mondosapore

NYT "anything goes" Thanksgiving pairing post: Still up-ending wine journalism

As you may know, I penned a sarcastic post on November 12 (click here) about the fatuity of turkey-and-jello-marshmallow-salad-type wine pairings, inspired by the admission of the august New York Times that "Finding good Thanksgiving wines may be a lot easier than you think." (Click here for the article that started it all.)

Blogger response to my post ranged from dismissive (Frankly My Dear) to the "chortling" and "chuckling" variety (Do Bianchi). I especially appreciated Jeremy Parzen's use of the subjunctive ("Lest he think..."), not to mention the context which inspired it.

I can't speak for Eric Asimov or his tasting panel of radicals, but I received a torrent of emails and Tweets from anguished wine journalists, or aspiring ones (5). I received many more (2) from simple consumers. All were angry, confused, upset.

Typical of the consumers' ire was this note from Marcia Watson of Watson Holler, NC: "Damn you New York City smart-asses! I was all set to serve a nice little Chenin Blanc from the Loire, France, with my turkey BUT YOU HAVE THROWN ME INTO CONFUSION. I guess it's back to beer and ice tea. Speaking of tea, now I understand the fury of the tea-baggers. Jerk!"

Here's a heart-wrenching email that I got just yesterday from Ivan Scurry of the Council Bluffs Dispatch & Dollar Trader:

Dear Mr. Strappo,

I know you don't mean to hurt people with your sarcastic wit, but you've caused one more American journalist to enter the lists of the unemployed. Me.

You see, I've been the wine writer and reviewer for the paper since 1976. Or, rather, I was.

I started out with a bang.  They loved my columns on what to drink at the Bicentennial*, and it led to the full-time union job with great benefits that I had until this week. I built my entire professional life around wine reviews and pairings for the holidays. I prepared from July, tasting, noting, eating and drinking various pairings. I did it with patience, dedication and good old Midwestern methodicalness. Oh, we aren't exciting or trend-setting out here. We're just hard-working regular people who want a good day's pay for a good day's work.

Thirty-three years I plied my craft, I honed my profession. I wrote a seminal work on Iowan wineries and wine personalities. That's a third of a century, Mr. Strappo. A working man's lifetime. I was young. Now I'm old. 

And I was happy. I had a place in the world. People knew me in the street. Sometimes even when I crossed over to Omaha. My very presence seemed to bring a smile to every face.

Now they turn away. I am nobody. My career and life are in ruins. Thanks to you and those "trendy" folks at the New York Times. People who don't take seriously the struggles of ordinary Americans in the Heartland to wean themselves off of lite beer and cola drinks. People who forget how hard it was to gain all that wine knowledge in the first place.

Management used your words as the hammer to beat me with. "Goodbye, Ivan. Call us next week. Maybe you can freelance for us." 

I'd kill myself. But I'm already dead.

Jerk.

Sincerely,

Ivan Scurry

* In the acclaimed "Bicentennial wines" series of columns Mr. Scurry created the "All Americans Wine Rainbow", which consisted of 100% American-grown and made wines with names that honored different American ethnic groups. It was a surprisingly inclusive list, featuring such favorites as Gallo Hearty Burgundy, Sebastiani Green Hungarian, Carlo Rossi Chianti, Manischewitz Concord Grape (a clever bow to both Jewish and white-bread small-town WASPs) and Richards Wild Irish Rose wine. It remains a masterpiece to this day.

      

 

THANKSGIVING WINE STUNNER: EXPERTS CLAIM RED OR WHITE OK!

This is big news. Big. Turkey will pair well with white and/or red wines!

It's what Eric Asimov's tasting panel concluded, and it rocks the entire wine world. I can imagine that even in the Antipodes, far from the traditions of Pilgrims and Squanto, the wine folk are buzzing about it today. The single most incriminating line of the story is a caption that says, "Finding good Thanksgiving wines may be a lot easier than you think."

This admission throws years of seasonal punditry and diatribes into doubt -- nay, casts them into the Dustbin of History. Whether you realize it now or not, ladies and gentlemen, mere chaos has just been loosed on the world.

