Sampling the Vintage Wines of Northern Italy

One need not be a diehard wine drinker to have heard that the ‘8Os was a good decade for Italian winemakers. Their wines have brought home gold medals from international wine fairs, praise from wine writers and ever-higher revenues.

The names of the best Italian winemakers are known around the world, even in such countries as Japan, where wine is a fairly recent discovery. Today, many travelers come to Italy to taste the wines at the point of production, where all wines seem to show their best features.

Unfortunately, Italy’s wine tourism infrastructure is largely undeveloped. There is hardly anything on the level of France, California or even Australia. Italian wineries are usually too small. They lack tasting rooms for visitors. They lack the multilingual personnel for tours of their vineyards. Most crucial, they lack the volume of wine to pour a glass for everyone who comes by.

Yet, the peregrinating wine drinker shouldn’t abandon the idea of an Italian wine degustazione in the mother country. It’s just that dropping in on wineries isn’t the best method of operation. It’s much better to visit enotecas (wine shops with tasting bars) and restaurants with a special focus on wine. These places have done the ground work, traveled the country roads and collected the stars of Italy’s evolving winemaking industry.

Piedmont stakes a claim as Italy’s premier red wine region. Only Tuscany can offer a credible challenge. Piedmont has two red powerhouses: Barolo and Barbaresco. Each can go glass-to-glass with any wine in the world. The wines are made in two neighboring zones that encircle the town of Alba, which is known for its tartufi bianchi (white truffles).

Life around these parts is quiet, and the business of tourism is small in scope. In fact, during the October truffle fair, when foreigners come in volume, visitor accommodations are totally overburdened.

In spite of the crowds, this is the best time to visit, for not only are there truffles galore, but porcini mushrooms, wild game and the wine harvest. Unfortunately, all the commotion is an annoyance for the winemakers right in the middle of their most serious work of the year.

This problem is solved beautifully by the country albergos (restaurant/inns). Amost every village in the region has such a place where a range of wines can be tasted and purchased. They are handy places to stay, literally in the vineyards, and are reliable purveyors of the massive and idiosyncratic Piedmontese cuisine.

If La Contesa in Neive d’Alba is the place to sample Barbarescos, Barolo addicts make their pilgrimages to the Giardino da Felicin in Monforte d’Alba, about 18 miles southwest of Neive.

Giorgio Rocca runs this restaurant/lodge with great humor. He can usually be found joking with guests in four languages, jumping from one language to another on alternating sentences. At any given time, he has 75 different Barolos in the cellar. His son Nino has taken over as cellar master and monitors the wines’ development.

He recommended a remarkable 1982 Barolo from Fontanafredda’s Lazzarito vineyard on our last visit. During the truffle fair last fall, 300 people came one day asking for lunch. Only 40 could be accommodated.

In Alba, there is a restaurant that has a brilliant selection of wines from all over Italy--the Osteria dell’Arco. They pour the rare Faccianelo and Sassicaia from Tuscany. A must-try is the Bricco de’Ucceone Barbera from Giacomo Bologna, whose winery is east of Asti and murderously hard to find on your own. It’s one of Italy’s finest red wines. The food, unfortunately, is not as grand as the wine.

If you plan to concentrate on the fascinations of Milan and can’t make the more than two-hour drive to Piedmont, many of the wines can be tasted and purchased in the city. Try Enoteca Ronchi. It has a broad selection of Piedmontese wines, plus others from all over Italy.

The owner was Italy’s first woman sommelier. She has the rare Torcolato from Maculan and Recioto di Soave from Roberto Anselmi, two of Italy’s best dessert wines.

Lake Iseo is one of the least compromised of Italy’s northern lakes. Near its southern shores is the Franciacorta wine zone. This zone has made its name with champagne, in Italian spumante (don’t confuse with the syrupy Asti Spumante).

One of my favorite wine bar/restaurants is in the town of Iseo. It’s called Il Volto and it’s run by a couple of self-proclaimed wine enthusiasts, Vittorio Fusari and Roberto Sgarbi. At the bar you can usually select from about 20 wines by the glass. Go with the spumantes. Highly recommended are Ca del Bosco’s cremant or Bellavista’s gran cuvee.

By the bottle, Italy’s best is waiting. At Il Volto, our last stop in Iseo, we drank a Trebbiano from Edoardo Valentini that could rival a good white burgundy. The food is excellent, and the mood is relaxed and convivial.

