New vintages of some of my favorite wines…

I love all the wines I import: especially these wines. They are exactly why I love importing wine from Italy.

Back in Oz….with lot’s of new developments happening….

Well it was good to get back in Australia after a great trip away. After Calabria and Sicily, we spent one night in Rome and I always find that it is a great way to end the trip. The highlight was dinner at Armando al Pantheon which I love to eat at, and typifies everything I love about Italian food and wine.

I have certainly hit the ground running with Letizia from Passopisciaro due in Oz this weekend for a number of consumer and trade events around Melbourne and Sydney. This Sunday, the 12th of April, Letizia will be hosting free vertical tasting at Boccaccio Cellars from 11am-1pm looking at 5 vintages back to 2007 of the Passopisciaro Etna Rosso. She will also be hosting similar events in Sydney next week.

We are also proud to announce that Mondo Imports will be representing the wines of Emidio Pepe in Australia. These wines should arrive in June and we will have multiple vintages of the Montepulciano and Trebbiano. Once these wines arrive, I will hold a number of masterclasses ad tastings to show people just how good they are.

Finally the new supermarket redevelopment is going great guns with the newt stage opening in June. This will encompass our glass prosciutto cool room, new registers, new deli built in florence and big new supermarket entry. The redevelopment will finish in September with the whole site being redeveloped.

Vinitaly Day 2: lot’s of great wines and people…

If I take one thing away from Vinitaly 2015 it is that vintage 2010 Brunello is a once in a generation vintage. The wines across the board we of such a high standard that I think the quality level overall may even be higher than 2010 Barolo. Yesterday we tried the wines of Fuligni, Cupano, Costanti, Siro Pacenti, La Fortunata and Gorelli.

The 2010 Brunello from these producers were off the charts. What was also pleasing to see was that the 2009 Brunello have come along better than I thought and are actually drinking really well today.

Another highlight was sitting down with the legendary Emidio Pepe and his granddaughter Chiara who has the same spark as her grandfather.

The legendary Emidio Pepe.

The previous day we tried a vertical of Trebbiano spanning twenty years which was good but the fact the sommelier’s did not check the bottles when poured meant that there were some wines which should have been in the tasting.

Today we looked at Montepulciano spanning four decades. These wines were off the charts in quality and complexity and illustrated to me why Emidio Pepe is considered as one of the best wineries in Italy.

Today we drive to Alba and concentrate on Barolo and Barbaresco for the next three days which will be great.