A year ago, my bride and I traveled to Italy. With it being our first trip there, we found many highlights. The Grand Canal. The Colosseum. The Birth of Venus.
Among our favorites were the endless vineyards, the luscious wines and the unforgettable meals. The best part, however, was the perspective we gained by being abroad, learning lessons from a country that, unlike any other, embraces its past and its sense of place.
A few of my experiences and observations apply to us here in the Pacific Northwest, a region where we enjoy a high quality of life that celebrates the beautiful diversity of our climate, superb wines, delicious cuisine and the potential of our people.
Following are two thoughts on what I learned in Italy that we can apply here in the Pacific Northwest.
Lesson No. 1: Half-bottles
Wherever we ate in Italy, we were greeted with a tremendous choice of wine, as you can imagine. And every wine list had dozens of wines served by the half-bottle. We'd rarely experienced this before and found we really enjoyed half-bottles for many reasons. Let's say you're having a light meal before you stroll around San Marcos Square in Venice. A half-bottle of Antinori Chianti Classico is just the right amount of wine.
Even better: If you're planning to eat at a grand restaurant in Florence and want to enjoy a white wine with the first course and a red with the main course, you don't have to be a slave to by-the-glass choices or invest in a full bottle you can't finish.
When Wine Press Northwest was judging wine lists last year for our annual competition, I was pleasantly surprised to see some half-bottles of Northwest wines pop up, and I was particularly pleased to see a few restaurants feature them. This is a good trend, and I encourage wineries to make available more half-bottles for the restaurant trade — and consumers to request more half-bottles when they're dining out.
Lesson No. 2: Regional pride
Wherever you go in Italy, restaurants and wine bars take great pride in their regional cuisine. In Montalcino, a hilltown in southern Tuscany famous for its wines known as Brunello, you will find little else but wines from that small area. And the ingredients in your food most likely will be from very close indeed. Not far away in Montepulciano, you'll be hard pressed to find any Brunellos. Instead, wine lists will be filled with Vino Nobile de Montepulciano, the noble wine of that region. Even in Vagliagli, a tiny village in southern Chianti Classico where we spent nearly a week, the wine lists in the restaurant and wine bar are crowded with local products.
In all the wine shops, restaurants and towns we visited, I found only one wine that wasn't local, a Gallo display in a grocery store outside San Giminiano. Only the world's largest wine producer couldn't be shut out completely.
My point is that we could easily do the same thing here in the Pacific Northwest.
Our wines are world class and can stand toe-to-toe with any in the world. I believe that more and more each day. Our abundance of fresh ingredients is tremendous. Sure, we don't have the fresh markets in every small hilltown like so many European countries. But stroll through the farmers markets in Portland, Seattle or Pasco. Take a drive along the Golden Mile in the Okanagan Valley. Consider the incredible diversity of fresh produce grown in Idaho's Nampa-Caldwell area or the Willamette and Yakima valleys. Sample the bountiful seafood and wonderful cheeses.
And we make a pretty good cup of coffee, too.
We should embrace this and take pride in our regional bounty. Northwest wines should crowd out those from California, France and Australia — not only on restaurant wine lists but also on wine shop and grocery store shelves. Even themed restaurants have choices. The Northwest produces many Italian varieties of wine, such as sangiovese and nebbiolo. And here's a little secret: Some of Italy's best wines are made with cabernet sauvignon, which grows well here.
I applaud restaurants like the Cellar Door Bistro in Summerland, B.C., which features only wines from the Okanagan Valley and many of its ingredients from local producers. Or Avalon, a Corvallis, Ore., wine shop that deals primarily with Northwest wines. Or the Herbfarm Restaurant, which is moving to Woodinville, Wash., from Fall City, which relies on locally grown ingredients and has a wine list with hundreds of Northwest choices.
This doesn't mean we need to be geocentric, rejecting other regions' cuisine, ingredients or wine. I'll admit to occasionally drinking European or Middle Eastern wines, and I believe it's important as a wine writer to maintain perspective by mixing the odd French and California wine into our blind tastings.
But when it comes to wine, cuisine and quality of life, we have nothing to be ashamed of. Quite the opposite. Getting the greatest enjoyment out of our beautiful corner of the world also means passionately embracing its fruitful bounty.
It works in the Old World. It can work here.
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