I'm a wine importer and distributor based in Los Angeles. While I always appreciate Mr. Asimov's insight, there is a topic urgent to our industry that he and the Times at large has yet to suitably address - many of the wines that he champions may soon no longer be available in the United States due to a potential impending 100% tariff on agricultural commodities such as wine, olive oil, cheese. This has been proposed by the Trump administration nominally in response to the French Digital Tax, which holds companies like Google and Facebook to the same standards of conduct and liability as any other entity. A 25% tariff imposed in response to a WTO ruling against EU subsidies of Airbus has already gone into effect.
If this additional 100% tariff goes into effect, many of the wines that Mr. Asimov and his peers regularly review and promote will be inaccessibly expensive if they reach our shores at all. My own young business will dramatically change, and the businesses of my colleagues, friends and mentors - many of whom have been in this industry for decades and have contributed significantly to the American understanding of European wine - will go out of business entirely.
We are all writing letters to the office of the USTR, but that is not enough. While wine remains a luxury commodity in the US, this tariff will put countless Americans, myself included, out of work. Mr. Asimov, please use your platform and position to bring attention to this issue.
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A quick reality check: Mr. Asimov writes. "I ordered a glass of Valpolicella Classico, which might tell you something about the restaurant’s wine list. Though Milan is the gateway to the Piedmont region of northwest Italy, one of the world’s great wine regions, the selection had little regional gravity." Yet Valpolicella is from the Veneto. Given that Lombardy (the region of Milan) is bordered on its west by Piedmont and its east by the Veneto, I submit that, on the evidence provided, the wine list at this restaurant provides precisely the "regional gravity" one might expect.
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Have you ever done a full article on orange wines? I don't recall ever seeing one. As they are becoming more popular - I actually saw a wine list in Manhattan with three choices - I would love to know more about them. Why do they tend to be sour and why are some semi-carbonated?
I know from my very limited sampling that they do not have a wide following. But, I remember when no one drank Rieslings, so things change.
No accident that you came upon bitterness as a topic in Italy. A little bitter note at the finish is common in more Italian wines than not. Regarding the American rejection of bitterness as a descriptor, I have used the expression "a pleasant Italianate bitterness" in tasting notes to good effect.
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This is an educational article, and more educational are the comments of other readers who feel they must impart their personal preferences unto the rest of us! An espresso in Italy is only espresso if consumed in Italy? Please! US wines are a pity? Whatever! As an engineer who has traveled for work, have had the opportunity to have excellent coffee in different countries, Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia, as tasty, rich and deep as any espresso from Italy, or Spain....As for "le gout" or what you taste in wine, it's so much more about your personal preferences: for me, it's about the dinner, the spices, flavors and conversations, or I just need a glass of wine after an exhausting workday! Having been raised by a grandmother who was a chef, I was very lucky to have had magnificent meals, so wine flavors are subjective, are personal and with a specific amount of your own personal experience..... whatevers.
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@ Anna West Coast
"An espresso in Italy is only espresso if consumed in Italy?" -- to an Italian, probably yes. I heard once from a man in Rome that Italians are flabbergasted by large volume of coffee cup that they are served abroad. The difference in the greater strength of coffee hits one crossing the Rhine from East to West.
@Anna Since water is so critical to the taste of coffee, an espresso in Italy really is very different in Italy. Pasta, too, for that matter.
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@Anna
Whether you have had "excellent coffee in different countries, Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia, as tasty, rich and deep as any espresso from Italy, or Spain...." is beside the point. I have too--in fact, I make it at home--but it isn't espresso.
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Next time you're in SF check out Linea Coffee on 18th in the Mission. It's the only espresso I ever order out. Dunno how they do it.
Bravo Eric! Why can we not make just a decent, not great, just decent cafe here? The machine, beans, water , hand of the operator? I am perplexed. However, I do know that the more the machine is used, the better the pressure and cafe. The best coffee where I lived in Italy was served in the hospital because it was in constant use.
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Here’s a shortcut way of thinking how the red wine in front of you now will taste in later years: forward-fruit goes backward, taking a less salient place; while tannic grape bitterness comes forward from the finish to define the structural lattice on which many flavor elements can hang.
