Villa Vignamaggio joins Bedford International
Mario Belardino, President of Bedford International, has announced that the legendary Chianti Classico estate of the famous Mona Lisa, VILLA VIGNAMAGGIO of Greve in Chianti, has agreed to join the Bedford portfolio of fine estate wines from Italy. This storied estate dates back to the 14th century and Mona Lisa was born there in 1479. The estate has won international recognition for the consistently high quality of its wines. It is one of the foremost leaders in Tuscany in modern vinification techniques and equipment. The estate encompasses about 160 hectares of which 32 hectares are dedicated to vineyards and 19 to olive groves. Situated in the heart of the Chianti Classico region, the vineyards are exposed mainly to the south east and southwest and lie at an altitude of between 330 and 390 meters above sea level.
In the 2003 edition of the Gambero Rosso Vini d'Italia, Vignamaggio earned a Three Red Glasses for its Chianti Classico Castello di Monna Lisa Riserva 1999 and Two Red Glasses (finalists for the Three Glasses) for the Obsession IGT 1999 (A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah) and the Vignamaggio Cabernet Franc IGT 1999.
Belardino stated that he had been waiting for years to complete the Bedford Tuscan portfolio with a top quality estate from the Chianti Classico region. "Vignamaggio fits perfectly with our stated mission of offering the best wines in their category that Italy has to offer. We are proud and excited to present this estate of excellence to our distributors and clients around the country."
Another Look at Valpolicella! - Michele Castellani
By Mort Hochstein - (taken from John Mariani's Virtual Gourmet on September 28,2003)
More years ago than I care to recall, I had the privilege of accompanying the late New York Times food writer Craig Claiborne when he reviewed restaurants. One time we went to an Italian restaurant on a rainy lunch hour. We asked for Valpolicella, which was a staple on Italian wine lists and far more popular in those days than it is now. "Sorry, Sir," shrugged our waiter. "We don't have any." We asked for Bardolino, its neighboring denomination in the Veneto region. "Sorry sir, we're out of it." I don't know what we settled for, but the wine, the service, the food, everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong.
Years later I was reminded of Valpolicella one recent afternoon at a lunch held by a rather unsung producer, Michele Castellani, at Scopa, a fine Italian restaurant on Madison Avenue. Castellani is a winery young by Italian standards, since it was founded only in 1945. Though their wines seem to be favorites in the region and have won many awards, they are relatively unknown outside of Italy, entering the export market only two years ago.
That day, they were a revelation. I had always thought of Valpolicella as a beginner's wine, easy to take, but flat and uninteresting. I had always found Amarone, made from dried Valpolicella grapes, dry and basically unappealing, a wine ever in need of more aging than I was prepared to give it because I saw little opportunity for improvement in those I've sampled over the years. Not so with the Castellani wines. Like his fellow producers in Tuscany and Piedmont who have made Chianti and Barolo much more exciting than they once were, Castellani has breathed new life into Valpolicella, Amarone and even Soave, a white elsewhere a bland, commodity wine. Castellani's '01 Soave Classico Colle Olivi is loaded with mouth-filling fruit, clean and crisp, and was a delightful accompaniment to Scopa's vitello tonnato and airy eggplant flan.
This was followed by two Valpolicella vintages, San Michele '98 and '00, accompanying pappardelle with a spicy veal ragù. The older wine - my favorite, though still very young--gave off a sweet scent of dark berries and tar. It was concentrated and big-bodied with a promise of better things to come in the next few years. The '00 is an in -your-face, ready-to-drink wine with big fig and black-cherry flavors that can take on the most powerful dishes, and it was certainly well-mated with the veal ragù.
With hanger steak, rare and beautifully presented in a rising pyre of pink to dark red slices, Castellani presented a trio of '97 Amarones-Monte Cristi, Cinque Stelle and Castei-Campo Casalin. These were hardly dry and overwrought, but instead were instantly approachable, though they have a long, long life ahead in which they can only become even better. The Cinque Stelle explodes with aromas of mushrooms, chocolate, truffles and black cherries. The Castei is a lot more complex, smoky with flavors of cherries, plums and figs and it, too, is a keeper, good for another dozen years easily. His Monte Cristi is equally loaded, more comparable to the Stelle, but more robust and less complex. None is your usual Amarone.
We finished off with biscotti, and I dunked mine in a pair of great, sweet Reciotos, a '99 Il Casale and a '95 Castei-Campo Casalin, a more refined version of Vin Santo, but with more nuance and greater intensity, hardly as syrupy as the Tuscan dessert wine sometimes shows itself. My nod goes to the deep purple-robed Casalin, so concentrated, so rich in black fruit and earth aromas, a lively wine as unlike your grandfather's Amarone as a Porsche is to a Ford.
These Soaves and the Valpolicellas are nicely priced, from a suggested $10.99 for the white, to $17.99 for the reds. Amarones are a labor-intensive product, and the time and effort involved in hand selection and long drying are reflected in their pricing. Still, at about $42 for the Monte Christi and about $61 for the Casale and the Castei, they are good value when compared to the competition. Craig Claiborne would have loved them.
Sergio Castellani visits USA for the first time
Sergio Castellani, the owner of the famed Michele Castellani estate of Marano, Valpolicella visited the USA for the first time with his daughter Mara and his wife Maria. They did a great deal of sightseeing, paid their respects at Ground Zero and hosted a series of press and trade lunches in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
