Gambero Rosso Wine Travel Food n.136

year 22 - number 136 - january 2020 - gamberorosso.it

WINE

T R AV E L

FOOD

EXPERT ANSWER:

WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN THE TWENTIES IN FOOD AND WINE? Oltrepò: Kingdom of Pinot Nero

Cannavacciuolo in 3 signature dishes

SOMMARIO 3

year 22 - number 136 - january 2020 - gamberorosso.it

WINE

T R AV E L

FOOD

4 9  10  13   14  32   44 

EXPERT ANSWER:

Editorial News Wine of the Month Top Italian Restaurants in Bangkok Prosecco DOC sales grow in Norway Decade previews. What will happen in the twenties in food and wine?

The identifying wine of a land of gastronomic bounty.

Why is oltrepò placing all bets on Pinot Nero?

Antonino Cannavacciuolo. My cuisine

WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN THE TWENTIES IN FOOD AND WINE? Oltrepò: KingdOm Of pinOt nerO

CannavaCCiuOlO in 3 signature dishes

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Wine in 2020 What will 2020 be like for wine? In horoscope season - and to quote the great feature on the coming decade - we also launched ourselves in some forecasts, which can only be optimistic, on the basis of the good results that the 2019 vintage brought to the cellar. According to the recent barrel tastings performed by our team around Italy, these will be fresh, tense, elegant and vertical wines. And they will be as good as those of the best harvests of these first twenty years of the century, and even more. We exaggerate? No, we are not. Those who, like us, spend six months visiting cellars and the rest of the time telling what they have seen and tasted, have serene certainties, which rest on heaps of data. Throughout Italy there is a fervour, a spirit in pursuit of excellence, of the desire to experiment that leaves us all very hopeful. The new cellars are beautiful and almost always jewels of bio-architecture. The new vineyards are characterised by traditional grape varieties and rediscovered natives. The indiscriminate orgy of barriques of the past decades has been diluted in the careful and calibrated use of larger oak barrels; the rediscovery of cement; the experimentation with amphorae.

Information technology is present in all wineries: satellites and drones are used to follow maturation and reduce treatments.

The number of organic companies and biodynamic companies is growing, even more important is the growth of those that work for sustainability. New grapes always emerge, innovative and resistant vines and inimitable terroirs are tested. We could continue the list using many more words, but these are the highlights. Quality wine in Italy is growing despite global warming, bad politics, tariffs and the foolishness of those who influence the international scenario. This is why we are optimistic: we believe that a renewal, a rethinking of the lifestyle starts from the vineyard - and from the soil in general - which will not stop in the countryside but will slowly spread to the whole of society. Here is my wish for the new year!

- Marco Sabellico

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DECEMBER 2019

NEWS

TOUR OF LAKE COMO TO UNDERSTAND THE REASONS FOR THE GOURMET TREND

by Gualtiero Spotti IT ALL STARTED WITH GEORGE CLOONEY. WHO WOULD HAVE EXPECTED IT? IN A PLACID, QUIET AREA, SUITABLE FOR FAMILIES OR MAYBE ELDERLY COUPLES, ARRIVES THE HOLLYWOOD STAR, HE BUYS A VILLA AND FROM THAT MOMENT ON IS A VERITABLE INVASION OF AN INCREASINGLY QUALIFIED TOURISM AND, IN TURN, THE BUDDING OF RESTAURANTS AND TOP-NOTCH HOTELS. HERE'S WHAT'S GOING ON IN LAKE COMO IN TERMS OF FLAVOUR...

Caranchini, Guarino, Beretta, Maci, Berton and many others we’ll discuss later.

After years of placid lake routine, it can be said that a real renaissance of authorial cuisine is happening in the places dotting Lake Como, especially on “the branch that turns its gaze towards Switzerland,” to paraphrase Alessandro Manzoni, and where recently first-rate chefs have landed. Partly attracted by five-star hotels that intend to exploit tourism, especially foreign, that’s in constant growth in terms of quantity and (high-end spending) quality.

Moreover, and taking only a few steps back over the years, many people around Lake Como think that the real turning point can be attributed to the glamourous arrival of film celebrity George Clooney and his purchase of the now famous villa in Laglio, capable of attracting media curiosity from around the world for several seasons and, by the same token, bringing many new tourists to the shores of the lake.

Today Clooney is much less visible around the Lake, but the fact remains that Como, as well as many other nearby towns, experienced an enviable and unprecedented moment of splendor for tourist and gastronomic businesses in a pleasant setting, dotted with historical kitchens as well as young rampant chefs to keep a close watch on.

But let’s go in order.

STARTING WITH COMO We’re starting from the capital, which can count on at least a couple of remarkable addresses, already for some time on the wishlist of the most knowl-

edgeable foodies. First of all, there is the brand new The Market Place which in January opened its doors in a new, more central and sparkling venue. Davide Maci, the cook, has a not too hidden passion for France and this is clearly evident in many of his dishes on the menu (as well as the affiliation to the Les Collectionneurs guide). The chef also has a certain exploratory gusto that goes beyond the clichés of French flavours we’re accustomed to, including Asian or simply exotic touch acting as a counterpoint.

