Bugno Martino’s Organic Lambrusco Defy Expectations #ItalianFWT

Q. “Giuseppe, what do you want to be when you grow up?”
A. “I want to be a Vigneron!”

Q. “What to do you want to do with all these grapes?”
A. “I will make Lambrusco, a real good one!”

Q. “Giuseppe, why do you make Lambrusco?”
A. “Because it brings me happiness!”

This summer, let Lambrusco defy your expectations and bring you happiness!

But not just any Lambrusco will do– it needs to be a really good one. And this month, just in time for Lambrusco Day on Friday June 21, the Italian Food Wine Travel group has a few to recommend! See the preview post here and links and titles of participant below.

Here on Wine Predator, we are excited to share two organic Lambrusco from Bugno Martino, Rosso Matilde, and Essentia, their traditionelle method Lambrusco which is such a new product that their website does not yet mention it.

While most Lambrusco comes from Emilia-Romagna (71%) with some from Puglia (20%), these two come from a small 9 hectare organic vineyard in the Mantovano area of the Lombardy region pictured in orange in the lower right of the map below. Lambrusco from this region comprise only 9% of production.

These two wines definitely defy the expectations most Americans have of Lambrusco, which conquered the market in the 1970s and 1980s with a syrupy sweet low alcohol cherry/grape bubbly.  At a tasting in Beverly Hills a few years ago, I learned otherwise, and convinced Sue as well when we tasted, paired and wrote about three from Medici Ermete in June 2017.

Because of a declining interest in this style of wine, the surface area of plantings decreased 41% between 2000 and 2010.

 

 

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Ventura County Vineyards: May Gray

 

Ventura’s Arroyo Verde Park 31 May Gray 2019

Today is the last day of May Gray here in the city of Ventura in Southern California, one county north of LA and one county south of Santa Barbara.

After May Gray, we have June Gloom, followed by No Sky July and then Fogust.

I’m not a fan.

Like a wine grape, I need daily sunshine. I need hot days and cold nights — aka an extreme diurnal shift.

Let me soak in the sun, and cool off under the stars and the moon. Continue reading →

Defining Biodynamic: Rudy Marchesi and Three Montinore Pinot Noir #OregonWineMonth

 

“Biodynamic® agriculture is a philosophy and methodology that views a farm as a self-sustaining ecosystem entirely responsible for creating and maintaining its individual health and vitality without any external and unnatural additions. It is one of the most sustainable forms of agriculture, creating healthier food for healthier people and a healthier planet.”

This is how Demeter defines biodynamics, and this is how Rudy Marchesi and Montinore has practiced their farming since before 2002 when they were first certified. Today, Rudy Marchesi and Montinore are definitive leaders in biodynamic practices in the wine industry  Continue reading →

Two Day Wines from Southern Oregon’s Applegate Valley AVA #OregonWineMonth

While these could be 2 Day Wines — in that you could easily enjoy them for two or three or even more days if you could have the patience to wait that long — what I mean is that these are two wines made by Brianne Day of Day wines.

Day has made a name for herself with her Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley, and I am a huge fan of Day’s dry farmed Chardonnay. While Day has worked in vineyards, and in just about every aspect of the wine business as described here, she grows no grapes herself (at least not right now!). Instead, she collects grapes from special parcels from throughout Oregon to make her handcrafted wines.

Brianne Day at WOPN 2019
Brianne Day at WOPN 2019
Brianne Day at WOPN 2019

Recently, we focused on two of her biodynamic wines from the northern Willamette Valley, a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir; today we focus on two blends, one red and one white, from a lesser known region of Oregon, southern Oregon’s Applegate Valley. Continue reading →

Comparing 6 Chardonnay from Chehalem, Stoller, Stangeland for Summertime Sipping #OregonWineMonth #ChardonnayDay

A selection of Oregon Chardonnay that arrived fallowing my call to review them.

Pinot noir from Oregon’s Willamette Valley is understandably famous, and everyone wants to talk about it, myself included! And with this being Oregon Wine Month, I have! See my May posts on two biodynamic ones from Cooper Mountain, two from Willamette Valley Vineyards, one from Day Wines, and coming up soon, three from biodynamic Montinore, then sustainable Left Coast, then more including Beckham, Brooks, and Hammacker!

But today, Chardonnay Day, I want to talk about what’s special about one of Oregon’s white wines, specifically,  Willamette Valley dry farmed Chardonnay, and a few pairings to go with them for summertime sipping.

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Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Biodynamic, Organic Absinthia

“We’re no longer citizens, we’re consumers,” pointed out Patagonia founder and owner Yvon Chouinard at Ventura College on Earth Day, April 22, 2019. “Webster’s says someone who’s a consumer is someone who destroys.”

Chouinard’s agenda these days has less to do with selling fleece and making money and more to do with saving the planet.

To do so, Chouinard’s passionate about regenerative agriculture which shares many of the same goals and techniques as biodynamic agriculture which I’ve written about many times this year.

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Bertrand’s Biodynamic Cigalus Paired with French Sausage for #Winophiles

“Revealing a message is what wine can do best in the pyramid of the senses, starting from pleasure, taste, emotion, and from time to time a kind of message in a bottle, ” says Gerard Bertrand, winemaker of Gerard Bertrand wines. “The message is the soul of the wine, the imprint of time, it is recalling 20, 30, or 40 years later that something very special happened in a certain vintage.” Continue reading →