Benvenuto! Stories from Small Vineyards in Italy

My recent trip to Italy was largely restricted to Roma, which is located in the region of Lazio. The professor shepherding my small group of students suggested we taste mostly Lazio wines, preaching that the difference between a tourist and a traveler is an interest in what their immediate surroundings offer. Tourists would insist on only trying wines from the regions their guide book declared to be the best, while true travelers would immerse themselves in the wines from Lazio, suppressing the urge to drink strictly those from Toscana and Piemonte. Tourist is a detestable name anywhere, and so to avoid being labeled one I stuck with Lazio. They tasted fantastic to my young palate, but nothing like the portfolio Small Vineyards presented yesterday.

The people at Small Vineyards seemed just as focused on presenting the incredible histories behind each estate as they did on selling cases of wine. Each bottle had a story behind it, and more than a couple of them are worth telling here. From wild Porsche rides through Tuscany to a chauvinistic father proven wrong, these Italian winemakers have a past in keeping with the volatile history of their country.

Let’s start with the maker of the best Pinot Grigio I have ever tasted. Edi Simcic comes from a family that has experienced adversity above and beyond the usual trouble of dealing with vineyard overheads. At the end of WWII the Simcic lands were part of the division of Slovenia from Italy, leaving Edi on the Slovenian side without his girlfriend – who was a mere 500 yards away in Italy, but across a hotly contested boarder. The communist government eventually seized the rights to a large portion of the family’s grapes, crippling their ability to produce fine wines. Eventually Edi and his son Aleks were able to get the vineyard back on track after the fall of the Iron Curtain, producing what many critics call the best wines in Slovenia.

My favorite Edi Simcic of the day -

Wine: Sivi Pinot Riserva

Varietals: 100% Pinot Grigio

Tasting Notes: Bouquet of green pear, honey-cream with a retained acidity despite its 2005 vintage.

The next anecdote involved a man known as ‘Il Maestro’ by both fans and colleagues, Antonio Sanguineti. A member of the small vineyards team had the privilege (or punishment, depending on your sense of adventure) of taking a ride across Northern Italy with Il Maestro. Italy is scary enough when you are driving yourself, but launching through country roads with a seemingly maniacal winemaker could be considered the quickest way to meet your maker. Luckily the Small Vineyards employee survived and was able to relate what it felt like to see Sanguineti smoke a cigar and yell into his phone over the aria blasting from his speakers – all the while his car topping 200 km/hr. There was a lot of nervous laughter, then we tasted the wine.

My favorite Sanguineti -

Wine: Brunello di Montalcino DOCG

Varietals: 100% Sangiovese Grosso

Tasting Notes – They say smell is the best memory sense; this wine brought me back to a small restaurant in Roma Antica where I sat with my professor and enjoyed a Tuscan Sangiovese wine – except Sanguineti’s was unspeakably better. In fact, all I heard were groans and “ahhs” from satisfied wine merchants in the room. Perfectly balanced, the Brunello is silky smooth and “amazingly approachable” after 42 months in French Oak Barrique.

The tasting came to a close with a Moscato D’Asti from Tre Donne (3 women). Daniela, Rosanna and Antonella Lequio are the three daughters of Alessandro Lequio, a winemaker from Piemonte. Alessandro’s wife said her husband was so disappointed in his lack of a male heir, he cried for half an hour when the youngest daughter was born. Determined to prove their father’s gender prejudices wrong, the girls all became enologists and suggested they take over the family business. Alessandro, doubting their ability to produce a great wine, agreed to hand over the family estate if they could pass his gauntlet of tests, the final one being the production of a wine to be judged by their father. To his surprise, the girls, now women, produced a fantastic wine – and a portfolio that would result in more awards than Alessandro himself had ever won.

My thanks to the people of Small Vineyards for a tasty and informative event!

- Matt Fender