This means scallops meet daikon and a lime and shallot chutney, while the tagliolini with coriander (whose sweet taste is not impertinent), mixes with confit snails, almonds and an olive crumble. The restaurant truly owns precious aesthetic contents, and is perhaps the most beautiful in the city with its urban style, the few tables and a stunning open kitchen. Not too far

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afield, however, is also Feel of thirtyfive year old Milanese Federico Beretta, who within five years of opening has created a decidedly original and determined style, especially in the choice of wanting to represent in the dish Alpine products without compromising. For this reason, and just as an example, you will not find tomatoes in any preparation: mountain cooking is what dominates here. Often savoury, bold, and involving use of freshwater fish, but not only from Lake Como because delicacies arrive, if necessary, even from more distant lakes, such as Garda and Iseo. Feel has a somewhat romantic soul in its two small rooms, but the large table for eight people with a convivial spirit is equally appreciated. On the menu, try the carp with white celery, zincarlin and watercress, or the tripe with cornelian cherries, Pigna white beans, bay leaf and sageflavoured bread crumble.

NEWS

THE EASTERN SIDE Leaving Como and choosing the side of the lake that leads to the tip of Bellagio, you will find the biggest news of recent times, namely L’Aria restaurant housed inside the new Mandarin Oriental Lago di Como. At the helm is chef Vincenzo Guarino, with a remarkable cv (Frédy Girardet and André Jaeger, among others) and a recent journey that led him from his native Vico Equense, where he was born, to land initially at Castello di Spaltenna in Tuscany and finally on the lake, with a menu that somehow tells many of his different working passages. His cuisine reveals precision, great elegance, an approach that’s free from trends and conditioning (ranging from pork with yakitori sauce to fresh pasta bundles stuffed with smoked aubergines, glazed whitefish, bread chips and bouillabaisse sauce) and obvious references to his native Amalfi Coast roots. There is no lack of provocation, but with elegance, because in the end the results are those of great solid and modern cuisine, which can expect, with merit, almost immediate recognition from the top guidebooks. Also in Bellagio it’s impossible not to mention Ettore Bocchia, at the Mistral restaurant of Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni (see box).

It was he, in 2002, who launched the first molecular cuisine menu in Italy, in the wake of the Iberian precursors. But those who think that the chef is only dedicated to molecular cuisine have to think again, since his remarkable technique finds fertile ground in perfectly re-proposing classicism in an integral way, sometimes also drawing from the local territory.

Think for example of missoltini fish from Lake Como that are caught, salted and dried in the sun, and that Bocchia offers in his chitarrucci.

A little further on, following the winding path between the mountains and the lake, you will reach Sereno, the hotel that houses the Berton al Lago restaurant (Due Forchette recognition by Gambero Rosso), in the hands of one of

Andrea Berton‘s most precious collaborators, young and enterprising Raffaele Lenzi. Already seen at work at the Seven Stars in Galleria in Milan, Lenzi has built a compelling and far from trivial path, where the offer encompasses tubers, vegetables and roots (see cardoncelli mushrooms with lotus root and mint pesto) and a menu with perhaps more classic and easily understandable preparations, but impeccable and perfect for those who want to be amazed, but not too much. Take veal Milanese, for example (offered however with spicy sauce and lime) and the lobster au gratin with thistle and fennel. The breathtaking lake view and the artistic touch of Patricia Urquiola, who decorated the hotel, make the place worthy of a visit that goes beyond the simple gastronomic tip, which is in itself is already worth the trip.

THE WESTERN END If, on the other hand, you choose to travel up the other side of Como, you will almost immediately come across, in nearby Cernobbio, two addresses which are only a few yards from each other. The first is Kitchen, the Sheraton hotel restaurant which is actually still in the Como area, but at the gates of Cernobbio. About a year ago, a group of enterprising and close-knit young chefs came here, previously employed at I Tigli in Theoria in Como, and led by twenty-six year old Andrea Casali. In the restaurant, which was once owned by Paolo Lopriore, today there is a lively fine cuisine, which plays on seasonal delicacies, great reinterpreted classics (such as foie gras escalope with beetroot and raspberry) and unshakable certainty of its gravies, such as beef, which enriches the rich Parmigiano buttons with pear and foie gras. It’s a team to keep a close eye on, and the place is one of the most pleasant and intimate restaurants on the lake, with the privacy of a peaceful park to boot. Not far away,

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as mentioned, is Davide Caranchini‘s Materia, one of the emerging names of the new Italian cuisine. Not yet thirty years old, from Como, he is a creative and meticulous interpreter, who loves to inspect the shades of acid and bitterness, and moves at ease between fermentations and smoked preparations. He has learned the lesson well by attending some popular restaurants outside domestic borders, obviously towards Northern Europe. A minimalist taste that focusses on extractions, herbs, vegetables, perhaps from the greenhouse close to the restaurant, and finally reveals an extraordinary ability in how to dose different ingredients. One of the most interesting tables in Italy ever in this specific historical moment. Do not miss the buttons of fermented potato with yeast, rye curd and smoked herring eggs, and veal tongue with kumquat and pickled vegetables.

The lake tour can only end with a stop at La Terrazza Gualtiero Marchesi restaurant, located in the Grand Hotel Tremezzo, in Tremezzina. Here, in a brand new sparkling kitchen inaugurated a few weeks ago, the immortal dishes of Gualtiero Marchesi are revived in Osvaldo Presazzi’s offer. This is the ideal place to savour the famed gold leaf and saffron risotto, open ravioli, recipes like “Il Rosso e Il Nero,” filet alla Rossini and all those dishes that have led to the growth and formation of a large part of the chefs that have become today’s stars, from Oldani to Berton, from Camanini to Cracco, just to mention a few from a list we know to be infinite. A place of memory, which preserves a heritage that needs to be preserved and handed down over time. Around the shores of Lake Como one can look at everything: the present, the future and also the radiant past of the highest Italian gastronomy.

