world -to many connoisseurs the very best. Concentrated and heavily scented, Barolo. wines have an inimitable fragrance of tar, roses, damsons, and mulberries that over time reveal layers of depth that often include mushrooms, dried fruit, chocolate, the forest floor, mint, licorice, evergreen herbs, eucalyptus, camphor, leather, tobacco, exotic spices, strawberries, and even the white truffles of nearby Alba.  

While this is a wine for meditation it is also one of the great vin de garde that, once plucked from a fully ripened cellar, are perfect for those choice dishes rich with meat or heady truffles. From roasts to risottos Barolo tannins call for protein and hefty cuisine. Once discovered, an aged Barolo becomes a touchstone for vinous joys ever after.

For a memorable foray into great Barolo within reach, try the Boroli 2007 Barolo >>> for its rich baritone beauty, compelling fragrance, and lingering charms or from some of the regions very top tiers, the Vietti 2008 Castiglione >>> weighs in with tremulous acids and astringent tannins that "tug and shift with red fruit, root spices, leathern and woodsy aromas...everything really comes together and yet is distinctly its own held in a living tension."

Nothing does what Barolo can do and when great deals come along, despite their longevity in the cellar, these wines are not available for long so please act in your best interest while you can -these are pleasures we want you to experience.

SHOP Nebbiolo HERE >>>  

Arneis

the full and fragrant white of Piedmont