Just back from Piedmont
Professor
best we've ever tasted. The beauty of the Langhe hills was breathtaking
with ancient castles and towns perched atop hills covered with vineyards as
far as the eye can see. If you were thinking of visiting I cannot recommend
it more highly.
We brought back only three bottles, a magnum of Mascarello Barolo 2001, a
Rinaldi Barolo 2001, and a Gaja 2001 Barbaresco. We found a cafe in Alba
offering Gaja Centeissa 1997 for $25 Euros/glass. It was the finest wine
I've ever tasted, powerful and full but with an elegant finish. I told the
co-owner I could hear angels singing with each sip and he reminded me the
genius in the Gaja family was named Angelo.
We now have relationships with local wine makers and importers for getting
more wines shipped to us. It turns out that shipping wine back to the US is
pretty expensive unless you already have a cozy arrangement. The best deal
we found was charging $150/case.
Unfortunately our visit to Bruno Giacosa's winery was cancelled as Bruno is
now gravely ill, but we were able to visit Bartolo Mascarello's winery and
meet his widow and daughter. We bought the last year of his Barolo on the
first day of its released. We tasted a glass and it was glorious just
minutes after opening.
I have more notes which I'll post soon when I'm feeling less jetlagged.
UC
Professor wrote:
> We had an absolutely amazing time in Piedmont. The food and wine was the
> best we've ever tasted.
Of course. It's Italy!
> The beauty of the Langhe hills was breathtaking
> with ancient castles and towns perched atop hills covered with vineyards as
> far as the eye can see. If you were thinking of visiting I cannot recommend
> it more highly.
>
> We brought back only three bottles, a magnum of Mascarello Barolo 2001, a
> Rinaldi Barolo 2001, and a Gaja 2001 Barbaresco. We found a cafe in Alba
> offering Gaja Centeissa 1997 for $25 Euros/glass. It was the finest wine
> I've ever tasted, powerful and full but with an elegant finish. I told the
> co-owner I could hear angels singing with each sip and he reminded me the
> genius in the Gaja family was named Angelo.
>
> We now have relationships with local wine makers and importers for getting
> more wines shipped to us. It turns out that shipping wine back to the US is
> pretty expensive unless you already have a cozy arrangement. The best deal
> we found was charging $150/case.
>
> Unfortunately our visit to Bruno Giacosa's winery was cancelled as Bruno is
> now gravely ill, but we were able to visit Bartolo Mascarello's winery and
> meet his widow and daughter.
Is Bruno terminally ill? That would be a shame. I have had a few of his
wines and found them to be stunning.
> We bought the last year of his Barolo on the
> first day of its released. We tasted a glass and it was glorious just
> minutes after opening.
Uhh.....right. "....just minutes after opening". Not "several hours".
DaleW
you're open to all styles, bringing back one modern and two
traditionalists. I think the Gaja is probably the Conteisa, no?
Richard Neidich
with tickets. See his receipts. Prove you had the wines you had. Don't
forget it's your style.
Also, don't forget to warn that if he post notes you want proof the wine was
actually tasted an consumed.
Your self appointed heckler!!!!
"DaleW" <Dwm...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1161561986.2...@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
Professor
> you're open to all styles, bringing back one modern and two
> traditionalists. I think the Gaja is probably the Conteisa, no?
Yes Dale you're right, it was the Conteisa. The jetlag has affected even my
spelling. ;^) I usually go for the traditional Nebbiolos, but had always
been curious about what all the fanfare about Gaja was. The color was
different from any Barolo or Barbaresco I'd had before, more purple than
red. Although nine years old it didn't seem particularly mature, a huge
deep aroma still powerful and full-bodied. I can imagine the wine will be
drinking for decades. It reminded me of a couple Super-Tuscans I've tried.
I figured I may never again see a Gaja offered by the glass and I'm happy I
went for it.
I'll post a big report on my trip in a few days when I've gotten caught up
with everything.
DaleW
of money, I'd usually prefer something more of its place. I remember
thinking of one of his wines (a Sperss? a Sori Tilden?) that it could
slip blind into a Pomerol tasting. For my personal tastes, I'd rather
have 2 Giacosa Barbarescos than the one Gaja Barbaresco I could buy
with same money (or maybe 6 Produttori del Barbaresco single vineyards,
or 4 Marcarini Barolo single vineyards, or...).
And yes if I saw that for $25 I'd almost certainly buy!
Look forward to your notes, get your rest!
UC
DaleW wrote:
> I think Gaja makes great wines. Just if I was going to spend that kind
> of money, I'd usually prefer something more of its place. I remember
> thinking of one of his wines (a Sperss? a Sori Tilden?) that it could
> slip blind into a Pomerol tasting. For my personal tastes, I'd rather
> have 2 Giacosa Barbarescos than the one Gaja Barbaresco I could buy
> with same money (or maybe 6 Produttori del Barbaresco single vineyards,
> or 4 Marcarini Barolo single vineyards, or...).
Yes, those are quite good values, but nothing else quite reaches Gaja's
level.
Michael Pronay
> Sori Tilden?
Funny that so many Americans seem unable to get the name of this
wine right. It's Sori Tild_i_n, (or Sorě Tilděn with diacritics).
M.
DaleW
Michael Pronay wrote:
> "DaleW" <Dwm...@aol.com> wrote:
>
> > Sori Tilden?
>
> Funny that so many Americans seem unable to get the name of this
> wine right. It's Sori Tild_i_n, (or Sorì Tildìn with diacritics).
>
> M.