A microcosm, a gourmet ecosystem that deserves a deep analysis.

NEWS

WHY IS WATER SOLD IN A CARTON NOT THE SOLUTION TO FIGHT PLASTIC

by Michela Becchi made up of several layered materials: paper, aluminum and polyethylene. A packaging that is anything but easy to recycle and reuse, precisely because of its multilayer nature. Furthermore, as far as recycling collection, each city has its own rules and, depending on the place, Tetra Pak must be thrown into the paper or in the plastic bin. In short, not exactly the ideal solution to respond to the environmental emergency, also considering the resources used to produce a similar material, starting with the paper component.

MANY IDEAS HAVE EMERGED IN RECENT MONTHS TO REDUCE THE USE OF DISPOSABLE PLASTIC, INCLUDING WATER SOLD IN CARTONS. BUT IS IT REALLY THE ANSWER? WATER IN A CARTON: THE ALTERNATIVE TO PLASTIC IN THE UNITED STATES The idea hails from the United States, where the product will shortly be released in commercial outlets, from big box retailers to small grocery stores, not to mention at vending machines. We’re talking about water in a carton, an alternative to plastic in three different sizes: 0.50 liter, 0.33 liter or 0.25 liter. A product created as an answer to the age-old question of plastic pollution, and which is also starting to be produced in Italy.

WATER IN A CARTON IN ITALY The first to welcome the idea was Fonte Margherita, a brand which for over 100 years has represented the oldest bottling plant in the Veneto re-

gion, at the foot of the Piccole Dolomites. And then came Acquainbrick, a project created to raise consumer awareness on the environmental issue, which offers a packaging solution very similar to that generally used for milk. In Europe after all, Italy is first in the ranking – third worldwide – in regards to water bottled in plastic, with over 11 billion bottles disposed every year. Despite tap water being drinkable almost everywhere, of good quality and subjected to strict analysis controls.

WATER IN A CARTON: SUSTAINABLE OR NOT? But can cartons be the solution to the problem? We are talking about Tetra Pak, a complex packaging called polylaminate, that is a material

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ALTERNATIVES TO PLASTIC Why, therefore, resort to such a complex packaging, when alternatives to plastic bottles already exist? For those who don’t like the taste of tap water, for example, can purchase glass bottles (better still with a returnable policy), “case dell’acqua” public water points, NaturaSì draft spots, without forgetting, for those who live in the countryside, springs and sources, and then the many drinking fountains (to find the nearest you check online at Fontanelle.org). There are also filtering systems for water capable of eliminating limescale, that can be added directly on the home faucet, or, for those looking for a more affordable solution, filtering jugs. The most portable product however, is now the most popular among young people that it doesn’t need much of an introduction: stainless steel reusable bottles not only allow you to greatly reduce waste, but also save money (the average unit price is about 15 euro, a small long-term investment, given the durability of the product), also capable of keeping the beverage chilled longer.

NEWS

BLACK STRAWBERRIES ARE REBORN IN LIGURIA THANKS TO THE AGRITURISMO FARMHOUSE MONACI TEMPLARI

by Michela Becchi AMONG THE MOST LOVED FRUITS, STRAWBERRIES WILL NO LONGER BE CLOSELY LINKED TO THE SPRING SEASON: A SEBORGA AN AGRITURISMO FARMHOUSE IS IN FACT REVIVING THE ANCIENT CULTIVATION OF BLACK STRAWBERRIES.

Seborga, Bajardo, Bordighera, Sanremo. Locations whose ancient history bears traces of a distant past and that’s still evident in every corner, alley and square. The province of Imperia is part of Liguria that’s strongly anchored to the past. It’s a territory that over time has been able to preserve time-revered customs and traditions.

CELTIC INFLUENCE IN LIGURIA In Bajardo, for example, the only pagan event of the Ponente, the Ra barca, is still staged to this day. In the centre

of the village a tall pine stem is erected, symbol of a sailing ship’s mast, in memory of a legend dating back to the Maritime Republics. And it’s precisely in these areas that the Druids practiced their rituals. The legacy of the Celtic priests goes far beyond cults: the Ligurians have a deep respect for the surrounding nature, a predisposition to cultivation and a series of endemic plants that to this day still characterise the territory.

BLACK STRAWBERRIES AND THE AGRITURISMO MONACI TEMPLARI Chestnut, oak, fruit trees and even black strawberries are among the crops related to the passage of the Celts. Unlike the other varieties, however, black strawberries have long been forgotten. But they could soon return to the market, thanks to the recovery work of the Agriturismo Monaci Templari in Seborga. The country cottage built in the

17th century by the Benedictine monks under the Abbot of Seborga, boasts a teaching farm and their own organically grown specialties: jams, herbal teas with olive leaves and taggiasca olives in brine. Assisting the activity and research on strawberries is Emanuela Rebaudengo: her family inherited the land in 2014 and rebuilt the cottage on a sunny hilltop, creating a small oasis of peace where each traveler is hosted with care and love, just like Benedictine monks once did with wayfarers.

