The PRIMA Vini VINE, September 9th

The PRIMA Vini VINE, September 9th

The PRIMA Vini VINE

Monday, September 9th
PRIMA Vini Dublin- 6890 Village Parkway,
Dublin, CA 94568, 925-945-1800
Open Monday 10-5
Tuesday through Saturday, 10–6,
Wine Bar Friday Nights Until 8 PM
Open 24-7 at www.primavini.com


Anne and I had the opportunity last Saturday (with close friends Jim and Barbara) to check in on Chef Peter at Via del Corso in Berkeley. If you haven’t yet visited the other half of PRIMA’s once-dynamic duo lately, you owe yourself the pleasure! We know a lot of you are lucky enough to visit Italy frequently and know your way around some pretty excellent ristorante, but, if you half-shut your eyes, sitting in the crowded, lively Via del Corso, you might be fooled into thinking you’ve stumbled into an excellent trattoria somewhere, maybe, in Tuscany or Umbria! Chef Peter appears to be in great form and reports that he’s not nearly as stressed these days as he was looking after the 140 seats we had at PRIMA. He goes to the market every day, works with his Executive Chef Massimo on tweaking the menu (I was so pleased to see virtually all of the kitchen staff and some of the front of the house were PRIMA alums) and is home before lunch. Still, his inspired culinary fingerprints are all over this excellent menu. We simply marveled over Massimo’s incredible octopus ‘piatto del giornio’ and all of the other antipasti, but we always save room for one of Via del Corso’s extraordinary bisteccas- 30 ounces of pure steak pleasure! With a bottle of Brunello (see the 2019 Il Palazzone below) it was a trip to Tuscany without ever leaving Berkeley! I truly don’t miss owning a restaurant and these days and with Brandon and our fantastic team, PRIMA Vini Dublin is truly where my soul belongs. But the other night, watching Via del Corso in action, I was more than a little bit nostalgic. Go when you have a chance.
But, as I say, PRIMA Vini is where it’s at for me these days! Coming in, in the morning, to Frank listening to Mozart as he writes the Consorzio newsletter, Brandon on the phone talking website SEOs with our old colleague Matt, and Jade darting around assembling and packing orders (it’s finally not 100 degrees and we can finally ship some wine!), all is right with the world. And thank you all, our loyal customers, for continuing to make it fun.
Come see us this Friday evening as we introduce Tommy Cuni, the young, fun export manager for a small stable of exquisite Italian wines. This will be an excellent chance to try several mature Barolos from Damilano and some of the iconic wines of Tua Rita, one of Tuscany’s most venerated estates. Can’t make it Friday? Come see us Saturday at Splatter, Dublin’s largest cultural event of the year! We’ll be out there pouring wine, soaking up the sun and spending all our money at the food trucks. See you there!
***


ON THE PRIMA Vini Calendar
  • Friday, September 13th- An Evening In Bella Italia with Tommy Cuni featuring the wines of Damilano & Tua Rita

Two iconic wineries: one from Tuscany, one from Piedmont. What a crazy lineup of wonderful wines! And you’ll love Tommy!

  • Saturday, September 14th- Come see us at SPLATTER!

Look for us at Dublin’s biggest cultural event of the year! We’ll be pouring wine for you at the PRIMA Vini table across from the food trucks from noon to 8:30 PM and Brandon and Fran will be on hand to guide you through the VIP tasting too.
https://www.dublin.ca.gov/1145/Splatter

  • Friday, September 20th- Around The World With Emily Kaplan featuring the wines of AXR, Renzo Seghesio & Hanzell

Good friend Emily Kaplan will dig deep into her bag of tricks with a deep selection of wines from California and Italy.

