Now that the  fog has lifted I wanted to share my impressions.

Rome was the usual whirlwind of too little time. Rushing is an awkwardly anachronistic sensation in city that scoffs at the mere suggestion of a quickening its pace, so I took myself out of time with as much wine as possible. When it wasn’t Campari it was Castelli and Frascati white wines  - salty, mineral-rich blends of local varieties Trebbiano and Malvasia di Lazio. Sometimes a little bubbly and a fantastic, fat-skimming companion to all three plates of carbonara I enjoyed (not in the same day, at least that’s what I’m telling the judge).

One night, while sitting outdoors at a corner bar in  Centocelle – a swarthy, populist neighborhood in the throws of gentrification – I asked for anything but Prosecco, and received a glass of Imperatore, a local Venetian sparkler that was so subtle and unimposing, yet nothing short of perfect with potato chips and the back and forth glances with the boy at the table next door.

Next stop: Positano, also known as paradise.

As friends of the gregarious Le Sirenuse hotel manager, Antonio, we enjoyed breath-taking views and bathtubs of Champagne.

I’m generally a purist when it comes to crudo – clean white wines like Vermentino and Muscadet with their subtle lemon notes and sea salty finish have always been my preferred pairings for oysters or sashimi. Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé Brut swept in and swept me right off my feet with a palate so delicate and elegant without overbearing. The bubbles were finely formed yet never abrasive. The slightest complexity from the Pinot Noir grapes actually drew out the sweetness in the raw prawns, while the perlage washed over Bretagne oysters like a purifying baptism of sea spray on the finish.

Back down on earth we enjoyed heaping plates of pasta with fresh anchovies and fennel seeds  and grilled calamari from the local trattoria. We drank Marisa Cuomo’s blends of indigenous grapes Fiano, Grecco di Tufo, Biancolella, and Falanghina.  The baseline bottles (Ravello Bianco) and the slightly oak-aged, richer, riper ones (Fiorduva) all exude the smoky mineral quality that I love so much about the Campania region. Vesuvious is always in your thoughts and your glass over there.

Four fragrances: A, B, AB, and O represent four ages of human evolution. O is a dusty, earthy reminiscence of cave dwelling. A incorporates green notes and a breezy sense of expansion, hunting, and gathering in the open air. B takes on a spicy exotic note and and the undeniable muskiness of human sexual interaction. It is the age of trade and exploration, the scent of human interaction. It was also my favorite. AB swells with synthetic and mineral notes. It is steel and iron. It is a new building, a new car, a new world in sterile, functional lines. Powerful and futuristic.

Next stop: Histoire de Parfums. This collection by Gérald Ghislain is built around the concept of history books. Scents are inspired by a person and a time period and designed to evoke its character through an olfactory “reading.”  1969 is thick with sex and danger. There’s a restless energy to it, an artist caught up in a dervish of creativity. I loved it! 1828 is dedicated to Jules Verne and exudes the freshness of nautical travel and adventure at sea. 1725 is Imperial Venice. It plays on the complex character of  renowned seducer Casanova and the exotic aromas of the height of the spice trade.

Modern and streamlined packaging still plays with memory and inspiration. Jacomo’s latest Art Collection starts with no. 2, a playful, pliable scent built around modeling clay. One sniff and it’s straight back to elementary art class.

The most striking olfactory flashback happened at the LAFCO stand. Santa Maria Novella’s Nostalgia pilots you back to a summer afternoon in your grandfather’s station wagon. He’s pumping gas and the fumes seep in the window. Sun-warmed leather apholstery, hot pavement, and the best part….permanent markers! That fabulously forbidden pleasure.

I  emerged from the Elements Showcase dripping in Nasomatto‘s latest creation, Pardon. Like so many of  perfumer Alessandro Gualtieri’s scents it was intentional, audacious, and almost scandalously intense. Strictly modern in form and content, It has an earthy absinthe quality and a sharp cold smokiness to it.  Nasomatto never hands out samples and their bottles run off the shelves like water in the run-up to Y2K, so I sprayed while I could.

It’s still in my hair now, intoxicating if I look over my shoulder.