BLACK STRAWBERRIES: CONTAINING ANTHOCYANINS Ordering or purchasing the strawberries is still not allowed, but Emanuela continues her fruit recovery operation.

This is a winter plant, which loves the cold, and which has also been studied by the Forlì Oliviculture, Fruit and Citrus Research Center. According to Crea researcher Gianluca Baruzzi, the dark colour is linked to the presence of anthocyanins, “or, the antioxidant pigments that protect us against free radicals and lend the fruit its darker shade”.

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL WINE COMPETITION ON VERMENTINO KICKS OFF

by Giuseppe Carrus The first international wine competition on Vermentino will take place in Cagliari, Sardinia, on February 17th and 18th, 2020. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Tourism of the Italian Republic approved it last July. “Vermentino is one of the most famous and well-known grapes of the whole Mediterranean basin and in Italy as well as abroad, there are more and more producers who focus on the variety.

“Besides Sardinia, Tuscany and Liguria”, Mario Bonamici and Andrea Campurra of APS Promo Eventi (Official Organization) tell us, “it is spreading in other Italian regions and obviously abroad. The aim is to make the competition more and more important and attended by a large number of producers. At an international level, the focus is on the consolidated production from Corsica and France, the interest-

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ing and promising producers of America and Australia, with some outsiders from South Africa and Bulgaria. There is a lot of expectation and curiosity for this first edition, we will do everything possible not to disregard expectations”. On the site www.concorsovermentino.com all the information where you can download right away the necessary forms for participation. Applications must be received by January 28th, 2020, while there will be time until February 3rd to send the samples. Several categories are admitted to the competition, from still wines, sparkling wines that fall between DOP, IGP and IG as long as they have the words Vermentino on the label and a minimum percentage of Vermentino ‘85%. The organizers expect the participation of about 300 samples.

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NEWS

WINE OF THE MONTH

MONTEFALCO ROSSO RIS. ‘15 ANTONELLI – SAN MARCO Loc. San Marco, 60 06036 Montefalco (PG) ph +39 0742379158 www.antonellisanmarco.it Average retail price:18 euros Antonelli, located in the prestigious San Marco sub-zone, one of the most suitable areas for wines from native varietals, is beyond question a benchmark in Montefalco. Of the estate’s many hectares, 50 are cultivated for wine starting with Sagrantino, though Montefalco Rosso (where Sangiovese is the star) is also a favourite. Particularly in recent years there has been solid investment in whites, dominated

by Trebbiano Spoletino. Elegance, finesse and a great territorial identity unite the whole range. Their selection put in an excellent performance every year, especially their reds.

We were impressed by the complexity, finesse and elegance of their Montefalco Rosso Riserva ’15, a graceful, deep wine equipped with perfect tannins and exemplary acidity.

On the nose it’s a triumph of fragrances, from fruity and flowery to spices and herbaceous.

Pair with some classic fettuccine bolognese and polenta.

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TOP ITALIAN RESTAURANTS

TOP ITALIAN RESTAURANTS IN BANGKOK

MEDICI KITCHEN & BAR

LA BOTTEGA DI LUCA

IL BOLOGNESE

55/555 Langsuan Road, Lumpini,

Terrace 49 building 49 Soi 49

South Sathon 139/3 – Bangkok

Pathumwan

Sikhumvite RD

+66 22868805

+66 26304000

+66 22041731

www.ilbolognesebangkok.com

www.Medici-Italian-Restaurant-

www.labottega.name Average Price ฿ 1100.0

Average Price ฿ 600.00

Bangkok.Com Average Price: ฿ 2500.0

Luca Appino, an authentic son

The Bolognese is an elegant restaurant in a quiet corner of Chong

Take note, the Hotel Muse di Bangkok

of Piedmont and a cosmopolitan

Nonsi that combines a solid kitch-

is one of the city’s loveliest boutique

chef. He put down roots in his

en and well-made pizza. The property

hotels. Great attention to detail and a

lovely “bottega” (the Italian for workshop

is the same as another high-level Italian

warm and cosy vibe, young and pro-

or an artist’s studio) in Bangkok. His cui-

restaurant, Enoteca Italiana, with an offer

fessional staff. The Italian restaurant is

sine is Mediterranean, modern, vibrant.

more towards fine dining. High attention

downstairs, the room is filled with barrique

Touches of tradition together with more

to detail applies to everything, from the

and wine bottles everywhere. We abso-

contemporary aromas, pairings and ap-

wine list to service, from the flours used

lutely recommend having the juicy and

proaches. Without exaggeration. Sardin-

in the dough, to the ingredients used to

well paired Roasted baby pork chop with

ian chef’s Andrea Ortu offer some deli-

top the pizzas. Long-leavened dough

smoked pumpkin mashed, spinach, girolle

cious, both classic and refined, dishes like

make for a fragrant, light and airy pie in

mushrooms, black truffle and the peppery

fregola pasta, fava beans, pecorino and

a regenerating context. Prices are not ex-

mussel stew. Dishes are well cooked and

dill, or a very well cooked roasted suk-

actly affordable but in line with the qual-

possess well-balanced, intense flavours.

ling. Tartare are very well executed like

ity of the food and wine offer.

After dinner, do head up to The Speakeasy

the tuna or Fassone beef ones. Plus, leave

Rooftbar for stellar views and killer G&Ts.

spce for the some homemade desserts, from a cannolo to some creamy and tasty icecream. A warm atompshere, an extensive wine list, and an attentive service complete the package.