No, Tuscany will not concede Italian red wine superiority to Piedmont. The Tuscans are most famous for chianti, of course. But chianti is not their top hitter. That distinction goes to Brunello, followed by Carmignano and Vino Nobile di Montepuciano. There are also a growing number of blended Cabernet Sauvignons that are displaying excellent form. And there is even a nice Tuscan white wine, San Gimignano.

In almost every cafe and trattoria , you can taste a half-dozen of the neighborhood wines by the glass. And there are several wineries geared toward wine tourism: Badia a Coltibuono in the Chianti zone and Fattoria Barbi in the Brunello zone. There are also several remarkable restaurants that focus on wine and the robust Tuscan cuisine.

For those in search of the elusive and costly Brunello, a must-stop is La Cucina di Edgardo in the center of the Brunello zone at Montalcino. The owner, Edgardo Sandolini, attempts to have at least one bottle from each of the approximately hundred Brunello makers--only from good vintages of course.

He has a menu where each of the four courses is matched with a wine. His wild boar is great with Brunello. Brunellos not to miss are Costanti’s and Cerbaiona’s, both rarely seen outside of the area. Signor Sandolini has a sister restaurant in Milan, Il Montalcino, where you can eat and drink similar gems.

Enoteca Pinchiorri opened in Florence as a wine bar/wine shop and has expanded into one of Italy’s most celebrated restaurants. Giorgio Pinchiorri is the wizard of the wine, and his wife, Annie Feolde, is the wizard of the kitchen. Theirs is a magical marriage. All wineareas of Italy are represented, not just Tuscany.

In fact, Signor Pinchiorri has an estimable selection of French wines as well. But who comes to Italy to drink French wine? Try a 1985 Coltassala from Castello Volpaia with the Filetto di vitella all perle di zucca e tartufo nero, filet of veal with pumpkin pearls and black truffles.

For dishes and wines such as these, Michelin has awarded the Enoteca Pinchiorri two stars. It operates out of a 16th-Century mansion in the center of Florence.

In northeast Italy, Friuli has established itself as Italy’s prime white wine region (yes, they do make good white wine in this country). Tocai is the local wine of preference. The flinty Sauvignon Blanc is fine, and chardonnay is becoming more abundant as the winemakers look to international markets.

There are at least another dozen white wine types made, plus some soft fruity reds. Actually, more red wine is made in Friuli than white, but the white is the reason one goes there.

A century ago, Boschetti was a wayside inn where coaches paused on their journeys to Vienna from Venice and Rome. The restaurant/inn has a central European feel, particularly so in its wood-paneled dining room, laid out around an open Friulian fireplace.

It’s eight miles north of Udine in the village of Tricesimo. Boschetti’s food is devastating and, like Enoteca Pinchiorri, it holds two Michelin stars.

The wines . . . well, the usual 100 choices await. Unless one is up-to-date on Friulian wines, a suggestion from the owner, Giorgio Trentin, is valuable. He directed us to the sauvignons and chardonnays from Borgo Conventi, and for dessert to Giovanni Dri’s Ramandolo.

Save room for tasting a few of the grappas (wine spirits) from Nonino. They will be rolled to your table in a cart. After a glass or two, it is prudent to check into one of the 32 rooms for the night.

Two hours to the west, in the Dolomite Mountains, you can find the oldest wine bar in Italy--Geri’s Enoteca in Cortina. It’s a tiny place that looks and feels like a compartment on the Orient Express.

It can be extremely crowded before lunch and dinner, when people drop by for a sip or two before eating. They claim to have 500 different wines, which might be just a slight exaggeration. Nevertheless, you can come many times without drinking the same wine twice.

Check out the mountain wines from the nearby Alto Adige region. The Gewurztraminers of Schloss Schwanburg and the Muller Thurgaus of Roberto Zeni or Pojer & Sandri are as light and refreshing as a glacial stream.

Where to Sip the Grapes

Addresses: Giardino da Felicin: Monforte d’Alba, 18 miles southwest of La Contea.

Osteria dell’Arco: Vicolo dell’Arco 2.

Enoteca Ronchi in Milan (two locations): Via San Maurilio 7 and Via San Vicenzo 12.

Il Volto: Via Mirolte 33, Iseo.

La Cucina di Edgardo: Via S. Saloni 33, Montalcino.

Il Montalcino: Via Valenza 17, Milan.

Enoteca Pinchiorri: Via Ghibelina 87, Florence.

Boschetti: in the village of Tricesimo.

Geri’s Enoteca: Via de Mercato 5, Cortina.

For more information: Contact the Italian Government Travel Office, 360 Post St., Suite 801, San Francisco 94108, (415) 392-6206.