To gauge reactions to this revelation, I managed to track down -- more exactly, to twitter down -- some of the wine cosmos' most important luminaries at their watering hole and wallow pond in London. I asked them point-blank what they thought of this radical idea.  Out of respect for them and their power in the marketplace, I hesitate to publish their unvarnished responses -- not because they are shocking but because they appear shockingly unwilling to grapple with what appears to be a Paradigm Shift. But, as a serious investigative wine journalist -- or blogger, same thing -- I feel it is my duty to do so.

The Emperor of Wine: Thnksgv hedonistic holiday. big bird > big fruit > big red. Pls 4get Loire. Greeeen.

Web TV Star & Author: See, we HV ALREADY CHANGED WINE!!

The "This-Barolo-Smells-Like-Dog" Guy: Lst yr had '45 Haut Brion w tky. Magisterial! Ended w 1861 Ch dYquem, ambrsial

The Importer With the Tumor:  Something J & F used to bring in

The Lady Who Has a TV Show & Picks Wines for Delta Airlines: Whtvr sponsr wants me 2 push

East Village Wine Geek: TOTALLY FCKIN AWSOME!!!

The Empress of Wine: all rthr silly isn't it? choose s.t. pleasing + feast on

The Guy Who Blogs New York Wines: Shandling Bros Merlot-Chard blend perfect choice 4 yr relatives

The Wine Czarina: Did U stuff bird w oysters? Treyf! Will just pick. Anything fr Loire bt it mst smell bretty!

 

 

Domenico Selections Website: Live at Last!

Domenico Selections dot com.

We asked for something simple, clean, functional.  With a warm, sunny look.  Suggesting Mediterranean light and vitality.  Free of red-white-and-green clichés.

Yes, we do have the useful traditional map of Italy with clickable regions where we have producers.  Short but sweet regional intros - not the standard boilerplate, either, but a personal viewpoint based on our experiences and observations.  Ditto the producer profiles.  Short, factual wine spec sheets.

And watch this site grow. More producers are on the way.

Still missing: the Muddy Boots blog.  Soon, kids, soon.  And the listing of where you can find the wine, mainly because this is in flux. 

Bookmark this link.

Baci per May Matta-Aliah, who designed the Domenico Selections corporate identity program as well as the site.  She is the owner of Red-Dot-Solutions here in New York. 

The dreaded Christmas letter

Dear Amici (Friends) and Tifosi (Fans),

Gosh, it's hard to believe that another year has passed and Christmas is almost here again!  And it's so cold this year, it really feels like Christmas for a change. Bring on the rum fruit cake -- wheeeeee! 

Well, to get this Xmas message rolling, let me introduce myself, Heather Strappley, the grand-niece of Uncle Strappo, who is just so busy that he asked me to write this to you, and he sends all his love and appreciation to you for your encouragement and support!!  "Heather," he told me, "we all have so much to be thankful for at this time of the year, even if the economy is going to s**t and restaurants are closing like a nun's ********** (!!!!)"  He is really incorrigible!  LOL!!!

On a sadder note, our distant cousin Heino von Strapfschloss in Alto Adige notes the passing of "a great Austrian, Joerg Haider."  We feel your pain, Heino, and if Joerg ("George"?) had been an American, I'm sure he would have been a great American too.  (sigh.)

 

Bill O'Reilly, a true Xmas patriot!!

He luvs Xmas almost as much as me!  LOL!

But let's return to ye Olde Christmas cheer. 

I'm happy to note that our cousin Alessandro Strappolini managed to get a loan before the big credit meltdown to embark on a new venture!  He and his "S.O." Giovanna have started a wine by-products company where they take in excess grapes, mostly pretty good ones from Brunello, and turn them into a whole raft of great beauty and health products -- wine bath soaps, resveratrol face creams, purgative suppositories and other "affordable luxuries".  They're very excited about the results of their first six months sales -- most of their products went to the Gulf Emirates and Monaco, where they are really crazy about the suppositories.  They wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year.  Lucky them, they are vacationing in San Marino right now along with Alessandro's folks, "Sal" and "Pepella".  Alex is darned grateful to be 43 and still living rent-free with his parents.  When we spoke on the phone he said, "Without mamma and papa', I could not realize my dreams."  (sob!)  Or get his ironing done. (lol)

Speaking of Alessandro, one of the other Alessandro Strappolinis -- this one from Piemonte -- says the harvest was so poor this year, in quality and quantity, he's making a special Economic Collapse vinegar that he'll sell for 50 eurocents a liter while he feasts on nettles and grubs this year.  What a card!  I never knew Italians actually had a sense of humor!!  It's as surprising as hearing a Chinese tell a dirty joke involving a Mandarin a Buddhist monk and a Taoist!

