Valdicava Brunello di Montalcino VS Fontodi Flaccianello

"Reality is an illusion that occurs due to a lack of wine."  - Anonymous

We do not have any lack of wine here at Wine Watch and although the Wine Bar is still only back open for our wine tasting events every Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and we are keeping them small but with the wines we are going large with this one we are busing out the (100) point rated Madonna Del Piano Riserva Brunello di Montalcino from my personal stash!   You know my motto – Always drink the good stuff first!

The wine bar is only open for our wine tasting events until we can open at full capacity, but we are now selling a single table in the Wine Cave on any night that we are open for tastings.  So pretty much Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights or any other night you see an event on the calendar we will take one reservation in the Wine Cave.  We will take up to 15 people but will accept as few as 6 for a curated dinner by Chef Toni.  We must know in advance what food items you want so you will have to coordinate the menu with Toni ahead of time, but she can put together any of your favorites from past Wine Bar menus or whatever you want if she has enough notice. The best thing about this table is the view of the wine, we have the largest selection of vintage wine in South Florida and everything is available at a retail price!!  You may want to bring a sweater it is 64 degrees in the wine cave.

Looks like we are sold out for all our events this week!  Only a dozen attendees make it a lot easier to sell out these “Once in a Lifetime” Wine tasting events.

Since it may be a while till things get back to 100% occupancy at the Wine Bar ever event that we do will be extra special.  I am selecting the wines from the stock we have here in the store that I want to drink so you will see a lot of Brunello di Montalcino and Super Tuscan wine events over the coming months featuring top level producers like Valdicava and Fontodi with at least 12 different wines from the oldest and rarest bottles that we have in the store.  I would rather drink these bottles than sell them… so come out and drink them with me!

I just had the 2003 Valdicava Brunello di Montalcino at the Wine Bar a few days ago and it was spectacular!!  This wine is now at full maturity and was also the star of the last Valdicava Brunello vertical tasting a year ago.  The 2004 was also still incredibly fresh and lively and I bet you could hold on to it for another 10+ years but that’s why we host these tasting events- we are doing scientific research here at the Wine Watch!!

We also host an annual event with Fontodi’s Flaccianello Super Tuscan wine every year and now we have a new theme- Valdicava VS Fontodi!!  Two of the greatest wines of Tuscany collide and we look forward to reporting back to our “Wine Drinking People” the results of this first annual event featuring two of Tuscany’s finest 100% Sangiovese based wines.

Join us as we experience 12 different wines: 6 Valdicava Brunello di Montacino and Fontodi Flaccianello super Tuscany along with a special meal to accompany the tasting wines.  The fee for this tasting which includes dinner is $295 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.

Valdicava Brunello VS Fontodi Flaccianello Wine Tasting
Thursday, September 9th
7:30 PM

Reception

2018 Valdicava Rosso Di Montalcino
2019 Valdicava Rosso Di Montalcino

Tasting Wines

1996 Fontodi Flaccianello Della Pieve Tuscany
1999 Fontodi Flaccianello Della Pieve Tuscany
2000 Fontodi Flaccianello Della Pieve Tuscany
2010 Fontodi Flaccianello Della Pieve Tuscany
2014 Fontodi Flaccianello Della Pieve Tuscany
2018 Fontodi Flaccianello Della Pieve Tuscany

2003 Valdicava Brunello di Montalcino
2004 Valdicava Brunello di Montalcino
2006 Valdicava Brunello Di Montalcino
2013 Valdicava Brunello di Montalcino
2016 Valdicava Brunello di Montalcino

2001 Valdicava Brunello di Montalcino Madonna del Piano Riserva

Menu
Selection of Cheese and Charcuterie
Butternut Squash Ravioli with white bean puree and sage infused Fontodi extra virgin olive oil
Grilled Octopus with Sundried Tomato Calamata Olive Relish
Beef Cheeks with Sangiovese Natural Sauce Served over creamy Polenta
Chocolate Crème Brulee

The price for this event which includes dinner is $295 + tax.  For reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.  Please let us know when you make your reservations if you have any dietary restrictions and Chef Toni will be happy to accommodate you.

