The days that we spend traveling through some of the most gorgeous and delicious places on Earth are our favorite days of the year, and the best part of those days is…YOU. We want to stay connected to the friends we’ve made on those journeys, and to keep you connected to the people, places, and wines that have brought us together. We are also excited about making new friendships, and are looking forward to lots of fun journeys ahead. Read on and join us!
Vintner Varietals: Winemakers We Love
The estate of Tenuta Santa Caterina is the inaugural stop on our journey through Northern Italy, and it never fails to make a spectacular first impression. It is located in the village of Grazzano Badoglio, in the province of Asti, in Monferrato, which is a sub-region of the lower Piedmont—a gem within a gem within a treasure box.
The Tenuta Santa Caterina winery is built around a Benedictine abbey dating to 961 A.D., and the surrounding land has been in agricultural use since the 18th century. In the early 2000’s, Guido Carlo Alleva bought the estate and devoted himself to restoring the architecture and cultivating the vineyards through careful, traditional craftsmanship and agricultural practices. He is intentionally committed to operating his winemaking venture as a labor of love and respect for the land, the history, and the grapes themselves.
To that end, he has focused on reintroducing indigenous grape varietals, such as Freisa, that were approaching obscurity, including the Grignolino grape. He is partnered with other winemakers in Monferrato to form the collective Monferace project. This is a pact among the winemakers to adhere to particular guidelines for producing Grignolino wine, following specifications for growing and vineyard care, use of 100% Grignolino grapes, and a minimum aging period of 40 months, of which 24 months must be in wooden barrels. The resulting fruity, herbaceous, high-tannin red wines are tasted by the collective, and only those bottles meeting the highest standards can boast “Monferace” on the label. Gambero Rosso, Italy’s top wine trade publication, has awarded Tenuta Santa Caterina’s Monferace the coveted Tre Bicchieri award an incredible six times since the 2013 vintage.
Guido, with his winemaker Luciana Biondo, oversee vineyards which are only planted on southern-facing slopes situated for perfect exposure, utilizing organic and sustainable farming methods. Focusing on small production of extraordinary quality, they ferment using only the yeast naturally present on the grape skins, accentuating the limestone and ancient seabed terroir in their structured, elegant, refined wines. The bottles are then aged in the ancient cellar of the estate, its infernòt, a Piedmontese term for these architecturally stunning wine cellars dug up to 17 meters underground.
Tenuta Santa Caterina’s striking vineyards and architecture—and the opportunity to taste through their Grignolino, Freisa, Nebbiolo, and Barbera wines with Luciana herself—make for an unforgettable introduction to Italy’s wine country.
Cultural Terroir: Places We Love
Explore Piedmont
The region of Piedmont is visually breathtaking—rolling, verdant vineyards studded with quaint villages and the occasional, casual castle. It has a whimsical, storybook look to it that belies the seriousness with which the region approaches its primary pursuit: winemaking. Wine’s history in Piedmont is so rich, so integral to the landscape and so formative to the culture, that the area is designated a UNESCO World Heritage site; specifically, the honored site is the “Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato.” This area is located in the southern part of Piedmont, between the Po River and the Ligurian Apennines, home to—among many, many other outstanding producers—Tenuta Santa Caterina, discussed above. Winemaking has been central to the society and economy here for centuries. Vine pollen found here dates back to the 5th century B.C., and there is reference to the area’s winemaking in ancient Roman texts. The long tradition has evolved and adapted, but its cultural hold on the region persists.
Perhaps it is in part due to the importance and preponderance of excellent wineries in the area that restaurants flourish here, as well. In fact, the Piedmont region boasts thirty-five Michelin-starred restaurants. Many of the meals on Joy of Wine Journey’s itineraries are at such Michelin-starred eateries, and we thought that here, as we reflect on highlights of our time in star-heavy Piedmont, would be a good place to review the meaning behind those Michelin stars.
First, a brief history of the guide: In 1889, in a small town in France, the two Michelin brothers founded a tire company hoping to cater to the nascent automobile market (at the time, there were fewer than 3000 automobiles in France, so it was something of a gamble). To encourage motorists to hit the road and boost the sale of their tires, they distributed a small, red booklet with maps and information such as how to change a tire and where to get gasoline. It wasn’t until the 1920’s that the brothers began including a list of Paris restaurants. As the guide became more popular and profitable, the brothers established a team of mystery diners to anonymously visit and review the restaurants in their guide. In 1926, they began to award stars, initially only one, to designate extraordinary dining experiences. By 1931, they had expanded to issuing 1-, 2-, and 3-star awards in their now-familiar tiered system. Over the rest of the 20th century, the reach and influence of the guide grew, so that today, the guide reviews over 40,000 restaurants across three continents, and stands as the premier arbiter of culinary excellence.
