Sebastian Nasello winemaker from Ripi Brunello di Montalcino at WWWB

"Knockin’ out windows and learnin’ down doors,
Drinkin’ half-gallons and callin’ for more.
Drinkin’ wine m@@@@@@"
-- Yes, a song from the 40s had serious swears in it!

Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee by Jerry Lee Lewis and by Sticks McGhee

Brunello di Montalcino is one of the greatest wines of Italy and some would argue that it is one of the greatest wines on the planet.  This is one of the only places that produces compelling examples of the Sangiovese grape in 100% varietal form.

Tonight we have the winemaker from one of the new estates in Montalcino in town and although I am not that familiar with these wines almost everyone knows Illy coffee and that same standard and attention to detail that made Francesco Illy famous for coffee is not being used to make one of Italy’s greatest wines Brunello di Montalcino.

Join us as we welcome Sebastian Nasello to South Florida to showcase the outstanding 2010 vintage Brunello Riserva along with a selection of whites from Bastianich winery. Toni Lampasone will be making a few small courses to accompany the tasting wines and the fee for this event is $95 + tax, for Reservations call 954-523-9463.

Podere le Ripi Tasting with Special Guest Sebastian Nasello winemaker from Montalcino at WWWB
Saturday, February 3rd
7:30pm

Bastianich Chardonnay 2015
Price: $17.25       Sale $15.18
Born of the base of the celebrated Vespa Bianco, our Chardonnay is Friuli’s mineral‐driven answer to the French classic. Vinifed completely in stainless steel, this Chardonnay emphasizes the variety’s fresh, mineral aspect.

Bastianich Fruilano 2016
Price: $19.50       Sale $17.16

Friulano is the most typical white wine in Friuli, the northeastern region of Italy. It is an indigenous grape variety grown in Friuli for hundreds of years. Our Friulano is produced in the Colli Orientali area of Friuli, an area known for its unique terroir and where world-class white wines of Italy are produced.

Bastianich Sauvignon Blanc 2016
Price: $19.50       Sale $17.16

The Climate and soil of the Friulian hills are perfect for creating a Sauvignon Blanc that is classically aromatic and complex. Called 'Friuli's secret weapon', Sauvignon Blanc reaches levels of quality of the great French wines.

Podere le Ripi Rosso IGT (syrah) 2010
Price: $41.25       Sale $36.30

A blend of 90% Syrah, 5% Sangiovese and 5% Merlot aged for 34 months in small oak barrels, followed by a passage of 12 months in bottle.

Very deep red with purple shadows,a large bouquet of black fruits, forest floor, pine wood with a hint of white rose and jasmine.

Podere le Ripi Rosso di montalcino 2010
Price: $48.75       Sale $42.90

A deep ruby red with elegant orange shadows. In the nose it express itself as a symphony of aromas going from the intense smell of cherry, strawberry to the fresh balsamic note of herbs. An impressive, broad structure with smooth tannins, revealing a great minerality and a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Podere le Ripi Brunello Riserva 2009
Price: $150.00    Sale $132.00

Aromas of oak, toast and coconut carry through to the palate along with spirit-soaked plum, fig and anisette. It doesn't have enough fruit richness to support the extremely astringent wood tannins.

Podere le Ripi Brunello riserva 2010 Magnum
Price: $330.00    Sale $290.40

Podere le Ripi Brunello riserva 2010
Price: $150.00    Sale $132.00

This opens with black plum, underbrush and new leather aromas. The palate is concentrated, its mint- and tobacco-laced black cherry core underpinned by fine-grained tannins. Drink now–2023.

Menu
Parmesan Reggiano, Fennel Salumi
Uni Spaghetti Rigate
Seared Duck Breast with Cherry Demi Glaze
Almond and sundried pear Biscotti

The fee for this tasting is $95 + tax for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com

A bit about the producer:
54 hectares wine farm in Montalcino 133 acres between forest, vineyards and olive trees.  Inhabited by a shepherd and his sheep until 1998.  An uncontaminated soil and a marvellous vegetal variety surrounded by breathtaking views and pure air.

A long time ago, in 1984, I fell in love with Montalcino. I am a nature photographer and these views, that – like our poet Ungaretti said – enlighten me of immense, simply stole my soul: I had to have a house here!

So in 1987 I begun searching for my Tuscan “mansion” without even thinking about producing wine: I was a wine lover but I thought I would be too old to enter this world made of incredibly long waiting periods.

Every proposal was too big, or too expensive or not suitable… so it took ten years before my friend Carlo Vittori called me and told me that he had found a place. And, recalling his words…how right he was!