  • SPECIAL EDITION TASTING
    Friday, September 27th- Bordeaux Wine Class with Savannah Nelson of Aquitaine Imports (special event- ticket required)

Discover the wines of Bordeaux with Savannah Nelson. This tutored tasting will cover top wines from up and down the Medoc including some wonderful Classified Growths. This will be very special.
Tickets are $40 if purchased in advance from this link and will be $45 at the door. Stay tuned for details.
Expect wines like the 2021 Chateau Meyney from Saint Estephe, Latour-Martillac from Graves and the impressive La Fleur Saint Emilion Grand Cru!
https://primavini.com/bordeaux-wine-class-with-savannah-nelson-of-aquitaine-imports/

  • Friday, October 18th- An Evening In Australia- PRIMA Welcomes Back Jane Ferrari and the wines of Jim Barry
    La Grande Dame of Australian winemaking and storytelling makes a rare visit to California. This will be a ton of fun. We promise!
  • Friday, October 25th- An Evening in Piemonte with Giacomo Bologna-Braida

The late Giacomo Bologna did more to promote the Barbera grape to the world than anyone else in his native Piemonte and his daughter Raffaella and son-in-law Norbert continue to carry the flag.

  • Saturday, October 26th- PRIMA’s Annual Halloween Bash

Stay tuned for all the details

  • Saturday, December 7th- PRIMA’s 37th Annual Champagne Extravaganza

It’s not that far off! Mark your calendars….


ANY TIME WE’RE OPEN
COME SEE WHAT WE’RE POURING IN THE PRIMA Vini WINE BAR!
We change the wines we pour by the glass week frequently so there’s always something interesting and fun open. Or pick a bottle up off our shelf, wine fridge or Enoteca! If it’s under $50 on the shelf, there’s only a $15 corkage and if it’s over $50, hey, we’ll waive it! Or do what the ‘Back to School Moms’ did last week and bring your own group, a bunch of your favorite fixins’ from one of our fine local restaurants and take over the place! And, coming soon, the East Bay’s first Italian Pizza Vending Machine. Whaaaaat?

PRIMA WINE BAR’S BY THE BOTTLE SPECIALS
We’ve chosen a half dozen really special wines you can enjoy at our tasting bar with no additional corkage!
Order a pizza or some takeout to be delivered here and ask us to pop a bottle of one of these half dozen really special wines you can enjoy at our tasting bar with no additional corkage! These are not available by-the-glass so bring a friend or two or come thirsty~
2018 Antica Fratta Franciacorta Saten $45
2023 Spottswoode Sauvignon Blanc, Napa/Sonoma Counties $48
2020 Fattoria Felsina Chianti Classico Riserva $40
2022 A. Rafanelli Estate Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley $60
2022 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley $65
2019 Oddero Barolo Classico $67

PRIMA’s Wines of the Week
BACK IN STOCK! Been a lot of Macon Blanc through the doors here the past few years but this has long been one of our favorites….a bit richer than most, more like a Pouilly-Fuisse than a Saint-Veran.
2022 Domaine Jean-Claude Thevenet Saint-Veran ‘Clos de l’Ermitage-Saint Claude’ Vielles Vignes

Regular Price $30.00,
The Class Of The Macon For Only $23.99,
shipping included on a case of 12

Our search for great white Burgundy for everyday drinking has once again taken us deep in the Maconnais, Burgundy’s southernmost outpost. It is here, in these rolling granitic hills west of the city of Macon, where the last vestiges of true value in the region can be found- an area that we parsimonious wine merchants often mine for our own pleasure. And if it’s good enough for cheapskates like Frank and me, it must be good enough for you, right? And finding Macon-Villages that can drink like Pouilly-Fuisses, the class appellation of the region? You can sign us up every time! Wines like this are essential to our wellbeing. They are the fuel that powers the Rittmasters (and Rothsteins, and Muellers), the absence of which we are constantly trying to compensate for in the family wine fridge! I intend on taking care of a few of those holes right now and so should you! The Thevenets, now in their third generation, are the most famous producers in the tiny but prestigious Macon-Pierreclos appellation and are turning out some really classy, serious whites from their older holdings in nearby Saint Veran as well. The family’s top wine is produced from a five-hectare parcel of 70-year plus old vines organically farmed by the family as a monopole. These south-facing Chardonnay vines are located on a hillside near the town of Prissé, the most felicitous part of the Saint Veran appellation, bordering, in fact, on Fuisse itself. Aged in tank (no oak!), just about 1000 cases of this dense, flavorful cuvee are ever made. I simply can never get enough. I love wines like this…..it’s intense without being ponderous, aromatic without being light, and finishes extremely long despite its obvious crisp, mineral finish. It’s all Asian pears and white flowers on a fullish frame that ends beautifully. There is enough chutzpah here for the richest of fish and seafood preparations but it also drinks super well all by itself and won’t overwhelm lighter fare either. My wife calls this the white Burgundy to drink while deciding on white Burgundy to drink next…….

