Team dinner at Italian Village Chicago

Team dinner at Italian Village Chicago - new menu specials and new wine (s)

Holocene Memorialis Pinot Noir and Soffocone di Vincigliata Toscana Sangiovese

With key staffers in town for meetings and a workshop, we dined at our regular customary dinesite, Italian Village, Chicago. 

Collaborating with Wine Director, Jared Gelband, we selected a traditional Italian Tuscan Sangiovese, and for a change, a new release Oregon Pinot Noir from Pacific Northwest winemaker Todd Alexander. 

We hosted Todd Alexander and wife and partner Carrie at Italian Village during their release promotion tour visit to Chicago back in 2016, and introduced them to our friend and Wine Director, Jared Gelband. 

Jared was impressed with Todd's 'artwork' and selected several of his labels to feature on the extensive award winning winelist. 

Jared continues to carry Todd's labels on the extraordinary Italian Village winelist, which is primarily Italian, including this recent release of Todd and Carrie's new Holocene brand. 

Holocene Memorialis Pinot Noir (Yamhill-Carlton) 2018

This is the fourth vintage for this Pinot Noir project from Todd Alexander, winemaker at Force Majeure. The first vintage was 2015, released in early 2017. It's a single-vineyard cuvée (vineyard unidentified) from the MonksGate vineyard in the Yamhill Carlton AVA in the Willamette Valley Oregon. 

Todd moved to Washington from Napa Valley where he crafting wines for ultra-premium producer  Bryant Family Vineyards. Today he is winemaker for Force Majeure in Walla Walla and have recently released his own brands Paxsa and this Holocene. 

This is another project of Todd Alexander, who moved to Washington from California (he worked at Bryant Family Vineyards from 2010 to 2014 and was responsible for vinifying the 2012 and 2013 wines) to take over winemaking at Force Majeure and launched this project to make Pinot Noir from Oregon fruit.

Todd partners with a few very small, diverse and amazing vineyards in the Willamette Valley, sourcing fruit from these dry-farmed sites that emphasize low yields, sustainable practices and produce outstanding fruit. 

Says Todd, "Everyone knows that the Willamette Valley is an amazing place to grow Pinot Noir. When I relocated from Napa Valley to partner up with Force Majeure Vineyards, I knew I also wanted to start a project where I could focus attention on a varietal and growing region that I loved. Part of the excitement of being in the Pacific Northwest is the ability to have access to so many amazing vineyards and so much diversity, along with the opportunity to push boundaries and try new things."  

Todd has developed a reputation for crafting much heralded, highly regarded wines that reflect their "real sense of place" through minimal manipulation, 'utilizing very low-impact, non-industrial techniques, native yeasts, little extraction and little new oak, and never filtering or fining'. 

So, it was only fitting that when Jared received and offered from his allocation this small limited production release from Todd, we were compelled to try it with our dinner. 

Ravioli Di Costata Corta Brasata

This was a perfect complement to our ravioli stuffed with short rib dinner special, a new offering on the IV menu - Ravioli Di Costata Corta Brasata - pasta stuffed with short rib, parmesan and ricotta cheese, mirepox in a red wine demi glaze. 

Readers of this site know I am not a big Pinot drinker, opting more for Bordeaux and Rhone varietals. Never-the-less, the fun of wine is trying new labels, varietals, regions and producers. 

I loved this wine which exceeded my expectations and sets a new benchmark for me for Oregon Pinots going forward. I am a member of their club (s) and regularly take my allocation of their other labels, but immediately signed up to get on the list for this label release (which is naturally sold out) when it becomes available in the future. 

This label release was awarded 93-95 points by Jeb Dunnuck, 93 points by Wine Enthusiast and 90 points by Vinous.This is from the 2018 Oregon vintage that was a warmer than average year, sourced from a west-facing hillside of sedimentary soils located in the heart of the Willamette Valley (not far from Beaux Freres and Shea Vineyard). This is 100% Pinot Noir that was 20% destemmed and brought up in 20% French oak, 

Bright ruby colored, medium bodied, elegant and seductively textured and structured, perfectly balanced and integrated raspberry and strawberry fruits, with notes of floral, herbs, hints of sweet milk chocolate, white pepper and spice, with a silky smooth lingering finish. 