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TOP ITALIAN RESTAURANTS

There are restaurants in Bangkok that specialise in carbonara and cacio e pepe.

Along the main arteries of one of the world’s most vibrant cities, there’s room for solid Italian cuisine. Gianni Favro was the pioneer, soon followed by many pros coming from Italy. Taxes on wine are the highest worldwide, but this doesn’t curb the world’s biggest Italian wine connoisseurs.

GIANNI

ENOTECA ITALIANA

PIZZA MASSILIA

63 Athenee Tower, Ground Floor,

Sukhumvit soi 27

15/1 Soi Ruam Ruedi

Unit D Wireless Road, Pathumwan

North klong toey wattana

+66 26515091

+66 021688080

+66 22584386

www.pizzamassilia.com

www.giannibkk.com

www.enotecabangkok.com

Average Price: ฿ 2000.00

Average Price: ฿ 300.00

www.facebook.com/EnotecaBangkok

The Pizza Massilia project by Luca

Average Price: ฿ 2000.00

Appino and Frederic Meyer is

Favro is a local icon. Native to Friuli, self taught Favro

Gourmet dining where Ital-

booming and has marked the birth

opened his first restaurant

ian tradition is translated ac-

of Pizzaiola, in addition to the two other

in 1996. The quality of the restaurant

cording to the expectations

venues in Ruam Ruedi and Sukhumvit. The

offer has been improving since and has

of international haute cuisine.

challenge was to offer gourmet pizza in

ultimately begun the best Italian restau-

Enoteca Italiana has everything it takes: a

an elegant context, with attentive service

rant in the city, and some of the best Ital-

first-class wine list (with some very, very

and quality research on flours and ingre-

ian cuisine in Asia. Excellent ingredients,

interesting bottles), carefully selected in-

dients. The pies are of Neapolitan-inspired,

clean flavours and a constantly chang-

gredients, food-and-wine culture. All this

among the specialties is the culatello and

ing menu. The service is fine dining

amidst a warm ambiance of comfort-

bufala pizza, and a’ Regina, whose pur-

level; the venue is elegant and refined.

able armchairs, suffused lighting, exposed

pose is enhancing the flavour of the pien-

Great attention to detail, extremely well

brick walls. Plus a special counter with

nolo tomatoes. All-too-wide menu, lots of

stocked .

Italian cured meats and cheeses; they,

cooking suggestions, rich gluten-free pizza

too, have an excellent pedigree. A choice

section as well. Well stocked cellar to boot.

of three tasting menus: gourmet, classic or surprise.

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TOP ITALIAN RESTAURANTS

TOP ITALIAN RESTAURANTS IN BANGKOK

APPIA

ABOUT EATERY

PEPPINA

20/4 Soi Sukhumvit 31, Klongton Nua Khet Watthana –

Sukhumvit 21 Soi 3, Ocean Tower

27/1 Soi Sukhumvit 33

+66 22612056

II, Klongtoey Nua, Wattana

+66 21197677

+66929072191

www.peppinabkk.com

www.abouteatery.com

www.facebook.com/peppinapizza

www.facebook.com/abouteatery.

Average Price: ฿ 500.00

www.appia-bangkok.com www.facebook.com/appiabkk Average Price: ฿ 900.00

Roman native Paolo Vitaletti – son of a butcher – has recreated a corner of the Eternal City in the heart

of Bangkok. Think Roman style tripe with tomato, pecorino and mentuccia; homemade pastas and a fine crispy calf’s tongue. Additionally be prepared to find all the classic cucina romana pasta dishes, such as a generous portion of delectable carbonara made with Parisi eggs, or cacio e pepe and amatriciana made according to the Hotel Roma recipe, the birthplace of the dish in Amatrice, which was destroyed in the devastating earthquake in August of 2016. Many rustic, simple and traditional dishes, such as coda alla vaccinara (stewed oxtail) porchetta roasted in back. There’s also a valid wine selection of approximately 10 rotating by the glass wines and many rare bottles sold at competition prices, plus Italian craft

bangkok

The most celebrated Bangkok

Average Price: ฿ 800.00

pizza is Peppina’s. We’re talk-

This is Thailand’s first ever natu-

ing Neapolitan style pizza, in its

ral wine bar, brainchild of Giulio

simplicity of ingredients according to

Saverino and his long standing

the regulations of Associazione Verace

experience in the Bangkok food

Pizza Napoletana. There are 6 loca-

and wine scene. Personally selected

tions in the city, with the seventh in

small artisan wine makers from all over

Koh Saumi District, which is about to

the world, with a fancy for obviously Ital-

open. We visited the historic Sukhum-

ian labels. During our last visit we tasted

vit 33, a post-industrial setting with

great names poured by the glass, such

lively atmosphere and well-leavened

as De Bartoli, Primosic, Occhipinti and

and fragrant pies, more crisp than the

La Stoppa, as well as some impressive

average Neapolitan pizzas, mainly the

wines from Australia and Spain. Many

Marinara. Alongside a series of appe-

salmon wines, that is orange wines

tizers such as the peppery mussel stew,

macerated on the skins, and a fine food

there are also top quality steaks. To

offer that employs organic and verified

drink there are bottles of Italian wine

supply chain. Think Sicilian anchovies,

and beers, including Birra del Borgo.

or spaghetti with clams, or a phenomenal Australian leg of lamb. One of the city’s favourite hangout for the many westerners visiting.

beers and a handful of cocktails.

