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Where eagles dare

Rarefied tastes on an Italian mountaintop

By Helena Baker
For The Prague Post
October 3rd, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
An impressive sight greets wine connoisseurs and lucky journalists on the last day of tasting in the Dolomites.
COURTESY PHOTO
Winemaker Guiseppe Tasca pours another glass at this year's VINOVIP.
Every two years the most celebrated aristocracy among the Italian wine producers descend on the fashionable mountain resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Dolomites for two days of lectures, tutored tastings and gourmet dining, a gathering known as VINOVIP. Set in glamorous surroundings, the event is conducted in the presence of local and foreign media.
The show opened August 30 this year with an informal lunch, during which journalists mingled with counts, princes and marquesses with impressive-sounding names such as Frescobaldi, Antinori, Incisa della Rocchetta, Strozzi, de Castries and such. It wasn’t all fun and games, though. Professor Eugenio Pomarici addressed the subject of international wine marketing, while Professor Antonio Calo started an animated debate on the importance of autochthonous grape varieties in Italian vini-viticulture.
Riveting stuff, to those in the know.  
Guests at the gala dinner feasted on five courses of local fare that included spiedino di fegato (Venetian liver on a skewer) and strudel d’anatra farcito ai frutti di bosco (duck strudel stuffed with forest fruit). Each diner was free to ask sommeliers for any of the wines on a long list that included such famous labels as Tenuta San Guido’s Sassicaia, Pio Cesare’s Barolo, Biondi-Santi’s Brunello di Montalcino and Lungarotti’s Rubesco Riserva, to name but a few.
But the highlight of the gathering was certainly the “wine tasting delle Aquile” — or “among the eagles” — which offered a chance to sip vintages at more than 2,000 meters (6,562 feet) above sea level. The great and the good gathered on top of the mountain to show their fine wines and even finer grappas to those who risked the long cable car trek up Rifugio Faloria to enjoy the spectacular views, lovely sunshine and wonderful wines.  
Winery of the month
Víno Jakubík, Zlechov
František and Břetislav Jakubík
My first encounter with František Jakubík was in 1998 at a tasting of foreign wines at the Grand Hotel in Uherské Hradiště. I was introducing the wines of Burgundy when a tall man stepped forward and declared, “Madame, I make better chardonnay than the French!”  
Since then, I have visited his wine cellar in Zlechov on several occasions and come to respect this somewhat cocky and controversial figure. Many winemakers consider him an alchemist, fraudster and charlatan. And he is known to have said about the fellow winemakers:  “I am the best and I will ruin you.”
Jakubík makes wines more or less by hand in his cellar, which is filled with a strange array of casks, demijohns and tiny bottles. They are almost all sweet and carry seemingly random price tags that start in the 200 Kč ($10.25) range and reach stratospheric figures, sometimes well over 20,000 Kč. Whether the charges are true or just a typical example of “Czech envy” you will have to judge for yourself.
His wines may not be to everyone’s taste, but I know of a few wine-lovers (Canadian and Japanese) who only drink Jakubík’s wine. And some claim his 1982 vintage Pinot Noir was smuggled out of communist Czechoslovakia to France where, in a tasting, it was mistaken for a grand cru Burgundy. One French lady apparently knelt before the bottle to express her admiration to it and thanked God for its creation. Following the Velvet Revolution, Jakubík traveled to California, where he charmed local producers with his sediment-free, crystal-clear old vintages of Pinot Noir.
Back in 1963, Jakubík planted 10,000 vines in a location without any long-term history or tradition: the northern reaches of the Slovácko wine subregion. He learned everything by himself and now claims all the wine is free-run, without pressing. His son Břetislav produced his own first vintage in 1998 and is attempting to forge a separate identity. You can find more from www.vinojakubik.cz. Visits by prior appointment only.
Wines of the Month
White: Ribolla Gialla 2006, DOC Collio
Producer: Marko Primosic, Oslavia, Collio, Italy  
“Think Yellow, Drink Ribolla Gialla” reads the legend on Marko Primosic’s sports car. This refers to the renaissance of the indigenous grape variety of that name in Collio and neighboring Goriška Brda, Slovenia, where it is known as Rebula. The wine is both rich and restrained, with pears predominating, while the taste is creamy and delicately textured. (around 300 Kč)  
Red: Cignale 2000, IGT Colli della Toscana Centrale
Producer: Castello di Querceto, Greve in Chianti, Italy
This wine is a so-called Super Tuscan, made exclusively from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes. It comes, oddly enough, from a plot planted in 1981, whose first crop was devoured by wild boars. (“Cignale” is the Tuscan term for boar.) This is a big wine, with loads of cherries and dark berries in the nose, and the oak blending effortlessly into the fruit.  (1,650 Kč)  
October events diary  
This year’s harvest festival at Prague Castle is Oct. 6 and 7 at the Royal Gardens and Ball Game Hall between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. For more information, check
www.hrad.cz.  
— Helena Baker’s wine column appears the first Wednesday of each month. She can be reached at features@praguepost.com

Helena Baker can be reached at features@praguepost.com


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