RM 93 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3642047

http://holocenewines.com/

 

https://twitter.com/ForceMVineyards

 

Also check out our Force Majeure Vineyards Site Visit and Tasting.

Bibi Graetz Soffocone di Vincigliata Toscana IGT Sangiovese Blend 2016

For our second wine, we ordered from the winelist this Tuscan Sangiovese Blend. 

This is from well known producer Bibi Graetz, who, since his first release back in 2000, has developed a reputation as one of Italy's most ingenious winemakers. He produces a broad portfolio of wines including popular labels Testamatta and Colore which have earned him almost cult status to many Italian wine aficionados. 

Born and raised in Italy, Bibi makes his wine in his family home, Castello di Vincigliata, a medieval castle which stands on a rocky hill to the east of the village of Fiesole overlooking Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany.  

Bibi inherited the ancient historic castle acquired by his parents over 60 years ago. Surrounded by vines, he set out to teach himself winemaking from grapes initially from the small, 5-acre vineyard on this hillside in Fiesole, but expanded and grew to bringing in grapes contracted from other growers around the region. Through sourcing arrangements with growers from parcels of old vines around Tuscany, Bibi had full control of style and crafting of his wines. 

This label, Soffocone di Vincigliata, is the only wine named by a specific designated vineyard of production, punctuating the special link between this wine and the hill where Bibi Graetz started his project. The beautiful vineyard of Vincigliata in Fiesole overlooks Firenze with one of the most romantic view of the city, from which Bibi took inspiration for the name and the unique label.

In the vein of Super Tuscans, but a little on the more elegant side, this wine is structured, complex and sophisticated. Sourced from 40 year-old vines it is primarily Sangiovese, 90%, but also blended with grape varieties Canaiolo Nero, 7% and 3% Colorino. It is fermented in stainless steel followed by aging in French barrels for 15 months and finished in bottle for 6 months.

Dark purple garnet colored, medium bodied, bright tangy plum, cherry and dark berry fruits with notes of licorice and a touch of lavender turning to dense fine-grained tannins on a lively bright acidity finish.

 

RM 89 points.  

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3165262

https://www.bibigraetz.com/it/index.php

https://italianvillage-chicago.com/wine-cellar/

https://twitter.com/italianvlg

https://twitter.com/jzgwine

 

 

 

Force Majeure Washington State Red Mountain Syrah 2013

Force Majeure Washington State Red Mountain Force Majeure Vineyard Syrah 2013

We obtained this bottle of Force Majeure Red Mountain Syrah 2013, sourced from the Force Majeure vineyard from the winemaker Todd Alexander during his promotional tour to Chicago a couple weeks ago.

We met Todd and his wife Carie at the Italian Village Restaurant in Chicago where we introduced them to Jared Gelband, Wine Director there, (shown left), who gave us a tour of the historic legendary cellar.

I featured Todd and Force Majeure winery and vineyards in my blogpost following our meeting. We were holding this bottle for a special occasion or select time to taste the wine in a suitable setting. 

This is the first vintage to reflect Todd's craftmanship of the Estate fruit based wines which will no doubt continue to be refined and fine tuned with each subsequent vintage. He is looking to produce Northern and Southern Rhone style wines based on varietals from that region including Syrah, and Bordeaux style wines from applicable varietals.  

Tonight, we opened this bottle to enjoy on the deck with dinner of grilled bbq ribs, fresh sweet corn and summer salad.

This was dark inky blackish purple in color, with full bodied, thick chewy black berry and black raspberry fruits. The fruits were overtaken by tones of metallic tin, like that often found in Southern Australia Barossa Syrahs and some Washington State Syrahs. This tended to detract from the fruit and accent highlights perhaps indicating we drank this too young and that it needs time to settle and better integrate. We of course didn't want to hold this longer since it was provided to us for the purpose of tasting and sharing our observations.

The slightly astringent forward fruit provided a mouth puckering tongue coating with tangy tannins that lingered on a long finish.

As we tend to do, we save some wine to taste the next day. This was slightly more approachable after being open an extended period of time.

