Michael in Italy - Lunch with Prunotto

The most thorough wine experience of my visit to Piemonte in May was my tasting with Prunotto, a veteran Barolo and Barbaresco producer with a state-of-the-art winery in downtown Alba. The lovely Tizianna Gallo hosted me on an exclusive tour of the facility, which has been Prunotto’s headquarters since 1972. She then generously opened more than half-a-dozen wines to taste, the highlights of which were an ’05 Barbera d’Asti Costamiole….a fat, sweet-fruited red with serious stature, and an ’04 Barbaresco Bric Turot, which was already drinking perfectly, showing distinctive olive and herb notes. The sampling was followed by a delightful lunch in Alba at Enoclub Ristorante, where we enjoyed such local delicacies as cheek of beef, and Vitello Tonnato….a carpaccio of veal with cold tuna sauce. –Michael Koehler


The ’04 Bussia slowly becoming the beautiful wine that it will be.


Tizianna (left) and Miss Deborah discussing the nuanced flavors of cru Barolo.

Lunch with Uccelliera

We drove over to the Uccelliera estate for lunch. What a treat, as they had prepared a home-cooked meal for of Ribollita (a rustic Tuscan bean and bread soup, pictured below), roasted rabbit and chicken and some potatoes. The food and company were incredible…and the wines weren’t so bad either!




Some quick tasting notes:

2007 Rosso di Montalcino – Ripe and fresh, it sees a bit of wood and is forward on both eth nose and palate. Quite good…big fruit with some grip. They get the grapes from different places and the goal with the Rosso is “freshness”. Nice work!

2006 Rapace (70% Sangiovese, 20% Merlot, 10% Cabernet) – A great example of the 2006 vintage. Ripe, forward and powerful in every aspect of the experience. The oak is integrated beautifully.

Below is a picture of Andrea Cortonesi, owner of Uccelliera, standing in front of his home.

We also enjoyed with the meal (and in the cellar):

2004 Uccelliera Brunello di Montalcino
1999 Uccelliera Brunello di Montalcino
2007 Uccelliera Brunello di Montalcino
2008 Uccelliera Brunello di Montalcino
2006 Uccelliera Brunello di Montalcino
2008 Uccelliera Brunello di Montalcino Riserva
2008 Rosso di Montalcino

One of the vineyards where these fabulous wines come from:

Lance Cerutti – www.suburbanwines.com

Suburban Blind Taste-off - White Wines under $10

Goal: Taste blind as many ten-dollar white wines from around the globe as we can and isolate the best ones in the bunch.

# of Wines Tasted: 88

Panel: 8 acid-resistant palates from the Suburban Staff

Scoring: 4-10 points, averaged, with highest and lowest scores for each wine dropped

In the top 12, we see wines almost exclusively from the southern hemisphere with an emphasis on Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Chenin. Ironically, yet eerily common in our blind taste-offs, the #1 wine is the categorical exception in the lineup….it’s from the northern hemisphere and is made from a different noble white grape. Tap into any of this year’s players and you’re guaranteed a seriously-satisfying bottle of white!


#1: 2007 Sterling Cellars Vintner’s Collection Riesling $8.99
The wines of Sterling keep pushing their way back onto our shelves. There’s a reason why Suburban customers always ask for Sterling Cellars wines…..they’re just plain good! The VC Riesling—dynamite! Some sweetness, as you would expect, and a superb acid structure to serve as a base for the fruit and mineral side.

#2: 2008 Beyond Sauvignon Blanc $9.99
A playful and very obvious New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Smells just like a pepperoncini! Zesty, full-flavored and very long on the finish. This wine is hot stuff!

#3: 2008 New Harbor Sauvignon Blanc $9.99
Another aromatically-potent NZSB. Grass and jalapeño notes (no kiddin’!), and all the stuffing that makes them so popular.

#4: 2008 Ken Forrester Petit Chenin $9.99
This is not only very Chenin, but it is very Stellenbosch South Africa as well. Smoke and mineral nuances were a dead giveaway. Simply lovely.

#5: 2008 Excelsior Chardonnay $8.99
A chunky South African Chard this is not about oak. Excelsior is a repeat performer in this contest.

#6: 2008 Maipe Sauvignon Blanc $8.99
A rather classy Sauvignon here, coming out of Argentina. This could easily be taken for a Bordeaux Blanc.

#7: 2007 Oxford Landing Chardonnay $8.99
Balance is key! The Ox is a clean and seemingly oakless Chard, showing nice restraint for a new-world wine. This has officially appeared in the top ten more often than any other wine!

#8: 2008 Indaba Chenin Blanc $7.99
Gutsy and surprisingly fat in texture, this South African is exceptionally refined for its price.

#9: 2008 Los Vascos Chardonnay $9.99
Much more European-tasting than Chilean. The Rothschild family never ceases to impress. Dry, mineral and anti-oak with nice balance.

#10: 2008 Fair Valley Chardonnay $9.99
Clean with persistent fruit and an extended finish. A note of banana.

#11: 2007 Santa Carolina Chardonnay Reserva $9.99
A dense and oily Chilean. How about a Chardonnay with a real palate presence?

#12: 2008 Errazuriz Sauvignon Blanc $9.99
One word to describe this Chilean SB…..Sassy! Errazuriz continues its impressive run of great showings in our taste-off results.

