Wines to bring back from Italy

Jay’s post about Paris made me think of Italy…I’ll be going there later this year and while I know my wines and what I’d like…I’d love to know what I may be able to get a good “deal” on while in Italy. I’m guessing Barolo will be my focus…but it may also include Tuscany…or hell, and great deals on French wines I find in a wine store. Any thoughts/experiences shopping in Italian wine stores I should be looking for?

Also…I’m realizing this might be the year I invest in a wine check bag…

Not sure where you’re going… But I would stick up on the top wines of Ar. Pe. Pe., which are top shelf and trade at a hefty discount to stateside.

You can also have a wine shop ship a case or two back home - there is obviously cost, but many of us non-ballas have to pay for checked bags anyway, and then it’s just a lot easier not having to drag it through the airports.

I had some shop in Montalcino (Enoteca di Piazza) send back a mixed case for myself of wines I liked that were at good prices. And I cobbled together another case to check on the plane with various special bottles I found here and there.

I guess these days, you can look up wines on WSPro from over there and see if they’re available in the US and at what price. Though it’s more fun to get caught up in the moment and to buy them there than to expect you’re going to order them all from your computer back at home, which you probably won’t end up doing.

Where are you headed to Kirk? Generally speaking Italian wines will be less expensive in Italy than they will be in the US. That doesn’t hold true when you shop some of the sales in the US market. The EU market tends to offer less “blow out” sales. Within the EU market I find French wines are a terrible deal in Italy and Italian wines are a similarly terrible deal in France. I’ve never shipped wine back to the US and I imagine it will add a significant incremental cost which might make the “deals” over here seem less appealing. I suggest you consider buying one of the travel cases (like the one Todd sells) and plan on carrying home a case on your flight.

Kirk -
In general, if you can buy at the cellar door you can get great deals. Many of the top producers sell at the same price at the cellar that they sell to distribution, unlike most of the world (California especially). So wines like Guiseppe Rinaldi are < 50 Euro. That said, in Piemonte many of the top producers don’t make much wine so unless you get lucky they really don’t have too much to sell to you.

For retail, I have found that big city prices are almost always better than the small towns in wine regions. Alba for instance is way more than Milan on most Barolo. Exceptions exist of course, and city wine retailers have a high variance in price too

Some wines I’ve found to be MUCH cheaper in Italy - IF you can find them… Giuseppe Rinaldi, Bartolo Mascarello, Cappellano, Quintarelli, Dal Forno, Valentini & Emido Pepe (Pepe is ~ 23 Euro, ex VAT). Ar Pe Pe is a good suggestion although people in retail I’ve talked to said it’s very difficult for them to get.

Luckily I don’t pay baggage fees so I bring back 20 bottles every time I go to Milan (coincidentally I’m picking up my purchases today, happily). Newark customs always asks what is in the bag, but never had to pay a dime of duties (and even if you did it would be on volume not value). One final point is you don’t get 100% of your VAT back - typically between the portion the gov’t doesn’t refund and fees you end up paying about an 8% VAT (instead of 20%+). Just watch the refund lines at airports -they can be long.

All, thank you very much. We will be going in and out of Milan with minimal time there. 3 days in Venice, 3 days in Alba, & 6 days in San Gimignano. A great note about AR PE PE…I just had one with Doug that was pretty freaking awesome. I’ve noted that 2010 Mascarello is only 120 over there…however, I don’t see those staying around for another 9 months. It sounds like it might be worth finally trying to get some Emidio Pepe wines an others. THANK YOU ALL for the GREAT suggestions. I’m also really hoping to stock up on some Tuscan Merlots that I’ve really started to love more recently.

Buy the wines now and ask them to set them aside for you if you have concerns about availability in 9 months. Current vintages will have been sent out of the wineries at that point in time and the pickins might be slim at the cellar door. Try calling / emailing ahead (i.e. now) and ask if you can reserve + pay for wines now and pick them up in 9 months. I suggest “trying” to include an Italian translation if you communicate by email with vendors + wineries. You can use google translate (not the most reliable) or ask a local university prof (more reliable but will probably cost you a bottle!). People respond when they see other people making an effort. Simply writing in English can go unanswered whereas an English + Italian email shows them you want to exchange with them badly enough you will “learn” a new language.

Kirk,
In Oct, I spent 4 days in the Valtelline, 4 days in AltoAdige, 5 days in Friuli. All out in the countryside…no big cities. Then on to Slovenia/Ljubljana, Austria, Suisse for 2 weeks.
I found the wines at the wineries about half the price in Euros as in $'s in the US. Brought back 6 btls in checked styro shipper. In & out of Malpensa.
If I were you, and the trip focus is wine, I’d blow off Venice and spend it out in the countryside of Friuli, particularly the Karst.
The ArPePe Nebbs are terrific. More traditional, in Chiuro, is Balgera. Ciapponi is an incredible shop in Morbegno if you get up there.

