Pere Ventura Cava - A Beautiful Sparkling Wine for $15

Cava is the popular and very well-priced Spanish sparkling wine which is similar to Champagne in production and aging but made with indigenous grapes. The most noble grape, Xarello (say "Cha - reh- lo") is the bones, or the structure, while Macabeo is the meat or flesh. Parellada comes into the mix, as well as the four allowed red grapes for Rose production - Monastrell, Garnacha, Pinot Noir and Trepat.

Our host, Pere Ventura, opened his namesake winery in 1992 in homage to his ancestors - his great-grandfather Manuel Montserrat Font helped produce the first bottles of Cava made in the Traditional, or Champagne method (second fermentation in bottle and extended lees aging). Pere was on the verge of becoming a Priest when he realized his true calling - producing one of Spain's greatest Cava's.

I enjoy sparkling wine at least once a week, if not more, and quite often it is Cava, so when I put my nose into the Pere Venture Tresor Reserva Cava $14.99 I expected the usual chalk, lemon, and quinine notes. What I got, however, was a symphony of minerality - chalk, slate, and sea salt, that, along with lemon rind, quince and soft floral notes, melded together like silk. This Cava is one of the best I have tasted recently - delicate, nuanced, and layered with a definite sense of its origin.

The tasting was held by importer Palm Bay International at Hakkasan in San Francisco. Delicious dishes included Scallop shumai, Har gau, Shanghai siew long bao, Crispy silver cod with superior soy sauce, and Sanpei claypot chicken with Thai sweet basil.

© Copyright 2014 Master Sommelier Catherine Fallis, Planet Grape LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Sicily's Donnafugata Winery

Giacomo and Gabriella Rallo along with their daughter Jose and son Antonio launched Donnafugata Winery in 1983 both at the family's historic cellars in Marsala and at their Contessa Entellina vineyards in the heart of western Sicily.

"Donnafugata," or "woman in flight," refers to Queen Maria Carolina, wife of Ferdinand IV of Bourbon, who sought refuge on this remote, mountainous isle after fleeing Napolean's troops in Naples.

Donnafugata is one of a handful of Sicilian wineries spearheading a movement towards quality, vineyard and appellation recognition, and a return to their unique and historically rich indigenous grape varieties.

While not made with a local grape, their 2010 Donnafugata Chiaranda Chardonnay Contessa Entellina DOP $39 is a gorgeous rendition and is popular at wedding receptions with its romantic, lacy label and soft, buttery texture. In fact, Sicily's top producers tell me they make Chardonnay as an entree into the US marketplace, and they have been quite successful.

Their 2009 Donnafugata Tancredi Sicilia IGP $45, a blend of Nero d'Avola with Cabernet Sauvignon and Tannat, illustrates and showcases the potential of Sicily's signature grape, Nero d'Avola, which can lean towards lighter bodied on its own and has inviting deep red berry, black licorice and tobacco notes. With a dash of Cab and Tannat to round it out, the wine crosses over into that place that is not so intimidating for folks used to bigger, riper, rounder wines.

The flagship wine and one of the most significant releases from Sicily, the 2008 Donnafugata Mille e una Notte Contessa Entellina Rosso DOC $89  is a serious barrel-aged Nero d'Avola with notes of cassis, blackberry, cherry, orange rind, stewed tomato, zucchini, earth, and tobacco, and its heady, musky perfume will haunt you for a long time.

To learn more about or to visit the winery, go to www.donnafugata.it.

© Copyright 2014 Master Sommelier Catherine Fallis, Planet Grape LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Fall for Fritz Willi Riesling

Chardonnay, Cabernet, Merlot and even Pinot Noir are feel good wines. Easy to say. Easy to remember. Gewurztraminer not so much. Similarly, BV, Yellow-Tail and "Two-Buck Chuck" are short, simple, and memorable. So how does one enter the profitable US market if one's brand name is "Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium"?

Simple! Rebrand to a fictional wine ambassador named "Fritz Willi".

The label is clean, the wine inside is high quality, steep-slope German Riesling, and the price is right.


The 2012 Fritz Willi Riesling Qualitatswein Germany $16.99 is off-dry, perfect for spicy, exotic and warming fall dishes such as Indian and Thai curries, Asian noodles, or Satay, and is widely available across the US. Visit www.scmittsohnesales.com to find a location near you.


© Copyright 2014 Master Sommelier Catherine Fallis, Planet Grape LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Mondavi Launches Animo - A New Napa Valley Mountain Cabernet

Named after the Italian word for spirit, or heart, Animo is a new project from Michael Mondavi and his family. The 2010 Animo Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley $85, a sleek, fruit forward and softly tannic wine, has notes of blackberry, blueberry, mocha, coffee bean and smoke.