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GAMBERO ROSSO WORLD TOUR

PROSECCO DOC SALES GROW IN NORWAY

The last Gambero Rosso event of 2019 took place in an unusually balmy Oslo - the hottest December of the last 30 years, say the natives - at the Italian cuisine restaurant Campo de' Fiori. The protagonists, on December 22nd, were the Pro-

Source: Istat

PROSECCO EXPORT IN NORWAY January/August 2019 VOLUMES 1.666.513 litres 2018 2.189.053 litres 2019 VALUES (in Euro) 7.078.414 € 2018 8.812.725 € 2019

secco DOC bubbles with the Protection Consortium which brought 6 wineries for a pre-festive toast in the name of taste and the formation of a territory and increasingly imitated wine. Paired with what is becoming a great classic abroad: pizza, in this case Roman-style pizza, starting from the very traditional combination topped with porchetta.

Behind this is the hand of a Roman restaurateur, Fabio Pezzoli, manager of the restaurant awarded with Due Gamberi in the Top Italian Restaurants guide, an excellent example of authentic Roman cuisine and pizza, the result of quality ingredients, excellent technical execution and at-

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tentive and thoughtful table service, to say the least. "It's a great time for Italian cuisine, two years ago we decided to open up a more strictly territorial concept, not an Italian restaurant per se, but rather a Roman restaurant. Something that's unique around here, and it was a success,” says Fabio. Forty participants in the tasting, including sommeliers, hotel owners and Made in Italy enthusiasts. Meanwhile, the latest sales figures of Prosecco DOC on the Norwegian market are proving very strong: in the first eight months of 2019 sales showed growth of over 20 percentage points both in terms of volumes and value.

DECADE PREVIEWS. WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN THE TWENTIES IN FOOD AND WINE?

The new decade that started deserved investigating into. And we, with all our limitations, have attempted. We’ve made a list of the most influential characters of the world of wine and food, and we asked for their predictions for the next decade.

Easy to say, a little less to do.

In the following pages you’ll find the results.

It will be great to reread them in 2029...

by Annalisa Zordan – illustrations by Agostino Iacurci

STORIES

W

e interviewed dozens of celebrities, opinion leaders, Italian and international figures.

What did we ask them? A simple yet very complicated question: what will happen in the world of food, products, dining, wine and technologies in the 1920s that have just started? There was only one obligation: short answers. An exercise in synthesis. There are those who willingly participated and those who did not, there are those who declined the invitation, and those who made forecasts and those who veered on hope and advice. Et voilà the prediction of the new 20s.

10 PREDICTIONS OF THE NEW 20S

1 AFRICA&INDIA

2 FUSION AND MIXING

3 COMPLEXITY

4 WOMEN

5 GREEN

6

Greater awareness and desire for understanding are among the underlying reasons that animate the new Twenties, combined with the desire for new knowledge and curiosity towards lesser known worlds and cultures

WHAT EMERGED? PRODUCERS Green and sustainability will become 7 essential concepts, in good conscience, and technology will become an ally, DINING ROOM from cultivated fields to landfills. Nat8 uralism and vegetables will increasSUBSTANCE ingly dominate kitchens. No sign of avant-garde on the horizon, but rather 9 a need to consolidate material and SUSTAINABILITY technical cultures, with the hope that creativity will not be inhibited.

10 The second or third generations of exVEGETAL pats who arrived in Italy in the past places. Even the role of chefs will be years will give us many satisfactions unorthodox: they will be increasingly and will be increasingly open to novelty, and will be attencalled upon to master different languages and tasks, martive to the melding of cultures. Ignoring the threat of walls, keting being the first. barriers and closed ports. After that of China, Japan, Korea and South America, this will be the decade of Africa and, There will be a return to substance, which doesn’t mean by narrowing the field, in Italy we will return to a cuisine wishing the reurgence of grandmothers’ cooking, and at where products will become absolute protagonists. And the the same time of complexity, rather it will signify the deproducers will be the stars of these, new, roaring Twenties. sire to understand complexity. And the fact that there will be products or wines or restaurants for a select few is not Women will also shine and we hope to see their talent reconly right, but it’s necessary. It will be the result of a selecognized not only in kitchens, but also in schools, in the tion not based on the wallet, since at the same time there various rankings and important events. Speaking of rankwill also be thousands of wines, products, and restaurants ings and events, the former will have to regain authorsuitable for everyone. There are even those who, like the ity, addressing a wide and diversified public (is it time for folks of Gourmet Concerto, are hoping for an authorial non-self-referential criticism?). While the latter will have cuisine capable of inducing the dip in hordes of customto amaze with interdisciplinary mixes and increasingly ers attracted by trends. But the 20s will be free from such intimate meetings with the chefs, perhaps in unorthodox fashions, right?

GAMBERO ROSSO

16

JANUARY 2020

DECADE PREVIEWS

I don’t think that this beginning of the 2020s will bring really significant news. Even in the kitchen the critical opening towards what is new is to be considered irreversible. All in all, in recent years we have witnessed innovative and experimental exploits of which time has done and will continue to do justice.

Fortunately, the number of those who know how to distinguish and reward kitchens built on the indispensable product-creativitytechnique trinity compared to the prowess of the “fireworks” is in steady growth. This does not mean to wish for the return of the grandmothers’ cuisine but to understand that “new” is not always equivalent to “better”.

