Don's Gillette's Weekly Wine Blog
Weekly musings from our store's resident wine guru
Don has over thirty years experience in the wine industry. For the last eighteen years his attention has been focused on the growing local industry. Don has a large following of customers who search out his opinions (never in short supply!) on new releases and on what's currently most distinctive on our shelves. Others seek his insights on wineries and trends that are still under the radar. Check back here each week for Don's latest thoughts on various wine-related topics. Read Don's full bio...
Email Don directly with your wine-related questions.
Mediterranean Fantasies...
I see more television than I want to and some of that under duress. I have a teenage daughter, and time spent watching American Idol etc., is extra time I get with her. There is a program though, on the local PBS affiliate, that has me addicted.
International Mystery Night, is two hours long and shows, in rotation, four imported mysteries each month. One might be a Finnish who-done-it, another a German version of an American-style cop drama, or a Russian production of Sherlock Holmes. Once per month we get to watch great Italian television.
Before his death, Andrea Camilleri wrote some eight novels and 20 or so short stories about a fictional Sicilian police chief and gourmand: Inspector Montalbano. The Montalbano books are brilliantly written, wonderfully portraying life in that rocky, sea-bound place. They were hugely popular in Europe and eventually each story became a movie produced for Italian television.
Bob Long, of Long Vineyards, had turned me onto the books in the 1990s, as the English translations began to appear. Before his death, Camilleri participated in the production of the stories for Italian television, so everything about them was authentic, and the casting and cinematography were especially brilliant. They were filmed in the ancient Sicilian town of Ragusa, which is renamed Vigata, in the stories. When they appeared on San Francisco TV, I was hooked immediately.
What does this have to do with wine?. Well, each story follows both a mystery and Montalbano's passion for Sicilian sea-foods. For a California kid like me, it is remarkable just to see him sit down, amidst the beautiful settings in that ancient place, to eat seafood caught and prepared just hours before. I am driven to distraction, as the chef approaches Montalbano's table with a platter of freshly caught sardines to say: "I know three equally perfect ways to prepare these wonderful fish. Which would be your personal preference?".
At that point I usually find myself fantasizing over which wine I would drink with that fish, were I lucky enough to be served. Should it be a steely Diatom or Peay Chardonnay, or a Palmina Pinot Gris? Recently I had, for the first time, a California Vermentino. Vermentino is a grape variety native to Sicily, and the gorgeous 2007 Mahoney Vermentino from the Las Brisas Vineyard in Carneros, sent my imagination into free fall!
Lately, every time I taste a wonderfully vivid new white wine (and there have been plenty of terrific 2007s), I imagine stone verandas with Mediterranean views. I see myself looking down at Squid Ink Risotto, or a plate of perfectly seasoned grilled Octopus. If this keeps up I will have to get a passport, or at least set up a table at the beach.