We also need to consider the taster. In human terms: young and/or new wine drinkers taste for fruit, while old and experienced wine drinkers taste for structure. Some of my favorite old wines deserve being called “structure-backward,” being worthy of slow contemplation rather than just a quick and transient gulp.
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What about white wines? A hint of phenolic bitterness can freshen the finish of albariño, grüner veltliner or pinot grigio, or be excessive in some gewurztraminer or riesling. With more winemakers experimenting with skin contact, bitterness in whites may get more common.
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@ Ahli Anggur Dec. 27
Heavens, how can you even think of a slightest bitterness in Gewütztraminer or Riesling? The former is a semi-dry wine and the latter, if dry, is earthy and acidic. I think that sweet Rieslings, the German Auslese and Spätlese varieties, are for effete wine drinkers only.
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I could not agree more. US red wines have lost their individuality as they trend in taste towards a singularity of sweetness that I dislike. I have found myself more and more drinking European and South American wines instead of the US wines I now disdain. It seems the originality is taste of US wines is a thing of the past. Pity.
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@John Too many American wines seem to be homogenized, reflecting the tired marketing manta that encourages stereotypes like "dry." As a veteran wine and food writer, I stopped attending wine dinners to avoid becoming more cynical from listening to wine sycophants lecturing the masses that their Plonk was distinctive and magnificent.
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Great article Eric. Another analog like component to bitter that I find can make Italian wine more expressive, and to a certain extent, definable - as to country of origin- especially in blind tastings, is acetic acid. Like bitter flavors, acetic acid adds a slight vinegar like quality that balances out the fruit and adds additional complexity to a lot of Italian reds, and many French reds as well. I believe most winemakers consider it a flaw nowadays; maybe it’s why one almost never finds it in American reds, save for some cold climate Pinots. And speaking of flaws, Brettanomyces, an “off” yeast driven flavor in tiny traces, added a complex element that presented as leather or barnyard in many reds, most notably, the Rhône, & is now almost non existent. I find it ironic, that many craft beer makers inoculate it into their stouts/ Belgiums to add complexity, yet winemakers, over the years have cleaned it out of existence in their reds.
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I liked this column a bit(ter) more than many of the others because it had a "educational" component interwoven into it. Please continue with wine reviews that have the "structure" and "complexity" of education for those of us that are growing in our knowledge of wine.
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Bitterness in Italian food...consider broccoli rabe. Might not pair well with an overly bitter wine though.
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@Walter class of 72 Years ago I worked with a chef that liked to put grilled radicchio with his veal chop and I thought what can I pair with all this bitterness? It had balsamic on it as well. I ended up pairing it with a young tannic burgundy, Clos Vougeot ( Italian wine would work great but this was a French cellar ) and it was amazing. The wine did NOT drink great on it's own by the way because of it's bitterness. The tannins and the bitter in the vegetable cancelled each other out. I find people say "I can't do a sweet wine with dessert. Too much sweet! " but the sugar in the dessert cancels out the impression of sugar in the wine and it combines like a dance, where as a dry wine tastes bitter and a lot like lemon juice. Similar plays well together. ( I do wine pairings for a living ). I'm sure a chemist would have a reason for this. I just have done 10 courses with wine pairings for 9 years, 5 are vegetarian. It is often surprising what works and part of the fun!!
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In regards to espresso, my college professor in Roma once remarked that even if you have an espresso outside of Italy, even using the same espresso and the coffee machines, it still does’t taste like the espresso you have in Italy.
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Senses act in concert, not isolation.
The role water plays in regional variations is often underestimated.
And, of course, the love and care applied to the making of anything also makes a difference.
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@ Stephen Alicandro Arlington, VA
I regard espresso as one of the Drinks of Gods, the other being bubbly wines. But the Italians are satisfied with one little single shot of espresso. My tastes call for a treble or quadruple, to be savored and accompanied by a cigar.
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When I traveled in Rome and Florence recently, I drank four or five espressos a day. Some in cafés, some in bars, and others in restaurants. Frankly, many were not that great.
Yes, on the whole, I would rather be drinking coffee in Italy — a Gran Schiuma at Cafe Eustachio, to be precise. But to pretend that every shot pulled in Italy is magical, and that places like Ninth Street Espresso in New York don’t make incredible espresso, is just wistful thinking.
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