On a national level, I think the wave of returning to the past is continuing despite the fact of not having clarity as to what past. I love experimentation, research and study, but the general mood is different. Perhaps the increasingly frenetic vortex of contemporary life for many finds solace in the simplification and comfort of all this traditional. Obviously sustainability and green are two concepts that are becoming increasingly popular so that also conscience can critic and gastronome be calmed.

ENZO VIZZARI

Without prejudice to the interest in so-called “natural” products, increasingly linked to current cultural trends and for which the terms green and eco-sustainable will constitute a solid stimulus in each sector, I believe that wines will become more and more conservable and less concentrated.

Wineries will have to be capable of updating to the new digital language: considering that that very market will increasingly grow as protagonist, beyond the traditional sales at wine bars, restaurants or large retailers.

ANDREA GRIGNAFFINI

Director of L’Espresso guides

By now information travels in real time, this means that gastronomic trends are born and die in very short spans of time. We’re coming from years in which cultural autarchy spread ignorance and selfservice knowledge made of quick notions stolen online. Consider that there is almost nothing in the history of restaurants, but also little of oenology online before the 2000s. And how about the rest? Shall we forget it? I believe and hope that the next few years will be dedicated to a return of the Masters, a return to the search for transmitted and profound knowledge. I think the desire to deeply understand complexity will make a comeback. creator of Postrivoro and Parafernalia

ENRICO VIGNOLI GAMBERO ROSSO

17

JANUARY 2020

FABIO TURCHETTI food columnist

STORIES

Except for historical cosmic personalities (which could emerge especially in the recently more “gastronomicized” countries), cooking is a conditioned reflection of the world in which we live. So the question is this: what world will we live in? I certainly see action and reaction happening. It’s easy to imagine that the dinner table will be increasingly globalized, conquering the few remaining virgin territories. With the growth of dramatic planetary emergencies, it will be called to an even greater commitment, in the hope that creativity will not be inhibited. Concepts of naturalism and vegetal, therefore, but probably also “green” technology. Finally, the role of the cook will come to the fore, increasingly called upon to master different languages: for the generation of thirty-year-olds, digital natives of marketing, it’s just an appetizer.

ALESSANDRA MELDOLESI food columnist

The difference between wealthy consumers with access to fresh and selected foods and others, who will have to “settle” for lower quality products, will be increasingly marked. Globalization will have a greater impact: young chefs, with training experiences all over the world, will offer increasingly mixed cuisine.

The bistronomie trend will grow in cities. The next revolutionary genius à la Adrià will not be European, but rather food columnist Asian or South American..

GIULIA GAVAGNIN

Let’s hope to get rid of costly “superfoods” and to return to foods grown locally, organically and in season. Veganism is a super attractive idea, however it’s not for everyone, and if you decide to eat meat, at least don’t do it every day, plus choose it from animals that have been treated well. It’s good to eat consciously, but we should not forget to also have fun: go get your champagne cocktail, your bottle of natural wine or your piece of cake: even these food and travel columnist Twenties can roar!

EVA BIRINGER

The kitchen will have to adapt to the times: it will be increasingly fused with foreign flavours, even if it will not take 10 years to change eating habits. A growing number of chefs will want to go back to having fun, without destroying the lives of their collaborators. I hope that after the chefs, it will finally be the turn of the dining room: I hope that it can return to the centre of the dining experience. I imagine more and more ways of personalization: kitchen and dining room sewn on the needs of the individual. And there will be a growing number of businesses and chef entrepreneurs who will occupy this sector in managerial manner. food columnist

ANNA PRANDONI

It will be a frustrating and at the same time exciting decade for us middle-class drinkers. To uncork certain bottles we will need further rich and generous friends, but the effects of socio-climatic changes will open new frontiers. And while natural wines are increasingly becoming a separate product category, we “lay people” will rediscover the virtuous side of strength, after years of lightness at all costs.

Cannonau from Sardinia, but above all Chianti Classico: wines ready to take the place they deserve in the Olympus of world wines. food columnist and taster

PAOLO DE CRISTOFARO

GAMBERO ROSSO

18

JANUARY 2020

DECADE PREVIEWS

In the future of wine I see associations: from consortia, which are increasingly organized by emulating the Tuscan model, to territorial realities, such as Vignaioli di Radda and TerroirMarche, up to transversal aggregations such as FIVI. There is a need for an overall unifying proposal that goes beyond the individual protagonism. And a wish: a less sectarian world of wine, in which to express one’s thoughts without religious wars. Being all on the side of good wine and, if possible, good agriculture.

Slow Wine coordinator for Lazio

ALESSIO PIETROBATTISTA

We will return to an essential cuisine where product will be kept as intact as possible thanks to increasingly sophisticated technology. Less style play and more substance, therefore, where provocation is not a way to amaze but rather the result of conscious thinking. Interest in vegetables will continue to grow, for a sustainable and barrier-free cuisine. New virtuous models will be born such as restaurant laboratories where new ideas and friendships are born, chefs will be increasingly travelers of the world, female sensitivity will be appreciated, and dining room service and hospitality will be increasingly cared for and dedicated.

TANIA MAURI

food and travel writer

I see a future made of an increasingly aware consumption of wine. An ethical look in our glass. Respect for the work of the more committed winegrowers, as long as caring for the common good. It’s something that will go beyond the definitions written on the label: natural, artisanal, conventional.