I'd like to extend warm season's greetings to Uncle Strappo's son Eric who turned 32 yesterday!  Strappo didn't call or write him because, as Uncle "Straps" said, "He never calls or writes me."  !!!!  WTF!!!!  These proud, stubborn men, bless 'em!  (ROTFL)

Thanks to the miracle of blogging, Uncle Strappo has reconnected some members of his magnificently dysfunctional family.  I'd say that it has been, on the whole, a positive experience:  good rapport with 2 brothers and a nephew, a self-righteous sneer from one brother (who actually ate his own poop when he was two years old!!! GA-ROSS!) -- I'm really happy to see the unks more or less reconcile in time for this heart-warming holiday season, whether you celebrate Hannukhah or Kwanza or Xmas or Druidfest or whatever.  Let's all remember, all you gots is your family and your health.  (sniff)

So from all the Strappos, Strappleys, Strappolinis, von Strapfschlosses and certain of the Hugheses, we wish you a merry Xmas and a happy & not too indigent new year!  (quadruple smilies!!!!)

 

 

"Cadillac Records" and a Walk in December New York

I went to 42nd Street to see "Cadillac Records," which I had read about with some anticipation.  The blues and R&B artists that were the subject of the movie -- well, they're among the greats in my book, or should I say my iPod.  The pre-release stories smelled of PR placements.  You know, how Beyoncé played it down and dirty as Etta James.  Well, yes and no.  BK was good -- actually a lot better-looking than Etta was -- but weak writing and especially an unfocused story line undermined her histrionic efforts.  Not to mention those of Eamonn Walker (as Howlin' Wolf -- it was a wasted part) and many others in the cast.  Adrien Brody was all right as Leonard Chess, one of the two brothers who started the label.  The other was Phil Chess, whose character was magically subsumed into Leonard's role. 

Jeffrey Wright gets top billing and more than redeemed this film in his portrayal as Muddy Waters.

 

Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters with ersatz Rolling Stones

While the actors' musical renditions were excellent -- the music is excellent even when you listen to the Rolling Stones cover it -- the entire work was weakened by the hopscotching from topic to topic, issue to issue.  What I found most frustrating was the license that was taken with the chronology of the music, and of the artists' attempts to stay current, to stay on top.  So we had a raft of anachronisms like the early Chuck Berry singing "No Particular Place to Go."  This one was recorded and a hit after Chuck's incarceration for transporting a 14-year-old girl (actually a Navaho, not white) across state lines.

While Cedric the Entertainer, playing Willie Dixon, provided the rather clunky narrative, and made several attempts to link the rise and fall of Chess Records to the Civil Rights Movement, the film devolved into a standard smack-and-booze musical biopic, with Etta James and Len Chess as the tragic lovers.  This was one more disservice to the cast -- especially the brilliant Jeffrey Wright, whose Muddy Waters provided the movie with its conscience and heart.

So what if the film highlights the seminal talents of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter and so many others?  Here are a couple of the original songs that the greats of Chess records made.

Download 02 If The Sea Was Whiskey by Willie Dixon

Download Little Queenie by Chuck Berry

*****

After the movie I walked uptown to visit a few wine bars.  I made the colossal mistake of going up Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas to you greenhorns) and heading for Fifth Ave through Rockefeller Center.  What was I thinking?  My God, it was a madhouse.  If anyone had yelled Fire, the bloody crush would have totted up a thousand lives.  As it was, I bitched and moaned about it vocally and didn't even glance at the goddamn tree.

I was surprised to see and hear so many tourists from our own country.  The news has me believing half of America is living in their car.  But no, plenty of Us were wandering around and taking in the sights, maybe even more than Them, the world's affluent refuse swarming avidly over our shores 

Well, that's it.  Happy Whatever. 

