I spent a couple of hours Monday morning with royalty – the royalty of Italian wine. It was amazing to be in the same room with them – Piero Antinori, Pio Boffa, Alberto Mastroberardino, Sandro Boscaini.
The 18 winemakers there made up what they call the Grandi Marchi, a grouping of the producers who make the top wines, and, even more unusual, are all family-owned, with no corporations involved.
These are the people responsible for most of the really great – albeit expensive – wine of Italy.
Antinori in 1971 was one of a handful of winery owners who grew tired of working only with Italy’s sangiovese grape, the one that makes Chianti. So he started adding non-Italian grapes — cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc. On Monday he poured the wine that resulted – his Tignalello. It’s a fabulous wine – powerful and smooth, with flavors of mulberries and mocha. ($90)
Pio Boffa was there – the great grandson of the man who founded Pio Cesare, the great Barolo producer from Piedmont. He poured his 2004 barolo, full of raspberries and cinnamon. Also fabulous. ($65)
Chiara Lungarotti was there, who, with her mother and her sister, now runs the well-respected house of Lungarotti, in Umbria, south of Florence. She poured her Rubesco Riserva, soft and smooth and concentrated. ($70)
These are expensive wines – from $35 to $90 and above. But if you ever get to try them, try to do it better than I did. I got a little one-ounce sip of each in a guided tasting. You should roast a goose and spend a whole evening. It’ll be one of your top wine experiences.
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