- Gaja's Agronomist for 15 Years
- Gaja Is the Benchmark Modern Italian Producer for a Reason
- His Grapes Are Consistently Stunning
- Now Curtaz Is Leveraging His Brilliant Skills at Agronomy
- To Make Classically Styled Wines
- The Results Are Eye Opening ... Stunning Examples of Winemaking
- Very, Very, Important New Producer
- I Have No Idea How I Got This Estate
2010 Montepepe Bianco Grand Vintage
- Tastes Like Viognier Grown in Chassagne
- Only 90 Cases Made
- The Minerality You Want from Burgundy
- With the Gorgeous (but Contained) Florality of Viognier
- One of the Great White Wines of Italy- Maybe The Best?
- Nose: So Pretty
- Classic Viogner Florals but Moderated by Vermentino
- A Glorious, Enticing Floral Mineral Melange
- Deep but Not Unctuous Perfume
- An English Garden in Spring
- Palate Freshness Belies Its Age
- A Perfectly Well Made Wine
- Sexy Fruit in a Dior Gown
- Almost Sweet Minerals
- Perfect Texture
- A Wine of Perfection Like Great White Burgundy
2011 Montepepe Rosso Riserva Speciale
- Syrah / Massaretta Blend
- Nose: Almost Rougeardish
- Incredibly Elegant
- Gorgeous Florals
- Big Lilacs, Raspberry Flowers
- Wine Geek Aromatherapy
- Palate: Delicious Sweet Fruit
- Yet Elegant and Regal
- Floral Bouquet Extract
- Stunningly Delicious Fruit...
- ...But The Floral Aromatics Are the Drivers
- Stylistically like Classic Viognier
- Great Out of the Gate
- Should Age for 5-10 Years At Least
- These Are $100 Aromatics ($35.99)
How on Earth Have I Never Heard of This Estate? / My Federico Curtaz Man Crush
My Man Crush on Federico CurtazFirst, let me be honest about this. I've had a man crush on Federico Curtaz for a few years. Curtaz was the agronomist at Gaja for 15 years. Yes, Gaja makes modern wines but they are very well made in greatt part because his vineyard work is incredible. And Federico Curtaz had a big role in that as Gaja's agronomist for 15 years. Curtaz has a winery in Sicily and I loved his wines. They had this Fassy energy on the palate and they were perfectly balanced. Terrific wines. Alas, Curtaz is represented in the US, so it was not to be.
So I went about my business and one of my secret sources popped up this random hotel in Tuscany which was getting a ton of buzz in the far reaches of geeky Italian wine circles. You'll never guess who grew the grapes and made the wines... yup Federico Curtaz. I got some samples sent over and the wines are miraculous. I haven't met with the estate yet so I have no idea how a Piedmontese winemaker who owns an estate in Sicily got to work with a small hotel in Tuscany. Or why a small hotel in Tuscany is growing Viognier and Syrah. Or what Massaretta (a red grape that they use) is all about. Frankly, the wines are so great that I don't care. And to be honest, this story is all about Federico Curtaz. When I can travel again, I'll get over there and tell you all the back story. Until then, I can only give you the strongest advice to buy both of these wines, especially the white. The red is incredible and an amazing value but the white is an iconic wine that will shatter your preconceptions about both Viognier and Italian wines.
The Wines
The first wine is the 2010 Montepepe Bianco Grand Vintage for $69.99 a bottle on a 3 pack purchase. This is hands down one of the great white wines in Italy and for my palate, it may be the best. A totally unique bottle of wine - a Viognier/Vermentino blendfrom Tuscany - how could it not be? As I've said before, some of the great wines in the world are things that don't appear to make sense - certainly most of the great wine values are.
The nose is just drop dead gorgeous. Heaven in a bottle. It makes sense. Viognier has some of the best florals of any grape on earth. But it can be too much. It gets obnoxious at times. And Vermentino is mineral but not that pretty. The combination is stunning. You get the classic Viognier florals but they are interlaced with gorgeous but subtle minerals. As this opens, it's perfume. Deep, dense and beautiful perfume that is dense but not unctuous. An English garden in Spring. It's that good. Utterly world class nose. It is like a blend of Condrieu and sea salt. Very intriguing. Apricot pit. Floral and mineral up the wazoo but it's stunningly complex as the layers integrate. Now some terroir notes are coming through. Nose is nuanced and complex but needs one hour to get there. Huge spice. Very floral. Like an elite condrieu but much earthier and reminiscent of white burgundy. Gorgeous citrus. Really needs a bit of air here to get going. Sick Sugar cane after a few hours.
