Blackbird Soars

The video goddesses at WinePeeks.TV, the web’s “exclusive wine video channel”, introduced us earlier this week to two gentlemen creating quite a buzz in Napa Valley’s Oak Knoll District and considerably beyond.

Coming soon, we’ll share a video peek at a conversation with Blackbird Vineyards proprietor Michael Polenske (far left) during his recent visit to the Chicago area. (We’re also about to launch Hinsdale Cellars’ new video wine tasting series. Stay tuned.). Off camera, we chatted with Blackbird’s new chief operating officer/chief marketing officer Paul Leary (second from left), former VP of marketing at Duckhorn.

The quick background for those who have been denied the Blackbird experience is this: investment management guru Polenske acquired the vineyards in 2003. Prior to his purchase, the fruit produced there was sold to artisan winemakers. Polenske’s vision was to elevate Blackbird to premium label status and establish the gold standard for Oak Knoll Merlot. In short order, he has achieved just that with the help of winemaker Sarah Gott (Phelps, Quintessa, Joel Gott).

The 2004 Blackbird Oak Knoll Proprietary Red is rated 92 points by Vinfolio’s Doug Wilder, and earned distinction as the lone red wine choice for Vanity Fair’s 2007 Oscar night party last February. At Premiere Napa Valley shortly thereafter, a Merlot-based 2005 Proprietary Red was presented as a five-case lot during the prestigious annual auction and sold for $18,000.

Next, Polenske, an investor in several luxury lifestyle properties and dining locations (i.e., Soho House, Manhattan), has also turned his attention to Argentina and a fascinating project known as The Vines of Mendoza. Individuals and wine entities can join The Vines as private members who own sections of various vineyards, and have access to wine storage and a five-star resort scheduled to open its doors in 2008. Sounds like a journey to Argentina’s Uco Valley needs to happen sooner than later.

– Steve Woodward

Dining Essentials: Le Calandre

Bruce Schoenfeld in Padova, Italy

What: Le Calandre, one of only five Michelin three-star restaurants in Italy.

Where: Via Liguria 1, Sarmeola di Rubano, Padova, Italy;
011-39-049-630303; www.alajmo.it.

Why Go: Few Italian chefs are turning heads like Massimiliano Alajmo, who brings a restless creativity to a stratified and rigid cuisine. And he offers nearly 200 of the 700 wines on his list by the glass.

The Ambience: Off a hotel lobby on a busy street, it’s comfortably sleek, and almost under-decorated for a restaurant of its caliber.

The Cost: $300 for two, including bottled water but not wine: a typical three-star tariff.

What I Ate: Balls of carne cruda, stuffed with pine nuts, eggs-and-truffle, or balsamic vinegar and lettuce; deliriously good spaghetti and cuttlefish with a dense sauce made from cuttlefish liver; caramelized leg of goose with creamed potatoes; wild cherry and anise sorbettos.

What I Drank: A lithe and fragrant Vincent Girardin Beaune 1er Cru Clos Des Vignes Franches 2002, and then a Fratelli Alessandria Barolo Gramolere 2001, which was suprisingly open and accessible for an old-style Barolo — and as elegant as the Burgundy.

Next Time I’d … Bring CDs for the crawl through the dense traffic on the surrounding roads.

Italian Job: Mission Accomplished in Virginia

Steve Woodward in Barboursville, Va.

Something was in the air. Or about to be. I walked into the reception area of Barboursville Vineyards’ offices last week only to overhear the woman at the desk patching a call into the winemaker about “the helicopters.”

For a brief moment I envisioned some grandiose wedding, complete with choppers whisking away a love struck couple and their closest friends to a reception on manicured grounds in nearby Charlottesville. Or, perhaps, this being a vineyard owned and operated by an established Italian family, a VIP was shuttling in, fresh off a flight into Washington’s Dulles International Airport for a routine inspection of the 150+ planted acres.

It is not difficult to pique the imagination when you set foot on idyllic Barboursville, where the Old World is perfectly at home with a New World winemaking region – Orange County, Va. There is very little – other than a lack of centuries old castles – that keeps one from feeling as though he has come upon a quaint village in the Italian Piedmont.

And this sensation is only made more intense by the lanky presence of congenial Luca Paschina (above), GM and winemaker at Barboursville Winery since 1991. A classically trained Piemonte winemaker laboring here along the northern extremes of America’s Confederate South, Paschina has done more than impose European techniques across the rolling, lush Virginia countryside. He has nurtured and advanced the harvesting of Nebiollo grapes, which are at the core of the most cherished Italian red wines.

I tasted three Barboursville Vineyard reds. This was a mind blowing experience. As a Virginia native, to stand on Virginia soil and savor locally produced, authentic Barbera (2005) and Nebbiolo (2003) reserves, followed by the a classic Bordeaux blend (2004) called Octagon (a tip of the hat to the architectural signature of Thomas Jefferson) … well, it gets your attention.

Like a chopper invasion in the middle of the night. Ah, yes, the choppers. Paschina had two on call because temperatures were forecast to flirt with sub-freezing in the night or two ahead – in early April, mind you. The choppers swoop out of the night sky and push warm air downward toward the vines.

“We knew about (the cold snap) five or six days ago,” he said, a ski cap over his ears. “We’re ready for it.” (The next morning, a blanket of April snow was not as readily expected).

No one could have been ready for the emergence of central Virginia as a wine destination, even though that is precisely what Jefferson, a French wine fanatic, was trying to accomplish in the 19th century. Mother Nature foiled him, but the Zonin family was not to be discouraged. Gianni Zonin unveiled his vineyards here in 1976. The first planting did not survive. Cuttings were sent (with certification) from California. A nursery came to life, growing and nurturing new vines. Paschina was recruited 17 years ago to elevate Barboursville out of obscurity. He isn’t done yet but big strides have occurred.

“I came with a mandate,” he said. “We are now to the point where we can claim this is a wine region. It only comes with time. This is one of the most historically significant regions in America.”

In addition to the vineyards, the tasting room and a new museum opened just last year, Barboursville is the site of charming 1804 Inn (left) and an adjacent guest cottage with two suites. Plus, there is an acclaimed Italian restaurant, Palladio, which offers a four-course prix fix menu ($70 not including wine). Short drives away are the historic homes of Jefferson (Monticello) and fellow Virginia icon James Madison (Montpelier).

History was made here before and will be again, it seems.

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