While I am ashamed to admit it ever existed, I’m proud to announce that my anti-California wine bias was recently smashed to pieces!

My invitation to Sonoma came in the form of an offer I couldn’t refuse. So I accepted, strictly for educational purposes of course. My only mission: to plan our vineyard itinerary and meals, a task I took on with pleasure.

And as with any great adventure, the moment we veered from the path, the good times really began.

That is not to say our pre-veering vineyards weren’t fantastic. Day one began with a picnic lunch on the patio of Rochioli where we fell in fast love with their Sauvignon Blanc.

They’d been kind enough to direct us to Nightingale Breads, a bakery and purveyor of local and artisan cheeses in Forestville, and seeing as Rochioli was one of the first to plant Pinot Noir in the area, we were intrigued.

Notes:

2009 Estate Chardonnay : Butterscotch apple nose with mineral notes and soft traces of hazelnut.

2009 Estate Pinot Noir: Juicy, fruity, utterly feminine and very Sonoma. That is, approachable, elegant and clean with little trace of head-banging bigness I’d come to expect from California.

2008 Ranch Red: A rich and complex blend of Syrah, Petite Syrah, and Zinfandel. Earthy with spicy black licorice and stewed blackberries.

The next day began with a trip to Merry Edwards, on the advice of a friend who had declared their Sauvignon Blanc to be one of the best. EVER. The Sauvignon was so good in fact that is was completely sold out.

We were lucky enough however to sample five variations of Pinot Noir from different lots and hear about Merry herself, one of the first female winemakers in the area with experience abroad, and a real sense of terroir. In fact, her Pinots are Burgundy styled, delicate and pleasantly acidic with a range of fresh and mature aromas. Standouts included: 2008 Sonoma Coast, with a lovely ashy finish, the 2008 Meredith Estate, which had a lusciously smooth finish with intriguing metallic notes, and 2008 Olivet Lane which smelled of raisins and flowers and demonstrated a near perfect balance of acidity and softness.

We boarded our private bus, where our wonderful driver and guide, Ken (of Platypus Tours) asked if we might like to make an impromptu stop before lunch.  An Italian-American family with a great story and wines that did so well they’re only available via wine club, Foppoli produces wines in Valtellina Italy as well.

We sat down with the head of the winemaking operation Dominic. While he told us colorful tales of the the Foppoli family’s three generations in wine country (including a prohibition chapter) we sampled an extraordinary un-oaked Chardonnay that took me straight back to Italy where the wine is clean and pure. We also tried a Sauvignon Blanc was delicately oaked, but exhibited a unique and smoky aroma.

We wanted to keep talking so we brought several bottles and Dominic to lunch with us at Dry Creek Kitchen, a Charlie Palmer masterpiece in Healdsburg.

Lunch took the appropriate three hours, and we dragged our sleepy satisfied selves home after a multi-course meal.

The next day we lunched at Rivers End restaurant with a view of seals frolicking at the water’s edge where Russian River meets the Pacific Ocean. We drank another un-oaked Chardonnay, Keller Estate Oro de Plata. The honest and non-pretentious nature of these wines accompanied the fresh, local food beautifully. For a moment I was reminded of what it felt like to breathe, eat, and drink everything from the same place and how that tastes so good because it’s the way nature intended.

Two vineyards we missed were Copain and Unti, both recommendations from a reputable friend. I managed to grab a bottle of Copain’s celebrated Viognier at a shop in San Francisco, along with Unti’s Zinfandal with trace percentages of Petite Syrah and Barbera, both of which I cannot wait to try.

So consider me a California convert, at least when it comes to estate vineyards and genuine expressions of wine untouched by the heavy oak or  in-your-face fruitiness that we’ve come to expect from big California producers who’ve effectively given their little brothers and sisters a bad name.

The Elements Showcase is designed to showcase pioneers in scent design. The room is laid out much like a wine tasting, only the bottles are much smaller, the lights are low, and everyone is dressed artistically.

Along with the standard spraying on paper strips, you’ll find cotton swabs, perfume solids that glide onto the skin like Crisco and dissolve into scented powders, and long narrow funnels with space for your face at one end and pure perfume essences at the other.

