Bastianich-The Buzz

Who needs RSS?

I have a little post today that is about blogging rather than wine.

On the top-left of this page you can now sign up to get automatic updates from THE BUZZ in your EMAIL! That's right, no more fuss with blog readers and RSS and all that crazy technological stuff. Just put your email in the box and ECCOLA! Done.

I try to post once a week, but it works out to more like twice a month, so I wont be THAT big of a nuisance in your InBox. I promise. I also promise that your email will be used ONLY FOR THE BLOG. I will NOT compile a mailing list for commercial purposes. So rest easy.

My point here is to get as many people reading the blog as possible on a regular basis.

I hope this helps.

BTW... My thanks go out to Jon Danby who has a REALLY COOL BLOG called Facebook for Wineries, which I found through one of my favorite sites, The Winery Website Report. I recommend following both of these closely if blogging and "Social Media" (blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc etc...) is something you're into, or thinking about getting into, which you should.

Proper post is on the way...

Flowers.

Ever wondered what a grape flower looks like? I was all excited to show you... taking plenty of pictures... but a long weekend and a couple busy days and you realize all your flowers are already changing to grapes!

After flowering, they say it's 90 days until the harvest (more or less). So the countdown has truly begun. Flowering is also a delicate moment... Pollination of the flowers means grapes. Incomplete pollination means bunches with grapes and little green pellets called "shot berries", which are good for nothing but reducing your yield.

I'll get a few pictures of the Picolit soon. Picolit is famous for uneven pollination and tiny bunches. Meanwhile take a look at what I managed to snap before the evening sun disappeared behind storm clouds...

This is a proto-bunch of (Tocai) Friulano. Obviously the little green pellets are proto-grapes. The spindly white things are the flowers.
I found this little bunch among the leaves. It's size and position makes me think it will not pass green harvesting.
This is another strange, little, contorted bunch. Serious candidate for green harvest, but a nice illustration of the flowers.

Wine and Swine... among other things.

This post comes from the lovely and talented Caroline Salz, National Sales Manager at Dark Star Imports:

"On Monday May 11th, we had our 4th Annual "Wine & Swine" BBQ at Joe Bastianich's house in Connecticut. Every year we gather our friends, distributors and clients from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. It is a chance for us to thank our loyal customers, and showcase our new wines and vintages. This year we introduced our new Producer, Brandini, from La Morra Barolo to the Bastianich family. The Bastianich Malvasia Istriana was also a big hit. Special guest chefs were Mario Batali, Michael Schlow from Via Matta, Cesare Casella of Salumeria Rossi, William Gallagher of Becco, Dave Pasternack of Esca, Fortunato Nicotra of Felidia & Andy Nusser of Casa Mono and Tarry Lodge. Mario grilled steaks, Dave grilled his famous octopus, everyone contributed to the whole roasted pig! To name a few of the delicious dishes.

The Frank Manzi Band played and Joe B. played and sang along for a couple songs. It was a great surprise- as most people didn’t realize he could sing! It was overall a fantastic day and we all left full and happy."

Here are some pictures from the day. Courtesy of David Dadekian Photography.

The perfect Tocai Friulano pairing.

Joe B rockin' out...

Joe playing with The Frank Manzi Band.

Tempus Fugit

It's been a long time since I've blogged. Amazing how time flies!

One of the things that has been occupying my time has been traveling. I have been to 3 wine-fairs in the last 2 weeks alone.

The first was the most interesting because it brought me to a place I'd never been before: Prague! We participated in a stand at the national wine fair in the Czech Republic called "Vino e Distilaty". The stand was (very well) organized by the Consorzio di Colli Orientali del Friuli. We were there with a group of producers from our DOC: Valentino Butussi, Rocca Bernarda, Conte d'Attimis-Maniago, Ronchi San Giuseppe,  Giovanni Dri, La Sclusa, Vigna Traverso, and Maurizio Zaccomer. It was a good chance to go to a new market and try and open some doors there...