And the food there in Italy is not so shabby, either.
Tom

Wow, I am dying to do that this weekend! Great great great advice. Off to track down a bottle of Balgera. That’s a new name to me. Thanks Tom!

In Montalcino we had wines shipped back from a small wine shop. On the shipping label they put sample with no value… so no VAT. Shipping was 65 for 6 pack, 85 for case. The wines themselves were easily $15-20 less per bottle so it was still decent value getting there vs here.

Had the best pasta of our 2 week trip there at a small enoteca… fun place, need to go back

San Gimignano is nice, be sure to check out Siena and visit Il Logge for a meal…

The wines of E Pepe are also a great suggestion. If you’re going through Milan you should be able to get ar.pe.pe. there

re: B. Mascarello, there is a big premium for the 2010’s right now. The 2011’s are ~ 80 euro (first release was ~ 55 euro). You can find vintages like 2006 for 105 euro. [All prices ex-VAT]

Also, don’t forget to drink some good wine in restaurants. Typically the current vintages of G. Rinaldi are 80-90 Euro on restaurant lists if available

Paul,
We spent two days at Balgera w/ Paola and his sister, Daniela. First day Daniela toured us for almost 3 hrs of their vnyds. Absolutely heroic viticulture.
Whilst Paola dealt w/ Italian inspectors. Next day, they tasted w/ us for about 2 hrs & toured us thru the wnry. The wines are pretty traditional, but well-made/
clean and not at all rustic. Right in the heart of Chiuro. Ristorante San Carlo, just as you turn into Chiuro is excellent for dinner w/ classic Valtelline food.
Unfortunately, when we were there, Isabella was in the USofA, so we didn’t get to visit ArPePe.
Tom

Sadly, the market has arbitraged away much of the price differential with Barolo. Circa 2000 you could buy wines at the cellar door for maybe 50% of US retail prices. The last time I was in the Langhe, in 2011, the cellar door prices often were little different from retail here. I limited my purchases to back vintages, for the most part. The fall in the euro should help, though.

If you need shippers, there is a box factory at the base of Castiglione Falletto, on the north side of the main Alba-Barolo road. They sell boxes and styro liners very cheaply.

I’d look for good vintage Cappellano ‘Franco’ as that’s all but impossible to find here. 2010, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2001, etc, etc.

The Mail Boxes Etc. is about 5 min drive outside of Alba toward Barolo, Catiglione Falletto. On corso Europa I think. This is a pretty good store in Alba on the back side, about 5 min walk from Piazza Savona. They do NOT have styro-shipping boxes.

At the wineries, I think the best question is to ask what they have that they don’t export. We got some great wine that way.

We brought back 2 cases from Italy when we went in 2012. A wine shop just outside of Montalcino packed everything up for us and made handy-dandy handles for each box out of rope and tape. It was obviously still a bit of a pain to carry from the rental car return to the airport, but not a big deal. No problem with customs on this end.

We bought a mixture of well-known Barolo and Brunello mostly, although we also picked up a few bottles of interesting wines that aren’t sold in the US. We spent about $1600 and figure we saved about $900 on the two cases over what we could buy the wine for here in the US, taking into account tax and/or shipping. I think John is right; the arbitrage opportunities have probably lessened a bit in the last few years. But based on what we’ve seen since in France, Austria, and Germany, there are still substantial deals to be had.

Also, while Milan may very well be cheaper than Alba for current releases (we didn’t notice that, but we didn’t really shop for wine in Milan), Alba has (or at least had 4 years ago) some wine shops with pretty extensive selections of older bottles gathering dust. For example, we found 2 bottles of 2001 G. Mascarello Villero in a basement annex selling for about $35 each. There may be some storage issues, but we’ve since opened one, and it seemed sound.

I’d definitely do it again.

John - re: cellar door, true for some, but very untrue for others. Wines like Gaja, Conterno, even Brovia are almost the same as in the US (maybe more in the case of Gaja, where you can find sales). But others are drastically cheaper. G. Rinaldi & Bartolo Mascarello are < 50 Euro, Cappellano is much cheaper (I haven’t been cellar door, but I bought 2010 Rupestris for 39 Euro ex VAT,75 Euro for the Pie Franco from Retail), Produtorri Crus are ~ 25 Euros. Outside of Piemonte, Quintarelli & Dal Forno are 50% cheaper and many other examples. You definitely find some true value

Regardless where I travel to I attempt to bring bottles home I cannot find stateside or are substantially discounted at the cellar door vs US retail. Last Italy trip I brought bottles from Valtellina and Alto Adige that aren’t sent to the US and bottles from Vietti and Foradori that were 50-60% of the US prices. A Wine Check with a shipper inside is golden. (You are welcome Todd)