This was a perfect complement to the tangy bar-be-cue baby back ribs. 

We drink lots of Shiraz/Syrah, mostly from Australia, as well as Syrah blends from the Southern Rhone.  This wine came across as less balanced and polished than the finer Aussie Syrahs, but was more full, thicker and bigger than many Rhones. I think that in years with more ripening of the fruit, this may show more polish and balance and result in a top notch premier Syrah, rivaling the best from both regions.

RM 90 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2084823

https://forcemajeurevineyards.com/

Italian Village appoints Jared Gelband Wine Director

Italian Village appoints Jared Gelband Wine Director ... to restore cellar to historic eminence ...

The historic Italian Village restaurant, a Chicago landmark since 1927 has appointed Jared Gelband as its new Wine Director. Jared has worked the Chicago fine dining and wine scene for more than a dozen years for such well known establishments as Chicago Prime, Del Frisco's and others.

The Italian Village wine cellar holds a Best of Excellence Award from Wine Spectator Magazine, one of the most esteemed benchmarks in the restaurant market, with over thirty thousand bottles of more than a thousand different wine selections.

Italian Village actually consists of three different restaurants in one site and the wine cellar serves all three restaurants at its location at 71 West Monroe opposite the Chase Bank Tower plaza in the center of loop.

The three restaurants each have their own chef, kitchen and waitstaff. Italian Village continues to be operated by the founding Capitanini family, who today are represented by the second and third generation descendants of the founder Alfredo Capitanini and is the oldest continuously operating Italian restaurant in Chicago.  The three dining rooms that make up Italian Village represent three different cuisines and dining experiences - the flagship Italian Village with its classic traditional Northern Italian cuisine within the quaint atmosphere of an Italian village. The trendy chic Vivere showcases a start-to-finish approach to everything on the menu, from house- and hand-made pasta in a modern Chicago landmark contemporary dining room designed by Jordan Moser, full of unique shapes and angles in a stylish feel ideally suited for the forward-thinking haute cuisine, while La Cantina, features the classic menu, hospitable ambience and service at The Village.

Jared, a native of suburban Chicago sees this as a break through opportunity to build on the solid foundation of the wine program, and to restore it to its earlier eminence when it held the highest Grand Award. He intends to capitalize on the extensive inventory investment in Italian, Bordeaux and selective American wines, expand its global coverage, modernize the operations, and adopt social media and other promotions to showcase the world class selection, great values, and rare wines, all complementing great authentic food in a setting for all occasions.

Jared loves life in the cellar which serves as his office where he spends his days researching new wines, managing the inventory, and updating the extensive wine list to pair wines to showcase the cuisine and menu's of each of the three restaurants while offering wines for all tastes and budgets.

Dining hours and evenings are then devoted to promotion, serving as Sommelier and assisting the dining and bar staff in the property's three restaurants. While each restaurant boasts in own kitchen, chef and waitstaff, the cellar serves all three dining operations.

See the updated Wine Cellar feature on the updated Italian Village website.

On this day, we were meeting Todd Alexander, Winemaker from Force Majeure Vineyard and Winery in Red Mountain, Yakima/Columbia Valley Washington. Visiting Chicago with his wife Carrie, Marketing Director for Force Majeure on a promotion tour, we met at Italian Village to bring together two emerging voices and forces in wine and fine dining to share offerings, visions, plans, and to explore synergies and opportunities for collaboration.

Jared gave all of us a tour of the Italian Village cellar and uncovered and showcased from its extensive thirty thousand bottle collection of deep selections in classic Italian's, rare Bordeaux, as well as several premier wine's from Todd's previous endeavors such as Bryant Family wines in Napa Valley.

Watch for upcoming wine and dine tasting journal reports on Italian Village.

http://www.italianvillage-chicago.com/

Jared with Force Majeure winemaker
Todd Alexander

Showing wine treasure vintage Chateau Petrus.

Todd Alexander and Bryant Family selection
from Italian Village cellar.

A day at the office for Jared Gelband, in Italian Village
cellar with Todd and Carrie Alexander and author.

Italian Village appoints Jared Gelband Wine Director

Italian Village appoints Jared Gelband Wine Director ... to restore cellar to historic eminence ...

