The Perfect Serving of Wine: Volumi Bollati

I'm reading Oscar Farinetti's new book, Storie di Coraggio: Vino Ti Amo (Stories of Courage: Wine, I love you - the second part being pretty much my canto to wine), in which he first recounts his experience and love affair with wine and then interviews 12 of Italy's greatest producers, during which they also taste 4 wines from other producers together and one one of the producer's choice.

I'm not too far into it, but have gotten through the introduction and the first producer, Constantino Charrère of Les Crètes in Val d'Aosta. It is clear by page 2 that although Farinetti has dedicated his life to his work with UniEuro and now with Eataly, his true love and passion is none other than the fruit of the vine; and in particular, wine from his home in Alba...and with a mother from Barolo and father from Barbaresca, he honestly had no choice.

A recurring subject in this book (or at least these first two chapters), is Farinetti's Vino Libero project, one which advocates for wine with no chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or excessive sulfites. Farinetti actually puts the objectives of the project very well in his interview with Constantino when he says "Una volta c'erano i vini puliti perché non mettevano niente, ma spesso erano anche cattivi, poi c'è stato il grande scandalo del metanolo e da lì e partita una ricerca verso vini molto buoni ma fatti senza disdegnare la chimica. Adesso le cose stanno nettamente cambiando: meno solforosa, insetticidi, concimi chimici, diserbanti, e quindi occorre andare a cercare un nuovo equilibrio, quello di un vino che sia pulito ma anche buono." Farinetti, speaking to Constantino, basically says that at one time, there were "clean" wines, but often they were bad wines. Then came the scandalous methanol, which was corrected by chemicals. Now things are changing for the better: less sulfer, insecticides, chemical fertilizers, weed killers, and so we are finding a new equilibrium - a wine that is "clean" but also good. It's an interesting concept that is unarguably growing in the wine world and is fundamental to Vino Libero, and several of Farinetti's own wines (he owns quite a few properties, especially in Piedmont) are certified as such.

Yesterday I went to Eataly to get some new wine. Not that I didn't have any - in fact, my wine fridge is just about full - but I was by myself and I love to wander the isles for as long as I'd like and just look. So for an hour I went around reading, looking, and tasting. I found that some of Farinetti's Fontanafredda wines are actually in various sizes of bottles, a concept called volumi bollati. Each of the wines that are a part of this are in 500ml bottles, 1000ml bottles, and 1500ml bottles, the idea being that you buy a bottled perfect for however many people you are with, 2, 4 or 6. I saw this and thought fantastic; my fiance was in Asia and I was by myself and didn't want to open a bottle that would stay picking up oxygen for more than 2 days.

I almost went for the Barolo, but was craving salmon pasta, so went for the La Lepre Dolcetto di Diano d'Alba instead. I ended up making a salmon and tomato-based linguine with zucchini and mushrooms sauteed in the juice that I dehydrated the mushrooms in. The mushroom pairing was obvious - Piedmont wines are known for loving mushrooms and this one brought a nice brightness to the wine - but the salmon pasta surprised me in it's ability to cut the almost dirt and earthiness, giving it a pleasant roundness that I wasn't expecting.

Today I made some pepper and turkey bolognese over spaghetti squash and to be honest, the wine got much flatter and the equilibrium we search for in wine was pretty must lost, but that bottle yesterday would have been a perfect, freshly opened serving for two...