The first stand I visited was the one of the most impactful.  Nasomatto‘s Duro (the name is inspired by the Italian word for ‘hard’) looks best in the company’s signature wooden-topped bottles. It’s a dark, woody, spicy, manly man’s fragrance that practically burns onto the skin.

Black Afgano (Black Afghan) is alluring with the forbidding top notes of cocaine and hash, and underlying incense and spice that hovers over the skin and is still potent on the tip of a wooden stick after two weeks.

Another perfume house, Archives 69, plays on unabashed boldness and sexuality both in form and content. With their manifesto, “Vive la Parfume, Le Parfum est Mort,” Archives 69 implies a total revolution. Names like ‘Magnificent Secretions’ and ‘Fat Electrician’ (and package illustrations to match), suggest an audacious marketing scheme. The best part is their detailed descriptions couldn’t be any more dead on.

‘Jamine and Cigarettes’ is at once an affront–a dirty room, slept-on hair that vaguely recalls a smokey bar, the last traces of  night jasmine and a dab of perfume intended to cover it all up. It’s dirty, true, and takes you there. In fact, there’s a distinctive note of Paris in every scent they make. Old dusty apartments, good cheap wine… a place where smoking and sex are still allowed.

In sheer contrast San Francisco-based  perfumer Ineke Ruhland with her eponymous line, Ineke, takes a far more subtle approach to equally memorable scents. Classically trained at the Versailles fragrance academy ISIPCA, Ruhland is inspired by literature, design, and the arts. Her fragrance line plays like a story with delicate intriguing scents in the beginning that build in intensity and complexity toward the end. From light to dark and soft to bold, each perfume is a story in itself as well. A book of vignettes. I took home a vial of ‘F’, Field Notes from Paris, an inky, waxy, wood and spice imbued waft of flowers at the end of a hallway on a rainy afternoon. It hovers sweet and a little smoky.

After the requisite visit to my friends at Eau D’Italie, who still astound me after all these years with their utterly perfect capture of Italian places, times, and feelings, I caught a whiff of Marc Atlan‘s first and highly exclusive fragrance, Petite Mort.  It pulsated on the wrist of my friend and smelled like the sweaty underside of a camel saddle. wildly carnal, enigmatic, and exquisite, it encapsulates our sexual instincts of attraction and repulsion in unison.

Italy is in essence a sensory overload.

A land of unabashed colors, smells, and sounds, there’s a sense of primitive beauty to the place that crashes our every notion of measured discretion. Emotive and passionate, Italian life is bolder and brighter.

With such an unbridled approach to life, order does not come easily.

Vino 2011 presented a maddening quantity of wines to try, spread out over several floors of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel-which, much like the country it was hosting – was designed with beauty and ornamentation in mind rather than the industrious simplicity of today.

There was a map, as there always is, but even finding the coat check proved a veritable odyssey. I dove head first into thousands of wines. Adrift in red and white, I grasped onto these , or rather, they grasped me.

Il Poggiarello Sauvignon Emilia IGT Perticato i Quadri: A floral, chalky take on Sauvignon Blanc with top notes of fresh and dried apricot.

Il Poggiarello Chardonnay Emilia IGT Perticato La Piana: If you like the creamy texture of West Coast Oysters this slightly yeasty Chardonnay wraps the palate in the same way.

Il Poggiarello Pinot Nero IGT Perticato Le Giastre: An elegant Pinot Noir with a tiny percentage of Pinot Tintourier. Though actually delicate and balanced, it’s like a breath of long-awaited fresh spring air. The fruit and flower bouquet seems initially overwhelming for how much you’ve missed it and how you glad you are that it’s finally here.

Azienda Agricola Bruna Grimaldi Serralunga D’Alba Camilla Barolo: Old Nebbiolo vines that once supplied the Cavour family’s vineyards now produce this pretty, clean Barolo that drinks young.

Farnese Vini Edizione Cinque Autoctoni: A blend of Local Varieties Sangiovese, Montepulciano, Malvasia Nera, Primitivo, and Negramaro produced in Puglia is sunbaked, with lavender notes and a decisively New World juiciness.