It's time to make dinner, drink wine and write drunken ravings on mondosapore once again.  Can't wait, can you?

In the year 5769

The crowd that had gathered was hungry, thirsty.  Many were old; their clothes hung on them.  Ancient mournful melodies filled the air.  People wept.  They wept for their dead, for all the dead.  They wished to remember them all, the millions and millions in all the thousands of years.  Too many to remember by name, souls like grains of sand, like the numberless galaxies in the heavens.  The act of remembering seemed like an act of defiance.  Against tyrants, against time, even against their god himself it seemed.

Grief.  And purification.  As it was in those days.

As it is today in 5769 / 2008. 

My week in review

Strappo's had a hell of a week.  May I vent?  Posso sfogarmi?  (It means "may I vent"). 

1. He went out to dinner 26 times.  He enjoyed one.

2. He vowed to drink less.  He has, a tad.  His life is not redeemed regardless.

3. He came down with shingles.  I believe this is the modern name for one of the afflictions with which Yahweh smote Job.  Well forgive him for being a Gay-American for Obama.

Job is the one on the ground being covered in angelic effluents

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4. He couldn't really taste wine for a week.  He could no longer be The Decider.

5. He spoke Italian on the phone with a really strong American accent.  He needs to get back to Italy subbito.

6. His wine shipments will be a bit late.  Let's think Summer 2012.

7. He feels overmedicated.  He is, but not like Cindy McCain.  (That would be Liza territory.)

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8. He is in love with Sara K. Smith.  Platonically, like McCain is with Palin.

Sara aka Wonkette

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9. He longs for the food in Campania.  And all the good Campanian wine to wash it down.

10. He wishes you godspeed wherever you're going.  Reminder: We all die even if we floss every night.

Flossed religiously.  Yet...

AMEN

Buona Pasqua Ebrea (Happy Passover)

May you drink good wine and not have to read the whole Haggadah!

Card from http://sharonsharon.wordpress.com/category/passover/

Lent is a-cumin in

Sitting in a quasi-deserted hotel dining room at 10 this Fat Tuesday evening. A couple of sports dicks are arguing on TV. I had a good sort of provinicial dinner with a bottle of a pleasing young Dolcetto on the table. Terrenostre 2006. It's chilly outside and in. And it's still way better than those Fat Tuesday dinners at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Akron. Ohio. Know what I mean? I'd write a lot more about my upcoming visits to a couple of wineries in the zone but doing this on Blackberry is miserable. We miss your smiling punem, Alfonso.

Hooray, it's 2008

Happy new year, everyone.  The damned holidays are over and real life in all its checkered glory can begin again.  The days will have a shape and a plan, which will not be centered on eating a lot of food you really don't want to eat.  And soon the days will become perceptibly longer.

Speaking of the passage from one year to another, I was very interested in a post that Jancis Robinson published several days ago.  Entitled "2007 - a vintage year for prices?", the grand Jancis focused on the ever higher prices the top French wine areas are commanding (blame it on nouveau riche money from Russia, China, etc.).  At far different price levels, there is the inevitability of increases for the lower-end wines most of us drink every day.  Currency issues account for part of this (consider our mini-dollar), but so do recent disastrous harvests in Australia and some other wine regions, including California which has been reduced to importing a lot of bulk wine from South America and Italy.

Then there's the increasing importance of organic/biodynamic wines.  Mrs. Lander's take on it is typically shrewd -- and hopeful.  I have to quote one long paragraph in its entirety:

One particularly remarkable current trend whose roots lie in France is the dramatic increase in the number of proponents of biodynamic viticulture. By some accounts as many as 400 prominent wine producers, about half of them French but also in at least a dozen other countries, have to some extent adopted these crazy-sounding techniques which involve following the lunar calendar and burying homeopathic doses of various ‘dynamised’ preparations in cow horns at strategic points in the vineyard. For obvious reasons, many of them keep rather quiet about it but are inspired by what seem to be observable, even if inexplicable, improvements in the quality of the soil, vines and the resulting wine. BD, as it’s called, can inspire almost paranoid hostile reactions in rationalists who tend to suggest that the improvements are due simply to the intimate care of each vine that biodynamics requires rather than any particular Rudolf Steiner-inspired mechanism. Whatever the cause, many biodynamic wines do seem to taste more distinctively vital, even ‘wild’, than the much larger quantity of wine produced today from organically grown grapes.

