Patricia Guy’s Diary July 2019

Patricia Guy, English journalist and a friend, has had problems with her website. We are happy to host her column on DoctorWine.

 On Sunday I learned that Franco Zanovello had died. He was a good, kind, sensitive man and a loyal friend, who loved poetry and made outstanding wines. I called his wines Audrey Hepburn wines because they were complex, fascinating and always elegant. It was a pleasure to see him, to talk to him and to be his friend. I will miss him always. My world and the wine world will be a poorer place without him. 

We both admired the poetry of Wislawa Szymborska, he reading it in Italian translation, while I read it in English translation. Here is a link to her poem On Death Without Exaggeration. 

July 23 to 27 The SanGio Video Festival Extravaganza

Our first morning, we hit Maculan. The last time I had visited this historic winery was over 20 years ago. I even had an ageing bottle of Torcolato from that visit quietly turning brown in my wine closet until a month ago when I decided to put it out of its misery. The wine is long lived but the incredible heat that has plagued us in the last couple of years had taken its toll on that particular bottle. Torcolato is a passito wine, the grapes are semi-dried for around 4 months before pressing. 

Here is my note on the Torcolato di Breganze 2015 Maculan (100% Vespaiolo) we tasted during the visit. Fragrance: the idea of apricots, with a floral infusion, and a honied note. Flavor: A touch of green tea. Apricots near the pit, with an undercurrent of acacia honey that carries on into the long finish. Exceptional balance.

We were met at the winery by Fausto Maculan, who gallantly turned things over to his charming daughter Angela. What impressed me about her (aside from her knowledge of the product and the zone) was her ability to remain smiling and upbeat no matter what happened. Examples: 1) one of our cars stalled in the vineyard and was unable to make it up the hill – she cleverly found another route for the jalopy; 2) being asked repeatedly what the total annual production was – 600,000 to 700,000 bottles a year; and 3) dealing with rambling and pointless monologues disguised as questions - like the one about playing music to wines in the cellar – they don’t do that at Maculan.

We visited two of the impressive vineyards: forty-five minutes standing on top of a hill at high noon with a temperature over 104. I am usually a polite and attentive listener during the vineyard discussion…I could not do it in the heat. The only shade was a ten-inch strip under the rows of vines. Elena Gladkova (who has skin as white as magnolias) and freckly me pressed ourselves up against the vines, hoping to keep our exposed arms and legs out of the sun. One of the things that Elena and I talked about while we leaned into the vines was language. Russian has its origins in Sanskrit. Elena said that her language teacher at university said: "If you want to know the history of a country study the language because books can lie, language cannot."

The following day we were hosted by the Cantina Valpolcella Negrar (www.cantinanegrar.it ). Hats off to them! The visit was impeccable. We met at Villa Borghetti (http://www.corteborghetti.com ). Seated in the shade, we were offered cool water and a brief rundown on the company. Then we piled into our cars and were taken to a beautiful shady spot with a panoramic view (and a wall to sit on), where our hosts gave the speech about history and grape varieties. They handed out ball caps to anyone without a hat. What PROs! We then went to the winery headquarters, where we were offered a cool place to sit and WATER! Yes! They showed genuine consideration for the visitors and intelligently factored in difficulties resulting from the intense heat. Yes!

Here is my note on my favorite wine of the tasting: Amarone della Valpolicella Vigneti di Jago 2013. A rich ruby with an old rose sheen. A visceral sensation on the palate, a firm backbone. Flavor: just-ripe cherries and a sprinkling of minerality. The wine is fresh yet rich – a difficult partnership to attain.

This wine made a splash at the 2019 Decanter wine awards, making the list of “the best 50 wines in the world”.

July 13 off to the Mizzon Winey (www.cantinamizzon)

Lorenzo Simeone kindly arranged for us (including Stanley!) to visit the Mizzon winery during one of their Saturday musical evenings. The band, Sin Flower, was composed of excellent musicians (a guitar riff worthy of Eric Clapton) and the lead singer was great (he covered songs by Tina Turner, Queen, The Cranberries, The Police and many more, and manged to make the songs sound like his own and not some parody of the famous original artist). If you are in Verona and looking for a pleasant way to spend an evening….check this out.  

 But enough about music…the wines were very good and the Recioto was a revelation for me. Mizzon’s 2015 was the one of the best I have ever tasted. My Note:

2015 Recioto della Valpolicella from Mizzon Lively, deep ruby. There is an elegance and balance in this wine that I seldom find in other Recioto d. V.s.  A note of black pepper adds structure to the lush fruit. Tasting it really did change my mind about Recioto. So, thank you Lorenzo S. and Giuseppe M. You have opened my mind.  

 July 10 Chatting with Lorenzo

Lorenzo Simeone dropped by to talk about his ideas for a tasting he wants to organize for the Academia di Agricoltura, Scienze e Lettere di Verona. This inevitably led to a discussion of the Valpolicella zone and its wines, local TV wine pundits. and Michael Portillo (as an example of a good TV presenter). We may disagree about many things but the three of us all love Mr. Portillo’s train travel shows.  Time passed and we were heading toward lunch so, I invited Lorenzo to stay.  We cracked open a bottle of Albino Piona’s superb 2018 Bardolino (www.albinopiona.it), which went down a treat. After Lorenzo left, Michael said: “I think we made bella figura (a good impression) with that wine.” Indeed, we did.

July 4 Lunch at Piscaria

We are invited to lunch at Piscaria (Corso Sant'Anastasia, 42 Verona): seafood and fish paired with Buglioni wines (www.buglioni.it) The food was excellent: fresh, top-quality ingredients, imaginative presentation. Of the wines we tasted the one that stood out for me was the 2017 Moli (100% Molinara) sparkling wine. Appealing coppery/pink color. The fragrance is a gentle amalgam of fresh berry fruit. Vibrant on the palate. Fresh sprightly, pleasure. It was just right to sip in a cool restaurant while looking out the window at a sweltering Verona street.