Italian Sideways 2006 – Day 3
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By 12:30 we are at San Giovanni in Persiceto, where we meet with Roberto Barbieri, an old friend of mine who is now an accountant, and a couple of his clients, Vainer and Barbara, to talk business over lunch, before heading to a meeting once again with our friend Daniele who introduces us to Romano Mattioli, a Piumazzo, Modena, entrepreneur turned wine producer who has just this year produced his first wines from local grapes. One is a Sangiovese, while the other is an interesting, more robust than usual Lambrusco blend, made with 80% Lambrusco Grasparossa grapes and 20% Sangiovese, Cabernet and Malbo, the last one is a rare, Liguria vine which lends to the wine a sweeter, yet more textured and complex aroma. Though the Lambrusco is decidedly a bit too young, as it should ripen at least a few more months in the bottles, the result is truly enticing.
Next we go to Nonantola, another municipality in the province of Modena, to visit Mirco Casari, the president of the La Tradizione (The Tradition), a cooperative producing Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena (ABTM, or Traditional Balsamic Vinegar from Modena) of which Daniele Malagoli is part.
After visiting the acetaia (vinegar factory), and tasting some extravecchio (extra old) traditional balsamic vinegar aged 100 years, we are in for a big surprise. Mirco owns a collection of over 20,000 unopened bottles of mostly whiskey, but also bourbon, cognac and brandy from Scotland, the US, England, Japan, Spain, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and Canada among other countries.
The collection is priceless and totally fascinating.
We ended up sampling some delicious 50-year-old brandy (aged for 30 more years in the bottle) and a 1907 Spanish 'Coñac' (at that time it was not prohibited to use the DOC denomination for what is now called brandy) whose perfume delights and, when drunk, caresses the palate with its velvety taste and lingers in the mouth when swallowed.
Later we pick up our friends Bruce and Jan in Bologna, where they arrived in the morning from Amsterdam and decide to hang out for the day. All together we then go to the airport, where John Dawdy, WineCountry.IT vice president, is arriving from San Francisco via Munich and comes in with the by now standard 45 minutes of delay.
We end the day passing by my friend Ivano Pullega's house who, as every year on the occasion of Vinitaly, has printed WineCountry.IT brochures.
By the time we deposit Bruce, Jan and John at the Aquila Hotel in Castelfranco Emilia and head back to our apartment, it is already 11:30 at night. Time to head to bed for a good night's sleep before the opening of the 40th Vinitaly.
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 & 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19
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