A bit about Valdicava

Valdicava is the name of the area that leads into the foothills of Montalcino.  To the left is the La Casa vineyard of Caparzo and to the right is Val Di Suga and the small hill in the middle of his property is the oldest vines planted on the property (1970) “Madonna del Piano”.   The Valdicava estate was one of the original members of the Brunello consortium, formed in 1967.  Like everyone else in the region the Abrusezzi family was trying to emulate the wines of Biondi Santi.  The early years were tough as the producers were feeling their way through production problems and many did not have the facility to produce outstanding wines.  The 1970’s saw a huge investment of newcomers in Montalcino.  The Cinzano vermouth firm, with Coco-Cola money behind it, headed a group that purchased Col d’Orcia, an estate that has produced wine for years.  Marchesi de Frescobaldi was involved with a group known as Enoviticola Senese, which had French, German, and Spanish investors as well.  Their estate, Castelgiocondo, brought out its first bottles in 1980, not all Brunello.  The most talked about outsider was the house of Banfi, the largest US importer of Italian wines, which had prepared some 1,000 acres of vines (only 125 of them in Montalcino) at a place called Poggio d’Oro, or “The golden Hill”.  With all this new activity the old timers like Valdicava were forced to continually improve their wines to keep up with the foreign talent.  Valdicava has been experimenting with rootstock and different clones of Sangiovese Grosso on their estate for the last thirty years and today they seem to have the winning combination.

Valdicava is one of the rising stars of the Brunello district.  The wines of this young estate are the handy work of Vincenzo Abrusezzi.  Vincenzo is a perfectionist.  He will settle for nothing short of excellence and it shows in his work.  He has seen the big companies come in and make a huge impact in terms of recognition of his regions wines but loves the things about this region that make it unique.

This estate has been dedicated to quality from the very start with an ongoing experimentation of rootstock and clone selection refining every vintage of this wine.  The oldest vines on the property were planted in 1970 and the youngest in 2001.  Vincenzo Abrusezzi is one of the leaders in terms of progressive thinking and cutting edge viticulture in Montalcino today.  He has a no chemical/back to nature approach to viticulture at Valdicava and believes that the health of the vineyard is most important and that chemicals harm the long term the health of the soils.  They are a short-term/easy fix to a specific problem and can cause even bigger problems in the long run.

The vineyard is planted 3,000 vines per acre and the soil is a mixture of clay, sand, Galestro and this combination of different soil types, four different rootstocks and four different clones of Sangiovese make Valdicava one of the most unique wines made in Brunello.  Valdicava did years of research to find out which rootstock/clone combination did the best in each particular soil type and the new releases from this winery soundly prove that this is one of the top producers in Brunello Di Montalcino today. The winery produces on average 2,000 cases of Rosso di Montalcino, 2,000 cases of Brunello di Montalcino and 500 cases of the Riserva Brunello di Montalcino labeled “Madonna del Piano”.  Due to the limited production of these wines they can be very hard to find, especially when wine writers like Robert Parker Jr. giving praise to the effect of: "The 1995 Madonna Del piano is a candidate for wine of the vintage."  And even more impressive stating that:  “Vincenzo Abruzzesi is Montalcino’s number one over-achiever with winner after winner since 1988.  The secret – a willingness, indeed eagerness, to spend whatever it takes for quality in addition to utilizing several of Italy’s outstanding consultants, winemaker Attilio Pagli and agronomist Andrea Paoletti (the former Antinori vineyard manager).  Pagli is unfortunately little known to the larger public, but no oenologist in Italy has made so many excellent wines since the mid-1980’s.”