I agree with her wholeheartedly about the "distinctively vital, even 'wild'" bit.  The more I drink these wines, the more I'm convinced that they're our future.  I'm happy that Italy is following France in its adoption of many of these BD techniques.  Soon I'll do a roundup of the Italian organic/BD wines I've have the chance to taste in the past year.  Some of the wineries are rather well-known, some are obscure but emerging, all make delicious and fascinating wine.

Buon Anno, everybody.

I, Diary

I am Diary.  You are Author. 

Your RAM is insufficient.  I am vastly stored in many places.  E.g. this web blog. 

Your short term memory is not able to hold enough specific data to devise year-end lists.  I possess insufficient data to devise one for you.  I can do simple deductive reasoning.  I can point to URLs of greater than average significance to you.  Those sentients with superior processing capabilities will be able to infer their own lists if categories are not equal to "conventional."

February 13.  First post of major Alto Adige tasting in New York.  You wrote four posts on the event.  You wrote:

I'm too excited by what I tasted today to beat around the bush. I'll go even further and state my conclusion right up here in the first paragraph:  The wines of this small area (just 12,500 acres) may offer one of the best price/quality ratios in the world.

The wines of Alto Adige (Südtirol in German, which is the first language of the area) are characterized by their "cleanness", their purity.  They are elegant, bursting with flavor...

March 15.  You wrote of your rediscovery of rum, the great drink of your region, for which you were homesick.  America's love of strong sweet drinks began centuries ago, you wrote.

April 8. You wrote the first of several posts on the biodynamic tasting at Villa Favorita, near Vicenza.  Several posts cascaded from that one here, here, here.  You especially enjoyed meeting Mario Zanusso of I Clivi and Francis Boulard of the biologic Champagne house Raymond Boulard.

June 14.  This was the date of the first of several posts about a visit to Puglia.  Your first visit.  Not your last.  (Go here also.)  (And here.)

July 3. On this date you posted the first of your articles satirizing wine people and wine mythologies.  Also here, here, here and here.

I must cease processing now.  Demands on resources are excessive.  Dates are being reset.  Calendar changes.  Another solar cycle terminates. 

Repose. [Standby mode.]

My year in wine

Dear Diary,

It's that dreaded time of year.  The 10 Best and Top 100 lists are popping up everywhere in wine pubs and blogland.   Unfortunately and speaking only of Italy, the same names appear on damned near every one of them, from Dal Forno in the North to Carlo Hauner in the southernmost islands.  All those Californicated supertuscans.  Oh and let's not forget the fact that a doughty unknown from Piemonte was recently named best something or other by Gambero Rosso; his name would be Angelo Gaja.

I hope you know, caro diario, that I'm not a complete dick.  I recognize the quality these people offer, whether or not you agree with everything they do.  Gaja's sent traditionalists into a permanent tizzy in his zone, but it's his choice to chase after a certain market.  It's paid off for him. 

My problem, my cynicism, has to do with the lack of something crucial on the part of the wine media that results in the same evaluations and cliches year after year.  Lack of curiosity, of initiative, of motivation perhaps?  I think it's exemplified by the covers of Wine Spectator.  How many of them in any given year are beauty shots of some high-priced real estate in Tuscany?  It's more about a country-club lifestyle, an aesthetic-gastronomic fantasy, than it is about wine.  Where's the motivation to explore muddy vineyards in November and bump along back roads in wild regions searching for exciting new producers?  There is none.

Not that Tuscany

With this lack of editorial exploration comes a lack of retail choice, at least in most American towns.  Restaurateurs and retailers who can't afford the time and money to go traipsing all over Italy for themselves have to rely on what they read, what they hear.  Wine sales people, like all sales people, will sell what's easiest to sell.  Few will go out of their way to educate a restaurant owner who's interested only in price, price and scores. 

I'll anticipate what you may be about to say,

Holiday hangover

What is it about the week between Christmas and New Year's?  Why do you feel like you've got a hangover every day even if you haven't been drinking?  And, OK, even if you haven't been drinking that much?