That's Dennis and me at the stand. We were pleased with the openness and curiosity of the people, who were also extremely polite and sunny. Honestly, I was really impressed with how positive and courteous everyone was. Lots of people seemed interested in our Sauvignon "B", but someone explained that it was rare that a Czech will drink a white wine from outside the country. They were tasting to compare theirs to ours! Unfortunately, as nice as everyone was, what we managed to taste from their vineyards left a LOT to be desired. The import market there is MUCH more tuned into red wines, as they are nearly impossible to produce in the Czech Republic.

In the end, we didn't find anyone definite to import our wines, but we made some solid contacts and hopefully one of them will pan out. I didn't get to spend enough time there (36 hours, more or less) and I feel the need to explore the city center a little bit more...

We went from Prague almost directly to another fair in Croatia. Vinistra is the annual meeting of Producers from the Istrian peninsula, concentrating on Malvasia Istriana. That was a true "whirlwind", but with the help of Alex, my super-savvy friend from Belgrade, we were able to find a small, high-quality importer to both Croatia and Serbia... Success!

Finally, last Monday our Italian distributor held their big tasting event for the southern part of Italy in Napoli. It was a one day event and I was happy to see clients from Roma to Puglia there to investigate new wines.
  There I am explaining what a Super-Med is to a pair of budding wine experts. (Same jacket, different shirt from Prague, so save the comments about how I only have one nice shirt). The event went well, and I even got to get my teachin on in a Seminar about great white wines:
From L to R you have Paola from Querciabella, who presented the 1998 Batar, which was a bomb (in the best sense of the word), Manni Nossing who presented his 2006 Kerner, which was WAY more complex than any Kerner (and many white wines in general) I've EVER tasted. Hidden behind me is Franz Pratzner from Falkenstein in Alto Adige, whose Riesling (2005?) was so good it damn near killed me.
And then me there presenting 2004 Vespa Bianco (drinking BEAUTIFULLY right now) and talking way too much. I like animating these tastings and evoking a bit of discussion...

AND FINALLY... Now that I'm back, I took a few minutes to show some of the growth in our vineyards... Remember those tiny buds breaking and those thumbnail-sized grape leaves?...
...Well they've grown! And now you can even see some proto-grape bunches there!
Here's a close-up:
Finally, I leave you with a more "poetic" photo... more of a study of light and texture... which is just a nice way of saying "I was playing with my new camera and I got lucky"...
Ok, now back to work!

The 50 Best Italian white wines...

In the most recent issue of Gambero Rosso magazine, Bastianich Vespa Bianco was honored to have been named one of the top “50 Bianchi d’Italia”. The wines chosen were not vintage-specific. This was an overall ranking of the best white wines in Italy over the past 23 years.

Bastianich Vespa Bianco ranked number 32 overall, among some of the greatest and most famous whites in all of Italy. Our placement in the Top 50 is especially noteworthy considering that many of the other wines mentioned in the article have a much longer history than we do. We’ve accomplished so much in so little time!

A closer look at the list reveals some interesting facts:

Friuli Venezia Giulia had the most wines in the Top 50 with a total of 17.

…of 17 Friulian Wines Bastianich Vespa Bianco Ranks #10

…of 3 wines from Colli Orientali del Friuli Bastianich Vespa Bianco Ranks # 2 (behind only Terre Alte)

…of 7 Friulian Blends Bastianich Vespa Bianco Ranks # 4 (behind Terre Alte, Vintage Tunina and Breg)

I'm proud that our most important wine has garnered even more recognition... I honestly think it deserves it...

VIVA LA VESPA!

High Praise...

My humble little blog has been mentioned in one of the best wine blogs on the net...

The Wine Case

...What a great honor to be mentioned on such a great blog...Thanks!

Budbreak!

Spring EXPLODED here while we were away at VinItaly. It was almost like coming home to another planet. One of the things I've noticed this year is that there are Dandelions EVERYWHERE and LOTS of them.. I don't remember seeing many Crocus or Daffodil or even Tulips, but those yellow weeds are running riot...
Anyway, the beautiful weather and abundant sunshine has awoken the vines, and in the late evening yesterday I managed to get some nice pics of buds breaking...
This bud on a Chardonnay vine is just getting going.

Here's a little more advanced growth on another vine...

And here is even more growth...
  That tiny grape leaf is a little larger than my thumbnail now... and to think that all that growth (usually TOO much) and all those grapes are going to come from that little tiny bud...