The vineyard is located on a 15-acre rocky Atlas Peak hillside at between 1,270 and 1,350 feet. In the past, the family sold this fruit to Opus One.

The wine is limited but available here for a short time: http://www.noblemerchants.com/

© Copyright 2014 Master Sommelier Catherine Fallis, Planet Grape LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Two for Tuesday - Greek White & Lodi Zin

White Wine

Tonight, try something new. Check out the 2012 Domaine Porto Carras Malgouzia, Regional Wine of Sithonia, $14.95,  a rich, dry, aromatic white wine from Greece. Domaine Porto Carras, one of Greece's most significant and globally-recognized wineries, saved this unique grape from extinction in the 1980's and '90's. It is round and silky with notes of tangerine, lemon, lime, apricot, bay leaf, dried oregano, white rose petal and oyster shell, and would be delicious with a dish of crispy fried fish. It is available here or at a store near you:
http://www.hitimewine.net/PORTO-CARRAS-12-MALAGOUZIA.html



Red Wine

Owner Steve Borra's grandfather came to Lodi from Italy. Winemaker Marcus Niggli came to Lodi from Switzerland.
With this European influence and vision, Borra Vineyards makes some of the most unique wines in California. I love the 2011 Borra Vineyards HERITAGE Field Blend Red Lodi $25. A blend of Barbera, Carignane, Petite Sirah, and Zinfandel, it is elegant, understated, complex and just perfect in body for a late summer/early fall evening. Try this wine with grilled Tri-Tip with side of wild mushroom risotto.
Available from the winery:
http://borravineyards.com/our-wines/








© Copyright 2014 Master Sommelier Catherine Fallis, Planet Grape LLC. All Rights Reserved.

74th DOCG Granted – Italy Celebrates a Serious Barbera

After a frenzy of new DOCG’s, many of them granted for less than serious wines in less than serious styles (think sweet, red and sparkling), Italy’s 74th DOCG, or Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita, has been announced. Piedmont’s Nizza DOCG is official. The Consorzio Tutela Vini d’Asti del Monferrato agreed to elevate the Nizza subzone of Barbera d’Asti DOCG. With the endorsement of government committees in Rome and Brussels, this DOCG is effective with the 2014 harvest.

Nizza is in the Monferrato hills. These and the neighboring Langhe hills, home to Barolo and Barbaresco DOCG’s, are nestled between the Riviera and the Alps. While Asti in the center of Monferrato is famous for Moscato d’Asti, and Alba in the Langhe is known both for the famous white truffle, Tartufo Bianco d’Alba and its famous Nebbiolo-based wines, Nizza is making wine from the Barbera grape. This workhorse grape covers 35% of Piemonte and its wines are typically deeply fruity and highly pigmented with fresh natural and often biting acidity. Yet since the 1980’s dozens of producers have experimented with barrique aging for more serious wines. Many of those resulting wines, however, lost their freshness, finesse, and food-friendliness. The Nizza DOCG aims to showcase serious, balanced, expressive Barbera from only the finest years.

Nizza DOCG is with the Barbera d’Asti Superiore DOCG, but will require stricter selection from 18 communes in Asti rather than 160 in Asti and Alessandria, longer oak aging, higher minimum alcohol, and, for its Riserva designation, 100% Barbera as opposed to 90%. The new ruling allows for screw-caps, giving these wines a broader reach into the Asian and North American markets.

In years where Nizza Barbera growers cannot achieve the higher alcohol level, they may still bottle the wine as Barbera d’Asti DOCG, Barbera del Monferrato Superiore DOCG, or Barbera del Monferrato DOC, Monferrato DOC or Piemonte DOC.

While the EU would like Italy to align its DOC’s and DOCG’s into its DOP category, Federdoc’s executive director has stated the Italian government is allowed and will continue granting them.

For more information on Nizza DOCG, check out Italian Wine Central’s latest commentary and learn more about the Italian Wine Professional program that San Francisco Wine School is launching with them - http://italianwinecentral.com/interview-with-nizza-producers/.

Also check out the associazone produttori del nizza at - http://www.ilnizza.net/.

© Copyright 2014 Master Sommelier Catherine Fallis, Planet Grape LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Sabering Moet et Chandon Champagne at Sea

Sabering at Sea

Cellar Master Sasa Grujicic and Master Sommelier Catherine Fallis Saber Moet et Chandon Rose Champagne in tandem, in the Dining Room, on Holland America's MS Maasdam while sailing through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada.

© Copyright 2014 Master Sommelier Catherine Fallis, Planet Grape LLC. All Rights Reserved.