What is VITIANO?

[DHGoyins]

I have recently seen on an Italian restaurant's menu a so-called VITIANO wine. This appears to be a variatel, not a wine vineyard's name. What is VITIANO and to what does it compare? (It must be a red wine based on the food pairing.)

[Innkeeper]

The Vitiano, Rosso Umbria, is a blend of equal parts of Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. This produces a wine that has a Chianti like nose with soft plummy flavors that have round velvety edges while maintaining good structure and balance, and a finish that is round, harmonious, and satisfying. Obviously, I didn't write this. It is a good value though, at around $10.00 per bottle retail.

[Thomas]

Gee, Innkeeper, I thought for a minute your promotion prowess was showing....

[winecollector]

Well, we also know your not allowed to taste this one either, Innkeeper! Two of the three "evil grapes" in one wine? Better leave this one for the rest of us to enjoy, er, umm.... I mean taste. Oh, you poor thing you!

Thanks DHGoyins, for bringing up this topic. I enjoy Cabs and Sangiovese on a regular basis, and it will be interesting to try them together. I had a Merlot / Sangiovese blend about two months ago for just under ten bucks a bottle, and it was well balanced and enjoyable- kind of like a merlot with a kick! Welcome aboard!

[winoweenie]

Now Now Wine Collector, Don`t berate foodie. Again, I married my child bride when I found out something in red wine didn`t agree with her system so all she drank was sissy whites.I an now promoting Veramonte 98 Chard to her as even better than St. Jean Sonoma. The fact it`s 3 bucks cheaper has no bearing on the issue. Winoweenie. It is a pretty derned good tating sissy white.

[winecollector]

Did I miss something here? Foodie is not a member of WITHSTAND too is he?

I think I'm going to have to start my own group, or organization. It will be some sort of Epicureion club that pursues and satisfies itself with rich food, rich wine, and rich women! Now all I need, is some sort of catchy name....

[Innkeeper]

What you can do is tie a length of clothsline around the Vitiano's neck, and whirl it around over your head a few times. This forces all the Sangiovese to the top of the bottle. Then it can be carefully poured off without getting any of that other crap in your glass. WITHSTAND lives!

[Thomas]

My love for Innkeeper "not withstanding," I am not a member, never have been a member and do not expect to become one in the near future.

I envy any man whose wife drinks only sissy whites. In fact, I envy any man whose wife does not drink wine at all. So many dinners I wished I could finish that bottle myself....

[winoweenie]

My Error Foodie. I meant to tell wine collector not to berate Innkeeper and my uncooperative fingers typed your name. Hope to heavens his group catches on and maybe the price of some of the devil-grape types willgo down for lack of interest. Think Caymus @ 20, Diamond Creek @25, B.V. Reserve @ 30 Etc... I`m sure you understand my dreaming. Winoweenie

[winecollector]

Wew! I can breathe a sigh of relief now, I was starting to worry about you Foodie!

Now the thing with the closeline- I have to admit that's very creative! Only problem, is that after you whirl that bottle around over your head a couple of times, don't you have to let it rest for a period of time, causing the wine to mix again?

Tell you what Innkeeper- go ahead and try a bottle. We promise not to tell Willie Gluckstern or WITHSTAND on you!

[Innkeeper]

Actually we had a very nice Cabernet Sauvignon with mesquite grilled Nebraska sirloin last night.

[winecollector]

Well, I guess there's hope for you after all Innkeeper! I'll fax you a membership form for my R.W.F.W Epicurean Club (Rich Wine, Food, & Women).

The R.W.F.W. EPICUREAN CLUB lives!

[This message has been edited by winecollector (edited 05-29-2000).]

[hotwine]

Innkeeper, which Cab did you choose for the sirloin? (My knowledge of CS is terrible, and I'm trying to work on it.)

[Innkeeper]

It was the 1996 Woodcrest Cellars, Mendocino County, Cabernet Sauvignon that we had previously posted. Got it from our broker who you can find if you go back 100 days on Favorite Wine Stores.

[Randy Caparoso]

Okay, here I come: The Falesco "Vitiano" is a truly wonderful wine for the price. One of the great buys in the wine world today. Period. If you see it in a restaurant or retail store wise enough to recognize great drinking for what it is (not what they've "heard"), buy it!

Some background: "Vitiano" is grown and vinified by one of Italy's most revered winemakers, Riccardo Cotarella. In Italy, Cotarella's talents and instincts for great vineyards and grapes are looked upon with awe. Each year, Gambero Rosso (for Italy, sort of like a Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate rolled into one) unfailingly names Cotarella's superpremium Falesco "Montiano" (a Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon cuvee) among the country's top 10 or so wines). Plus, like a Tony Soter, Helen Turley, and Ken Wright rolled into one, his influence in Central Italy is such that he consults for over 30 wineries (such as Colli Amerini, La Palazzola, La Carraia, and Sportoletti) at a time, on top of maintaining his own brand (Falesco).