The palate is equally insane. One of very few wines where the promise of the aromatics is met in full by
the expression on the palate. Palate is epic. Juicy, structured, deep and very complex. Super dry on the finish. Really lingers as well. There is a perfect balance between the fruit, minerality, richness and acidity. You get like this creeping palate conquest. You sip it and you're like, "that's good" and then as you swish it sort of creeps across your mouth and gradually takes it over. You get that moderated floral, lightly tropical Viognier fruit with just this perfect balance of minerality and acidity. This is sounding a bit geeky, and the geeks (especially Champagne geeks) are going to go crazy over this but it's also a wine of pure pleasure. Utterly fantastically delicious. Acidity is excellent and there is lovely balance and it definitely floats on your palate. Great concentration, energy and depth. Perfect texture. Rhone Viognier can be a bit heavy - this is ethereal. Silky but present. A very Burgundian weight - basically 1er Cru Chassagne Montrachet. After 2 hours it really gets insane. Palate is now gaining finesse and has no hard edges. Gorgeous structure and finesse. Really massive 1er cru/grand cru elite white burg structure. Long finish. Amazing how young this shows. Awesome finish. This needs a few years or a 2 hours decant. And yes I know it's 11 year old Tuscan white wine!!
The finish is super long. Very mineral, of course, but you get a lingering, long floral essence. Very delineated on the finish and superbly mineral. Elite white Burgundy minerality here.
This wine is perfectly about to enter its drinking window. It's still fresh as a daisy with great structure. I would drink over the next 10-12 years and maybe wait 2-3 as yes this is Viognier/Vermentimo but structure does not lie and this wine has the structure of elite and I mean elite white Burgundy.
The second wine is the 2011 Montepepe Rosso Riserva Speciale for $35.99 each on a 4 pack purchase. I'm not sure I've ever sold a wine like this before. This is $50 fruit for sure but $100+ aromatics - quite an unusual asymmetry.
The aromatics are utterly elite. Like $100+ a bottle good. Like Clos Rougeard good. Elite levels of elegant florals. Raspberry flowers, lilacs. A hint of spice flower. Almost a melange of medium dark flowers. Very nuanced. Almost an extract of a floral bouquet. Constantly evolving and revealing different florals as it aerates.
This is the kind of wine that you can just sit and sniff all night and neither drink it nor eat anything and you will have a great night. Basically wine geek aromatherapy.
The palate is delicious. Really good sweet fruit. But it almost has an elegant regal aspect to it. Curtaz definitely has a deft hand as to how to grow grapes and when to pick them and you can really taste it in this wine. The fruit is very good but he doesn't want too much fruit because the fruit is not what the wine is about. It's like a Pavarotti aria. The fruit is the instrumentals and the aromatics are the singer. As this wine opens, you get that swirling floral extract that just sings above the fruit. It's utterly stunning. More like classic very good Viognier in style which, of course, makes no sense.
This is a blend of Syrah and Massaretta. Of course there would be Syrah in a Tuscan wine - what else would make sense if you are growing Viognier? And all I can find on Massaretta is that it is a very rare local grape (you can put that down as one of my more obvious comments). Again - I have not visited the estate but I will as soon as I can travel.
The Winery
Montepepe is a hotel, spa and winery with 5 hectares of grapes. It looks quite luxurious and you can get a grape seed massage or bathe in wine. There is little detail on winemaking other than the fact that they have one of Italy's superstars growing their grapes and making their wines. They also have very cool modern labels. It's on the Tuscan coast 2 miles form the Ocean in the area known as the Tuscan Riviera (Viareggio, Forte dei Marmi, etc.). Da Romano, one of my favorite Italian restaurants, is there for what it's worth.
2010 Montepepe Bianco Grand Vintage - $71.99 ($209.97 3-pack)
2011 Montepepe Rosso Riserva Speciale - $37.99 ($143.96 4-pack)
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