I opened a bottle of this over the weekend and it is truly outstanding!
Pinot lovers, take note.
2017 Weingut Felsner Sankt Laurent
‘Ried Rohrendorfer Thalland’ Kremstal, Austria

Regular Price $28.00,
Our PRICE $19.99

From somewhere out near wine’s lunatic fringe (and Austria) comes today’s offbeat but really, really delicious offering. Manfred Felsner is one of those guys who- despite its commercialization and globalization- still exist in the wine business. He farms as he’s always farmed and makes wine as he’s always done with little care about anything else- like how his wines might be perceived in a world any further away than the Kremstal hills where he works. He carves a sort of living from an ancient cellar dug deep into a hillside of pure löess. The cellar looks like it always has; damp, covered in multicolored flor and lined with really, really old casks and barrels, one dating back, in fact, to the nineteenth century, though most were constructed right inside the cellar back in the 1960s. Manfred is a throwback character from another age. Even though his vines sit adjacent to the likes of Schloss-Gobelsburg, he has no appetite for fancy packaging, submitting his wines to the press for reviews or even, particularly, bottling and releasing his wines in any sort of organized fashion. An agent of non-change, he even voted against the Kremstal’s new Premier Cru designation even though he farms vineyards like the Thalland that would qualify. That’s where his amazing 2017 Sankt Laurent comes in. Coming from several old barrels that have been sitting unheeded in a corner of the cellar for the past six years, it’s one of the great finds in delicious red wine we’ve seen this year! Sankt Laurent is an Austrian mutation of the Pinot Noir grape that has been in the ground here for over 400 years. The wines made from it tend to be a bit darker, a bit snappier and a have a bit more rustic tannin than the Pinot Noir we’re used to but, nonetheless, has many of our favorite Pinot Noir attributes, like those prized floral, the cinnamon and the deeply-pitched cherry aromatics, light-on-its-feet texture and amazing earthy persistence. Coming from vines in Thalland aged over 50 years, Felsner’s seven-year-old Sankt Laurent has depth and character to burn. One might equate it with one of those Old School late 1980s Willamette Valley Pinots from Eyrie or Adelsheim. The color is gorgeous and the nose is a veritable grandma’s cupboard of baking spices, dried and fresh black cherry, mulberry and even fig. While lightly chilling and enjoying a bottle in the backyard over the rest of this summer is definitely on my agenda, there’s something rather ‘pumpkin spicy’ autumnal about the wine. Maybe save some for Thanksgiving! This is, though, a real find and lovers of flavorful reds of all ilks will find a lot to love here for $20!
Vaira Aurej Vino Rosso Controcorrente (2022)

