TN: Dinner with the Vajra Family (and now visit too)

Before dinner, I visited the winery:

http://www.finewinegeek.com/tn/2016-07_Piedmont/2016-07-03_Vajra-Winery/


DINNER WITH THE VAJRA FAMILY - Locanda dell’Arco, Cissone, Cuneo, Italy (7/3/2016)

Dinner with Giuseppe, Francesca, and Isi Vajra at Locanda dell’Arco in the lovely mountaintop town of Cissone. Cissone is about 16km southeast of the town of Barolo. The restaurant Locanda dell’Arco is justifiably famous. Owner Giuseppe Giordano is the perfect host.

Photos and more info here:
http://www.finewinegeek.com/tn/2016-07_Piedmont/2016-07-03_Vajra_Arco/

• 2011 G.D. Vajra Langhe Riesling Petracine - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC
  [Ordered from the restaurant list. Served chilled. Pop & pour. Giuseppe said they make 12,000 bottles of this. First made in 1989, but had to be labeled “Langhe Bianco” (no “Riesling”) until this vintage. I think this is the first Riesling from Piedmont that I’ve tasted.]
  Muted nose of slate and lemon custard. Soft, rich, clean, and crisp in the mouth. Dry. Impressively complex and expansive. On the lush side compared to a typical German Grosses Gewächs. I could drink this all night. Goes beautifully with the classic Piemontese appetizers. (93 pts.)
• 2012 G.D. Vajra Barolo Albe - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
  [No label on the bottle. Just bottled this Friday (2 days ago). This is the second bottling of this wine. The first bottling was in the summer 2015 at the same time as the bottling of the 2012 Bricco delle Viole.] Really ripe young fruit. Delicious to drink but so clearly in need of time to come together after bottling. Should be an excellent value. (92 pts.)
• 2012 G.D. Vajra Barolo Bricco delle Viole - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
  Ripe black fruit nose is surprisingly complex for such a young wine. In the mouth there is ripe black fruit and soft tannin, as well as that ethereal quality that is so characteristic of Bricco delle Viole. Good length. (94 pts.)
• 2012 Luigi Baudana Barolo Baudana - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
  Dark black fruit nose. Incredibly intense in the mouth. Lacks the lift of the Bricco delle Viole, but has that classic Serralunga intensity. A very different wine from the Bricco delle Viole, but also quite good. (93 pts.)
• 1990 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Cascina Francia - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
  Bought off the list. Pop & pour. Tight at first with a muted nose of spice and black fruit with a hint of bark mulch. Opening slowly over time. After an hour, it is really starting to sing. Still young with plenty of upside. Becoming more expressive as it opens. 95-? (95 pts.)

The food and the setting were wonderful, only to be matched by the wines and the hospitality of the Vajra family.

Posted from CellarTracker

Sounds like a wonderful evening, Ken. I’m envious. Thanks for sharing.

I’ve been most impressed by the Rieslings coming out of Piemonte. In fact, I think most are better than the Arneis (in some cases) and the Cortese that
come from there. As are the Timarassos and Favoritas (Vermentino).
Tom

Interesting. Of course the world already makes lots of good Riesling, but so little Arneis. And I find they are quite different in terms of the food they match with.

Well, most Cortese is boring at best, and I downright dislike most Arneis that I’ve had (bitter, lacking fruit), so I’d rather see a lot more Favorita and Riesling from this area. I’ve only tried two Rieslings from Piedmont, but both have been quite good. Of course, they are not exactly an easy sell. I tried one just the other day that would retail for $30 and was a good value at that, but I didn’t know how I would get more than a couple of people to try that instead of something from Austria, which is what I would most closely compare it to. I’m not saying I want to see lots of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc planted there, and I’m often disappointed at the internationalization of some regions, but I do think there are a lot of native Italian white grapes that lack charm (for most people) and potential for high quality, so they’re not worth a lot of attention.

Great notes, great wines, and really great folks.

I need to put that restaurant on my list for the next time I’m over there…

Notes and pix from the winery visit before the dinner:

http://www.finewinegeek.com/tn/2016-07_Piedmont/2016-07-03_Vajra-Winery/

Thanks for the notes, Ken.