You have all this free time and just sort of piss it away.  It's like you're identifying yourself with the old, dying year.  And in this there is a strange kind of push/pull.  You want it to be over with, like a trip to the dentist.  Yet you hang back, not knowing what the new year holds in store for you.  Janus has a new relevance and rediscovered power to strike terror, or unease anyway, into your heart.

We usually go away at Christmas, busying ourselves with other sites and sounds, smells and tastes.  Couldn't manage it this year.  And after years of complaining "why can't we just stay home for the holidays?" I'm complaining "why did we have to stay here for Chrissake?"  Some people are born to bitch.  Guilty as confessed.

All I can say is, Kapalua would suit me to a T right now.

Groupie Coronation Moved to January 9

The lovely and talented Lisa Qiu has graciously consented to change the date of the Crunk Coronation by one day -- January 9 at 7 pm at Otto -- so that the visiting dignitary from Verona, Giampiero Nadali, may attend before he has to return home. 

Nadali is an excellent photographer.  I hope he will get some enlightening and entertaining shots of our hi jinks at Otto.  Eh, Giampi?

***

By the way, I met my son Eric, the Golden Error punk rock god, for his birthday dinner last night.  His band has an indie disc coming out soon.  Hardcore vinyl.  I tried to persuade him to attend our coronary event (ha ha) on the ninth of January. 

Whatever.  We had a great time and lots of good grub and too much wine at Barbone.  (Are you getting this, Marco?)  The duck ravioli was awesome.  As was the cucumber sorbet.  Wow.

I was reflecting last night how my life used to suck.  Not just with the occasional bad day or week, but deeply, seriously, consistently.  In vino vita.

Nightmare in Ferrara

This just in from Giampiero Nadali of Aristide.  His girlfriend Laura bought this...this thing in Merano, clearly not the Italian capital of good taste. 

My musical link (below) kind of says it all, IMHO.  Feeling a lit-tle trip-py...

Download season_of_the_witch.mp3

Buon Natale, Merry Christmas

Once I loved Christmas.  Once it represented hope and a respite from the disillusioning grime of the world.  Now it seems all too filled with the world's tawdriness.

But some little part of the soul still wishes to believe in miracles and in the possibility of a better world. 

In that spirit of disappointed hope, with all the freight of the years' sadness and hopeful expectations...Merry Christmas.

Download otis_redding_merry_christmas_baby.mp3

Crunk Coronation of My Groupie: January 10 at Otto

Hear ye hear ye!

I will crown my first official groupie at a special event on January 10 at Otto, which is at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 8th Street.  We will start about 6pm, before the place gets mad crowded.  We will finish when we're too crunk to continue.

The coronee will be Lisa Qiu, the lovely, talented, Italian-speaking and wine-mad NYU student who has graced these electronic pages with her witty comments and droll observations.

Special guests, I hope, will be Giampiero Nadali (Aristide), his very good friend Laura Buosi and, I believe, their pals Alessandro and Giorgia. 

All are invited.  But you come, you pay for your own drinks.  Unless you're Lisa Qiu, of course.  For her, nothing is too much and nothing is too good. 

She's a good demographic, too.

Mondosapore wine groupie get together is a go!

I am such a mondosapore groupie, I can't wait for a little post holiday party. Trust me, little creeps me out---- maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger. A night out to get crunk with a master?!!!??!?! Count me in!

Lisa Qiu, your fan.

Thus has the lovely and talented Lisa Qiu, official mondosapore groupie, said yes yes yes I will yes to doing a wine thingie for her official coronation as MWG.  This event will be in January, date TBD, as Lisa has many fans in many places, and her Blackberry is in the shop for repairs. 

Even so, I hope we can celebrate this wonderful occasion in the period from Jan. 7 - 10, when Aristide, eminence blog of Italian wine, will be visiting our fair city.  It would be nice if more Young People could attend the event, including the lovely and talented Sarah Newton all the way from Rome.  Probably not, but we live in hope.

Lisa also wrote, "Oh, and you can show those punks who think I'm ugly this picture."


I can hear David Bowie in the background singing, Lisa, that song...