Rosenblum Wines at Pratt’s Inn

Last Friday evening, the 8th of May, nearly 60 of you joined us for the Suburban Wines dinner event of the season. If you were not one of them, we regret that you missed Kent Rosenblum of Rosenblum Cellars graciously presenting to us ten selections from his impressive armada of California wines, including several of his top bottlings, paired nicely with multiple carnivorous courses at Peter Pratt’s Inn. If you were one of the attendees, you may or may not agree with me when I state that his wines are more balanced and sophisticated than they’ve ever been! I’ve been a quiet follower of Rosenblum wines since I tasted a ton of them back in the spring of ’01 with former winemaker Jeff Cohn at one of his storage facilities near Oakland. Back then, I found the wines to be fun, delicious and very Californian, if not assertively-oaky, sweet and high in alcohol. But what I tasted (drank) last Friday proved to me that Kent has been heading in a whole new direction, whether or not he let on about such a paradigm shift. His ‘05 Pickett Road Petite Sirah, for example, exhibited shocking purity and enough restraint to pique the interest of fans of Super Tuscan-style reds or modern-styled Spanish, for instance. There’s no shortage of “guts” in the wine, but the glop factor has been drastically reduced. The same goes for his ’05 Maggie’s Reserve and St Peter’s Church Zindandels, both of which were majestic and absolutely breathtaking to drink.

Thank you, everyone, for your interest and/or participation in the dinner, and for enduring Kent’s interesting jokes! I, like most, had a ball that evening, as is proven in the picture posted below. Also, a link to some more pictures! Enjoy them. –Michael Koehler

See more pictures here - http://bit.ly/mjKNF

Livio Sassetti (Pertimali) Visit

Busy day today…off to Pertimali this morning, and then lunch with Uccelliera. Walked to the Pertimali Estate on a gorgeous morning….

Some notes on what was tasted at the Pertimali Estate:

2007 Pertimali Rosso di Montalcino – Tank aged/no oak. Fresh, lovely fruit on the nose, and lively fruit on the palate as well. Has a bit of grip…this is made from young vines and the second selection of Brunello grapes. Aged for 12 months in stainless steel. Really nice, but probably not worth the $30 price tag.


2005 Istricia - La Querciolina - (Maremma) – 80% Sangiovese, 20% Ciliegiolo. Really nice purity and minerality with a lovely fresh quality and a bit of grip and tannin on the finish. Lively and fresh not, and over the next few years, the tannin should integrate quite nicely. Well done.

2004 Pertimali Brunello – Reserved and closed on the nose, giving off only subtle hints of leather with some underlying fruit. Full mouth-feel, but still relatively closed. Everything is integrated quite nicely, it just needs some time to evolve. Pertimali is consistently one of my favorite producers, and the 2004 Brunello is another winner.

2006 Pertimali Brunello (Barrel Sample) – The wine was sampled from a 76 year old barrel. Surprisingly, it is more forward on the nose than the 2004…softer and more approachable. As great as the ’04 is, I think that the 2006 will eventually turn out to be a nicer wine for me.


By the way, If you like Brunello, there is a string of excellent vintage coming up. Five in a row, as a matter of fact. The Brunello Consorzio rates each vintage on a 1 to 5 “star” system.

Only the very best vintages get 4 or 5 stars…

2004 5 stars
2005 4 stars
2006 5 stars
2007 5 stars
2008 5 stars

What a great time to be a lover of Brunello!

Back To The Future

Got together with some wine geek friends last evening, and below are some pictures of the damage we caused. Forgive the quality of the pictures...camera phone+shaky hand= mediocre photographer.

The 1959 Bertani Amarone was opened last without a decant. Definitely very much alive and offering up excellent Amarone texture and flavors. Personally, I would rather drink this that most of the Amarone that is produced today.

The 1978 Pio Cesare Riserva was right up there in the discussion for Wine of the Night. It was extremely youthful and still loaded with rustic Nebbiolo fruit. All of the ear markings of great Barolo were there. What a treat.
The 1988 Pertimali Brunello showed very well, and was right up there among some of the best Brunello I have ever had. Great vintage...great producer, the wine is in a great place right now and drinking beautifully.
This wine had extremely high expectations coming in. Evidently it is a combination of several of the greatest producers in Piedmont, selecting the finest the have to offer of that vintage (the legendary 1978) and then bottling it separately. Overall, a disappointment...perhaps it was stored poorly over the years, but the wine seemed over the hill and was lacking on the finish.
The 1982 Ceretto Brunate was also right up there in the discussion for Wine of the Night honors. Should have been decanted for a lot longer than it was, it was still very much a baby. But once it opened up...WOW. This was nebbiolo at its finest. Yummy.

Thanks to good friends for a great evening! - Lance Cerutti

Just a quick stray entry

Just a quick stray entry (off topic, I might add). I had the opportunity to play poker last week with Phil Gordon (professional poker player, see him here http://www.philnolimits.com/) at a charity event. A friend of mine bid on an evening with Phil for charity and won the auction. The result was an evening of poker with the man himself.

Maybe you play poker, maybe you don’t. I play pretty often, and while hardly at a professional level, I do ok. Playing with someone of Phil’s caliber is a completely different ballgame. He knew exactly what to do at exactly the right time EVERY time.

He took money from everyone at the table (except for me). For the record, I did not win any money from Phil, I just happened not to lose any to him.

He was also extremely gracious and helpful. At the end of the evening, he took his winnings and gave them to our host (who had paid for the event through his charitable donation), and asked him to give the money to charity (it was a relatively sizable sum). A great night. – Lance Cerutti