Tag Archives: Pio Cesare

Winebits 694: Wine packaging, convenience store wine, Pio Boffa

Shopper
“So why do crackers have ingredient labels, but wine doesn’t?”

This week’s wine news: Another of the Winestream Media calls for wine packaging changes, plus more good news for convenience store wine and Italy’s Pio Boffa dies

• Welcome aboard: Sean Sullivan, the founder of the Washington Wine Report who also writes for the Wine Enthusiast, says what blog readers have known for years: U.S. wine is a mess, and his solutions include ingredient labels, accurate alcohol levels, lighter bottles, and using more screwcaps. And yes, I had a Fred Sanford moment when I read this. That someone as respected as Sullivan would write this speaks directly to the problems facing the wine business these days, and that he would suggest steps that someone generally seen as a crank has advocated for years speaks even more directly to the problem. Wine is fun. Why can’t we make it more accessible?

• C-stores, baby: Forgive the cliché, but every time the Wine Curmudgeon sees a study touting convenience store wine sales – or C-stores, as they’re known in the trade – I get much too excited. The latest report comes from market research firm IRI. Its numbers: Dollar sales of table wine were up 7.9 percent while case sales for wine increased 5.5 percent in 2020. One of the big sellers, says the story in the link, was and will be rose – which tends to suggest that younger consumers are doing much of the wine buying at convenience stores. Baby Boomers still tend to think of them as places to buy diapers in the middle of the night and bad coffee at 7 in the morning on the way to work.

• Pio Boffa: One of my favorite wine experiences was in 2012, when I had lunch with Pio Boffa of Pio Cesare, one of Italy’s top producers. The highlight was the 2007 Cesare Barbaresco, one of the two or three greatest wines I’ve ever tasted. Sadly, and you don’t need to know Italian to read this, Boffa died last week at the age of 66: “Il Covid si è portato via un altro grande del mondo del vino.” Grand old man, indeed. As The Italian Wine Guy noted: “And what a wonderfully complicated and all too brief life it was. … And he was among a handful of men and women in Italy who moved the needle and gained Italian wine its due and acceptance on the world’s stage.”

Photo: “Shopper” by Thad Zajdowicz is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Wine of the week: Pio Cesare Arneis 2013

Pio Cesare ArneisDoes Mom like white wine? Do you want to spend more than $10 since it’s wine for Mother’s Day? Then enjoy the Pio Cesare Arneis ($15, purchased, 13%). If all $15 wine tasted like this, the Wine Curmudgeon would drink more $15 wine.

Arneis is a rare Piedmontese white grape usually used for blending in expensive red wine, or to make flabby, simple stuff that we rarely see much in this country. The Pio Cesare Arneis, on the other hand, gives this grape a respect it has rarely had. I first tasted it four years ago, where it was almost an afterthought during a lunch that included most of the great red wines from Pio Cesare, one of Italy’s top producers.

This vintage (which was about one-quarter less expensive than the first Arneis, and no, I don’t know why) was even more enjoyable. Look for white pepper, some subtle white fruit that stays just out of recognition, and that is still amazingly fresh even though it’s a three-year-old white wine in this era of drink it or toss it. It’s also rounder and fuller than most $15 white wines, without the acidic edges that even some chardonnays at that price have.

Highly recommended, especially if you want to try something other than chardonnay and more green apple fruit and fake vanilla. Drink it on its own to toast Mom, or with any sort of Mother’s Day brunch.

Wine of the week: Pio Cesare Gavi 2014

Pio Cesare GaviIn those long ago days before pinot grigio, we drank Soave or maybe Frascati and Gavi when we wanted Italian white wine. Not that we drank much Italian white wine; it was a novelty for a wine drinking culture that assumed all Italian wine was red and came in a wicker-covered bottle.

These days, Italian white wine, mostly pinot grigio, ranks as one of the biggest imports in the country, and wines like the Pio Cesare Gavi ($15, purchased, 12.5%) are something most of us don’t drink. Which is too bad, because the Cesare is well worth drinking, an example of what happens when a top producer puts care and effort into an affordable wine made with a grape, cortese, that is not well regarded.

Look for minerality and a little lemon and dash of herbs in a wine that is so subdued and understated that it takes almost a glass before you understand what is going on. It’s also a stunning value for the price; most quality Gavis cost more than $20, and those at this price are usually too simple for a $15 wine.

Highly recommended, and just the thing for spaghetti with clam sauce with garlic and parsley.

Expensive wine 40: Pio Cesare Barbaresco 2007

BarbarescoEvery once in a while, the Wine Curmudgeon is lucky enough to meet someone like Pio Boffa, whose family has owned Italy’s Pio Cesare in the Piedmont for 130 years. The only thing more interesting than the conversation was the wine.

Every wine we had (even the Oltre, which is made for U.S. palates), was worth writing about. And I’ll probably get to several of them over the next couple of months. My favorite, though, was the Barbaresco ($65, sample). It’s not enough to say that this is classic Barbaresco that will only get better with age and in 30 years should be a gorgeous wine. That’s what all great Barbaresco should do.

Rather, what struck me about this wine is that it was greater than the sum of its parts. All of the things a great Barbaresco requires were there — the cherry fruit (almost sweet, believe it or not); the black pepper spice and Italian acidity; and the mineral finish that you can still taste a couple of swallows later. But they weren’t what made it what it was. There was something else going on that was difficult to pin down. If that seems too vague to make sense, then accept it as part of the mystery of a great wine.

Frankly, given how much ordinary wine costs $65, this is a bargain. And, as Boffo reminded me several times during lunch, though this wine will improve with age, it’s accessible and ready to drink now. Think rib eye and a Father’s Day dinner. Highly recommended, and one of the best ones I have ever had.