The historic Italian Village restaurant, a Chicago landmark since 1927 has appointed Jared Gelband as its new Wine Director. Jared has worked the Chicago fine dining and wine scene for more than a dozen years for such well known establishments as Chicago Prime, Del Frisco's and others.

The Italian Village wine cellar holds a Best of Excellence Award from Wine Spectator Magazine, one of the most esteemed benchmarks in the restaurant market, with over thirty thousand bottles of more than a thousand different wine selections.

Italian Village actually consists of three different restaurants in one site and the wine cellar serves all three restaurants at its location at 71 West Monroe opposite the Chase Bank Tower plaza in the center of loop.

The three restaurants each have their own chef, kitchen and waitstaff. Italian Village continues to be operated by the founding Capitanini family, who today are represented by the second and third generation descendants of the founder Alfredo Capitanini and is the oldest continuously operating Italian restaurant in Chicago.  The three dining rooms that make up Italian Village represent three different cuisines and dining experiences - the flagship Italian Village with its classic traditional Northern Italian cuisine within the quaint atmosphere of an Italian village. The trendy chic Vivere showcases a start-to-finish approach to everything on the menu, from house- and hand-made pasta in a modern Chicago landmark contemporary dining room designed by Jordan Moser, full of unique shapes and angles in a stylish feel ideally suited for the forward-thinking haute cuisine, while La Cantina, features the classic menu, hospitable ambience and service at The Village.

Jared, a native of suburban Chicago sees this as a break through opportunity to build on the solid foundation of the wine program, and to restore it to its earlier eminence when it held the highest Grand Award. He intends to capitalize on the extensive inventory investment in Italian, Bordeaux and selective American wines, expand its global coverage, modernize the operations, and adopt social media and other promotions to showcase the world class selection, great values, and rare wines, all complementing great authentic food in a setting for all occasions.

Jared loves life in the cellar which serves as his office where he spends his days researching new wines, managing the inventory, and updating the extensive wine list to pair wines to showcase the cuisine and menu's of each of the three restaurants while offering wines for all tastes and budgets.

Dining hours and evenings are then devoted to promotion, serving as Sommelier and assisting the dining and bar staff in the property's three restaurants. While each restaurant boasts in own kitchen, chef and waitstaff, the cellar serves all three dining operations.

On this day, we were meeting Todd Alexander, Winemaker from Force Majeure Vineyard and Winery in Red Mountain, Yakima/Columbia Valley Washington. Visiting Chicago with his wife Carrie, Marketing Director for Force Majeure on a promotion tour, we met at Italian Village to bring together two emerging voices and forces in wine and fine dining to share offerings, visions, plans, and to explore synergies and opportunities for collaboration.

Jared gave all of us a tour of the Italian Village cellar and uncovered and showcased from its extensive thirty thousand bottle collection of deep selections in classic Italian's, rare Bordeaux, as well as several premier wine's from Todd's previous endeavors such as Bryant Family wines in Napa Valley.

Watch for upcoming wine and dine tasting journal reports on Italian Village.

http://www.italianvillage-chicago.com/

Jared with Force Majeure winemaker
Todd Alexander

Showing wine treasure vintage Chateau Petrus.

Todd Alexander and Bryant Family selection
from Italian Village cellar.

A day at the office for Jared Gelband, in Italian Village
cellar with Todd and Carrie Alexander and author.

Todd Alexander joins Force Majeure Winery

Force Majeure Red Mountain Vineyard and Winery - An emerging tour de force in premium Washington State Columbia Valley wines ...

We had the pleasure of meeting Todd Alexander, Head Winemaker and General Manager of Force Majeure, the highly-acclaimed winery from Washington State’s Red Mountain AVA, and his wife Carrie, during their recent marketing trip to Chicago. 

We met with Todd and Carrie to learn about Force Majeure and their work there to produce and market highest quality wines representing the rich and diverse terroir of the Red Mountain appellation. Todd gained notoriety at cult winery Bryant on Pritchard Hill in Napa Valley where his wines earned high ratings and critical praise. There he learned the craft under legendary viticulturist David Abreu and winemaking consultant Michel Rolland, following in the footsteps there of such notable producers such as Peter Melka. He also spent time learning the craft at Plumpjack/Cade. Joining Todd was wife Carrie, who will be working in marketing of Force Majeure.

