Tenuta Grillo, The Wizard of Piedmont: Our Most Interesting Italian White and Our New Cult Producer

As most of you know, we recently launched our Italian portfolio (E-Mail me if you didn't get the Barolo offer).  Every country in the Fass Selections Portfolio has its winemaker who is phenomenally talented, but who is also making wine that is not only incredible but also so different that you sit there trying to figure out what the heck it is that you are drinking.  In Italy, it's Tenuta Grillo.

First, I really do not care for most Italian white wine.  It's not that it's all bad (although a lot of it is) it's that it's just generally over fruited, lacking in minerality and rather dull.  Second, I am also not a fan of white wines made with extended skin contact (often called orange wines) as they tend to all taste the same.

So why am I offering the 2009 Tenuta Grillo Baccabianca ($27.99 each for a 4 pack).  Well,

because it's genius and a unique work of art along the lines of the wines of Puffeney, Berlioz, Thierry Germain, Weltner and other "unicorn"/ cult wine producers.  Describing this wine is almost impossible as, like other great works of art, it's unique.  Spend an hour with it and try and write a tasting note.  I dare you.  It's impossible, much like describing the Mona Lisa by first describing her ear and then her nose, etc.  The overall effect of the painting is what matters and that is very hard to describe.  So here it goes.  First, the color which is borderline gold and faded tangerine.  The nose is just crazy. The aromatics are off the hook.  Nutty.  Creamy.  They change every five minutes.  The palate is really hard to describe.  Hints of passion fruit, but not overly fruity.  Creamy.  Some nut overtones.  Tea notes flit in and out.  Some soft tannins.  There is stunning juiciness that is unique in that it hits all over the inside of your mouth like a juicy explosion.  There is also awesome balance with wonderful mineral notes.  It's one of those wines that is so well made and integrated you have to concentrate to pick out flavor elements, almost like the wines of Laible.  The finish is long, long, long, complex and mineral.  It leaves you speechless at the end as your brain

The Winemaker's Winemaker
There are a lot of winemakers on my list and this is going to be a wine that a lot of them buy.  Why?  Because not only is the wine delicious and fascinating but because it really shows what you can do with extended skin contact in white wines.  I find most orange wines boring as they tend to all taste the same.  This wine is a delicious outlier.  Guido believes that many orange wines are picked late and are aged in wood which gives them the particular taste that they have.  He avoids that by picking when the grapes become ripe and ageing in steel.  In any case, if you are a winemaker (or just a wine lover) this is a wine that you really have to try to comprehend this new experience. This is, like Laible, a wine of contemplation.  It's awesome with food so if you get a lot of it, you'll love it with food.  If you just get a bottle or two, it's the greatest aperitif wine in the world because of its complexity.  Please drink it by itself if you only get a bottle - it's an experience that deserves your full attention.  The wine is 100% Cortese and has 2 months of skin contact, aged in stainless steel and then in bottles.

The second wine is a Barbera aged in wood for 12-18 months, but it's also very, very different.  Delicious, but different.  Everyone will love the 2006 Tenuta Grillo Igiea (100% Barbera) for $27.99 for a 4 pack.  First, how awesome is it that we get to drink 10 year old Barbera for under $30?  The wine tastes of cherry fruit, but old, mature, rich, wonderful cherry fruit.  It's very, very different.  The crazy thing is that the wine still has great freshness.  There is definitely some cherry spice on the palate, which makes no sense because cherries are not spicy but trust me, that's what it tastes like.  The tannins are sort of there but not there, floating in and out of the picture -, so well integrated.  The finish is really, really long with deep cherry fruit echoing for about a minute.  Two bottles were tasted - one four days old and it was still fresh.  This wine still has another 10 plus years in it.  On one level this wine is so inexpensive you can just drink it whenever you want - it's really incredibly delicious.  On another level, this is a really special bottle of wine and it almost seems wrong to just drink it with pizza.  I should probably charge $50 for it because it's that good and that interesting and I want people to appreciate it for what it is but my model creates low prices and it is what it is.  By the way, the wine is so good that the winemaker named it after his wife.

Guido Zampaglione lives with his wife and children about an hour Northeast of Barolo in a little town called Gamalero.  He has an absolutely beautiful farm with lots of gorgeous furniture from his family in Calabria.  His grandmother made wine and he bought the farm about a decade ago and works it with one assistant.  He has 17 hectares but sells most of the fruit so he can focus on the 5-6 hectares that produce really special fruit.  I assume that the cash from selling the grapes allows him to hold back his wines until they are ready to drink, often a decade after they are bottled.  He is 100% natural and organic.  The white is unfiltered because he feels that this creates a natural preservative which enables him to limit the use of added sulfur.  Like Ferdinando Principiano (our first Piedmont offer, e-mail us for us details), he's also a quality and approach zealot but in a much more understated almost professorial way.  He and his wife are really incredibly, incredibly nice people.  Oh, his wines are also served at Turin's coolest natural wine bar, Banco, as well as its sister restaurant.  The winery is located in Piedmont about an hour northeast of Barolo.

2009 Tenuta Grillo "Baccabianca" - $29.99 ($111.96 4 pack) 

2006 Tenuta Grillo Barbera "Igiea"- $29.99 ($111.96 4 pack)