In which SFJoe gives stellar advice on a Sicilian white

S

Sharon Bowman

Sharon Bowman
Here I am, mired in Frenchness. Yet, with a little help from my friends - dixit Ringo Starr - I manage sometimes to rise... wait, to skeet aside (come on, we can't "rise above" France) the wines of the country I live in.

Said SFJoe suggested a grape called, if my fingers don't betray me, Carjcanti, from the producer Gulfi.

2005 Gulfi Carjcanti - on the bottle, marked 12.5% abv. Already indication of not-hot business. But holy $%^*, in the glass, this gave off luxurious scents of, well, white burgundy. On the palate, such did not lie. Fine, elegant, broad, heady and, though minerally, also expansive, without any indication of tropicality; nary a drop. Just straight, gorgeous and somewhat rotund (though precise) burgunditude.

Of course, this made me realize that perhaps the person who professedly disliked wines from the Cte de Beaune and the Cte de Nuits was desperately seeking replacements for the lack in the palate spectrum. This is not even methadone to the heroin of the Cte de Beaune; it's some kind of mirror you cut the stuff on.

(Tsk for the drug analogy, but I have been told that today's druggies are all doing Red Bull and vodka.)

Exciting discovery, in any event.
 
I had a Gulfi Caricanti while in Italy several years ago and thought it was sublime. The 3-4 bottles I've had here in the US have not been up to that level. I've suspected heat damage somewhere in the supply chain.
 
How was I supposed to know it tastes like white Burgundy? I have no basis for comparison.

Though I will confess that '88 Raveneau Clos last night was enough to tempt me down the path of perdition.
 
Sharon, I'm in the same Franco boat, happily so, for the most part. Another Sicilian (rouge) you might try is the amphorae raised COS. Recommended here, and it was great.
 
thanks for the excellent tn's sharon...i am going out and getting some red bull and vodka right now

actually the whole tn was lovely (and damn if I too am not tired of seeing the word tropical associated with burgundy whites)....thank goodness. will look forward to burgunditude from sicily's carjcanti....as soon as someone tells me how to pronounce it
 
originally posted by Zachary Ross:
A spoon/cooking analogy would have been more apt.
Click to expand...

I cannot agree. It was the mirror 'twas the thing. I should have gone cokey, though, rather than heroin-wise. But is there a supposed unhooking drug for cocaine? No-doz?

originally posted by Brad L i l j e q u i s t:
Another Sicilian (rouge) you might try is the amphorae raised COS.
Click to expand...

I did get to try this recently in London. It was so very curious and olivey. Quite particular.

originally posted by scottreiner:
Who is smuggling the stuff and who is the dealer?
Click to expand...

Into France? The red can be purchased at Caves du Panthon (a highly recommendable establishment, by the bye), and I found the white at Bacchus & Ariane in the St-Germain-des-Prs covered market (another great store).

originally posted by Joel Stewart:
carjcanti....as soon as someone tells me how to pronounce it
Click to expand...

There, I can be of precisely zero point zero help, unfortunately!
 
Carjcante is a proprietary name for a wine made by Gulfi from Carricante and Albanello. I greatly preferred the '05 to the '06, as the '06 strikes me as very reductive. The importer to the US east coast has only brought in 40 cases of the '06 thus far, so it might be a little, you know, scarce in the market.
 
Thanks Levi.

Any thoughts on how the Vini Biondi whites stack up to Carjcanti?

I'm not familiar enough to know the difference between the Gurna and Outis Bianco as they both appear to be mostly carricante with some other varieties blended. Perhaps the former was renamed to the latter? (Paging Oliver..)
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
Who is Zul?
Click to expand...

Someone that used to post who is involved in the Italian wine industry.
And, I beleive it is safe to say, you would have enjoyed meeting him.
Best, Jim
 
While Zul no longer posts (and perhaps in that sense the Zul persona is no longer with us), the person who authored the Zul posts is alive and well and living in Northern Italy. He is still partially in the wine business, even if it is no longer his primary focus (at least when I saw him in November).

Cole
 
I very much enjoyed the 2002 at lunch today alongside oricchiette with broccoli and sausages. It was certainly interesting and good, but not beyond that. No comparison to white Burgundy evident, except perhaps Mconnais. Minerality with some richness but still firmness.
 
We miss Zul and his many fine contributions. Sharon, if you get to the Piemonte, last I heard Zul was in the neighborhood of Turin, or Milano, or one of those places. And you can twist his arm to post again, whether he's ITB or not.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top