Italian Natural Wine Royalty Represented At Le Caveau Spring Portfolio Tasting In The Old Apple Store

 Le Caveau Tasting In The Old Apple Store.

Italian Natural Wine Royalty Well Represented  

Colm McCan (l) of #lecaveauwinemerchants with artist Tom Campbell in the Apple Store (Barrack St Cork) Wednesday.
Pic taken during Le Caveau spring portfolio tasting where Tom ( #tomcampbellart ) was guest artist.

Celebrating 25 years, Le Caveau moved its annual Cork Spring Portfolio back to the 200-year-old Apple Store for the first time since 2019. For much of its life, the building facilitated the local apple trade. Its most recent and continuing role is as headquarters and collection branch of the Neighbourhood Food organisation.

The modest high-ceilinged building proved quite an eye-catching venue with plenty of artwork scattered around the stone walls, quite a bit of it (lots of dogs) created by Tom Campbell, the guest artist on the day.

Time to Garg 'n Go

Humble it may be but the Apple Store also showcased the amazing wines of Italian Natural Wine royalty. Angiolino Maule, Arianna Occhipinti, Elena Pantaleoni and Elisabetta Foradori are names to remember and respect and in each case are featured pictorially (and otherwise) in a recent in-depth study of wine in Italy, VINO by Joe Campanale. This book concentrates on artisanal producers, exceptional terroir and native grapes. Joe and Le Caveau's Pascal Rossignol sing from the same hymn sheet.

Angiolino Maule and his family are featured because of what he is doing to his Garganega grape which got a bad rap through its association with mass-produced Soave. Nowadays, in the Veneto region, Maule is doing "as little as possible to his Garganega grapes in order to illuminate their mineral spirit". 

Le Caveau stocks his delightful La Biancara Masieri Rosso and Bianco. But it is not all serious stuff here. Produced with Garganega and vinified in stainless steel, Garg’n’Go is a fun, approachable sparkling wine (a frizzante) and that was the very first one we tried and enjoyed in Barrack Street. It is vinified in stainless steel and bottled at the end of February. Refermentation in bottle is started with dried Garganega must. 

Similarly, Arianna Occhipinti, who celebrated her 20th harvest in 2023, is well-known for her SP 68 Rosso and Bianco, each named after the neighbouring highway in Sicily where she operates. Her "Il Frappato," a red, is also listed in "VINO" as a top pick

At the Apple Store,  SP68 Bianco was on show but, with one in the queue here at home, we gave it a skip and moved on to her Siccagno, our first red of the day. That too got a big thumbs up and, as it is a terrific expression of Nero D'Avolo. It is fermented with native yeasts with 30 days of maceration. It ages 22 months in large 25HL Slavonian oak barrels and is bottled unfiltered.

Chief fancies
Verdicchio

Campanale calls her "a young force of nature" and lauds her "resurrection of Frappato". She is not the only family member producing excellent varietal Frappato (rather than as part of a blend with Nero D'Avolo). VINO sums her up by saying "she embodies the future of Sicilian winemaking in particular and, one hopes, of Italian winemaking in general".

Elena Pantaleoni inherited La Stoppa vineyard in Emilia-Romagna in 1991. It took her a while but she eventually "turned hard towards nature". Elena has visited Cork and it was with her at a Le Caveau lunch in Skibbereen that I was introduced (not only me) to the marvellous Ageno, an amazing orange wine, a blend of 90% Malvasia and 10% Ortrugo, named after the previous owner, who hailed from Genoa. 

She has ripped up French grapes such as Chardonnay in favour of native ones and VINO emphasises that she also has a gift for blending. We would see that gift in the old Apple Store as Wine #116 was La Stoppa's Trebbiolo Rosso, a radiant light blend of Barbera (mostly) and Bonarda. The name Trebbiolo is derived from the name of the nearby Trebbia River valley and it isn't a combination of Trebbiano and Nebbiolo! 

Elisabetta Foradori is praised by VINO as the "Queen of Teroldego". She is also its saviour. She took over the family vineyard as a 19-year-old and immediately took the side of native grapes that many looked down on. These included Teroldego. She had her ups and downs (including "A Year of Extreme Weather" according to their 2023 Harvest Report) in a long battle but eventually, Teroldego now has the respect it deserves. If you haven't already done so, treat yourself to a bottle!

Manzoni Bianco was another of those unfashionable grapes and we tasted it for ourselves here. This is a single vineyard expression from the Fontanasanta vineyard. Manzoni Bianco is an early-20th-century crossing of Riesling and Pinot Bianco created by Luigi Manzoni. Manzoni Bianco is not unfashionable nowadays and the Foradori version can be highly recommended. 

It was #106 at the Apple Store and, according to my companion, knocked the socks off #105, a Colle Stefano Verdicchio di Matelica that I highly regard and which Le Caveau lauds as "an Italian classic". The fruit grows in their 15 hectares nestled in a cold and dry microclimate alongside the Esino River between the Appenine Mountains and the Adriatic.

I confess to leaning towards brighter and more elegant Matelica than the Verdicchio of its neighbour Castelli di Jesi which can have a little more by way of fruit. Actually, that superb Metelica was one of several Italian wines not made by my "big four" in the tasting.

Grub's up.
Thanks to Simone

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Denavolo Catavela is, after four months on its skins, an exuberant wine that is amber in colour, full of character, dry, tannic with aromas of yellow plums, dried flowers and more. It is a blend of 25% each of  Malvasia, Ortrugo, Trebbiano and Marsanne. An orange wine but it is still very much at home in the white zone!

That was the last of our whites but we still had some excellent reds to go through, beginning with the impressive Barbera Brich Agricola Gaia.

No duds here at all in the old shed, as you might expect from a wine company celebrating 25 years. The good wines continued with the delicious Palmento red by Vino di Anna. Anna is an Australian who while travelling in Europe met Eric Narioo. In 2007, they settled in Sicily, in Etna,  and this is where our red comes from.

 

In VINO, Monte Dall'Ora's Alesandra and Carlo Venturini are shortlisted as one of the top producers of Amarone/Valpolicella in Veneto. So I was expecting good things from their Valpolicella "Saseti" from the hills outside Verona. And I got it in spades, red fruits all the way to a fresh and tasty finish. It is a blend of Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Oseleta and Molinara. The label features five wine-coloured handprints, those of husband-wife winemakers Carlo and Alessandra Zantedeschi and their three children.

The Rodano Chianti, wearing its 15% lightly, lived up to its Classico designation and, like the Palmento, is available by magnum and bottle. Though small and artisanal, Fattoria di Rodáno is a top source for classically made, user-friendly and complex Chianti. The Montefalco Rosso ‘Pomontino', from Umbria, with its large Sangiovese input (80%), maintained a high standard in the Le Caveau portfolio as did the Rosso di Caparsa, another Sangiovese wine.

For me, the star of this final red wine lap was the Casina Bric 460 Mesdi Rosso. This is 100% Nebbiolo and quite an amazing introduction to the stunning wines of Piemonte. One to watch, one to order!

High standards all the way then without touching anything from France, Germany or Austria. Next time!

How much is that
doggy in the window