Bastianich “Vespa” 2001: Rosso and Bianco
A few weeks ago, when we were at Cafe Juanita, we asked our exceptional waiter about a particular wine we saw on the wine list. It was by Bastianich, from the Friuli region of Italy. The wine was called Vespa and was a white blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay with a bit of late harvest Picolit. We hadn’t tried a lot of either Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay from Italy, but we do especially like wines from the Friuli region. Our waiter highly recommended it and said it was one of his favorites of the whites on the list. We tried it and found it to be excellent. We were with P.’s parents, who are generally not white wine drinkers, and they loved it as well. It was so crisp and refreshing and different.
As we were nearing the end of that bottle, we started looking over the wine list again, and the waiter suggested that we try the Bastianich Vespa Rosso. It’s a blend of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Refosco. Trying the same wine in a red sounded like a fine idea, so we took him up on it. We were very glad we did. It was perfect with food: smooth with a long finish and not at all bitter or overpowering. It didn’t compete for attention but was a wonderful complement.
Apparently, both are blends of finished wines — that is, blends combined after fermentation.
The waiter wrote the information down for me, along with the name of the local distributor (Chosen Grapes). Here are some information I found about these wines. I would provide more of my own tasting notes, but that dinner was several weeks ago, and the details have faded.
Bastianich produces wine in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region (where one of our favorite wine producers, Silvio Jermann grows wine). The Bastianichs are not from Italy, but rather Manhattan, although they visit often to oversee operations. Joseph Bastianich is the son of TV chef Lidia Bastianich and is a partner of Mario Batali. You can read more about him in Food & Wine.
The Bianco is their flagship wine, with all grapes picked by hand. Each varietal is aged in both stainless steel and barrels (by some reports, half and half), and then once combined, aged another 18 months in the bottle before release. blanchards.net says:
The result is an extraordinary white wine with great depth and a creamy mouthfeel: rich, but not at all heavy or over the top. In fact, this was plainly designed, as the best wines are, to accompany food, not to overpower it. Sublime with any seafood!
The winelist of trattoriadelia says:
This flagship wine became the youngest white vintage to be awarded Gambero Rosso’s Tre Bicchieri. A blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon and Picolit, aromas of wildflowers, clover, honey and mature pear fruit, well-balanced mineral and citrus, barrel aged, full, rich and complex with a stunning finish; to be enjoyed throughout a meal.
The Rosso is the estate red. These grapes are also hand picked, then aged in new French oak barrels for 18 months, and then another year in the bottle. I couldn’t find good tasting notes on the Rosso, which means that I need to try it again soon and write some up.
During my Googling, I ran across some notes from my friend Kieca, who noted (of the Bianco), “named “Vespa” because when harvesting they had a wasp attack and the winemaker or someone got eight wasp bites and the wine was named Vespa because that is what he would have needed to get away (Vespa is also Italian for “wasp”) almost buttery finish but very well-integrated and well-done.” (The Internet is such a small place.)
It looks like the Bianco retails for around $26 and the Rosso retails around $34.