Sorry about the serious tone, gents. Can't help myself when it comes to this dude.

[DHGoyins]

Randy, it was serendipitous that last evening I purchased a bottle of the Vitiano and had not yet read your interesting and enlightening note. I expect to have the bottle with friends this weekend and will report back my findings. By the way, would you happend to know Leo Goeas, a former NFL player? Leo's a good friend of mine. I'm going to ask if he's had the pleasure of eating in your restaurants and if he's not, the next time he's back in Hawaii, I'll see if he can give me a scouting report. Leo and I both live in Colorado now.

[DHGoyins]

I have learned that I must wait two or three weeks to share my wine with my friends who loves Italian reds. I am now in more suspense than Clint Eastwood was with the rope around his neck in the opening scenes of the spaghetti western, "Hang them High". If it should instead have been my bottle of Vitiano rather than Clint's neck in the noose, I'll be sure to say. (Innkeeper, I loved your answer for the humor. And I love Randy's insights. I've overpaid too many times for wine that is overrated. I'm hoping I've stumbled on to a wine that is reasonable in price for a great enjoyment as it is poured and tasted.)

[DHGoyins]

"M)y friends who love" not "my friends who loves" should have been what I wrote.

[Botafogo]

>>Some background: "Vitiano" is grown and vinified by one of Italy's most revered
winemakers, Riccardo Cotarella. In Italy, Cotarella's talents and instincts for great
vineyards and grapes are looked upon with awe.<<

This view is mostly held by the internationalists who won't be happy until all wines taste the same (like some sort of over oaked, too alcoholic Aussie Merlot/Shiraz blend). There ARE a significant number who join us in the backlash movement and believe that Mr. C is a War Criminal guilty of cultural imperialism, viticultural genocide and general evil.

We STRONGLY encourage the Italian government to come to its senses and deport him to Australia or at least Spain so he can fulfill his apparent destiny of budding over all interesting varieties to Merlot and destroying thousands of years of stylistic tradition with a single spin of his rotary fermenters.

Almost without exception, we inform wineries who have contracted with Mr. C that we will no longer be able to offer their wines amongst our thousands of Italian lables.

Yes, Vitiano is a nice, cheap glass of wine. BUT, every bottle made is in place of something that truly speaks of time and place and food and culture instead of focus groups and international distribution.

Ciao, tutti, Roberto (WINE EXPO)

[Botafogo]

Some context to the above indictment:

Deep Philosophical musings on The Funk vs. Technical “perfection”.....

We would like to thank our friend Mario di Dievole (heir, caretaker and ambassador extraordinaire of a nearly thousand year old Chianti estate of the same name) for a wonderful feature in his cantina’s completely over the top large format magazine “Zolle e Nuvolle” (“clods and clouds”, a reference to Heaven and Earth): he asked several very famous Italian wine writers the bottom line question, “What makes a great wine?”. Luca Maroni (an impossibly obtuse technocrat whom you would rather listen to the grass grow than have a conversation with) drones on and on about “the result of technical perfection, due solely to the oenologically perfect transformation of a viticulturally perfect fruit, is the universal pleasantness of flavor....Let them look for pleasantness, nothing else. It’s quality must therefore be such as to please everybody.” Uhhhhh.... ...Luke...baby...can’t you see that that road leads straight to Raspberry Merlot, Twinkies and “Kenny G. plays John Tesch...Live in Vegas”???

An opposing viewpoint comes from Luigi Veronelli who submits what he says is an “extract” from a proposed book on the very subject that has been rejected by publishers with no vision or courage: “to be great a wine must recount ad infinitum ‘the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth,the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth,the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth, the earth...’” This actually repeats for an entire page but you get his point: While there is a great deal of pleasure to be obtained from things like dark chocolate, truffles, wasabi, smoked blood sausage, really strong espresso and bleu cheeses (not to mention Henry Miller novels, Kurosawa films and Charles Mingus or Thelonius Monk tunes), much of the point of these is the juxtaposition and contrast of familiar, “pleasant” sensations with bitter, smoky, earthy, musky, discordant and even shocking elements. In short, real life encapsulated as is: cinema (or vinema or musica) verité that communicates a sense of time, place and culture on a visceral, even animal level. We have found that the most popular wines in our store are the ones that 80% of you LOVE and the other 20% HATE with no middle ground, an indication that they have real personality and a distinct point of view instead of pandering to a “universal taste”.

Discuss amongst yourselves, Roberto (Jackie, are you happy now?)