Cantina di Cuneaz Nadir 'Badebec' Rosso 2017 - $33.99
STORY
This month’s dirt explores the wines of Italy’s smallest region, the Valle d’Aosta. This fairytale land with the requisite snow capped mountains, Medieval castles, and stone terraced vineyards is absolutely stunning. Winemaking is slowly making a comeback in the area, but vine disease and two World Wars brought what was already a small industry to near extinction. What was a mere three thousand hectares of vines in the late 1800s has been decreased to less than eight hundred hectares farmed today. Not much makes it out of the region, let alone here to the States, so we are very excited to be able to offer these selections. It makes sense to start here with Cuneaz Nadir’s Badebec Rosso, which is a blend dominated by the region's most planted grape, Petite Rouge.
HOW TO
As in many other northern-Italian wine zones, most of the wine grown in the Valle d’Aosta is devoted to red grapes with many offering the same playful characteristics of France’s Beaujolais. Wine cooperatives dominate the industry because the vineyard parcels are often so small that producers need to pool their harvest together to make enough to sell. For example, Cuneaz Nadir is the smallest producer in importer Neil Rosenthal’s portfolio with only 50 cases imported every year. Badebec Rosso is 90% Petit Rouge with small amounts of Fumin and Vien de Nus. Expect a deep red color and firm, but forgiving structure. This can be the perfect counterbalance for rich winter fare, or chill it down and pair it with a spread of alpine cheeses and Bresaola.
TUNES FOR YOUR JUICE
by Liza Morgioni
Sing to the Mountain- Elephant Revival
On the Rosenthal Wine Merchants website, there is a blog post where Neal describes tasting this Badebec in the United States. He and his partner Kerry had gone to Italy and visited Vallé d’Aosta, and convinced the winemakers to let them import this small produced-wine to the states. Upon opening the bottle in their kitchen as they are preparing dinner, they are immediately transported back to the alpine villages and fresh mountain air that they experienced on that trip. Reading this story had me pondering how music can have the same profound effect as this wine did for Neal and Kerry. Everyone has songs that are so powerfully sentimental that they conjure memories.
So, as I scrolled through my old music, I came across this song that was on a playlist of music I listened to while I studied abroad in Granada, Spain. There it was, mixed amongst reggaeton hits, and I recalled that I would play Sing To The Mountain to remind myself of my friends in Vermont who I was missing so much. This song reminds me of adventures with friends, and that wide open, free feeling of the mountains. I used to gaze over at the Sierra Nevadas and feel more connected to the Green Mountains when I was missing home. Let this song remind you, as you explore your wine, of the connectivity that exists between different parts of the world. With its fresh alpine bouquet and wet-earthiness, you might envision yourself in northern Italy, or the woods in our own backyards. “Go and sing to the mountain….cuz everything is you.”