Michael Pronay
["Sori Tilden/Tildin]
> I'm much better at spelling wines I can afford. :)
That's good one!
Was that Yell-o'Tale ... <gdr>
M.
Mark Lipton
In all seriousness, Michael, I think that the problem in this instance
might be that Tilden is an (uncommon) surname in English, hence somewhat
familiar to Anglophones, whereas Tildin isn't. I've also puzzled for
years over the frequent misuse of "Reisling" and why that's so common.
For that, I've got no explanation at all, especially since most every
English-speaking child learns the rule "i before e except after c," and
the long e sound of Riesling is consistent in English with the spelling,
whereas "Reisling" would be pronounced as a long i, more or less as in
German.
Mark Lipton
Ken Blake
> I've also
> puzzled for years over the frequent misuse of "Reisling" and why
> that's so common. For that, I've got no explanation at all,
> especially since most every English-speaking child learns the rule "i
> before e except after c," and the long e sound of Riesling is
> consistent in English with the spelling, whereas "Reisling" would be
> pronounced as a long i, more or less as in German.
Perhaps because many Americans are familiar with the name of Einstein, with
its double example of "ei," they mistakenly assume that whenever those two
letters appear in German, that's their correct order.
--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup
Michael Pronay
> In all seriousness, Michael, I think that the problem in this
> instance might be that Tilden is an (uncommon) surname in
> English, hence somewhat familiar to Anglophones, whereas Tildin
> isn't.
Well, the surname isn't unknowm in German either (actress Jane
Tilden), but I've never seen "Sori Tilden" in a German text or
post.
It might also derive from the fact that diacritica are almost
completely ignored by Anglosaxons. When correctly pronounced, in
Sorí Tildín the stress in both words is on the second syllable. In
a correct pronunciation "Tildin" would probably be better engraved
in memory.
> I've also puzzled for years over the frequent misuse of
> "Reisling" and why that's so common. For that, I've got no
> explanation at all, especially since most every English-speaking
> child learns the rule "i before e except after c," and the long
> e sound of Riesling is consistent in English with the spelling,
> whereas "Reisling" would be pronounced as a long i, more or less
> as in German.
Many Americans, however, pronounce it "riseling". Very strange!
M.
DaleW
Michael Pronay wrote:
>
> Well, the surname isn't unknowm in German either (actress Jane
> Tilden), but I've never seen "Sori Tilden" in a German text or
> post.
http://www.wein-plus.de/archive/msg36082.html
http://www.wein-plus.de/neuarchiv/msg29617.html
http://www.winety.com/magazin/wadvocateItalien/italien1996.htm
http://www.mail-archive.com/wein...@apris.de/msg36006.html
cheers!
Michael Pronay
Thank you. I know one poster in person, so that really impressed me.
Otoh:
Google hits "sori tilden" English: 517
Google hits "sori tilden" German: 38
M.
Michael Pronay
> <picky>
> Also note that the correct accent goes the other way, so it is
> in fact Sorì Tildin... or Sorì Tildìn if you prefer.
> </picky>
Sorry, got mixed up with stress accents between Spain and Italy.
Anyhow, afair the accents are used on Angelo's Sorì labels.
M.
Michael Pronay
>> Anyhow, afair the accents are used on Angelo's Sorì labels.
> He he, it's too easy with Allchars eh?
Nope. Standrad German keyboards do have an accent key [´ `], just
to the right of the [ß \ ?] key, which in turn is to the right of
the [0 } =] key:
<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/1/16/Tastatur_de.png>
M.
Michael Pronay
>>> Anyhow, afair the accents are used on Angelo's Sorì labels.
>> He he, it's too easy with Allchars eh?
> Nope. Standard German keyboards do have an accent key [´ `],
> just to the right of the [ß \ ?] key, which in turn is to the
> right of the [0 } =] key:
>
> <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/1/16/Tastatur_de.png>
The inconvenience of the German keyboard layout ist that there's
no diaresis (Umlaut) key. For "Moët" or "Aÿ" I have to type
[alt]+[num]0235 for ë or [alt]+[num]0255 for ÿ.
There's no "hácek" (inversed ^) either, which is a problem when
writing about eastern European wines. Then charmap.exe is the only
solution. But then a conversion salad (when files are imported to
Macs) is inevitable anyhow.
We do however have a degree sign, so "10°C = 50°F" is easy.
M.
Anders Tørneskog
"Michael Pronay" <m...@privacy.net> skrev i melding
news:Xns9867ABC249...@pronay.com...
> Michael Pronay <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
>
Try a Norwegian keybord :-). I have Moët, Aÿ and of course the tilde,
accents and cirkonflex - ñ, é and ô for instance. But, alas, no degree.
Anders
agreeing that QbA=Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete is illogical!
Vilco
> Correct, but please note that in italian one can only put an accent on
> the last vowel, and accents on non-final vowels are only
> exceptionnally marked as an aid in pronunciation whenever there may
> be doubt, in this case to help foreign readers (an Italian would not
> need that accent on the second i of Tildin to know how to pronounce
> it).
LOL, are you confusing italian and french?
Almost all of the italian two syllabes words are stressed on the first
vowel. If you translate the preceding sentence in italian, for example,
you'll find that all of the 2-syllabes words are stressed on the first vowel
("tutte", "sulla", "prima"). And if you think to words similar to tildin you
have, again, only words with the stress on the first vowel: "tolda",
"soldo", "tanto", "solco", etc
The vast majority of the few words with stress on the last vowel are from
some slang, as is "sori".
--
Vilco
Think pink, drink rose'