Farmstead Finds

Posted November 28th, 2008 11:11 by khodgson

I've been dearly missing the cellar due to a week of book promotion in Vancouver. Suffice it to say I'd rather be topping barrels than doing the interview circuit.

I did have the fortunate opportunity to run into Farmstead Wines (www.farmsteadwines.com), AKA Anthony Nicalo, at a Barbara-Jo event a couple of nights ago. His one man show imports a tiny number--eight to be exact--of hand-crafted, sustainbaly farmed wines. Old World, of course. Limited availability, of course. Expensive... of course.

About a year ago I was at Parkside and had the stunningly delicious Arndorfer Gruner. I didn't know anything about the wine at that time, except that is was a complex, vibrant expression of GV. Then the other night I was floored by the Fenocchio Langhe Nebbiolo--everything you could want from the grape minus the fluff. That's right. No fluff, all flavour.

Anyway, Anthony explained his rigourous selection process for finding these unique wine growers that includes the necessity that they own all the land from where their wines are produced to no additives in the winery to a lenghty interview process before they are taken on Farmstead board.

Identifying unique producers around the world is the future of wine interest. I mean, if we're paying upwards of $30, $40, then we want the rarity of flavour, we want the story, we want the experiential added value.

After Barbara-Jo's I went to a friend's house and he cracked an Aussie Shiraz that had scored 91 Parker Points. Somehow, it just wasn't the same.

Cellar Rat by Kenji Hodgson's blog