Friday 29 January 2010

Going backwards?

This Blog seeks diversity in wine but recently we wonder if things are going the other way.

Two days ago we received an email from the International Riesling Foundation (founded in 2008: www.drinkriesling.com) welcoming us to the “Wonderful World of Riesling.” Nothing wrong in that but the fact that someone in the US felt the need to found a lobby to encourage Americans to drink Riesling is worrying for those of us with hopes the world was about to embrace Vernaccia Nera and Encruzado some time soon.

Also this month Decanter interviews another great and good gent whose ‘taste is French, specifically Bordeaux, and [who] seems unwilling to step out of his bubble.’ A restaurateur of our acquaintance mentioned that in a new venture he wouldn’t be making too much of a feature of his wine list and even Jancis’s FT pieces seem to have dwelt rather more on Bordeaux and Burgundy than usual. Are we getting paranoid?

Just in case we at Slotovino are going a bit fast for some of the rest of you, we will meet you halfway just this once with a fantastic Barbera d’Asti “Stradivario” (Bava)
from the Gura di Cocconato vineyard in Monferrato ordered by The Maestro at ‘Metodo Classico’, one of the world’s best and most sympathetic restaurants (via Guglielmo Calderini 64, 00196 Roma. Tel: 06 3244262, Fax: 06 3244262, email: metodoclassicoroma@hotmail.it) http://www.diningcity.com/rome/ristorantemetodoclassico/index_it.jsp.

The Maestro has been a reliable source of recommendations in the past. He chose an equally fine Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (if that is not a contradiction in terms) the previous year at the same restaurant.

So there you have it: no need now for an International Barbera Foundation: Avanti, Maglioppo we say!

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