$39.99
Free Shipping on SIX

Location matters. Just ask anyone! When it comes to vines, it really matters! The vineyards of the Barolo area, for example, are carefully demarked down to the last row of vines and if you’re are on the wrong side of that line, well, you’re S.O.L. and doomed to forever be on the outside looking in. That means, of course, even if your Nebbiolo is perfectly exposed to better ripen in the heat, on the right soils and farmed and made the right way, it still ain’t Barolo. And if your land is 150 meters from the border facing the wrong way, the only labelling option left to you is Vino Rosso- basic red wine. You can’t even put a grape variety or vintage on it. Such is life for brothers Francesco and Giacomo Vaira. Using the land inherited from their father Aurelio (‘Aurej’ in Piemontese) who died some 20 years ago, the brothers are among a score of passionate young winemakers in the Langhe intent on redefining the landscape of this often hidebound region. Even though they count themselves among this elite young coterie of young guns, the majority of their estate faces the Alps ‘over the hill’ from the amphitheater of Barolo vineyards, in the hamlet of Vergne, literally just a football field away from MGA vineyards like Bricco delle Viole, Serradenari and Coste di Vergne. This handicap hasn’t hindered this duo at all and, fortunately for them, they do farm a spot in the Fossati MGA just down the hill that enables them to bottle at least one of their wines as Barolo. But they put the same care and attention to the ‘table wines’ they produce from Vergne. More, perhaps, because they believe they have to be really good if they ever want to convince the Barolo Consorzio they belong in the DOCG. Controcorrente means ‘against the tide’ as they admit they are swimming upstream by creating a wine of this quality and only being able to label it Vino Rosso. Made entirely from the old, nearly extinct Nebbiolo clone called Rose, it’s a pretty amazing wine, no matter its appellation. Farmed organically, Francesco fermented the grapes on their natural yeast for about two weeks on about 20% whole clusters. He then aged the wine for 10 months in used barrels to round out its edges and allow the singular savory, seductive aromatics of the Rose clone to emerge. Lighter on its feet (and in color) and more immediately charmingly accessible than the other two more widely planted Nebbiolo biotypes in the Barolo region, it’s everything you want in a current-drinking Barolo with the treble levels on high and the bass a little lower. The little secret that may someday work in the Vairas’ favor is that his Vergne vineyards, by virtue of their altitude and exposure, are a lot cooler, and in warm vintages like 2022, will ripen later and with completly balanced ripeness creating wines that have a lot of the class and style of the wines over the hill, but at half the price. This is my kind of Nebbiolo!
By the way, we still do have a few bottles remaining of the Vairas’ Fossati Barolo ($89.99), the 2020 is the inaugural vintage of what will be their flagship wine. They are extremely proud of this exciting debut and we encourage you to add a few bottles to your case of Controcorrente.
2019 Il Palazzone Brunello di Montalcino

Regular Price $90. Ours is 74.99 $69.99

Is Mountain Montalcino even a thing? It is now! In these days of torrid summers and over-the-top ripeness levels, altitude means access to cooling evening breezes and much cooler, slower ripening conditions. But that’s only part of what makes Il Palazzone’s magnificent 2019 Brunello di Montalcino such a success. Besides the fact that the two vineyard sites that comprise the vast majority of this wine sit at 510 meters and 370 meters respectively, they are perched on rockier, less clayey soils, quite different from the galestro profile so prevalent in most wines from Montalcino. There’s an added boost of acidity, tannins and mountain freshness that helps take this prodigious offering from the merely rich, extracted and powerful to something more- something with a sense of silky elegance and elan that some 2019s can lack. For those unfamiliar, Il Palazzone is run by an American couple, the Kerns, who have assembled an all-star team of talent to oversee their tiny estate and produce their exquisite production of Rosso and Brunello as well as an extraordinarily good olive oil. Though they’re not certified as such, they farm organically and the winemaking is restrained and very much suited to the production of wine that emphasize subtlety and polish. We were very much impressed with its balance and promise of a lovely future ahead of it. Priced better than a lot of wines in its class, we recommend adding some to the cellar for drinking in about five to six years and improvement for another dozen at least. What a vintage this is turning out to be!

Vinous:The 2019 Brunello di Montalcino is an understated beauty, slowly blossoming with rose petals, cedary spice and dried strawberries. It’s silky-smooth and pliant with a hint of sweet spice up front that gives way to ripe red and blue fruits all carried across a wave of silken textures. Youthful tension slowly builds as mounting tannins tug at the cheeks and a cranberry crunchiness forms, yet all the while, residual acidity maintains perfect balance. Don’t let this seductress fool you, for all of her youthful charms, the best is yet to come. 94 points

James Suckling: Black cherries and flowers, such as roses on the nose. Medium to full body with firm, silky tannins and a clear finish. Very al dente. Drink after 2027. 95 points