|
YOU ARE HERE >>
Italian Flavor Forum VIII
Loris Scagliarini – November 15, 2007
Photos by C. Lepori, L. Scagliarini
Introduction • The Event • The Buyers' Feedback • The Blind Tasting • The Drawing
Our eighth invitation-only trade show organized in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Italian Flavor Forum VIII, took place on November 14, 2007 at the Museo ItaloAmericano (Italian American Museum), located in the Landmark Building C of Fort Mason, in the heart of the cool San Francisco Marina district.
The Museum is currently exhibiting hand carved and painted wooden nativity scenes from Val Gardena, in the Dolomite area of the Italian Alps, thus the guests sampled the wines and other Italian specialties presented, wandering among gorgeous artisanal pieces which reminded us that Christmas is rapidly approaching.
The weather was great, and actually unusually hot for a November afternoon in San Francisco.
The Event |
|
|
Wines from Azienda Agricola Montalpruno with one of the hand-carved wooden nativity scenes
from Valgardena, Italy, in exhibition at the Museo ItaloAmericano in San Francisco, CA
|
At WineCountry.IT we are very pleased to observe that the guests who participate to the Italian Flavor Forum shows are more and more professionals who are truly interested in the quality Italian wine and food products introduced. The turnout was very satisfying, with the first guests actually sneaking in before the official 2PM show opening, and continuing steadily until closing time, at 6 PM.
|
|
The sparkling and light white wine desk, opened the 'tasting path' at the Italian Flavor Forum VIII.
In the center, WineCountry.IT vice-president, John Dawdy with MDM Distribution's, Melanie Moffett.
|
This time around we introduced 66 wines, including two white sparkling Proseccos, three frothy Lambrusco (one rosé and two red), 16 dry whites, 36 red and 4 dessert wines, from 8 different Italian wine regions.
|
|
Giorgio Saturnini and Marco Sabbatucci (from right) of Terre di Nano, producer of
Chianti, Orcia, SuperTuscan wines and extra virgin olive oil from Tuscany.
|
The brake down by region, was the following:
- Tuscany, 28 wines,
- Piedmont, 12 wines,
- Sardinia, 7 wines
- Friuli Venezia Giulia, 5 wines,
- Veneto, 4 wines,
- Campania 4 wines,
- Emilia Romagna, 3 wines
- Apulia, 3 wines
In addition, we presented four excellent extra virgin olive oils from Tuscany and Apulia, two versions of hazelnut oil from Piedmont, and traditional balsamic vinegar from Modena, from the Emilia Romagna region.
Of course, we poured all the red wines and some whites, such as the outstanding 2000 Gavi di Gavi DOCG Pilin, by Castellari Bergaglio, using the Centellino, the amazing top-of-the-bottle decanter that WineCountry.IT imports from Italy.
|
|
Jenny Snodgrass, WineCountry.IT sales executive for Marin County (right) with a guest.
|
The feedback sheets which were filled in and returned by a large number of guests, testify to the fact that all products presented were appreciated, widely by some (WOW! and GREAT!!!! at times were often written in place of the actual numeric evaluation), more moderately by others. The highest average score topped at 90.2 points on a 100-point scale, while the lowest stopped at 75.2. When collecting feedback from a large number of tasters, with different professional and/or personal interests in wine, average points tend to be fairly low, as it's enough to have one score of 70 with nine 90-point scores, to lower the average to score to 88, add an 80, and the average drops to 87. This said, we are happy with the scores reported below.
|
|
Christian Lepori, WineCountry.IT Italian marketing manager, and Alberto Malvestio, WineCountry.IT sales executive for the San Francisco East Bay (from right) pouring wine for note-taking guests.
|
The Buyers Feedback
| We asked our guests, all wine and food professional buyers, to please judge the products using the following 100-point scale. |
- 95-100 = Excellent
- 90-94 = Very Good
- 80-89 = Good
- 70-79 = Average
- 50-69 = Not recommended
|
|
|
Pouring Caliscana Sangiovese wine with the top-of-the-bottle decanter, Centellino
|
I am pleased to notice that the gap between maximum and minimum score is not as huge as it used to be when we organized the first event about one and a half year ago, in some cases there is actually almost an agreement across the board. I would like to think that our Italian Flavor Forums have contributed to familiarizing some San Francisco Bay Area professional tasters with Italian wines. In addition, though there is a lot more interest in red wines compared to white wines and I am pleased that the 16 white selections presented, generally speaking, received what I consider a fair score.
