L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OTTOBRE 17, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 28 L'Italo-Americano WINE NEWS TRENDS PROFILES I t was back in 2012 when my brain first managed to as s ociate the names of Angiolino Maule and Toru "Tiger" Okoshi in a single thought. The unlikely correlation came about like this. While s till a s tudent at Berklee College of Music and living in Boston's Back Bay, I'd sometimes walk to a local night- club to hear jazz trumpeter Tiger Okoshi blow some of the coolest sounds ever to escape the end of a horn. (If you w ere around Boston during the early '80s, you may perhaps remember O k o s h i ' s b a n d , Tiger's Baku?) Somewhere around that same period, and quite unknown to me at the time, Angiolino Maule and his wife invested in their lifelong passion of viticulture and purchased land in Italy's Gambellara territory, establish- ing the winery La Biancara. For those unfamiliar, Maule is a man who, along with the help of h i s w i f e a n d t h r e e s o n s , i s responsible for some of the most original juice ever pressed from a grape and put into bottle. The moment of connecting Maule and Okoshi came to me o n e d a y w h e n w r i t i n g o f L a B i a n c a r a : M a u l e ' s w i n e s , I thought, and the sounds that leave the end of Okoshi's trum- pet, are different kinds of music t h a t s p r i n g f o r t h f r o m s o m e l o o k - a l i k e s o u l f u l p l a c e o f authentic character and emo- tional honesty. Artists. Creators. In their own voices, at the top of their craft. Hawks In autumn, when winds hit against mountain ridges along t h e M o u n t H o l y o k e R a n g e , hawks in great numbers can be seen riding the breezes as they migrate to warmer climates. There, from the deck of Summit House in the Massachusetts's S k i n n e r S t a t e P a r k , o n e c a n observe hawks glide and soar overhead, catching a free ride on the updrafts or hunting for prey. Lowering my binoculars, I admit to feeling a bit preyed upon. Oh no, not by the hawks. They are glorious. Preyed upon, rather, by a lack of knowing what's in my wine bottle. And what's not. As is often the case, the trap is set with a lack of transparency: ingredients are not required to be listed on a wine's label. It turns out that, "…over 70 groups…" of "… additives and processing aids… " are allowed in winemaking. " T h e s e r a n g e f r o m s i m p l e things like water, sugar, and tar- taric acid to more obscure pow- dered tannins, gelatin, phos- phates, polyvinylpolypyrroli- d o n e ( P V P P ) , d i m e t h y l dicarbonate, acetaldehyde, and h y d r o g e n p e r o x i d e . A n i m a l derivatives are also prevalent, i n c l u d i n g a l b u m e n , a n d lysozyme (from eggs), casein (from milk), trypsin (extracted from the pancreas of pigs or cat- tle), and isinglass (an extract from the dried swim bladders of fish)." (Natural Wine: An intro- duction to organic and biody- namic wines made naturally, Isabelle Legeron, MW, 2017 Shouldn't wine be as pure and natural as hawks riding the northwest wind? Old Ashes It's time to clean last year's a s h e s f r o m t h e w o o d s t o v e before lighting this autumn's first fire. The metal ash bucket's tight-fitting lid pulls off with a screech, the kind a hawk makes when defending its territory. Transferring old ashes from t h e w o o d s t o v e i n t o t h e a s h bucket, my inner ear recalls a tune from the Beatles' Rubber Soul album, Norwegian Wood, the bit that goes, "So, I lit a fire Isn't it good … " The seasoned hardwood kin- dling ignites easily and soon the fire pops and crackles, sending sparks sailing up the flu. On the widescreen TV, I set to a play a Youtube video of T i g e r O k o s h i p e r f o r m i n g i n Boston circa 1984 and pull the cork from a bottle of La Bian- cara Pico. Interestingly, I'd read that Maule is himself a former musician, a horn player, in fact. In that way, I guess, Okoshi and Maule were connected all along. I am thankful for wine pro- ducers like the Maule family, a r t i s a n s w h o h a v e e n o u g h respect for themselves, their p r o d u c t , a n d f o r m e a s c o n - sumer, to be natural and trans- parent in what they do. With video finished, and a second glass of Pico, I settle back to enjoy the fireside and read. I happen upon an online article entitled "Hawk Attack Advice: Keep Your Eyes to the Skies." "Aggressive hawks will normally only attack when your back is turned, experts say." (Hartford Courant, March 29, 2018) C a r e a b o u t w h a t ' s i n t h e wines you drink. And how pro- ducers make them. Investigate. P r o b e . I n q u i r e . E y e s t o t h e skies. Tasting Note: Angiolino Maule La Bian- cara Pico Pico is a natural wine pro- duced from 100% Garganega grown on volcanic soil by the Maule family of La Biancara. Fermentation is started sponta- neously, and the wine is bottled without filtration or sulfites. The wine's gold-brass color reminds me, coincidently enough, of a brass-lacquered trumpet (as does Sassaia, another La Biancara wine). Notes of apricot, candied ginger, fig, savory herb, nuts, and honey. Satisfying weight on the palate and persistent after- taste. Wine and music go hand in hand A wine trilogy. Synchronicity JOEL MACK A wine to try: Angiolino Maule's La Biancare Pico

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