So there we are, sitting in this classy pizza joint---how were we to know the following day Michael Bauer would rate it as one of his Top Six pizzerias in the San Francisco Bay Area?---with good friends Lou and BettyLu Kessler, it’s a Saturday evening in Sonoma, and life is good.
It’s axiomatic that whenever Lou shows up with his endlessly entertaining wine bag we never have to worry about what we’re going to order off the list, because there’s not a list around that can come close to matching what Lou has available. And he doesn’t let us down tonight either.
Since we knew it was salume and pizza on the menu, Lou brought along two different iterations of Chianti Classico Riserva. The first, with our gorgeous platter of salumi (Iowan prosciutto, San Daniele!!!, lardo, and some Fra Mani salumi, pizzetta, smoke roasted tomatoes and gorgonzola, chopped tomatoes and herbs, and citrus and fennel infused warm olives) Lou opened up a
Felsina Berardenga Rancia CCR 1995.
This was a wonderful wine upon release and it has aged into an elegant dowager of Tuscany: it’s lost some intensity and has begun to fade, but it is still quite charming. If you have this, serve it up quickly, and don’t match it to heavy or spicy foods, because it won’t stand up. But with the salumi it was lovely, and gentle, and refined, with delicate rose petal aromas and faint whispers of fruit.
With the pizzas (a remarkably good because it was simple and not gimmicked up Margherita, a Sicilian that was smothered, literally covered over, with fresh leaf arugula, and a “Moto Guzzi” that was decorated with Caggiano sausage and sautéed onions) Lou pulled from his magic winebag the
Fontodi Vigna del Sorbo CCR 1997.
Only two vintages younger than the previous, but worlds and worlds apart from it, the Sorbo was astonishingly good, and strapping strong in its robust maturity. One of the delights of being a certified wine geek is the joy that non-geeks seldom have, the ability every now and then to catch a wine at its absolute peak of perfection, the liquid moment when it has reached its full development and potential and you know with absolute certainty that although it will hold for a while it will never be better than it is at that very moment.
Some people who hang around Key West or various and sundry tropical islands like to yatter on about the elusive “green light”, that moment thousands wait for and relatively few really see, when the evening sun is going down in the tropics and there is, just for a moment, a brilliant green flash of light. Well, this is a ‘green light’ wine if there ever was one.
We’ve all heard about the power and ripeness of the famous 1997 vintage in Tuscany. Here’s your poster child for that. This is a stop-in-your-tracks-and-for-god-sake-pay-attention wine, a wine that requires proper reverence. Because, brothers and sisters, it just doesn’t get much better than this. Ripe, but not too ripe, fruit in abundance, all carefully structured with perfect bracing acidity, and a taste that matches its deep intense berry and floral perfume, the wine just goes on and on and on. Hard to say what the actual linger time is because the succulence of the wine never allows one long enough to gauge it before replenishing; but suffice to say the last reluctant sip carries its memories intact well into the long drive home.
So for the fortunate few that have either or both of these wines: drink all your 1995 Rancia right now before it wallflowers. And although you’d be safe for years to come with the 1997 Sorbo----if I had a stash, I would not be able to resist drinking it, and I’d be looking for every opportunity to have every single bottle as soon as possible. But then, I’m greedy.
On a separate note, I want to sing the praises of Lou and BL Kessler. Those who know them know exactly what I’m talking about, but for those who don’t, there’s not a more delightful couple, especially in the wine world, than them. They both think a bottle of wine not shared with appreciative friends is a bottle not fully appreciated at all. They love wine, but they love even more the sharing of the wine, and there’s nothing more rewarding to them, gracious as they are, than providing wonderful wines for others to enjoy with them. As a friend, and as a happy recipient of both their generosity and their companionship, I want to thank them publicly for being who they are.
I am glad to see you living well my friend.
(while I'm not there 
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