 |
MDM Distribution principal, Melanie Moffett (left) |
 |
Alberto Malvestio, WineCountry.IT sales executive for the San Francisco East Bay |
The Best of the Show
- Best Overall Product:
Barbera d’Asti DOC Superiore Cascina Perno 2003, produced by Poderi Rosso Giovanni, from Piedmont
- Best White Sparkling Wine:
Ruio – Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOC Spumante Brut, produced by Azienda Agricola Malibrán, from Veneto
- Best Red Sparkling Wine:
Lambrusco Emilia IGT 2007, produced by Azienda Agricola Mauro Zini, from Emilia Romagna
- Best Dry White Wine:
Soave Classico DOC Veneto 2005, produced by Azienda Agricola T•E•S•S•A•R•I, from Veneto
- Best Dry Red Wine:
Cascina Perno Barbera D'Asti 2003, produced by Poderi Rosso Giovanni, from Piedmont
- Best Dessert Wine:
Ventisei Moscato d'Astii DOC , produced by Azienda Agricola Colledoro, from Piedmont
- Best Balsamic Vinegar:
Traditional Balsamic Vinegar Extravecchio (aged 25 years), produced by Malagoli Daniele for Acetaia La Tradizione, from Emilia Romagna
- Best Extra Virgin Olive Oil:
Extra Virgin Olive Oil IGP Toscana, produced by Terre di Nano, from Tuscany
| Should you be interested in purchasing the products featured in this article, please use the links provided below to contact the right person. |
|
 |
 |
|
Other moments of the Italian Flavor Forum VIII, Fall Edition
|
|
|
The Blind Tasting
Two Italian and three US experts participated in the blind tasting face-off between two North American and three Italian wines. The wines were supposed to be six, but a bottle of Niebaum-Coppola Captain Reserve Merlot 2004 mysteriously disappeared from the museum library, where the blind tasting was set up, so we had to make do with only two US wines.
There were two whites,Chardonnay 2005 from Alcantara Vineyards, Arizona, and Gavi di Tassarolo DOCG Fornaci 2006 by Castellari Bergaglio, from Italy, and three red wines (Sangiovese Il Palio 2004 by Martin & Weyrich Winery from Paso Robles, the Merigge Merlot 2004 by Azienda Agricola Buccelletti, and Barengo Toscana IGT 2005 by Tenuta La Carlina. (Both Italian red wines are from Tuscany). The experts who kindly accepted to be part of the jury are Claudia Temby, globe trotter wine expert, Thuy T. Nguyen, wine consultant for restaurants, and Thys Bui, of California Wine Connections, for the US team. The Italian counterpart was represented by Christian Lepori, WineCountry.IT Italian marketing manager, and Giorgio Saturnini, of Italian wine estate Terre di Nano.
 |
 |
|
|
The Blind Tasting
Top, from left: Giorgio Saturnini, Claudia Temby, Thuy T. Nguyen, Thys Bui, Christian Lepori, John Dawdy.
Middle: Giorgio Saturnini, Claudia Temby, Thuy T. Nguyen, Thys Bui, Christian Lepori.
Bottom: Giorgio Saturnini, Claudia Temby, Thuy T. Nguyen.
|
The Sangiovese Il Palio 2004 by Martin & Weyrich Winery from Paso Robles came out ahead with the total score of 40.7 points, or an average of 8.14 on a 10-point scale, with points ranging from 9.5 to 7.
Splitting the two sets of scores, the US team would have assigned the victory to the winner, while for the Italian judges the best was the Barengo Toscana IGT 2005 by Tenuta La Carlina.
The Drawing
To express our gratitude, at the end of the show we held a drawing from among all the guests that returned their feedback forms filled with their evaluations of the products tasted.
The grand prize winner was Holly Larsen, to whom we delivered the following wines:
|