The season has begun which will end in harvest...

A little miracle at the Bastianich/La Mozza stand...

Before I get started with a light-hearted post, I want to give my personal sympathies to the victims and families of the L'Aquila earthquake. My heart goes out to those who are suffering, and although I didn't feel the tremors, I feel the pain of those affected by the disaster.

__________

It happened Saturday afternoon. The fair was winding down, and there were a group of folks tasting at our stand. It was warm outside, but nothing spectacular. Someone stepped back from the stand, pointed and laughed. "Take a picture! Take a picture!" someone yelled... "Vespa on the Vespa!"

I was confused. Then I saw it...

It was a real vespa on the Vespa Bianco... I grabbed my iPhone and snapped this picture.

A moment later as I was getting out my real camera, she flew from the bottle. I yelled at the wasp, "Go back! Go back!" and she circled around and landed on the Vespa ROSSO...
I took about a million pictures. My camera ran out of storage space. I started erasing pictures of Luzern. The Vespa never flew away... even when I held the bottle in my hand. Then I transferred her to the Vespa Bianco again for another photo op...

She probably posed for another thousand pics... and then she flew away... A little VinItaly miracle.

VinItaly - Day 1 - Pad. 7, C 10

It's the annual battle. You look forward to it with excitement and dread. It's 5 days and 5 nights of pouring wine, aching feet and lots of fun.

Plus you get to hang out in one of the most beautiful cities in Italy:

VinItaly in Verona.

Those who know it, know it well. The single largest gathering of Italian wine producers in the world. A place where many hope to build relationships, create new ones and maintain friendships.

There are people in the wine business from New York to California (David Russel, please come on down!) that I see ONLY once a year at VinItaly. It's hard work. It's a lot of pouring and talking (i usually lose my voice by Sunday), a lot of keeping track of bottles and their temperatures, lots of questions about markets, attitudes and trends.

For the first time I'm blogging from VinItaly, and today I'll just give you a quick peek at how things have started. Hopefully there will be some exciting things to blog about as the fair goes on... But first: Here's our humble stand...
We feel particularly well-equipped this year because we have:
a) A real Ice bucket
b) An LCD monitor to show pictures and Lidia Bastianich's videos. (Many videos were shot at the vineyards.)
Another view, with (L to R) Caroline, Emilio, Alessandro, JB and the back of the head of Valter.

These pic were taken early on, but the day was busy and there were more people than we expected. Everyone feared the worst with economic hard times, but we didn't notice a difference...

VinItaly is still the most important moment for us tp be able to meet with many of our importers and distributors world wide... Here is Caroline and Dennis meeting with Anthony Bommarito Sr. and Jr., our distributors in Illinois. They got to taste new vintages ready for release and to talk about how things are going and some goals for the future. That's the importance of VinItaly...

Along with...
That's JB having a taste with Stefano Moccagatta, who is one of the most entertaining personalities in the world of Italian wine, and co-owner of the great Gavi producer, Villa Sparina.

Finally I leave you with this... Caroline caught off-guard at a busy moment:
She does look kind of surprised...

OK, more tomorrow! Time to find a little dinner somewhere... A domani...

The View from behind the table...

Just because I want you all to know that Caroline isn't the only one out there pouring vino and mixin' it up with the people, here are a few shots from our very successful trade tasting with our Italian distributor (HERES) at the Hotel WallArt in Prato, near Firenze.

This is the middle of the day on Sunday. It was a nice day, and despite the weather, plenty of folks showed up.

Looking down the table at my neighbors to the left.

These events are a chance for producers to chat and taste as well, when there's a free moment. Here is my neighbor to the right, Carlo Schiopetto, talking with Emilio Foradori. Two of the most important people from two of the most important wineries in Italy.

Rush-hour, Monday. This is the champagne "island" that was very popular. Obviously, I made my way over there a number of times to check out some of the great bubbly that HERES is selling now.

All-in-all I thought the event went really well and I got lots of great feedback on our wines. The Vespa Bianco and Tocai PLUS 2006 were huge hits along with our new 2008 Sauvignon "B". Both La Mozza wines got great reactions from everyone and the new-entry Tritono Malbec got a lot of attention for being unique and delicious.

Good times!