L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano PAGE  20 Rugged Oregon Wine Countr y is a Bountiful Land FRANK MANGIO I've never met a Pinot Noir I didn't like that came from an Oregon winery. It is the American home for this complex yet smooth, velvety, delicate varietal. I have talked to many wine aficionados who either have gone through this magnificent state or who will be making plans to go in the next year, to visit as many of the more than 500 wineries as they can. After California, which produces about 90% of all the wine in the U.S., Oregon is one of the top three U.S. producers of wine. The wineries are dotted along quiet, twisting roads with small family-run operations, most of them along the rugged coastline led by the Willamette Valley. Pinot Noir is king and is compared to the grape's origin in the Burgundy district of Northern France. Sunlight and heat are in short supply making for a fragile harvest, which seems to fit the Pinot profile. So is Oregon a "one trick pony" with just one star wine? I put that question to a couple of star owners of the leading wine and beer shop in Bend, Oregon, twin sisters Michele and Melanie Betti of the Wine Shop & Beer Tasting Bar. They agreed that "no, Pinot Noir has been the grape that winemakers have done very well with and they are known for that, but whites do well here, like Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc in the Willamette Valley. In Southern Oregon, they make quality Cabernet, Syrah, Merlot and Tempranillo." I asked them how business has progressed since they opened 7 years ago. Melanie, who is the on-site manager, pointed out that "we opened only as a bottle shop, but found that our customers wanted the try and buy concept, so that we now have 6 different wine flights daily by the glass. We serve wine in the world-class Riedel Stemware, fitting the glass to the wine. We not only serve 30 plus wines, we now feature over 70 Belgian and other international beers with beer flights, plus ports, cider and sake. We give our customers a European style experience, taking time to pass along knowledge and get to know the customer." Oregon's winemakers are shooting for the high-end, focusing on customers that are willing to pay $35. or more a bottle. IfOregon wines fit your taste, you virtually have to visit places like the Wine Shop and Beer Tasting Bar, winery web sites and plan a trip there. Most wineries make just 1,500 cases of their wines, so they pretty much are not available at SoCal wine retailers. In 2011, the Travel Oregon Archery Summit, Domaine Sokol Blosser, Druhin, Bergstrom, Ayres, Ken Wright, Dukes Family and Cristom. Find out much more at www.oregonwine.org, andwww.thewineshopbend.com. ISOLA  Revealed  –  Little Italy's  New  Pizza  Favorite Massimo Tenino is the owner of a recently opened Italian Restaurant in San Diego's Little Italy where all menu items are baked in a wood-burning oven direct from Naples Italy. It's a bright fire-engine red cave that guarantees crunchy, smoky pizza, with one size, 12 inches, serving all.From the bread dough to the wines, ISOLA is a family operation. "My Nonna's name was ISOLA, a wonderful cook who inspired my passion for food and fresh, simple ingredients," he said. "ISOLA is proud to serve the savory ingredients from the vine and tree to the table." Tenino has a family owned Michele and Melanie Betti are owners of a leading wine and beer tasting bar inBend Oregon. tourist bureau reported 1.5 million visitors to the state. The Bettis advise that Willamette Valley has 6 sub AVA's, each one with its own exclusive taste characteristic. They point out that "each of these sub-regions will give you a different tasting experience. They are: Chehalem Mountains, Yamhill-Carlton, Ribbon Ridge, Dundee Hills, McMinnville and Eola-Amity Hills." Some wine names they recommend include: winery in Piemonte, offering native grapes like Nebbiolo, Barbera, Barbaresco and Barolo, plus many other Italian made fine wines. See www.isolapizzabar.com. Frank Mangio is a renowned wine connoisseur certified by Wine Spectator. He is one of the leading wine commentators on the web. View and link up with his columns at www.tasteofwinetv.com. Reach him at mangiompc@aol.com. THURS DAY,   JANUARY  10,   2013 Drink Better in 2013 DAVID WhITE Ask a wine enthusiast to name his favorite value wines, and he'll likely to steer you towards bottles that cost between $15 and $25 each. This makes sense — many oenophiles think nothing of dropping $25 or more on each bottle of wine. But this ignores market realities. The average bottle of wine in the United States sells for just $6.22, according to Nielsen. A full 90 percent of all wines sold cost less than $12 per bottle. Americans like to drink cheap. So a wine enthusiast's "value" wine is a regular wine consumer's "splurge" wine. In 2013, resolve to splurge more often. Even if this means drinking less wine to keep your budget balanced, your palate will thank you. This isn't to say that wines costing less than, say, $10 per bottle are inevitably bad. There are plenty of satisfactory options at that price point. The shelves at stores like Trader Joe's are full of such wines. But spending so little generally relegates one to massmarket brands that benefit from economies of scale. Spending $15-25 per bottle dramatically increases the possibility of finding a wine that's exciting — a wine that's both delicious and intellectually captivating. One could compare it to the difference between Olive Garden and the local Italian joint. The former is predictably adequate, offering heaping piles of salad, breadsticks, and focus-group-tested entrees. The latter is hit-ormiss, but investigating such restaurants is always exciting. And exploration — with food, wine, and so much else — is the only way to discover underappreciated gems. A few years ago, I interviewed David Denton, a well-known wine educator and sommelier in Washington, DC. In explaining how he developed his passion for wine, Denton eloquently summarized the cerebral appeal of wine. "Wine is like travel in a bottle," he explained. "For the cost of a bottle of wine, you can escape to somewhere exotic. You can get lost in the label, thinking about where the wine came from and who made it." That sense of place — where a wine came from and who made it — is the primary reason wine is so engaging. While it's possible to find wines that inspire and pique curiosity for $10, it's much, much easier if you're willing to spend a bit more. Once you're at the $15 to $25 price point, the number of options is virtually endless. Sure, even at $25, it's nearly impossible to find Champagne, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, or highquality Pinot Noir. But if you're willing to drink bravely — to explore the unfamiliar by trying unusual grapes from unusual regions — you can sample some of the greatest wines in the world. Last weekend, for example, I enjoyed a remarkable Blaufrankisch — the signature red wine of Austria – from Anton Iby, one of the nation's best producers. It was fruity, spicy, distinctive, and absolutely delicious. The cost? Just $16. Some of the best reds from Spain, Portugal, Italy, and even France can be found at similar prices. On New Year's Eve, I enjoyed two sparkling wines from France — a Cremant d'Alsace from Joseph Pfister and a Cremant du Jura from Hubert Clavelin — that wowed my friends. The bottles were just $15 each. Sparkling wines from Alsace and the Jura have long offered exceptional value. With whites, the options are similarly expansive. In recent months, I've become obsessed with a Kerner, an extremely aromatic variety that was bred in 1929 by crossing Trollinger and Riesling. One of my favorites, which retails for $17, comes from Abbazia di Novacella, an Italian winery that was founded a whopping 850 years ago by the Augustinian order of monks. Talk about history in a bottle! Early January is the perfect time to reflect on the previous year and make resolutions for the new one. For those of us who take wine seriously — or at least want to — it's smart to include wine in our New Year's resolutions. The world of wine offers endless possibilities. So in 2013, make sure to explore those possibilities — and drink better! David White, a wine writer, is the founder and editor of Terroirist.com. His columns are housed at Palate Press: The Online Wine Magazine (www.PalatePress.com).

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