I first tasted their riesling at the cantina in 2011 and was very impressed. I’ve since found bottles here and there (Di Paolo’s wine shop in Little Italy a few years ago; in Stockbridge, Mass. last year and this year; most recently at Columbus Circle wines). The one I bought in May in Stockbridge I believe was a 2011 or 2012. It was still labeled Langhe Bianco, though.

I have not found them richer than a typical Grosse Gewachs. Full-bodied, yes, but still pretty taught in my experience.

As I recall, the Vajra riesling is grown in the Alte Langhe, not in the Barolo zone. Ettore Germano also makes a very good riesling, also grown in the Alte Langhe, I believe. I recall that Oliver McCrum (who imports Germano) said that Vajra and Germano see each other as the competition for riesling in the region.

John, it’s good to know that the Riesling can still learn, as can we all.

Which two Rieslings from Piedmont was it that you tried? There aren’t all that many as far as I am aware, and I can only remember one that I found really convincing: Vajra 2004.

We bought that at the winery when we visited back in 2005. At about 13 euro, I remember I thought it expensive for a wine that didn’t have much of a pedigree (you could easily get a good Alsace Grand Cru for that kind of money) but it did deliver what a Riesling at that price point should deliver and I was quite impressed. I kept one of the bottles around for a few years and was very satisfied with the way it aged too.

During a later visit in the region, I bought a few bottles of the Vajra 2009 at Fracchia and Berchialla in Alba. The price had gone up to some 20 euro at that point (Fracchia rarely charges much more than you’d pay at the wineries in my experience) and I am afraid I found this vintage very disappointing. Still recognizably Rieslinglike so that it could easily be mistaken for a wine from Alsace, Germany or Austria but on a quality-level much lower than the 2004 and one I wouldn’t expect to pay more than five euro for, at most, in a region focusing on Riesling. And I wasn’t the only one to feel that way. I later put the wine into a blind tasting with some friends along with less expensive Rieslings from Alsace, Germany, and Austria and the Vajra placed last for everyone around the table.

In addition to the Vajra in two different vintages, I have also tried Anna Maria Abbona’s L’Alman 2012 and Ca’ del Baio’s Langhe Riesling 2012. Neither was at all reminiscent of Riesling as I know it (Riesling is by far my favorite white grape) and neither was at all attractive to me even if I tried to keep an open mind as to what it should be like. This is so in spite of the fact that Ca’ del Baio is one of my favorite Barbaresco producers (I have liked every Barbaresco I bought from there, Asili, Pora, and Vallegrande in several vintages) and the fact that I have had several bottles of very convincing Dolcetto from Anna Maria Abbona. Possibly, I have tried Ettore Germano’s Herzù as well, but I can’t remember what I thought of it.

At any rate, my experience with Riesling from Piedmont has been hit and miss so far (and more miss than hit). Perhaps, there are good spots for growing Riesling here and there in the area, pretty high up, where the Vajras grow theirs. But it seems the producers need to acquire more familiarity with the variety and the wine-making it requires in order to make something really convincing out of it.

I’ve had better luck with Sauvignon Blanc, where Burlotto (Viridis and Dives, the latter barrel-ferrmented in tonneaux), Poderi La Collina, and Prinsi all make very convincing examples, and do so consistently (I have tried them all in several vintages).

As to Arneis, I used to share your thoughts. But in later years, I have come across several that I like, with considerable freshness and without any bitterness or overly heavy perfumes. Examples include Cozzo Mario Roero Arneis and Poderi La Collina Langhe Arneis Pus-Vej.

I’m surprised at the lack of love for Arneis. I find it to be a white with real flavor and character. I brought a Giacosa Arneis with a few years of age on it to an Indian friend’s home and it paired really well with Tandoori Chicken legs.

The other day, I opened a 2015 Vietti Arneis with a load of fresh veggies we had picked up at a farm stand (heirloom tomatoes and cow mozzarella, summer squash, eggplant). It was perfect. We had spent the day at a local lake, so we were hungry and thirsty and the bottle disappeared in a hurry.

