While there are plenty of opportunities to drop a hundred bucks or more to meet winemakers and taste through some fantastic wines around town, here’s a great example that sometimes the best things in life are free.
On Wednesday, May 21 from 5 to 7pm, John Clerides’ recently-expanded Marquis Wine Cellars at 1034 Davie Street will be hosting Luca Currado, owner and winemaker at Italy’s Vietti winery.
It was in 1919 that patriarch Mario Vietti really got things going at the family’s eponymous Piedmont estate, turning over most of their agricultural production to grape-growing. In the mid-1950s as Alfredo Currado (daughter Luciana Vietti’s husband) took the helm of winemaking, the winery was amongst the first few wineries to export to North America and craft single-vineyard wines, now the standard in the area. Keeping things in the family, it is Luca (one of Luciana and Alfredo’s three children) who took the reins of winemaking and vineyard plantings in 1990 after stints in Bordeaux and California.
Currado will be pouring some heavy-hitters, starting with a little Moscato d’Asti, and then moving onward to their 2012 Roero Arneis. While the citrusy, flinty Arneis grape variety is well-known to Italian wine fans today, it was Alfredo’s diligent time spent rediscovering and understanding the variety in the late 1960s that prevented the grape from falling off of the global map, allowing us all to bask in its mineral, citrus and almond-laden goodness to this day.
As an aside, our very own Moon Curser Vineyards of Osoyoos should be releasing British Columbia’s (and Canada’s?) very first Arneis in coming months. Figuring Chris and Beata Tolley’s excellent winery has already managed a fair bit of luck with locally-offbeat varieties like Touriga Nacional and Tannat, I’m more than a little intrigued by the potential here.
But back to Vietti and Luca Currado’s visit. After firing up your palate and thirst with those whites, he’ll be unleashing some mighty lip-smacking fare, including the family’s Barbera, Dolcetto d’Alba, Nebbiolo and, of course, a little hallmark Barolo for good measure. Even the varietally-labeled Nebbiolo, the grape Barolos are composed from, is no slouch. When other wineries put the variety’s name on the label, that often means it’s a slew of fruit sourced from the broader (i.e. ‘less fancy’) Langhe appellation. This bottling comes from 100 per cent Barolo Vineyards, with some vines chiming in upwards of 40 years of age.
Global press and trade constantly laud Vietti’s dedication to craft and quality. This is a fantastic, and rare, opportunity to find out what all of the fuss is about and chat with the man himself, Luca Currado.
So do head down to Marquis Wine Cellars on Wednesday, May 21 between 5 and 7pm. Like I said, it’s all free, but do them a solid and RSVP to Jon Ellison ([email protected]) if you plan on attending.
For more information, pop over to Marquis-Wines.com. I’ll see you there!
