Inside IWM

The Inside Story from Italian Wine Merchants

Wine, Music and Catfish in Nashville

How the three worlds collided

Stonebridge Farm, Franklin, Tenn.

Back in June, I had a chance to return to one of my favorite cities: Nashville. I’d first visited in 2002, and I’d been itching to get back down there for some time. Nashville is about the music—country, blues, rock—but for this particular trip, it was also about wine.

I was meeting a dear friend, and longtime collector, Mike Ennis. Over the years, we’ve shared wines, meals, laughs, music. Mike loves music, but he loves wine even more. Wine is something he’s continuously discovering, and I can’t blame him. I think two of my loves in life will always be great wine and great music.

When in Nashville, I think there are things that you absolutely need to do. See good music and have dinner with great food, friends and wine. I was lucky to have both in spades. Mike, along with his wife Carol, invited me, my wife Sue, and our sons James and Ben along with several other guests to their home on beautiful Stonebridge Farm in Franklin, Tenn., just south of Nashville.

The 20-pound catfish.

To make this trip really special, I brought a collection of wines for Mike to try, including a Case Basse di Soldera Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2002 and Pegasos 2005, Bruno Giacosa’s  Barolo Croera di La Morra 2004, Tenuta dell’Ornellaia Le Serre Nuove 2007, Bodega Chacra Pinot Noir Rio Negro Treinta y Dos 2006 and a La Spinetta Barbaresco Gallina 2005. Mike also pulled several wines from his collection, including a Grattamacco and Gaja Contessa from 1998 and a Jacques Selosse among others, and together we had one hell of a dinner.

When it comes to wine, Mike likes everything; he’s one of those guys who can drink anything. Have French Champagne? He loves it! I even brought a fresh Roger Coulon Brut Rosé NV into the mix of mostly Italian vino. When we first met, he already knew the big players in Italian wine—Gaja, the Conternos. Through our conversations and tastings over the years, he now trusts me to pass along what he wants, or may like, and I deliver.

Mike, wife Carol and the evening's wines.

I couldn’t help but soak in those moments as Mike went on and on about how great Italian Wine Merchants was over dinner, or how we managed to get wine right. Believe me, this was not filling any ego—it was really something to hear people say IWM knows how to pick really great wines and knows how to bring this understanding and great wines to their clients. The people have spoken. Well, some of them, and they like us! They really like us!

The need for dinner with friends completely satiated, I next got my music fix next when I stopped over to visit friend John McBride, husband of country singer

Martina McBride, a big wine collector and owner of the Blackbird Studio, one of the premier recording spots in the country. We first met John and Martina when they stopped into IWM. We then hosted them at Ornellaia (one of their favorite producers along with Quintarelli) in Italy last year. John also has a huge guitar collection, and he let my 16-year-old son James, a budding guitarist, lay down a few tracks in the legendary studio.

I thought I was done. I had enjoyed my two favorite things in one of my favorite places. But Mike had something in store for me: fishing—catfishing to be exact. I could have been in a dark, bluesy bar or lounge, soaking in the tunes, but instead I was on shore, in the heat and fishing. It’s funny, because I told Mike that fishing was new to me, and he was telling me how Italian wine was a new experience to him way back when. I guess we’ve helped turn one another on to some new things. I thought to myself that this relationship is what can happen when clients become friends. It’s not forced. It just happens. We talk at least once or twice a month about—what else—wine.

Mike and James rocking out.

It’s important for me to keep these relationships strong. When a person loves wine and trusts me to deliver, it’s priceless. It’s those friendships that have led to some of the best referrals and even more friendships over the years. That’s what the IWM experience is all about. I look forward to sending Mike some new wines to experience soon, as I will do for anyone else that comes my way. In return, maybe they’ll turn me on to some new things as well. Music? Wine? Dinner with good friends? Catfishing? Isn’t that what life is about?

By the way, I caught a 20-pounder [catfish]—or was it 10?

A Night with Movia’s Ales Kristancic

The man, the myth, the legend, the wines

On June 21, 2010 we had the pleasure of hosting Ales Kristancic of Movia and his newly released 2008 Lunar Chardonnay. Dinners with Ales always brim with vibrancy, surprises and magic. On this specific evening, we were able to taste an array of Movia’s wines. Chef Kevin Sippel outdid himself with the food, and the wines could not have been more expertly paired.  For example, the Cobia in Octopus and Cucumber Guazzetto were an unparalleled choice to showcase the debut of Movia’s 2008 Lunar Chardonnay.

The Lunar are pure solo-varietal bottlings. The 2007 vintage featured the Ribolla Gialla grape. As we prepared for the event, we were careful to carry the 2007 Lunar upstairs in the exact position in which it had been lying in the cellar in order not to disturb the contents of the bottle. The bottles were opened in that same position, poured, and clear wine emerged from the bottle. Ales’ biodynamic winemaking principles mean that he foregoes using chemicals to clarify his wines; rather, he relies on atmospheric pressure. Ales makes his Lunar in a wholly hands-off approach— the goal is for the wine to create itself. Using a holistic method to his winemaking practice, Ales designed the French oak barrels used to create the Lunar, and these barrels allow for whole clusters of fruit to be dropped into the barrel without damaging the cluster. He believes strongly in unity, harmony and integrity; it shows in the wine. The unique thing about tasting the 2008 with the 2007 was being able to see the wine’s evolution to a mature, clean, terroir-driven wine.

Unlike Movia’s Lunar, the estate’s Veliko wines were created generations before Ales. The Bianco is comprised of Ribolla, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc; the Rosso of Cabernet Sauvignon is a Merlot and Pinot Nero blend. These vines are all planted side by side, unlike many blended wines that are grown on separate plots. Ales believes that this brings harmony to the wines, due to their coexistence creating one healthy system. The taste bears out Ales’ somewhat esoteric reasoning. Count me in as a believer!

There’s a lot to be said for meeting a wine producer—especially one as dynamic and, well, beautifully strange as Ales.  Many writers have tried to describe Ales; some have failed, a few have succeeded, including IWM founder Sergio Esposito, who devoted an entire chapter to Ales in his memoir. Ales is an iconoclast, a figure of near-fictional proportions, and he captures your imagination. He’s a man who can work a room, making everyone present feel a little bit more beautiful, a little bit more glittery, and a little bit more special.

The night came to a true Movia conclusion as Ales and the crowd participated in the opening of his Puro Rose 2002. The Puro is Ales’ sparkling wine, left undisgorged, under the philosophy that this plug of yeast is the source of life for the wine, and it should remain until consumption. Leaving the wine undisgorged, however, means that when it’s time to open the bottle, it’s something of a party trick. Ales is a showman, a bon vivant and magician. Upending an open bottle into a bowl of water, wiggling out the cork and whisking the open bottle out to display it and exclaim, “Zak! Zak!” is just part of the fun—for him and for all of us.

The surprise of the night was Ales himself, his charm, his warmth and his joy for his work. Ales knows and loves his vines, and this knowledge and caring reflects in how well the wines age—as well as how enjoyable they are in their youth. Though he’d love to see his wines cellared for forty years, Ales has a philosophy of keeping wines in his cellar until he feels that okay with people drinking them. My favorite wine of the night was the 1990 Veliko Bianco, a wine that exhibited great pedigree, amazing length, and complexity that would give me the confidence to show it among some of the greatest white wines of the world.