Thanksgiving wine, courtesy of Italy

Post #600 -- How I slave for you

I wrote last year that I think all this pseudo-agonizing over the wines to serve with Thanksgiving dinner is overblown.  I guess it's an issue for people who don't drink wine much. For those of us for whom "Un giorno senza vino e' un giorno senza sole" (A day without wine is a day without sunshine.  Take that, Anita Bryant)...it's almost a bizarre question.

So with that grumpy preamble done, let me suggest a couple of good wines for the trad American turkey dinner, two each of red and white.  And BTW let's dispense with all this precious stuff about serving this white with that course or such-and-such a red with this part of the meal, etc.  Assume people will drink whatever they want whenever they want during the meal.  That, amici miei, is the American way.

White wines for your dinner

1. Falanghina.  This is a no-brainer.  Dry but not too dry, with plenty of fruit and an ability to go with anything from oysters to white turkey meat, not to mention a wide range of condiments, Falanghina is the grape that put Campania on the modern white wine map.  There are a lot of good to excellent producers available in the States, including Mustilli, Mastroberardino, Ocone, Feudi di San Gregorio, Petilia, Cantine del Taburno, etc. etc.  Do not ever pay over $17-18 for a bottle of this wine.  Don't buy a bottle from before 2004 or so -- it's best when young.

An excellent, typical Falanghina -- other brands may be easier to find in your area -- none of them expensive

2. I Clivi Brazan.  This is a richer, more complex wine than the Falanghinas, but it will enhance the flavor of your turkey, especially the darker parts of the bird.  I Clivi is a biodynamic (all-natural) winery on the northeastern border of Italy (with Slovenia).  Brazan is a blend of local Tocai and Malvasia varieties, and its deep color and rich aroma are seductive if you want a lush but not too heavy or sweetish whitw wine with dinner.  This one will cost about $26-30 or so.  It isn't for everyone, but no harm done if you buy a bottle for the feast. 

The white wines of I Clivi have been favorites of mine since I first tried them in Italy.

Other rich, complex, really fascinating white wines from this border-crossing wine region include the more expensive Movia and Gravner.  They could overwhelm the food with their individuality and power.  On the other hand, Thanksgiving dinner can be a bit bland.  (Sorry, grandma.)

A couple of tasty reds

1. Valpolicella. This is pretty obvious, but I list it because even if you live in an ABC state like Pennsylvania you can find a couple of decent Valpolicella Classicos. Simple and undemanding, these wines are light to medium bodied and pair well with almost anything you can put on the table.  Some easily available, reasonably priced ($11-15) examples are Allegrini, Bertani, Masi, etc., etc.  For another level of depth and complexity, you may go for a Classico Superiore from these and other producers.  They will cost you more (to about $30 depending on brand) but will surprise you with their combination of power and finesse.

Allegrini is one of dozens making good, basic Valpolicella -- simple, easy-drinking reds that are versatile at the table

2. Frappato.  This is a Sicilian grape that I have written about several times.  I love its lightness, freshness, good levels of acidity and the fruit that recalls strawberries and raspberries.  This makes it a great partner with cranberry sauce and some of the tarter condiments in the Thanksgiving table.  The same qualities lighten up the stodginess of the white meat.  A Frappato that's easily available in NYC is from Della Valle d'Acate. There are also more substantial blends with Nero d'Avola, the premier red wine grape of Siclity.  These bottles will be in the $14-19 range, sometimes less for the 100% Frappato from Della Valle d'Acate.

Click for bigger view of the Frappato label!

Skip the dessert wine this time.  Desserts are something we do well, especially the traditional pies and so on.  Cap off the meal with a good varietal grappa -- Drano for your innards.  It'll set you up perfectly for that post-turkey nap, to.

Come ho passato il Capodanno ebreo

Oggi il primo "pieno" giorno dell'anno nuovo ebreo, Rosh Hashanah, una feria per tutte le scuole e per i dipendenti municipali di New York City.  Traffico lite.  Anche gli inosservanti vogliono un weekend a quattro giorni.

Ieri al tramonto ha cominciato la festa, e io ero costretto ad andare alla sinagoga col compagno Ken.  (E perdonatemi per aver criticato gli Italiani per la predica lunga...la rabbina ha parlato per almeno 45 minuti, ed e' purtroppo vero che in tutte le religioni la predica e' sempre, al fondo, la stessa.  Mi sentivo vivere la storia del popolo ebreo in tempo reale.)