They join proprietors Susan and Paul McBride, who purchased the undeveloped land, that is now Force Majeure Vineyard, in 2004, and since then have developed the Force Majeure brand with their devotion and commitment to meticulous viticulture and exemplary winemaking. They have been sourcing Red Mountain fruit from the finest lots from the well known Ciel du Cheval vineyard, marketing under the branding Grand Reve Vintners. During this time they have been increasingly shifting focus to Force Majeure, highlighting fruit from the estate Force Majeure Vineyard as more and more plots come online. Up to now they produced the Collaboration Series featuring Washington’s leading winemakers and one of Red Mountain’s greatest vineyards, Ciel du Cheval. Now, with Todd at the healm of winemaking duties, they will focus on their estate vineyards starting with the Force Majeure vineyard.

Todd and Carrie moved with their their family from Napa Valley to the Columbia Valley to purse this extraordinary opportunity. Todd joined Force Majeure in 2014 so this year's release will be the first reflecting his craftmanship from the vineyards to the glass.

Force Majeure is growing production from 2,000 cases per year to 4,000 cases as their second 20-acre parcel comes into production. The winery’s focus has been on red Bordeaux varietals with acreage planted in Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot and Rhone varietals Syrah, Grenache and Mouvedre with new plantings in Cinsault, Counoise, Viognier and others. This will allow Todd to explore developing product with both Northern and Southern Rhone style wines as well those reflecting the Bordeaux Left and Right Banks. Such is the diversity and of the terroir of the property.

The Force Majeure estate vineyard is in Washington state's Red Mountain AVA (appellation - agriculture viticulturual area. The original vineyard was planted in 13 acres, and an additional 10 acres planted in 2015. Force Majeure Vineyard is up against the hillside abutting Red Mountain.

Todd seeks to emulate the great labels of Pomerol, St Julien, Hermitage, Priorat, Côte-Rôtie and Chateauneuf-du-Pape - such labels as Lalande-de-Pomerol, Chateau Latour, La Ladone, and Chateau Beaucastel as benchmark wines. We're excited to watch the evolution and growth of his work as Force Majeure as he seeks to pursue his vision and realize the potential of this great property, and for him to express and develop his capabilities in a broad portfolio of premium wines.

Todd told of us the unique diversity, and superior terroir and great potential of the property, in the foothill butted up against the Red Mountain range overlooking the Yakima River basin. The diverse property has nine different soil types in a change of elevation from 900 to 1200 feet. The rocky upper part of the property has as much as a 40% slope, well-suited for the Rhone varietals, while the lower elevations of the vineyard's well-drained soils are more ideally suited to Bordeaux varietals, all with a Southwestern exposure to capture the afternoon sun, ideal for ripening the grapes.

The Yakima Valley AVA was the first AVA created in Washington State in 1983. The valley covers 600,000 acres in south central Washington, twice the size of the greater Bordeaux region, and fifteen times the size of Napa Valley. Yakima Valley is home to the largest concentration of vineyards and wineries in the state with more than 60 wineries and 16,000 vineyard acres. Nearly 40% of Washington wines are made with Yakima Valley grapes.

In 1984 Columbia Valley was given AVA status, and Yakima Valley was enclosed within the Columbia Valley AVA. Since that time, several new appellations have been added including Red Mountain AVA and Horse Heaven Hills AVA, which are both contained within Yakima Valley.

Force Majeure currently has a winery facility in Woodinville, WA but will also be developing their own world class winery facility, renovating a historic rustic 11,000 schoolhouse from around 1900. 

Todd left us the Force Majeure Red Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 and Force Majeure Red Mountain Syrah 2013, both sourced from the Force Majeure vineyard. Watch for my update with our upcoming tasting of these wines.

We met with Todd and Carrie at the famous Chicago landmark Italian Village Restaurant with their historic award winning wine cellar, now run by Wine Director Sommelier Jared Gelband who gave us a tour of the cellar featuring in my separate blogpost.

https://forcemajeurevineyards.com/