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| Tonight’s tasting Between 6-8 pm no reservations needed $15 |
| One of the object lessons that I took away from my many years toiling in software is, “you cannot judge a book by its cover.” It’s a lesson you learn of as a child, but learning it is not the same as believing it. The software world, as you can imagine, is peopled by unrepentant misfits, geeks, and arrogant, brilliant folk of all sort. Look at that mess of a man, just look at him. He’s undeniably brilliant yet utterly lacking in wit and self-reflection; a slovenly yellow-toothed introvert with coffee cake crumbs on his sweater and beard, full of self-amused wordplay that only he laughs at—nay, brays at, an ass who has a way of saying just the wrong thing and making you feel terrible, who everyone else has learned to eschew except you, for reasons that even you cannot fathom. And then one afternoon he makes a single observation about a problem you’ve been struggling with and it turns everything inside out and you realize that you’re the ass for judging him simply because he doesn’t fit into your pre-conceived template of appropriateness. I fear sometimes that I was and still am that man, and if I do appear this way to you, I apologize for being so and I hope that you can forgive and give me another chance. For me, nero d’avola is like that misinterpreted mess of a man. It’s a grape that I have for many years misjudged as a lumbering oaf, a Johnny one note that is good at shoving its way to the front of the line but not much else, and really only worth your while when it is alloyed with its fun sister, frappato. Sure, my thinking once went, I’d be happy to drink a simple nero d’avola when confronted by a plate of spaghetti and meatballs, or a New Jersey Sunday Italian gravy, but otherwise, get behind me, Satan! And then nero d’avola made an observation to me that turned everything inside out and I realized that I was an ass for judging it simply because it doesn’t fit into my low ABV, soif-y personal orthodoxy. The messenger was Salvo Foti, a Sicilian viticulturist and winemaker who makes his own wines on Mt Etna and helps a few clients around the island farm organically and make wines without adding garbage. I never knew that nero could have perfume and acidity. I was wrong. Tonight, we’re tasting a nero that Foti is responsible for. It has perfume and acidity. It is not 10 percent ABV. It has some observations it would like to share with you if you only let it do so. |
| Hinterlands “L’Imparfait Passe-tout-Grains” Ontario/Canada 2018 Gulfi “NeroBaronj” Terre Siciliane Rosso 2016 Cazottes “Rackham” Vin de France 2016 Judith Beck Bambule! Pinot Noir Austria 2017 |