Francesco Rinaldi, the meaning of ''Cannubbio''

During a reunion of friends and past Maialino wine team colleagues, we sampled from a beautiful roman menu and were fortunate to get served some memorable Nebbiolo from wine director, Jeff Kellogg.

After quenching our Champagne thirst we dove into two Nebbiolo's, a 1989 Francesco Rinaldi Barolo ''Cannubbio'', followed by a 1974 Oddero Barolo.

The '74 Oddero was drinking right around its peak, perhaps a touch past.  A bit thinner than the Rinaldi with an edgier acidity, tasting like a cigarette was put out in a shot of half cherry liquer half swamp water with a garnish of taleggio rind… you know in a delicious way though.

The Cannubbio from Rinaldi was one of the top five Nebbiolo's I have ever consumed no doubt.
Swampy cherries, with a gigantic liquorish bouquet, morphing into dark chocolate and tar, with a background of wilting roses.  Medium and long in body with still a large, youthful mid palate and gorgeous acidity that will allow this bad guy to age for at least 20 more years.  Drinking this wine was like riding an everlasting Nebbiolo wave.

What and where is Cannubbio?

After some research and a read through the Slowfood book,  ''a wine atlas of the Langhe'', I was surprised to find no easy answers regarding the intentions of ''Cannubbio'' on Rinaldi's Barolo labels.
I found three websites all providing different information about Cannubbio, Cannubi and Cannubi Boschis.

I Emailed over to the Francesco Rinaldi winery in Barolo to find out the deal, Paola responded as follows…

''Cannubbio was the old name used for this area (we found it in old documents and books). The modern name is Cannubi (on the maps starting with vintage 2010). Our old vintages are Barolo Cannubbio and our Barolo 2010 is Cannubi. We own nearly 2 hectars in Cannubi boschis  (the first part of the hill) and a small part in Cannubi (in the middle of the hill)…

In the article Battling bureaucracy in Barolo, Jancis Robinson writes about the controversial change Giuseppe Rinaldi was forced into.  As of 2010 they can no longer label a Barolo ''Brunate-Le Coste'' because of two vineyards appearing on the label (It seems the 2010 will be labeled Brunate but will contain a blend of 15% Le-Coste grapes.) But as far as Cannubi goes, it seems to be okay to label a Barolo ''Cannubi'' even if its coming from the Cannubi Boschis (aka Monghisolfo) or other surrounding Cannubi sub zone vineyards. 

My friend Alfonso Cevola wrote on the current state of Cannubi itself a couple of years ago in an article To Cannubi or not to Cannubi? where he was coming up with at least 25 hectares of wine being labeled Cannubi even though it is an area of 15 hectares.

I guess this is all a classic example of how strange, unorganized and controversial Italian wine is.  I originally only wanted to share a few amazing wines I recently drank and the cannubbio gods took me on a never-ending tangent.  And I guess after three days of searching my original idea of ''sure, cannubbio is synonymous with cannubi right? hasn't really changed that much.

Happy Nebbiolo drinking

Timeless method yesterday at the Us Open

Taylor Gold sending a timeless method on the first hit yesterday
and taking home the Gold medal at the US Open in Vail, Colorado.

There was a good feeling in the air after watching the US Open of Snowboarding yesterday.  After a terrible Halfpipe competition in Sochi for the olympics, Vail put on an amazing contest and some amazing tricks went down.

Besides Terje poaching with some classic frontside Indy to Method double grabs, Taylor Gold mixed up some classic styles with some new school tricks like Haakon 1080 Chicken Salads, and Frontside crippler Roast Beefs.  It was enough to take home a well deserved gold medal which left a sense of hope for the future and style of competitive snowboarding.

Link to Snowboardermag Video

Terje, Danny and Lago sending it together.

Tokyo. Remembering the two best culinary experiences of my life, in one day.

The flawless fatty tuna at Sushi Dai in the Tsukiji Fish Market.

The two single best culinary/dining experiences of my life at 29 years old happened in one day in Tokyo, Japan.  The first was a sushi breakfast at 8 am in a tiny little place and the second happened 12 hours later in a fine dining restaurant.

The following is a journal entry from 100 Rolls by Blake Noyes during that magically tasteful day in Tokyo.

After a 3am wake-up call and a sip or two of some Japanese whiskey we set off for the Tsukiji fish market. Somehow we wandered in the right direction and found ourselves in a huge, dark complex of warehouses with every sea creature under the sun in what seemed to be millions of boxes and crates. Total sensory overload. Gasoline, cigarettes and raw fish. Squeaking styrofoam and screaming fishermen. Dismissive hand gestures and dangerous hand carts. 

The sights, sounds and smells were unlike anything we’d ever seen.

And the flavors? Well after being politely “excused” from the grounds by various security officers we wound up in a line about 20 people deep for Sushi Dai - an 11-seat sushi bar renowned for their omakase menu featuring the chefs favorites from that night/morning’s catch.

Still only 5am mind you. 1 hour goes by. Then 2. Then 3. Luckily we had run into some friends from NYC (shout out to chefs Ben and Sara) to help pass the time. By 8:30 we were crammed into this hole-in-the-wall joint tucked away in an alley and had the best sushi meal of our collective lives. We all agreed. Quite the breakfast.

Here are some shots of the sushi served up by the very talented, comedian sushi chefs

After a pitstop at the hotel it was off to the Ryogoku Kokugikan Grand Tournament to see some classic sumo wrestling matches. Again, quite the sight to see.

Then it was the red light district by Shinjuku Station...

We finished the night off at Kyubey, another small sushi bar, this time in the Ginza neighborhood. Here the service and location were much more polished but once more, another stellar meal. It may be a bitter-sweet thing that happened, but it made for the second best sushi meal of our lives. And they happened on the same day, not even 13 hours apart from one another. Many thanks to Chef Takeshima and his crew.

We were ambitious with our plans for the club scene, but it was probably for the best that we called it a night after that 21 hour marathon.

Here we are… Nico, Blake, and James with Chef and server at Kyubey.

Cheers from the 333, #AsianTouringClub2013

Missing the Piedmontese life in New York City.

During my Journey back to America from my South East Asia Adventures I received some photos from friends enjoying a Piedmontese life at Maialino in New York City.  Damn, these are two things that I will never feel bad about when returning to the city.

White Alba truffles and baseball, Maialino New York City.

Some 1971 Oddero Barolo is poured at Maialino to compliment the seasons white truffles.