Bastianich-The Buzz

Guest Photographer: Ethan Bastianich!

I saw Joe Bastianich's youngest son Ethan walking around the winery with his camera today so I asked him to donate a few snaps to The Buzz blog... So here is Ethan at the Palio di San Donato medieval festival in Cividale yesterday:
 And a picture of some of the festivities...

And here are the shots he took today at the winery:

Botti and vasche...

Vineyards almost ready to pick.. (and MAN is it HOT)...

And last but not least, the obligatory "Tractor Shot"...

John Deere forever!... Thanks Ethan for the help on the blog! What do you think folks? Should I give him a full-time job?

Dark Star Moves West

Just two weeks ago, after four and a half years working as the sales manager for Dark Star Imports in New York City (and 10 years living there!), I relocated to sunny Los Angeles to beef up business on the West Coast. Having grown up in the Bay Area, it feels good to get back to my roots. Although it has been a quick, action-packed two weeks, my experience so far has been awesome. On Thursday night, Joe and I hosted a wine dinner at Shutters on the Beach, in Santa Monica where they are pouring our wines exclusively at their restaurant, Coast, from Memorial Day to Labor Day. This is an extremely rare occurrence in the wine business, and, as far as I know, has never happened before. I couldn’t have asked for a more ideal location. Gregory Day, the General Manager of the hotel, approached me with this idea a few months ago and I was ecstatic: all I had to do was get Lidia and Joe Bastianich to agree to come for a visit! As Joe mentioned the night of the wine dinner, “All I have to do is show up, stay in this beautiful hotel for a few nights, and you will pour my wines?! How could I say no?” The food and ambiance was amazing, and paired perfectly with our wines. Chef Michael Reardon created an all seafood menu, which was an ideal match with all white wines. My personal favorite was the halibut crudo with compressed watermelon and opal basil, the first course, which he paired with our Bastianich Sauvignon “B.” It was an unbelievably refreshing way to start off the night!

So we decided, from now on, we are only going to host wine dinners at venues that have sand and a view of the ocean. Next stop: Malibu!

Huddling before the press arrived: Gregory Day, Joe Bastianich, Caroline Salz, Peter Neptune

Guests enjoying a glass of Flor prosecco before dinner. 

Joe Bastianich walked around to the tables and described each wine....

Flor Prosecco, Bastianich Sauvignon "B", Bastianich Vespa Bianco, Bastianich Ribolla "Adriatico"

Grilled Orata with Salsa Verde and Fork Crushed Potatoes, paired with Bastianich Vespa Bianco. 

 -Caroline Salz, 

Dark Star Imports

Dramatic photos of catastrophic hail damage in Collio.

An errand brought me through the worst-hit areas of Collio yesterday evening. I brought my camera for some pictures, but nothing prepared me for the devastation I witnessed in some vineyards.

These are NOT before and after photos. The healthy vineyard is one on my commute to work, and is placed just to contrast the damage. I won't reveal exactly which vineyards these were in Collio, to protect the vineyard owners, but I will say the worst damage I saw in vineyards for some pretty famous wines...

I spoke to Marjan Simcic and asked about the storm, which struck Saturday. He told me that the hailstorm started around midnight or 1am. Very unusual for a hailstorm, which tend to be an afternoon phenomena.

The hail wasn't large he said. A little more than an inch in diameter. He had seen 4-inch stones in the past... The devastation was caused by the fact that it hailed steadily for THIRTY MINUTES. (I experienced a hailstorm during the 2001 harvest and it lasted no more than 3 - 5 minutes with 2-inch stones and caused a fair amount of damage)...

Marjan suffered only minor damage, and no damage in his most prestigious vineyards. He was lucky. He said that the last time there was hail damage this bad in his area was 26 years ago...

ON THE EXACT SAME DATE.

Grapes that weren't stripped from the bunches were smashed and rendered useless. Shredded leaves left on the vine cannot conduct photosynthesis, turn brown and die. Damage to canes is so bad that in addition to a 100% percent loss in some vineyards, next years' season is also at risk...

