Montalcino Report

Benvenuto Brunello 2009, San Francisco and New York

Things are mostly quiet here in Sant'Angelo in Colle. This is probably the most serene time of year for me and my family and soon I'll start getting ready for my January trip to the U.S. where I'll be participating in the Benvenuto Brunello events. Benvenuto Brunello or "Welcome Brunello" is a tasting of the new release of Brunello di Montalcino, organized by the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino, the Brunello producers association.

The first tasting is in San Francisco, January 22, 2009 at the Terra Gallery.

The second tasting is in New York, January 28, 2009 at the New York Hilton

I'll be posting details over the next week. Hopefully, you can come out to taste with me! 

Click here for registration info.

Happy Holidays from Sant'Angelo in Colle

A story on NPR about adulterated olive oil in the U.S.

 

A friend forwarded me this link to an interesting story on National Public Radio about adulterated extra-virgin olive oil and what the State of Connecticut is doing to combat fraud in food products.

Adulteration in olive oil is a big problem in Europe. At Il Poggione, our olive oil is made from 100% estate-grown olives pressed in our "frantoio" or olive press in the winery.

Click here to read about how our olive oil is made.

Integrated farming

At Il Poggione, we are supporters of integrated farming and we have been practicing integrated farming for a number of years now, always trying to be as eco-sustainable as possible.

Integrated farming is an agricultural system conceived so as to have the least impact on the environment. It calls for the integration and coordination of production methods with natural resources in an attempt to minimize the use of conventional methods, which will only be used when absolutely necessary.

There are different factors involved in integrated farming. First of all, fertilization is allowed and where it is possible, we use organic fertilizers (for example, we use the by-products of extra-virgin olive oil production and the clippings created by pruning in the vineyard).

At any rate, fertilization is employed only in periods in which there is no risk of run-off caused by rain. We do this in order to avoid any contamination of the water table. All of our farming practices are intended to maintain intact the structure of the land and to prevent erosion.

The planting of grass is an excellent technique in this respect. It provides humidity to the vines (since we are not allowed to irrigate in the Brunello di Montalcino appellation), it provides organic substance to the land, and it does not impede the machines we use to tend the vines.

When it comes to protecting our vines and olive trees from insects, we use every type of protection available to us but in rationed quantities: biological, chemical, agronomical, and biotechnical. In order to maximize protection in the integrated battle, it is highly important to monitor the insect population and we do so, first and foremost, using pheromonal traps.

When the insect population surpasses a certain quantity (the so-called intervention threshold), we use phyto-pharmaceutical pesticides that have been approved by our region. The list of permissible products for treatment also tells us how much can be used. These limits serve to diminish the amounts of chemical substances present in the environment and to lower the health risks for humans and to minimize the risk of reducing the population of "useful" organisms, in other words, the ones that naturally feed on herbivores.

Brunello monitoring procedures extended to June 30, 2009

Last week, the Italian Ministry of Food, Agricultural and Forestry Policies has extended the decree, signed in July 2008, which established the procedures for monitoring Brunello di Montalcino wines by Central Inspectorate for Monitoring. The extension of the decree will provide the necessary certification in order to avoid any further impasse with the U.S. TTB, which will not allow any Brunello di Montalcino to be imported unless accompanied by a letter of certification (declaring that it has been made from 100% Sangiovese grapes). The extension of the decree was signed by minister Luca Zaia and is valid until June 30, 2009.

Personally, I think that the extension is a great thing and it kills several birds with just one stone, as we say in Italian ("prendere due piccioni con una fava"). It helps to protect consumers and to safeguard winemakers like us, who work honestly. It will also help to block the activity of gray-marketers because if they do not have the certification and the TTB audits them, their license will be revoked. 

Caveat emptor: why provenance matters

It recently came to our attention that our 2004 Brunello di Montalcino was being offered en primeur by a U.S. retailer for a price far below market value. Needless to say, the Franceschi family as well as my father and I are very concerned by this: when we see such things, we know that somehow our wines have been removed from the normal and official channels of distribution. And this means that the provenance of the wine is suspect. 