Ma cio' non era che una fetta di prosciutto (!) tra una degustazione pomeridiana della Montecastelli e una cena / degustazione / party con Marco Caprai.  Per fortuna non ho bevuto che una goccia di vino dopo una strepitosa serata prima a Falai con, inter alii, l'enotecaro delle star, Gabrio Tosti, produttore Gian Luigi Maravalle, umbro, e Fredric Koeppel blogger e giornalista del vino di larga riputazione.

Comunque.  Parlavo di mercoledi'. 

Alla degustazione della Montecastelli Selections, ero colpito dalla presenza dei vini fatti dal bravo enologo toscano, Paolo Caciorgna.  Ce n'erano otto, e quando Marquita Levy, la commessa che mi aveva invitato, mi ha detto che tutta un tavola era "un'altare dedicata a Paolo Caciorgna" (e lui una persona modesta!), io mi sono dedicato ad assaggiarne tutti, quasi all'esclusione degli altri.  (L'effetto Falai mi pesava ancora.  Troppo da mangiare, da bere.  Questa volta ho usato diligentemente la sputacchiera, mi raccomando.)

I vini di Paolo del giorno erano:

Abruzzo -- Nicodemi

Campania -- Poderi Foglia, Vestini Campagnano

Piemonte -- Ronchi

Toscana -- Cesani, La Rasina, Montecastelli "vini base della casa"

California -- Mendocino Farms

Segnalo brevemente i vini di vitigni autoconi campanesi di Poderi Foglia e Vestini Campagnano -- vivaci e puliti, "scoppiando" di tipicita'.  Quelli di Vestini Campagnano sono d'alta fascia, mica economici, ma la loro finezza brilla.  A un prezzo ben piu' abbordabile per l'enoappassionato di mezzi ristretti, i vini Poderi Foglia hanno un buon rapporto q/p.

Nel suo proprio terroir Paolo Caciorgna suona variazioni su tema sottili, al partire dall' Ireos 2006 Cesani, un Chianti dei Colli Senesi un po' leggero, equilibrato, facile da abbinare.  Sensazioni olfattorie di lavanda, ginestra, della macchia toscana.  Ottimo rapporto q/p.  Il Luenzo Rosso Toscano IGT (2003) e' grande, ricco e nonostante l'estate tropicale, e' suntuoso e equilibrato.  Un po' altino il Luenzo ma direi un prezzo valido per gli Stati Uniti (cassa di 12 bottiglie a $410 all'ingrosso.)  Ambedue vini intelligentemente barricati.

La Rasina mi e' piaciuto molto, il Brunello Il Divasco 2003 e' un gran bel vino dell'annata, mi rammentava del Vito Arturo di Fattoria Le Fonti, pero' un "ciglio" meno opulento.

La vera rivelazione e' stata Mendocino Farms, una nuova azienda biologica in una zona fresca, collocata al nord di Napa e Sonoma.  In presentazione: l'esordio dell'azienda con vini molto promettenti.  Paolo mi aveva parlato di questo progetto, il quale interessava molto a lui.  I vini hanno il loro carattere particolare, come sempre improntati dal loro territorio (un "trademark" di Paolo).  E dimonstrano che California ci darebbe piu' vini individuati se la permettessero.  Per lo piu' composti di uve di un singolo vigneto, quindi "cru", il rosso Red Vine Series 2004 Biodynamic Certified e' un uvaggio di Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah e Petite Syrah.  Di prezzo modesto il vino e' equilibrato e profumato -- niente della marmellata o troppi zuccheri.  Sorpresa: gradazione di 14.5% -- non sembrava. 

L'altro vino impressionante di Mendocino Farms: Fairburn Syrah 2005 Biodynamic Certified, 14.8% (non sembrava!). A soli 15 anni le viti producono un vino complesso, aromatico con sapori e profumi esotici, qualcosa di diverso e affascinante.  Le vigne producono, con un po' d'aiuto dagli amici, notevolmente Messer Paolo, un vino di grandi potenzialita'. 

Che bell'esordio!  Complimenti, Paolo e Madre Natura.