raffaele Mastrovincenzo

The king of the Italian white wines Most of the experts of wine may think Trebbiano grapes are a simple grapes varieties; every time refer to Ugni Blanc from France - well known used for distillation. However there is one artisan in Abruzzo in the middle of Italy called "Valentini" which produce a Trebbiano d'Abruzzo, an outstanding white wine with great longevity. I have been drinking lots of vintages of this producer. In the last couple of weeks, i drank a few bottles of the latest release 2007, vintage refer to '77, '87 (two gold vintages from Valentini)! '07 in Laureto Aprutino in the country side Pescara, town in Abruzzo..was a dry hot summer which made Francesco Paolo Valentini to harvest earlier, at the end of August thus to keep a notable acidity on the berries with a pH around 3, similar if you were going to make a sparkling wine. Therefore this technique "early vintage" slowed down the maloactic and gave time to refine the wine. Colou...

Icon of Barolo Beppe Rinaldi is the owner of a mythical winery in the middle of Barolo town. In the last few years his daughter Marta has been assisting him with the same passion and savoir-faire. They have 7 hectares of vineyard between the commune of Barolo and Novello. Since the beginning they have been inspired by organic farming, the wine of Rinaldi has pure expression of terroir and is produced in a very traditional way. Severe attention in the vineyard, vinification in "tini", i.e. open vats oak, long maceration with skin contact, aging in big Slavonian oak "a pure expression of terroir of Nebbiolo in Langhe". Recently i tasted his Barolo Cannubi S.Lorenzo Ravera 2008, thus a great experience with a beautiful young colour! The nose; black pepper, licorice, raspberry, plum, with a jam characteristic. Mouthful structure; beautiful freshness, lovely acidity and an interesting young tannin. Excellent balance, a great young Barolo which ages for 42months i...

Cappellano or better Teobaldo Cappellano Serralunga D'alba the most important cru for Nebbiolo grape in my simple opinion, Cappellano one of the top growers.  I really enjoyed the night pre nye "The Piè Rupestris 2004" a great Barolo with complexity and elegance. A multi layer of scents and texture, bright color with a vivid Terracotta shimmer on the edge; the nose started with a small petal rose, wild raspberry, violet and anise. Moving to the length... was incredible with the fruit coming through with the company of balsamic herbs, licorice and candy. Long tannin, mature and precise. All his wines mature in big Slavonian oak so a tremendous traditionalist. We decanted it a for few hours before drinking and thus a great experience! Teobaldo Cappellano is quite an important person to know in the italian world of wine in Barolo as producer and a person, well known in the "Consorzio of Barolo" and as a president "Enoteca regionale del Barolo"...

Barolo "Tradizione" and "Innovazione" Lately I have been tasting two Nebbiolo from Barolo in Piemonte: 2006 Cavallotto Bricco Boschis located in the Commune of Castiglione Falletto. Since 1948 the Cavallotto family producing mainly Nebbiolo wines with some Barbera, Dolcetto, Freisa, Grignolino e Chardonnay with the respect of the old fashion tradition of  Langhe. All their wines aging in old Slavonian barrel oak made in Italy with long maceration on skin grapes to release more polyphenol and tannin to the wine especially for the Nebbiolo grapes. Wine with great longevity. This 2006 was purple with a lovely garnet color on the edge typically of the Nebbiolo, the nose was complex mainly balsamic, herbs, mint, white pepper and licorice. Violet and strawberries where fine scents coming through all the time your put close the nose in the glass. Mouthful and succulent with a pleased tannin but very present in the palate; back of the palate the juiciness of the fru...

Christmas time a Luca Bevilacqua Yesterday i spent an afternoon with some of my friends in Italy at the home of Luca Bevilacqua a very long ago friend. We started with a rose from south of france in the north of the Alpilles in the communes Saint Remy de Provence. The producer was Domaine Milan; Henry Milan the owner of the vineyard which started in 1986 after which, took over from his father Robert who began in 1956. Henry introduced in the farming an organic approach and moved towards biodinamic and also with a great geological diversity and different climates, soon separated the estate into different vineyards like in Burgundy and create the "Clos Milan". Afinest producer of the Provence! The first, we had was a rosé from  Milan called LE JARDIN 2009 made with Grenache noire, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault and Mourvedre  The color was bright similar to red skin onoiun reflecting a delicate amber color, cherry was predominate on the nose a bit reducti...

Juice running in contact with the skin in Friuli Italy I DRUNK IT +++++ and I gave it 34/100 while I was smoking a Sant Cristobal cigar from Cuba a the perfect humidity and select temperature... look what a match: SIMPLE I.G.T. from Friuli Venezia Giulia  a simple crazy wine full of mistake, start with the color definitely amber, unfiltered, secondary characteristic on the nose, less fruit and freshness acidity fight with the tannin... lots of shit coming in the glass, sediment, tartaric acidity.. apparently the winemaker forgot to filtered the wine, correct the acidity and didn't use any inverse osmosis filtered. Also he didn't control the temperature... what a lazy wine............ FROM THE WEBSITE OF RAW WINE FAIR In the Gorizia hills of Friuli on the border with Slovenia, winemaker Damijan Podversic makes some of the most personal - and controversial - wines made anywhere. Damijan ferments on the skins in upright wood fermenters using only natural ye...

 Artisan Wines in melbourne... Lately I have been living in Melbourne an amazing town, full of nice small places to eat and drink... I have noticed in the bench of wine bars and the wine list all over the city in the last year there is an attention in "Natural wines" or  in my way  artisan wines.... In all my excursion i had the chance to try lots of nice stuff one of that is a Georgian wine (lately) imported in Australia... Georgia is the country where the wine is born, in-fact the wine born eight thousand years ago, and perhaps the first wine produced was in a region overlooking the Black sea, which the greeks called Colchis what we call today Georgia. Still today the rocky and small republic Caucasian is an extraordinary reserve with dozen of species and  different varieties of wines. Georgia boasts an ancient culture of wine. The wine I tried was from Phesant's Tears a winery led by an american artist John H Wunderman whom fall in love with ...

Il Pettirosso Nebbiolo ARPEPE 1999. Since the Roman times the Valtellina has been the land of very important wine. The wine is obtained by hand selecting the best bunches of grapes and then leaving them to dry on wooden lattices placed inside a dry and well-aired room, the “Fruttaio”, for at least 110 days until the end of January.  During this winter period the climate of the Valtellina does the rest of the work and thus favours the drying and shrinking of the bunches of grapes. At the end of January the grape has lost about 40% of its weight, the fruit has dried and the concentrated juice has developed unusual and very dense aromatic properties. After pressing, a slow fermentation period  follows and at least 24 months ageing and refining, first in wood and then in bottles. Valtellina Sforzato is thus a unique expression of a vine, the Nebbiolo and the area of this fascinating Alpine valley. Valtellina Superiore is always made using Nebbiolo grapes and is divided into ...

Domaine Roulot Mersault 2008, a very close wine trough the nose with lots of oak but the acidity is high and  supports a terrific minerality... i wish to open it in 10 years nose is full of honey and apple with some cardamom and mango, vannilla come along with spiciness. mouthful and complex,,,, elegant with rustic notes gives and hint of the Mersault soil and terroir. Roulot is very an outstanding producers and he married the daughter of De Montille what a joke in Burgundy.... love it... thanks chardonnay