WINE IN TIME
April 28 to May 5, 2007
April 28th to May 5th, Oliveto will launch its new wine project, Wine In Time, featuring older vintage Italian red wines -- Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello, and Chianti.
During these 8 days, we'll offer mature wines by the glass, half glass, and taste, and there will be food to match. We will introduce our project in two Saturday afternoon "conversations." They'll be held with people we respect and want to learn from: Clark Smith, of Vinovation in Napa --America's most prominent wine technology company --in conversation on the 28th, and Roberto Stucchi Prinetti of Badia a Coltibuono, Tuscany, in conversation with Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon, Santa Cruz -- both original thinkers and traditionalists -- on May 5th. Both conversations begin at 1:30 PM. Topics will include the current state of the wine world, how wines age, and why many modern-style wines don't age well. Admission is free. A fee of $25 will be charged for those who would like to take part in the blind demonstration tasting. Please call for reservations and let us know if you expect to taste wines.
********
The Big Picture
The serving of aged Italian red wines should be an everyday occurrence at Oliveto. But it's not. These wines--Barolos, Barbarescos, Brunellos and Chianti Classico Riservas -- are best served as they reach maturity after several years in the bottle, becoming very different wines from what they were when they were released. As you probably know, these wines can be wonderful and their transformation remains a natural mystery as well as one of wine's most intriguing properties.
At the heart of our effort is the inextricable connection between these wines and the food we serve. Both come from places where the community thinks, talks and argues about the wines and foods they've grown up with. Everyone understands the layers of flavor in their ragùs, polentas, sugos, minestras, and risottos, and they expect the local wines to be alive years after they were released. These discussions are genuine, deep, and deeply felt. We want to impart a bit of that passion and sensibility to our wine and food service, and we want to serve the wines when they are fully mature.
So what's stopping us? These wines are more expensive than most people are comfortable spending every day. And the idea that time is an important quality of wine has mostly disappeared. The "drink it now - it's not going to get any better" international style wines have taken over the stage - pretty much all of it.
For the past two years we have been building relationships with producers of classic style reds from the premier Italian wine regions of Piedmont and Tuscany. By promising that we'll purchase every vintage, by gaining the interest and support of producers who want their wines to be aged before serving, by finding very small, wonderful producers who don't have importers in the US, and by bringing together such a community, we are able to buy wines directly, or through importers, at a cost that will allow us to age the wines appropriately, then serve them at a price reflecting our lower initial cost. By acquiring every vintage, regardless of critics' reviews, we will obtain in effect a "historical record" of a particular winery's wines from year to year. It is often the off years when the winemakers work the hardest and are proudest of their efforts. Deemed "great" or not, we will have wines that we can be surprised by over time - wines we can offer at approachable prices but each of which will be delicious and interesting in its own way.
We've acquired cellar space ideal for storing wines. We've created projections for the years ahead - how many bottles of mature Barolo will we consume in, say, 2011, and when will that 1998 Barbaresco most likely come into its own.
We're also trying to change the way we think about wine, making it more genuine and in tune with our winemakers. The non-market-oriented winemakers think and talk about their wines all the time, as did their fathers before them. Their conversations are about the challenges of each vintage, and their wines remain alive, the subject of active conversations as grapes grow in the vineyard, at vinification, in the barrel, after being bottled, and for years in the cellar. There is no parallel conversation in the restaurants to which the wines go once they leave the area where they are made. (In fact, most restaurants' goal is to turn their wine inventory over every five weeks.) Our ongoing relationships with our winemakers will bring Oliveto into their conversation and will keep our cellar alive.
We'll also be trying to get attention for Wine In Time. There will be future vintage wine events, trying to understand wine aging at a deeper level. We want just a bit of the stage back from the modernists, at least enough to keep the old-style winemakers going. And we've got a lot of wine to sell.
We've acquired a fair number of vintage wines for now. Over the next few years, our cellar will greatly expand, and our cost advantage will take effect.
As we launch Wine In Time now, we'll be taking a minimal mark-up and will offer vintage wines by the glass and half-glass. They'll still be costly, but we'll try to make it as painless as we can so we can all go on this exploration together.
|