Santa Sofia Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2005: A delicate and harmonious take on the sun-dried, raisiny classic. Well built but sumptuous… “like a woman,” according to the man pouring my glass.

Santa Sofia Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Gioé 2003: Raisins, figs, dried flowers, and spices galore all sliced with a skimming acidity create such a delectable balance I couldn’t bear to stop drinking it.

I wrapped up the evening with an aperitivo and dinner dedicated to the wine and local delicacies of Sardegna.

Yet another lovely event by my friends at  Wine Dreamers, the aperitif spread was enough to feed the population of the island itself. I sampled from a variety of cheeses, including several versions of Pecorino Romano (Sardinian style), a floral sheep’s cheese, in both a younger version pebbled with black truffle, and a crumbly aged one.

Wine flowed abundantly as well. Cannonau, a spicy red cousin to Grenache was a juicy companion to the waxy aged Pecorino, while citrusy Vermentinos, with their sea salty finish and sparkling acidity paired excellently with the younger ones. Both wines were delicious on their own as well.

Let’s first get this straight: a party at Chef Bouley‘s test kitchen is a rare treat. The space is warm yet airy with a parlor-like library set-up on one end and the kitchen itself in the center.  A glow surrounds this platinum archipelago where bite-sized delicacies spring to life before your eyes. If eyes could drool, why would.

To give you an idea, one of the first morsels to circle the room was  a tuna tartar too fresh to warrant any sort of seasoning beyond a mist of lemon juice, served inside a conical spring wrap that quite literally melted in your mouth.

In a push to promote the large –  if largely unknown- region of Southwest France, we tasted  15 wines, elegantly displayed and accompanied by Bouley’s miniature miracles. From the subregion of Gascogne (most notable for Armagnac), white varietals Sauvignon Blanc, Ugni Blanc, and Colombard exude a similarly lemon-lime zest character that is at once sweet and sour, and easygoing without being forgettable.

PGI Gascogne Domaine de Ballade, Sauvignon Blanc, 2009:  Clean as a sheet of glass. It made my whole body think, “swish!”  Lemon and lime were palpable in the way a memory flashes crystal clear. A salty, citroen finish with the brightness of New Zealand stylings tempered with French elegance.

PGI Gascogne, Producteurs Plaimont, Colombelle, 2009: Toasty and citrusy like a key lime pie. It had a bold Sauvignon Blanc-esque nose but with a softer honey-on-the-palate finish.

My favorite reds of the evening came from a variety of subregions including Cahors, Gaillac, and Madiran. They ranged in structure from pretty and easy-drinking, to meatier, age-worthy beasts.

PDO Cahors, Château Gaudou, Tradition Famille, 2007: A blend of Merlot, Tannat, and Malbec with a floaty nose  reminiscent of butterscotch and tequila and warm strawberry jelly. Intriguing to sniff and easy to drink.

PDO Fronton, Château Sainte-Cécile, Cuvée Allegro, 2006: A blend of Syrah, Dura, and Braucol, dark and toasted black pepper, green wood, and flower stems. Wild blackberries at their best. A luscious nose  and a delightful palate.

PDO Madiran, Domaine du Crampilh, Cuvée “L’Originel” 2007: 100% Tannat, a fascinating red grape with a flavor profile spanning almond, licorice, sweet rose, and white pepper. It was carnal and feminine and irresistable.  Really.

PDO Madiran, Pléntitude, 2006: This guy was 80% Tannat and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and a manly contrast to the  lovely ‘L’Originel. Notes of tar, leather, and toasted spices were as bold and smooth as a Southern gentleman.

Check out this site for more on the wines of Southwest France.

The region’s signature grape, Gamay, typically produces wines that are most easily described as light-bodied and fruity. Easy to drink and relatively simple in structure.  It’s an easy variety to cultivate and yields high quantities of wine, which fuels the quality over quantity argument.  That is not to say that Beaujolais isn’t with out its merits. As I sang in a video contest some of you might remember, “Bright fruity flavors fresh off the vine, light-bodied Beaujolais is fine…”

Just like other French regions, Beaujolais produces vastly different results with the same grape just miles from one another. The right minerals in the soil will temper the grape’s naturally occuring high acidity, and given the its delicate character mark it with regional qualities (think terroir).