I arrived from Switzerland (I used to live there) after a six hours drive to see this shepherd under a centenary Oak taking his afternoon nap with his sheep bleating and ruminating around him and the big white Maremmano Shepherd dogs running in circle to keep them still. (Two of them, mother and daughter, where so wild that they remained with me: he wasn’t able to load them on his truck when he left. And when I asked him a few months later what to do with those dogs, he candidly told me with his Sardinian accent to shoot them, which I obviously never did.)

So I immediately understood that this was my place. The place of my life. The beauty, the distance from what, living there, we call “civilization”, the absolute absence of the horrible architectural slaughter of the last century that has destroyed so many Italian landscapes, the perfumes that pervade all year long this hills, the deep view on the east to Monticchiello… and Montepulciano, the prehistoric volcano Monte Amiata on the south, the near amphitheatric hills protecting Le Ripi on the west and north… all this was so wonderful…

But also so uncontaminated. Thousands of years of almost no population, a poor and dry soil that gives very poor crops, over 40°C in the summer and frozen lakes in winter, three or four hundered years old olive trees, forests of incredibly many different trees and shrubs, and flowers, flowers, flowers everywhere, all year around. And the wild asparagus, the Porcini, the blackberry, the white and black truffles that only the dog of my friend Francesco's is able to unearth, the wonderful red “corbezzolo” (arbutus). And then the wildlife, with rabbits and deers, boars and porcupines, wolves and yews, badgers and foxes, eagles from the Amiata and herons, buzzards, hawks, and the storks that pass by at the Orcia river twice a year, or al kinds of ducks that come into my lakes.

My name is Francesco Illy
I come from an Espresso Coffee family.
A family known for quality.

I love quality, pardon, excellence:

I believe excellence gives emotions.
And emotions give joy.
But emotions also help our brain to remember.
And this produces culture.
And culture has always produced a better life.
Sometimes we forget it and we put at risk…
…our future.
Which is based on the evolution of our culture.

Definition of excellence*:

From the Latin EX (out) and CÈLLERE (move, push).
Excellence defines the highest level of quality.

Excellence in food & wine: Who defines the highest level of quality? When as many producers as today “search for excellence” it is impossible to “become the best”. This competition ends in a variety of “excellence interpretations” that permits us to enjoy the many faces of perfection.

*We accept the notion that our excellence is the product of winemaking practices that we conceive as the best possible. Meaning that we accept the limits of our sensibility to define those practices, and we use experience and confrontation with all kind of critics in order to increase constantly this sensibility.

I was so touched by the beauty of these soil and its flowers, that I decided not to loose them like others do, by moving all the soil with Caterpillars: I chose the ripper. Two 70 centimeters long rippers that move the soil without turning it upside down.

This allowed us to keep the integrity of the flora: the fields keep the shape they had with curves and slopes that you do not see in other vineyards.

When we begun planting, we started with Sangiovese in 2000 with a density of 5.000 roots per hectare. But in 2002 I asked myself if a higher density would not make less bunches of grapes per plant and, therefore, more quality. So I reduced the distance between the rows from 2,5 to 2 meters and reached a density of 6.666 plants per hectare. But then, in 2003, I decided to go even denser: five rows at 1 meter and one at two meters to allow the tractor to go through: 11.111 p/H.

And in 2005 I decided to test the densest possible setting of the plants at 40 centimeters one from the other: 62.500 p/H. The densest vineyard in the world!

I chose to plant it in squares of 4 x 4 meter with 121 plants per square and let my agronomists and my oenologist yelling at me for how stupid I was.

It’s just a tenth of a hectare, I said, let me try if I am really so dumb.

My thought was: if in Burgundy they say that the good wines do not come before the vineyard is at least 35 years old and we know that the root there go very, very deep, this means that quality has a strong relationship with the way that roots go through different layers of geology, absorbing different kinds of minerals. If I oblige the plants to go deep with such a dense planting, maybe I will get a better wine...

...Eureka!

By respecting the beauty we found here
The best we can do is not to ruin
the wonders this land is giving us.

Humility is the best way to understand:

Such a land produces wonders only by the mere existing.
We have to transform these wonders by
keeping their essence and their strength.
We can understand what keeps its character.
If we change it, we destroy it…
…and we will never understand it.
This is why we do not intervene.

Our belief about humility:

If we want to keep all learning processes alive, the main attitude is humility.

“You shouldn’t gloat about anything you’ve done; you ought to keep going and find something better to do.” (David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett Packard)

I think that an open mind is able to increase sensitivity and that it is only possible if somebody is able of a very high level of self critics: sensitivity is “conditio sine qua non” in the production of excellence and the humble attitude of openness to critics and learning is the best way to increase it.