The Michelin inspectors—those lucky few—are full-time employees with backgrounds in restaurants and hospitality. They will dine at a restaurant several times, conferring with their colleagues who do the same, before deciding as a team how many, if any, stars to award. Their decision hinges on five basic criteria: the quality of the ingredients; the harmony of flavors; the mastery of culinary techniques; the personality of the chef as expressed through their cuisine; and consistency both across the entire menu and over time. The service and atmosphere do not factor into the awarding of stars—it is entirely about what is on the plate.
And that brings us to the stars themselves. Michelin defines one-star establishments as being “high-quality cooking, worth a stop.” These restaurants must use top-quality ingredients prepared in distinctive ways to consistently high standards. Michelin issues two stars to signify “excellent cooking, worth a detour.” Two-star restaurants must prepare inspired dishes that showcase the chef’s personality and creativity. And the longed-for three stars represent “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey.” It doesn’t get better than this. Three stars are reserved for chefs at the pinnacle of their careers, preparing superlative, artful, once-in-a-lifetime cuisine.
To win a single star is a massive, career-making achievement, and chefs work themselves to the bone for the honor. (We’ve all seen The Bear, right?) We are beyond fortunate to be able to share these sorts of mind-blowing meals with you on our travels together—like at Borgo Sant’Anna in Piedmont where chef Pasquale Laera prepares creative regional dishes, and in Verona, where we’ve just added an unbelievable meal at three-star Casa Perbellini—celebrating the magical symbiosis and cultural importance of exceptional food and wine.
Wine Key: Insights We Love
Spring in the Vineyards
This month, as the winter fades and the temperatures rise, we prepare in advance for our early summer tours. We finalize bookings, solidify itineraries, and begin to connect with the guests with whom we will share our adventures. Everything we do now ensures a smooth and successful start to our busiest travel season a few months down the line.
Likewise, the work in the vineyards in the springtime is critical to the success of the growing season and ultimately to the deliciousness of the wine in your glass. While autumn gets the hype for the winemaking season of greatest note, spring is where it all begins.
After storing carbohydrates in their roots during the dormant winter months, conserving their energy, grapevines start to stir once the temperature hovers around 50°F and gradually warms the soil around the base of the plants. The roots absorb moisture and nutrients, and sap slowly flows upward through the roots and trunks. Bud break, the appearance of the first wooly shoots of new growth, occurs as the sap reaches the vines, around the first weeks of April in the Northern hemisphere, depending on the grape varietal and the weather. Once green leaves unfurl from the fuzzy buds, photosynthesis kicks in and growth explodes, with shoots and leaves multiplying daily. Though most winegrowers have already pruned their vines over winter, spring pruning is crucial once the new growth begins. Careful growers are meticulous when it comes to what shoots to cull and which to cultivate, and pruning at this stage is thoughtful and laborious work. The aim is to encourage the plants to direct their nutrients to specifically chosen and arranged clusters, spaced to allow for optimum sunlight and airflow. This is when and how producers can choose to grow for quality over quantity.
Viticulturalists and winemakers are constantly attuned to the weather, balancing their careful planning with nature’s unpredictability. In spring, this equilibrium is at its most precarious, with a single late frost able to wipe out an entire crop. Unlike some other plants, grapevines cannot withstand a freeze after new sprouts appear; once the initial spring growth is destroyed, the secondary growth on a vine is not nearly as fruitful.
To protect against the threat that weather events can pose, vineyard managers have safeguards in place. Industrial fans throughout the vineyard can circulate currents to prevent cold air from settling around the vines. When the forecast calls for a freeze after bud break has occurred, growers can use sprinklers to coat the vines with moisture—under a protective glaze of ice, the shoots will not drop below 32°. Some growers even use oil lamps, large candles in drums, or torches around their vines to generate warmth. (The images of vineyards at night patterned with row upon row of flickering flame is striking.)
Cover crops and soil health also consume the attention of winegrowers during this season. Some choose to cut down the cover crops at this point and till the land between the rows of vines, with the aim of returning the nutrients and nitrogen to the soil to nourish the vines and to reduce competition for those nutrients. Some choose to allow the cover crops, often heavy on indigenous grasses and wildflowers, to grow, encouraging biodiversity, including pollinators and predators to control any pests that threaten the vines. Checking for soil health—assuring the soil has the right mix of microbes, erosion reduction capability, and nitrogen levels—is crucial now, too. The quality of the soil is directly tied to the quality of grapes and, therefore, to the quality of the wine.
