It seems like the last 14 years have just speeded by and when I saw my good friend Giogio Rivetti last night at our tasting here at the store I found it hard to believe that it was only 1999 that La Spinetta released their first vintages of single vineyard Barbarescos- the 1995 Gallina. Then came the 1996 Starderi a year later and finally the 1997 Valierano and the trio of single vineyard wines from Barbaresco were complete. These three wines quickly became some of the most sought after wines from the Barbaresco region. It was only 1977 that the family began making wines under the La Spinetta label and the Moscato D'Asti was the first wine in the line-up to gain recognition of their peers and the rest is history.
They added the old vines Barberas with the 1998 vintage and the Barolo Campe coming on line with the 2000 vintage and then finally the Casanova estate a few years later in Tuscany. This year the estate in Tuscany has released their first offering of Chianti and Wine Watch was the first wine store to share this new wine with our wine drinking people along with a few other first releases; the 2006 Bordini Barbaresco and the 2006 Garretti Barolo.
One thing that all of the wines from La Spinetta have in common is they are made in the vineyards. Giorgio studied winemaking for a decade in Italy and then for a harvest at Chateau Margaux in Bordeaux and then a harvest at Domaine de la Romanee Conti in Burgundy. It was in France where he saw the innovations and the clean winemaking that was essential in his philosophy of farming for flavors and then making sure that they do not see dirty barrels or bad winemaking techniques in the winery. This is the secret to making great wines- being a great farmer and a conscientious winemaker. If this means that his fruit sees the $1500 barriques instead of the $600 barriques so be it. When you put this much effort into green harvest, organic viticulture and investing in the best vineyards with old vines, why put this killer juice in anything but the best possible oak.
There are some in the Piedmont that feel that new oak just clouds the true essence of the Nebbiolo varietal and the terroir of this great wine producing region but if you taste these wines you will see that they are incredibly typical of this region and have seamless integration of oak along with all the fresh earth, perfume and spice that is the piedmont.
We also revealed the newest project from La Spinetta, the Contratto winery which we predict will soon become the marquee sparkling wine producer from the Piedmont as everything the Rivetti's touch seems to turn to gold.
Some of you may wonder when we sent out the announcement about this event, we did not. This event sold out a week prior to the date, so there was no need to send an e-mail out to promote the event. It seems that Giorgio has some fans here in South Florida as the event had no price on it. It seems both the Wine Watch and La Spinetta were enough to get our wine drinking people to commit to this event and I don't think that anyone was let down as Toni made an incredible meal to accompany the 12 La Spinetta wines that were on the table this evening.
