Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Brunello di Montalcino in NYC


~ so off on the train into town to the Benvenuto Brunello Show at the Hilton this evening, in the stimulating and engaging company of Ellisa Cooper—in the course of which
playing with her theory about the potential relationship between aesthetic standards as evinced by the beauty of a grower's label and the quality of what he's put in the bottle...

and these Italian wine-events are always such boy-fashion-shows that I was planning to wear something really splendid, and shine up my best shoes, but the weather was so godawful bad that I opted instead for anti-fashion.

I wore a cheap Ralph Lauren sportjacket (in fact, the one in my mugshot which Aaron Sing Fox took in Alsace) that I like so well that I took the $1000 Loro Piana I bought just after it back to Brooks Brothers because the two looked too much alike. Underneath this sportjacket I wore an Einstürzende Neubauten t-shirt, image above.

Two fellows at the tasting recognised the image and commented that I was wearing an Einstürzende Neubauten t-shirt (they're an industrial noise band from Berlin), and one of them could even pronounce Einstürzende Neubauten correctly. The German word for surprise is Überraschung... 

The Brunellos performed mostly as advertised—rather tidily-fashioned for the most part—I think we tasted ten wines before we finally struck feet...

the best Rosso di Montalcino was the 07 Uccelliera—gorgeous depth, length and character of flavours. Their 04 Brunello di Montalcino was one of my two favourites, along with that of Poggio Antico—whose 03 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva was perhaps the finest thing I tasted all evening long. Both 04 Brunello and 07 Rosso from Villa I Cipressi were also quite toothsome and stylish.



2 comments:

Emily Schindler said...

Favorite Einstürzende Neubauten song: their cover of the Nancy Sinatra hit "Sand". (Though I've always been much more of a Young Gods fan...)

Favorite Brunello: as yet to be determined. Must make concerted effort for continued education.

james oliver wright said...

I did find a Youtube video of Sand, and would say it's an excellent development on the Sinatra/Hazlewood recording.

My favourite thing of theirs was "Jackson"

and my favourite thing of hers was a soppy pop number "Something Stupid" that she recorded with her dad.

and as far as the music of Berlin goes, I very quickly found my way to Nick Cave, around the "From Her to Eternity" period, which is more my style.