For winemakers, there is nothing worse than knowing that a product to which you have given all your love and effort — as you would to your child — has been taken away and that you no longer can control its condition and fitness before it reaches the consumer. We work very closely with our importers and distributors to make sure that our products reach the consumer with the utmost care possible so that the wine is not damaged by improper storage or shipping. In the U.S., Terlato is the only importer to whom we issue the authenticity certification required by the U.S. government for all imports of Brunello di Montalcino.

We wrote to our friend and noted Italian wine blogger Alfonso Cevola and he wrote back: "The problem with the gray market is the provenance of the wines and even the authenticity. A 2004 Brunello such as Il Poggione selling [at such a low price] on presale is highly suspect. As a supplier, I would suspect that the wine being offered might not be bona fide."

Laura Jensen, Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Terlato (our US importer) noted that "the gray market should be a concern to all consumers and retailers. We guarantee the quality and authenticity of wines that we import and sell and work diligently to ensure that brands like Il Poggione reach the trade and the consumer in optimal condition. We know exactly when the wine left the winery, how it was shipped and when it arrived in the US. We guarantee that any bottle of wine we sell is exactly what is it claimed to be. If wines are purchased from sources other than the primary source, there is no way to guarantee this."

Other wine writers, as well, have noted that the so-called "gray market" is a risky affair. In the Wine Spectator's Essentials of Wine (published in 2000), esteemed writer Harvey Steinman observed: "The gray market can provide hard-to-find wines and even offer them at a bargain. But if anything the wine must pass through even more hands than it would going through normal channels… Caveat emptor."

Eco-Sustainability

At Il Poggione, where my father and I make wine, we are very concerned about the environment. And it is for this very reason that we implement different practices, especially on the land.

You probably know, or you have probably seen on our website, that Tenuta Il Poggione doesn't have just vineyards but also many other hectares planted to olives and other crops as well as woods. It is very important for us not to focus solely on the vines. We want to maintain our estate the way it has always been, a traditional Tuscan estate in harmony with the environment that surrounds it. In the photo above, you can see one of our oldest vineyards, planted in the 1970s: between every two rows of vines, there is a row of olive trees.

I'd also like to reflect for a moment on our woods. They are populated by numerous wild animals: boar, deer, hare, pheasants, etc., which are allowed to roam freely on our land. It is not rare to find these animals crossing the roads of the estate. We also have lakes on the estate that give us a healthy presence of aquatic birds.

In the lowest part of the estate, along the Orcia River, we are also working to recreate a natural reserve, a "wetlands". It's been there since the 1950s and includes lakes and many different types of plants that allow aquatic birds to stop there during migration, to build their nests, and to reproduce.

For us it is also important to give back as much as possible to the land. For this reason, we treat and use all of the by-products of olive oil and grappa production (the waste pomace) to fertilize our land. Vine shoots, the by-product of pruning, are also used: they are ground and then tilled to give the land another organic substance.

Lastly, it's also important to note that at Tenuta Il Poggione we practice "integrated farming". I will discuss its importance in an upcoming post.

Extra-Virgin Olive Oil made from depitted olives

Another type of olive oil that can be produced is extra-virgin olive oil extracted from depitted olives. The principal difference between extra-virgin olive oil and extra-virgin olive oil made from depitted fruit is in the taste. The latter is sweeter and more delicate while traditional extra-virgin olive oil is more aromatic and strongly flavored.

The process for the production of oil from depitted olives is the same as for traditional oil, except for one substantial difference. Instead of the blades used in a traditional press, there is a machine shaped like a tube, the depitter, with a coarse inner surface, like a grater. The pits are extracted and expelled completely clean from the depitter (above). The pulp is then mixed as in the production of traditional olive oil (click here for my last post on the production of traditional extra-virgin olive oil).

You might wonder what we do with the pits. There are different options. They make for excellent source of combustible material for stoves, fireplaces, etc. In other countries where olive oil is produced, like Spain, the state buys the pits from olive oil producers to use them in combustion for power plants. Cosmetics is another use: olive pits are naturally rich in oils and can be utilized in the production of exfoliating creams and soaps.