I attended a tasting at Daniel Restaurant the day after the 2010 Beaujolais Nouveau was released and celebrated in France and around the world.  Needless to day, the presentation was gorgeous beyond my expectations. Smoked duck breast curled around green grapes and fastened with a toothpick was an ideal accompaniment to the light and lively new wines, bite-sized and bursting first with warm earthiness and then plucky youth. The contrast played out on the palate like a banter, then a chase, and then a thoroughly satisfying conquest. Black truffled fois gras on toast and miniature goat cheese and mushroom tartines were so sumptuous, they almost threatened to overshadow the delicate character of the Beaujolais wines they were meant to accompany.

A few stood out however.

Damien Coquelelet, Beaujolais-Villages 2009 was had a deceptively powerful nose – gamey with subtle notes of cooling tar and cherry cordials it seemed almost Nebbiolo-like, until it washed away on the palate leaving behind an fruity acidity that while pleasant, felt slightly off balance and insubstantial.

The Domaine des Braves Regnie 2009 was similar but with a meatier, spicier palate.

Alain Coudert, Clos de la Roilette, Fleurie 2009 was one of my favorites, moving farther away from cherries and berries and closer to a big bouquet of flowers. A touch evanescent on the palate but it left a trail of dried violets in its path, something reminiscent of a fine French perfume.

Domain Marcel & Mathieu LaPierre Morgon 2009 was the boldest bottle in the room and a memorable combination of  dark earth and bright fruit and flowers. A vision of wild flowers growing on a pig farm.

Domain Pascal Granger Chenas was the only 2008 in the bunch, and we remarked that it displayed the nose of a white, with dried apricots and apples and pretty white flowers.

The Nouveaus, the wines released immediately following this year’s harvest, with their ultra light and bright character are more about nostalgic pleasure than complexity. Come November 18th, signs appear in French cafes announcing Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé, the arrival of the new wine, and whether or not you like the stuff, it’s a bit like that afternoon in mid-December when you find yourself not actually minding Mariah Carey’s rendition of “All I want for Christmas,” maybe even singing along.

Beaujolais will always remind me of sitting outside of Paris cafes in late fall, trying to pretend I don’t mind the cold, and drinking Nouveau because it’s the house wine. And it’s also too cold, and it doesn’t matter because the wine is not that great anyway but it’s Paris, and I’m so happy.

Thanks to all of you who came, and for those of you who were unable to attend, here’s a lovely article from The Gotham Palate.

Stay tuned for more art and wine events happening soon all over the city!

I had a great time with all of you and welcome your input for the next set of seminars.

For those of you who were unable to attend, on Friday night we sampled an array of Italian sparkling wines, along with a bountiful buffet of tartine. We discussed what makes a Prosecco a Prosecco, and a spumante e spumante.  Hint: most Proseccos are spumanti, but not all spumanti are Proseccos…

On Saturday afternoon we talked about some of Italy’s major wine regions and their traditional wines. We also learned how to taste and evaluate wines and how to pair them with food. Some people learned that Chianti is not a grape, that Nebbiolo is both a grape and a wine, and that most wines they thought were sweet, are actually quite dry.

Saturday night wrapped up with a  Puglian dinner with accompanying wines at Via Veneto restaurant, and more courses than I can remember

13-14 August I’ll be conducting wine tasting seminars as a fun and informative way to get a real “taste” of Italian culture.

Here’s a run down of the schedule:

Friday 13

July, 6-8pm: Welcome Aperitivo – a sampling of Italy’s sparkling wines

Saturday 14 July

2–3:30pm: The fundamentals of Wine Tasting, Italian Sommelier Association method

4-6 pm: The Wines of Italy, a tasting of principal wine regions of Italy

7pm: Wine Dinner at Via Veneto Restaurant: A flavor of Puglia

Sign-up for all-inclusive tasting+dinner packages or the the entire weekend.

RSVP is obligatory (before August 8th)

Contact: enrico@sentieri.com

Tel: 773- 275-5325