FWIW, I’m a fan of Arneis also. I like its steeliness and I don’t think it is always lacking fruit. (Though perhaps some Piemontese disagree? The only one I could find one a list last week, from the Langhe, but not Barolo,had some Favorita mixed in, a grape with which I was previously unfamiliar.)

As always, thanks for the great pics and notes!

Clever, Ken. I would hope it could be blamed on a well-taut phone.

And some people were better at spelling in school than others.

I’ve always been a terrible speller. I just couldn’t resist the pun.

They were recent vintages of Vajra and Germano. I thought the Germano (2014, I believe) was particularly good.

Thanks. Well, it seems that those are the only two of the few we are aware of that might be really good. But neither is exactly inexpensive (the Germano retailing for more than 15 euro and the Vajra for more than 20 here in Europe) and the competition in the Riesling market very stiff (at least in Europe). I can’t help but wonder if they could get away with those prices if the wines were produced in a region where Riesling is commonly grown.

Retail on both bottlings is $30 here. I think the Germano is easily worth it, but I don’t know how I would convince many people to buy that instead of, say, Brundlmayer.

Yes, I see what you mean. Presumably, these wines primarily find a market in Italy, not least in Piedmont itself, where locally grown “Riesling Renano” (as opposed to “Riesling Italico”) is an oddity/novelty (except in Alto Adige) and, therefore, bound to generate a fair amount of curiousity among wine-interested natives and tourists alike. Elsewhere it seems like a hard sell. Why buy a Riesling from Italy, and a pretty expensive one at that, when there is so much good stuff to be had from those regions where the variety is at home?

I am not familiar with the pricing of Riesling in the US. But in Europe, it is certainly not very difficult to find really good, dry Riesling for less than 20 euro and I very rarely pay more than that. While I have tasted some of the most expensives ones (like Keller’s Abtserde and Dönnhoff’s Hermannshöhle) on a few occasions, and can understand why they cost a pretty penny (it was a treat, and an experience worth the money to try them), that’s not really what I’d like to pay or drink on a more regular basis.

If you have the privilege of sampling the local market and visit the wineries (or buy directly from them via the Internet), as we (my wife and I) do from time to time, it is rather easy to find excellent GC (Alsace), GG (Germany), or equivalent-level wines within a price range from 10 to 20 euro. And great wines of a slighly lower pedigree (“old vines”, “premier cru”) can often be found for less than 10 euro.

This is particularly true if you seek out skillful and quality-conscious producers that do not have the will or the means to fully navigate the international wine market or, in some cases, even the national one, and are therefore not as widely known as they deserve to be in view of the quality. Examples in Alsace include Frédéric Engel, Cave Vinicole de Hunawihr, (Jean-Luc) Mader, Mittnacht-Frères, Frédéric Mochel, Sipp-Mack, Bruno Sorg, (Vincent) Stoeffler, and Guy Wach. On the German side, we are particularly fond of Theo Minges in Pfalz and Paul Schunk in Mosel. In Mosel, Werner also seems to be a good source although we have yet to visit there.

I am less familiar with the Austrian Riesling scene since we do not visit Austria on an equally regular basis. But I am of course aware that Kamptal, Kremstal and Wachau are all excellent Riesling regions and have tasted quite a few wines from there over the years, including those of Willi Bründlmayer, who consistently makes very good wines (and not only from Riesling) in my experience. The same is true about Schloss Gobelsburg nearby.

We were in fact in Austria last year but chose to focus on regions where Riesling is not number one for a change, like Burgenland (famous for its Blaufränkisch) and Styria (well-known for its Sauvignon Blanc). Good Grüner Veltliner (where we prefer the lighter versions; the more ambitious ones are usually not fresh enough for our taste) is everywhere so you don’t really have to hunt for them.

FYI, I was wrong about this. The vines are on several spots at higher elevations within Barolo.

At least in the latest vintage of Vajra’s Riesling that I have tried (2009), it was grown partly in Barolo, partly in Sinio, slightly southeast of Serralunga. Of course, this might conceivably have changed since then or even be vintage-dependent. Ettore Germano’s Riesling is indeed grown in Alta Langa, in Cigliè to be precise, quite some distance south of the Barolo zone.