Grape flowers appear in late spring, initially looking like tiny grapes themselves, but eventually opening to reveal wispy white petals. Each small flower has the potential to become a grape berry; grape vines are self-pollinating, meaning they do not need the assistance of pollinators or wind to complete the process, but they are delicate at this stage. Strong winds or hail can tear through the flowers, knocking them off the vine and preventing their development into fruit—another concern for winegrowers to contend with. Typically, only about 30-50% of flowers turn into berries.
All this occurs within a couple of months, making spring perhaps the most stressful and crucial season of a winegrower’s year. Meanwhile, inside the winery, bottling of the previous year’s white vintage is often underway, and aging reds are being checked for readiness. Winemaking is not for the faint of heart, and the anxieties of vintner’s springtime workload make us grateful that our spring prep mostly consists of emails and phone calls and getting ready to share hard-won bottles with lovely travelers like you.
Pairings: Recipes We Love
We love to find homey, rustic dishes on the menu of upscale eateries, elevated from peasant fare to the culinary prestige they deserve. Such was the case when we first tried the beef-and-cheese-stuffed onions at Mongalletto, an elegant restaurant in the Langhe-Roero hills in Piedmont. The onions, softened and sweetened by roasting, and filled with lightly herbed meat felt at once revelatory and comfortingly familiar. This type of stuffed onion is traditional to the region, but finding a standard formula for the filling is impossible—variations abound. For our version, we combine ground beef with two types of Italian cheeses and a good splash of white wine. Pair them with a medium-bodied, higher-acidity Italian red—a Nebbiolo from Piedmont would drink very nicely alongside the rich onions.
Piedmontese Stuffed Onions (Cipolle Ripiene)
- SERVES: 8 people for a starter or 4 people for an entree
INGREDIENTS
- 4 large white onions
- extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- kosher salt and black pepper
- 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 pound ground beef, 80-85% lean
- 1 teaspoon dried crushed rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/3 cup dried breadcrumbs (such as Panko)
- 4 ounces young Fontina cheese, grated
- 1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan, along with an additional 2 tablespoons
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
METHOD
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Peel the onions and trim both ends, removing the base of the root. Slice each onion in half long-ways.
- Pour enough olive oil into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish to slick the bottom, and arrange the onion halves in the dish cut-side-up. Drizzle the onions with the vinegar and a bit more olive oil, and sprinkle with a big pinch each of salt and pepper. Cover the dish tightly with foil. Roast the onions for 35 minutes, until somewhat softened. Let cool until able to be handled.
- While the onions are roasting, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and stir just until fragrant, about 20 seconds. Add the beef, rosemary, thyme, 1 ½ teaspoons of salt, and several grinds of black pepper. Cook, stirring and breaking up the beef, until the meat is just browned through, about 4 to 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the meat to a large bowl, leaving as much of the oil behind in the skillet as possible. Let the meat cool for at least 10 minutes.
- Add the breadcrumbs, Fontina, ¼ cup of the Parmesan, and ¼ cup of the wine to the bowl with the meat.
- Once the onions have cooled a bit, remove their centers, leaving only the bottom two layers of peel from each onion in the baking dish to act as the shells for the meat filling. Set aside the center of one onion half, and store the others for some other use.
- Finely chop the single reserved onion center and add it to the bowl with the meat, along with the beaten egg. Mix it all together until thoroughly combined.
- Evenly divide the mixture between the 8 onion shells in the baking dish, about 1/3 cup in each, lightly packing the mixture into rounded mounds. Sprinkle the tops of each mound with the remaining 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese. Pour the remaining ¼ of wine into the bottom of the baking dish.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown on top. Serve.
ENJOY!
New Growth: Joy Of Wine News We Love
Other Adventures
Adam and two members of the UVA Imports team, Joe and Stephen, were on the other side of the world visiting wineries in New Zealand! While not a destination on our tours, we love having the opportunity to visit winemakers producing exciting, delicious wine, and New Zealand is more than worth the (long) trip in that regard. One of UVA’s best-selling producers, Black Cottage Wines, is located in the Marlborough region, known for outstanding and distinctive Sauvignon Blancs. Black Cottage has nailed the sweet spot between approachability and refinement, and their wines, including their Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, are hands-down crowd-pleasers. The UVA team is basking in the beauty of the country and the bounty of its wines.
