Wine Tasting Party

Hello,

we would like to take the time to tell you a little bit about a great evening we had at one of our Scottish friend’s house.

As you can read on our previous post we normally organize Wine Tasting dinners in Hilversum to get people to try our bottles and share our knowledge around the producers we work with.

After hearing the great response from the people who joined us we realized that not only they enjoyed the wine and the food but also the whole experience of a wine tasting evening.

This led our friend Kevin to ask us to organize a tasting at his house to celebrate his girlfriend’s birthday. We grabbed the opportunity straight away and the result was fantastic.

Fantastic because I have to admit we were a little concerned about achieving the right balance between getting everyone’s attention to explain the bottles without turning the party into a lecture. The result was a full evening of great fun and interaction where we talked through 7 different bottles alternating wine, food and fun.

Check out the pictures to understand what I am talking about and of course let us know if you are interested in a similar experience.

Alla prossima.

PS. Special thanks to Kevin and Nicole who made this possible.

The new Italian wine denomination

A few months ago some changes have been made to the Italian wine denomination. As this will affect Italian wines and labels very soon we want to make sure you know what’s coming.
The below scheme compares the current regulation versus the new one:

 

This is what will happen:
– currently the “Table Wine” (vino da tavola) category includes the “IGT” label (typical geographic area) which defines the area where wines are produced. With the new regulation “Table Wine” and “IGT” will become two separate categories: the “Table Wine” labels will have to specify the types of grapes used (currently they don’t); the “IGT” label will change to “IGP” (protected geographic area) and the regulation will become stricter by adding an analytic test to ensure standard quality.
– The “D.O.C.” label (certified origin) and the “D.O.C.G.” label (certified and guaranteed origin) which are currently separate will become part of a bigger category called “D.O.P” (protected origin). It will be mandatory for “D.O.P.” labels to specify the vintage. With the new regulation a “D.O.C.” wine will only become eligible to upgrade to “D.O.C.G.” after 10 years.
– It becomes mandatory for any “D.O.C.” bottle to carry the government pink label..
– No regulations have been approved for the biological products at the European level since there was no agreement between the member states. The main biological associations decided to follow the last draft written by the EU even if not approved.
Most probably the old denominations will still stay on the labels together with the new ones to help the consumer understanding the change.
In the next post we will talk about some numbers and trends coming from the Italian wine market so stay tuned.

Alla prossima,
Fabio e Stefano

Prosecco DOCG

In the last months some important changes have been made to the Prosecco denomination. You used Prosecco bottles labelled as “Prosecco di Valdobbiadene” but unfortunately the law has now changed and there are different requirements to follow in order to label a bottle “di Valdobbiadene”.

Until few months ago the Prosecco di Valdobbiadene was a DOC wine (d’origine controllata). The DOC denomination is pretty common in Italy (360 wines have it) and identifies wines that are produced in a determined area following certain criteria established by the law of that specific DOC area.

There are 41 wines in Italy that are labelled DOCG (d’origine controllata e garantita). Only the best Italian are awarded this label and the Prosecco di Valdobbiadene is one of them. According to the new regulation, in order to label a Prosecco as “Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Superiore DOCG” the producer needs to fit the following criteria:

– The vineyards need to be located in a specific area

– The vinification needs to strictly follow the steps outlined by the regulation

– Every vintage needs to pass the tasting exams

– Each bottle has to be numbered with a specific pink label on the cork

All the above standards are meant as a warranty of high quality for the consumer and to help promote the brand Internationally. Unfortunately together with some obvious advantages to the less informed consumers such as an easier identification of Prosecco di Valdobbiadene on the shelves, we feel that the new regulation is going to bring some disadvantages such as price increases but also it will make it a lot harder for non experts to indentify the other great Proseccos that are produced in Valdobbiadene but, for different reasons, do not follow the DOCG regulation.

Another consenquence of the new regulation is that all the other Prosecco produced elsewhere will now be elevated from IGT (indicazione geografica tipica) to DOC. The IGT label being the most basic and part of the “table wine” group.

To make a long story short we feel that in the attempt to protect and promote the “original” Prosecco di Valdobbiadene the new DOCG regulation translates into a more expensive product (price doubles in some cases). On the other hand this law puts the prosecco produced in Valdobbiadene without following the DOCG rules at the same level  with the prosecco produced elsewhere (Vicenza, Verona, etc..) penalizing the non expert consumer.

Talking a little about how this new regulation affects our Prosecco selection we will start by saying that the winery we are working with (Azienda Agricola Benotto) is placed in San Pietro di Barbozza, Valdobbiadene (on the border with the Cartizze area, where the most famous Prosecco comes from) and falls exactly in the category of Prosecco di Valdobbiadene producers that are getting penalized by the new DOCG regulation. It would be hard to believe that Mr Benotto would accept to raise the price of his product but most importantly be told how to make the product his family has been making for generations just to be able to write his address on the bottle. Moving forward this means Benotto’s bottles will  be labelled as Prosecco DOC (dry, extra dry and brut depending on the type).

From our side switching to a DOCG Prosecco di Valdobbiadene would be a safe a move but we really don’t see why we should ask our customers double the price for a Prosecco that is no better than what we are already offering.

… so if you care for the pink label we are very sorry, but you are going to have to look elsewhere.

Alla prossima.

Fabio e Stefano