Wine Life - Houston

Cesare Barbero , Managing Director and Enologist,  greeted me in the tasting room to show me a selection of wines and share some of the history of the co-op with me before we took a tour of the large production area. Cantina Pertinace was founded in 1973 by his father, Mario Barbero. It is a cooperative winery that includes  17 growers from just seven families. They are a tight knit group who have worked together for years. Their goal is to make high quality yet affordable wines from the region. The winery is located in Treiso in the Langhe and produces about 650,000 bottles per year. The name Pertinace is the name of a Roman emperor who was born in the area in 126 AD. He became ruler at 73 years old after many successful years as a general in the military. He was chosen for his honesty and strength with the hope that he could stop the corruption that existed throughout the Roman empire's government. Unfortunately, he was killed after 87 days in office.  The na...

I arrived at Bruno Rocca in the afternoon for a tasting. Elena Oberto met me outside where they were in the process of bringing in some Barbera grapes. She led me up to the tasting room and showed me the line up of wines that she had set up for me. After I asked some questions about the different sub-zones, she  took me back out onto the terrace and laid out a map of Piemonte to help me get a better understanding of the lay of the land.  That was just the beginning of what turned out to be  an exceptional terroir tutorial. Piemonte is located at the foot of the Alps bordering both France and Switzerland. Within the greater area, there are 59 different production regions making wines from about a dozen grapes in many different styles. The red Nebbiolo wines from Barolo and Barbaresco are the king and the queen of the area. Langhe is a sub-zone lying south of the capital city of Alba on the right side of the Tanaro River. Inside this larger area, lie the producti...

One of my favorite stops on my Piemonte journey was at Oddero Poderi e Cantine which is located in the Santa Maria area of La Morra. Seventh generation family member, Isabella Boffa Oddero, led the tour and tasting for me.  Isabella’s grandfather, Giacomo Oddero, is the fifth generation to make wine here and her aunt, Mariacristina, currently oversees the production. After five generations of the family men building the business, this is the first time that women are in charge. The family’s Piemonte wine grape growing roots go back to at least the end of the 18th century though 1878 was the first year that they bottled wine under their own name. A church with its own vineyard called Bricco Chiesa was their closest neighbor. The family tended the vines for years before eventually buying the vineyard a few rows at a time and eventually adding it their estate in the 1800s. The family now has about 86 acres located throughout the region and they only use their own fru...

Iron Somm Julie Dalton Iron Sommelier 2018 was held last night at The Houstonian Hotel, Club, and Spa. Iron Sommelier is Houston's most important competition for local beverage gurus with some of the city's best sommeliers competing for the title. There was great excitement in the room when Julie Dalton of Mastro's was named this year's Iron Sommelier.  Dalton is the first female to ever win the title. Her theme of "Drink Gneiss Schist" was a clever play on words with all of the wines she chose coming from grapes sourced from metamorphic soil types. "The wines that have made me take pause or cry or have a come to Jesus moment have all been wines from metamorphic soils," she shared. She explained that gneiss and schist are both metamorphoses of shale and slate created from pressure and heat. "I just find the wines to be so expressive, there is electricity on the palate." She said that she was not anticipating to win as a newcomer t...

On my recent trip to Piemonte, everything I thought I knew about how long you can hold  Moscato d’Asti was challenged at a tasting at l’armangia. The translator for our Grappa group in Asti gave us the option of touring the city or going to her brother's family winery and doing a tasting there. The group voted unanimously for more wine.  We arrived in the municipality of Canelli for our tasting. We had previously learned that the family has a winemaking history that began in 1850 though they had been grape growers for at least a hundred years before. They now have approximately 25 acres of vineyards in Canelli, Moasca, and San Marzano Oliveto located  between Langhe and Monferrato. Winemaker and owner, Ignazio Giovine, greeted us. He shared that he farms with respect for the environment. He encourages biodiversity in the vineyards with  indigenous plants. He explained that he prefers to use low levels of sulfites and minimal intervention in his production. He has...

As originally seen in the November issue of Galveston Monthly magazine.