A bit about Fontodi:

In the beginning there were Fontodi bricks and tiles.  The work comes from fonte di odo, which means a place rich with water.  Brunelleschi’s Florentine cupola was restored with Fontodi tiles.  Ancient and modern day Florentine homes use Fontodi tiles for decoration and for their natural warmth.  The same family made the bricks that pave the Uffizi Galley in Florence.  This family with the same hand and the same will has also been involved with the wine but for a shorter time.  It was Maria, the mother, who took an active part in the winery.  She first got the family interested in wine   They purchased the winery in 1968, and by 1980 the had moved there from Panzano.  It is a difficult land to farm but it yields some of the finest stone and clay for bricks, and tiles, but the finest oils and the most noble wines.

Today, Fontodi is one of the leaders in Chianti, their wines have consistently impressed the critics; from the Gambero Rosso (the Italian wine bible), Robert Parker of The Wine Advocate (the American authority on wine), to The Wine Spectator (the most popular international wine/lifestyle publication), all of these publications have waxed poetic about the wines from this estate.  The estate of Fontodi is on a hill just south of Panzano, from where you can look across the valley towards Rampolla and Cafaqqio.  The gardens are full of Rosemary and in May the cuckoos are noisy.  Since the Manetti family has owned the estate they have undertaken a major renovations of the vineyards.  The young and talented owner, Giovanni Manetti, is one of the most far-sighted and intellectual grower-producers in all of Italy.  His estate is enchanting, not only because of the villa where it is based is spectacularly beautiful, but also because Manetti has consistently made quality the first priority in all areas of the business, from rootstock, to trellising, to hiring the brightest mind in winemaking in all of Italy, Franco Bernabei.  Franco has won more "Glasses" in Gambero Rosso than anyone in the history of the guide.  Manetti’s greatest attribute is his common sense and his commanding personality which makes others stand up and listen. 

The winery focuses its efforts on seven wines.  Two Chianti’s, a Classico and a single vineyard wine called Vigna Del Sorbo.  The Chianti Classico is 100% sangiovese and is the product of traditional winemaking.  The wine is aged for six months in oak barrels, it completes its refinement in the bottle.  It is a graceful, balanced, elegant, and stylish wine, but still easily to enjoy in its youth.  The Vigna Del Sorbo Chianti Classico Riserva is a blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon blended according to traditional methods and matured in small oak casks. 

The flagship wine Flaccianello Della Piave, a 100% Sangiovese based wine which until the 2004 vintage this wine was made from a single vineyard surrounding the age-old parish church in Panzano, but from 2005 on it has become a selection of the best Sangivoese from the entire property.  This wine is made with carefully controlled fermentation and strict temperature control during the initial stages.  It is big and powerful wine yet retains a ripe, soft, seductive character. 

The only white produced here is named Meriggio, it is 100% sauvignon blanc grapes vinified in stainless steel tanks, temperature-controlled and matured on lees for 6 months.  This is the first time this wine has been exported to the U.S. and we are proud to be the exclusive retailer of this wine in South Florida!

Two of the smallest production wines with the Fontodi moniker are the Syrah and Pinot Nero cuvées bottled under the Case Via label. The Pinot Noir reflects the influences on Giovanni's wine education, having grown up at a time when Chianti was a much derided region, and he looked abroad to Burgundy, among other regions, for inspiration. The Pinot Noir vines were planted in 1985, as were the Syrah vines, during a period of youthful experimentation for Manetti.  The Syrah is one of the best examples of this varietal made in Italy and can rival the Flaccianello in quality in great vintages.

Fontodi also makes a Vinsanto, an Italian dessert wine, this is a blend of malvasia and sangiovese grapes which are naturally air dried on straw mats until December.  After a soft pressing the wine is aged for four years in four different kinds of wood (oak, chestnut, cherry and juniper) in cask that vary also in age and capacity.  This wine has a yellow-golden color and a delicate fragrance of honey and hazelnuts.  On the palate it is dry, warm, fragrant but suitably soft.