For this seminar tasting event, we are teaming up with our good friends who created Jersey Shore Restaurant Week, ShoreFoodie.com and the Jersey Shore Food & Wine Experience. Cynthia Murray will expertly guide us through a tasting and exploration of classic wines of Piedmont including Gavi, Barbera, Barbaresco and Barolo. The esteemed Monprivato Barolo 2012 by Guiseppe Mascarello has been chosen as our showstopper of the event, and more wines will be announced in the coming weeks. Tickets are $45 per person, and must be purchased on purplepass. Click here for the link : PURCHASE TICKETS. Hope to see you there!
This is one of Barolo's most iconic estates, and a lifelong highlight of tasting wines during a visit to VinItaly in Piedmont...'Proprietor Mauro Mascarello makes some of the most compelling, traditional wines in Piedmont. Mascarello’s signature Barolo, Monprivato, rarely shows well when young, yet it has a proven ability to transform magically in the bottle, something I have witnessed first-hand with more vintages than I can remember. The irony is that by the time the wines start showing well they are long gone from the market or have appreciated dramatically in price.' Wine Advocate (the lesson here is...buy this wine now, cellar it and have a profound experience down the road...)
The Mascarello estate is located in the village of Castiglione Falletto, and has been owned by the Mascarello family since 1904. The Monprivato vineyard is a prime hillside site stretching over 15 acres at 280 metres above sea level, in the heart of the Barolo wine-growing area and dates back to 1666. It produces a Barolo wine with excellent body, a subtle bouquet, delicate tar, a lingering aftertaste and an unmistakable elegance with the ability to age well while maintaining extraordinary youth and freshness. The Monprivato cru is only bottled - with a numbered label - in outstanding and excellent vintages. Any vintages which are not considered to be up to this extremely high quality standard become part of the normal Barolo, while others are sold as Nebbiolo Langhe. We tasted Monprivato for the first time at VinItaly and it was the finest Barolo of the trip.
This Barbaresco from the famed Basarin vineyard tastes rich, supple, well balanced, intense, and persistent. We love the 2015 vintage for its immediate charm and fully ripe nature. 100% Nebbiolo from less than one hectare in Basarin. The 15-year-old vines grow at 250 meters above sea level with full southern exposure. Fermentation-maceration occurs in stainless steel for 10 to 15 days. The wine is then racked into three-hectoliter Allier casks for 2 years. Approximately 333 cases produced annually.
Sottimano's Langhe Nebbiolo is a single-vineyard bottling from the Basarin cru; a historic and very prestigious vineyard located on the border between Neive and Treiso. The vineyard's high altitude brings great complexity and considerable structure to its wines, along with notes of spice and hints of licorice.
Ercole (Italian for 'Hercules') is produced by a generations-old cooperative of local growers in the Monferrato area. Every Fall, this group of small estates who have soils of calcareous-clay, cultivate bright and balanced fruit to blend together under one label, allowing them to make authentic wines that are transmitters of time and place.
Many folks know the Barbera grape for its bright acidity, and this wine is no exception to the rule. With its freshness, it is also known for ripe, red fruits with a floral, mineral core. Extremely charming, food-friendly and delicious, Barbera has been one of our personal favorites for 20 years.
La Scolca led the movement to establish an exciting, new quality level for dry Italian white wines when the Soldati family launched their Gavi dei Gavi in 1966. Gavi comes from a small growing area in northwestern Italy located north of Genoa on the steep slopes of the Ligurian Apennines in Piedmont. The 62-acre La Scolca estate, owned and directed by Giorgio Soldati, is situated in one of the best communes, Rovereto. La Scolca is an artisinal winery which pioneered modern, controlled, vinification in stainless steel to preserve the subtle fruit of the Cortese grape. Yields are kept low, well below the legal maximum, through severe pruning and thinning. This wine is made of 100% Cortese grape.