I know well many people and many of the the wines of the affected areas of Plessiva, Ruttars, Farra and Villanova, this disaster is a loss that affects me deeply and personally... I feel for those who had worked so hard this year to have everything ruined in minutes...

Joe Bastianich Bio for MasterChef Italia!

You saw the behind-the-scenes photos, now check out the final edit of the bio for Joe Bastianich on MasterChef Italia. Coming to CIELO in Italy in September!

Summertime is Rosato-time...

(Photo courtesy of Lidia Bastianich!)

When the heat is on (like it is here in Friuli these days) our thoughts always turn to eating light and enjoying the bounty of summer fruits and veggies. We also think of drinking light... Fresh whites are "de rigueur"; crispy sauvignons with our crispy salads, fresh Friulano with our fresh fish... and Rosato (or rosè, as the French would call it).

Lots of folks don't know that we make a lovely, fresh rosato from refosco (i think we are the ONLY ones making rosato from 100% Refosco). Refosco is naturally high in acid so it makes a zippy and refreshing rosato. Perfect chilled and sipped with those summery tomato salads or simple grilled chicken. In fact, this week this New Orleans-based blogger wrote a great review of the Bastianich Rosato with paired with an Italian-Style Chicken Paillard. Check out the Blackened Out blog for this recipe and some lovely words about our Roasto.

Thanks Rene @ blackenedout.com!

VIDEO Slideshow: Bottling Adriatico 2010...

We are in the thick of bottling Adriatico Friulano 2010 here at the winery, and to give you a feel of the work, I made this little video of photos I took of the process... Hope you like it!

 

I'd like to take a moment to thank all the people in the cellar and vineyard that help in every way... It's THEIR hard work that makes our wines what they are.. THANK YOU! GRAZIE!

MORE MasterChef ITALIA @ Bastianich Winery

I wanted to post a couple more pictures from yesterday's shoot at the Bastianich winery...

Just to give a little background, MasterChef USA with Gordon Ramsay, Joe Bastianich and Graham Elliott is going into it's second season on FOX. The ITALIAN version including Joe and two famous Italian chefs (can't tell you who right now!) is filming in Milano. For Joe's biography segment, they decided to shoot some scenes of Joe in the cellar and in the vineyard. Here are some more pics I took during the filming... MasterChef Italia airs in September CIELO television in Italia!

 MAKE-UP!

Silenzio! AZIONE!

Walking among the vines...

Last take...

Shooting MasterChef ITALIA @ Bastianich Winery

 


 

Lovely Day in the PLUS Vineyard

I just wanted to share a couple shots I took recently in the Plus vineyard just at budbreak, a day or 2 before VinItaly. I was a wonderful day and these photos came out so well...

In these you really get an idea of the altitiude and position of these vines and how they get sun and air all day for perfect ripening and clean fruit...
 

La Mozza and The Big Morellino Tasting 2011

As a winery, we gather periodically to blind-taste the competition. It's an exercise in market research, honing our palates and seeing where we stand.

Last Monday we gathered at Valter Scarbolo's La Frasca to Blind-taste through SIXTEEN different Morellini di Scansano, along with our own I Perazzi from La Mozza... 

 

We were all in attendance: Maurizio, Dennis, Emilio and Valter to my left...

Gabriele to my right...

And Andrea and Giulio across the table...

All the wines were from the 2009 vintage and came from producers making from 7,000 to 1.5 million bottles. Quality was quite variable, but of the wines that did well in the tasting, lovely cherry fruit and an amicable structure seemed to be the common denominators. Some wines were flawed and some seemed outrageously manipulated.

I won't go into a full-disclosure publication of notes and scores, but I will say this: After all was said and done, and the scores tallied (eliminating the high- and low-scores, olympics-style), our own I Perazzi Morellino di Scansano placed a solid second, a mere one and a half-points behind the winner.

What does this tell us? Obviously we have work to do. Our goal is never to come in second-place, so we will continue to improve... We've had some great success with I Perazzi Morellino: 90-points, being called "One of the best values in Italian wine today" by Antonio Galloni, tons and tons of satisfied customers all over the world... That doesn't mean we can get lazy.

These tastings assure us we always need to strive to be the best.