If you know what you’re drinking you’ll get rid of the purely hedonistic aspect that’s the prerogative of those who experience wine as a status. For these, wine produced in series will still count for a lot, but the evolution of taste is going towards “agricultural tailoring”. I drink what I recognize myself in. And I believe in the return of wine to the table as a daily habit.

FRANCESCA CIANCIO food columnist

The return to the foreground of raw materials: the chef’s knowledge of knowing how to work and process food, in an increasingly narrow supply chain relationship with producers, also respecting the environment, without the rhetoric of locavore per se. Less envelopes, both those of the suppliers and those with whom the dishes are often elaborated, and more fire and gestures. Without falling into the demonization of technique. Less frills and more empathy in the dining room to make the customer live his or her time at the table, without necessarily being always right. food columnist

ALFONSO ISINELLI

GAMBERO ROSSO

19

JANUARY 2020

STORIES

If I had to choose a word to define the next decade for food globally, it would be consciousness. We are collectively becoming more curious and knowledgeable about what we are eating and how we are eating - from a health and wellbeing standpoint but also from a sustainability and socially responsabile one. We are becoming increasingly conscious about where our food comes from, how it’s cultivated or produced and who is being impacted by it.

The future sees the food world

I certainly don’t foresee a revolution coming from a generation of European and American chefs, who are more interested in making appearances than in working in their kitchens. The product will be the reference and the manufacturer will increase in importance. In the kitchen we will experience a boom in China and the influence of their proposals will define the gastronomic path in the West, as it happened with Japanese cuisine in the 90s. I foresee a moment when the struggle will be aimed at reducing the two gaps – gender and social – that mark life in western food columnist restaurants.

IGNACIO MEDINA

MARIA PASQUALE food and travel blogger

Champagne and its wine are experiencing a critical moment and the next decade will be crucial. After the enormous progress in quality of the last thirty years and after a return to vineyard culture, the problem to be addressed will be global warming. Paradoxically, so far, this has been an advantage (historically, Champagne lacked perfect grape maturity), but the heat wave experienced in the 2000s could give champenois a few headaches, which by dint of pursuing maturity could risk less finesse and an excess in concentration in a wine which, instead, has always been appreciated for its refined freshness. Fortunately the most careful manufacturers seem to have already found remedy to this.

ALBERTO LUPETTI

creator of the Grandi Champagne guide

GAMBERO ROSSO

20

JANUARY 2020

Our table will be increasingly rich in mixing in ingredients that come from afar. I think that after China, Japan and Korea’s dominance in recent years, it will be the decade of South America, Africa and India. Ancient grains, legumes and vegetable varieties now reserved to few botanists will spread further afield, perhaps even insects will have more space on the menu. We will increasingly eat under the banner of sustainable food, food that is good, ethical food.

Then once a week we can always cook ourselves an abundant carbonara, fortunately, but perhaps keeping it secret.

LUIGI CREMONA

curator of Touring Club Alberghi e Ristoranti

DECADE PREVIEWS

I focus on pizza, the sector I deal with most. In my opinion, the great attention it is currently enjoying will continue for the next decade but I think – and in part hope – that for pizza, as what’s happening now for cuisine, there will be a bit of a “return to the origins” and to simplicity. After proving to be intrinsically a gourmet food, unequivocally improved from a technical and qualitative point of view, we can perhaps go back to enjoying pizza that is “only” delicious and not extraordinary at all costs.

LUCIANA SQUADRILLI food columnist

In the next decade I see a significant strengthening of traditional-inspired cuisine and the use of classic techniques. Haute cuisine will not stop producing research and experimentation but many restaurants with a confused or unrealistic style will disappear for the benefit of sobriety. The latter element will also influence the service, which will be less and less attached to formal rigor. I imagine agile wine lists, with more calibrated mark-ups and a wide diffusion of BYOB (cork right), applied against payment of a well-balanced cork right.

PIERPAOLO RASTELLI food columnist

The food and wine of the near future passes through a greater awareness that another alimentary regime is possible. Healthier, more sustainable and more committed to small suppliers, production will be increasingly organic and zero kilometer, and there will be full use of each ingredient.

The Slow Food movement will therefore gain ground and followers. Women will also see their talent recognized in the pursuit of gender equality in schools, restaurants, conferences and in the various rankings and weight events. Let’s be patient...

BELÉN PARRA cofounder of Gastronomistas

I started to “hang out” in the world of food and wine by volunteering for Slow Food, which opened up new perspectives on food, on those who produce and transform it. Over the last ten years, the movement’s ethical cornerstones have remained unchanged, while other things – to name just one, the climate – have changed, and not for the better. More than a prediction, what I’m expressing is hope: hope that the world of food will become increasingly political. There are issues relating to the environment, the socio-economic conditions of farmers and breeders, animal health and supply chains that can no longer be ignored. Neither by “small” consumers, nor by “big” chefs. food columnist

GIORGIA CANNARELLA

GAMBERO ROSSO

21

JANUARY 2020

STORIES

I know what will happen in the new 20s: a New Cook will come along.

One who will take what we know, throw it away and rebuild a vocabulary and grammar of taste that didn’t exist before. History is an alternation of revolutions, restorations and reforms, and the gastronomic one is no exception: after years of facing the past, someone will come along to unhinge everything and make us take paths that we can’t even imagine today.

Here is that person in my Cristal ball: for now it’s someone young but clearly already the chosen one. And do you know what else I see? That it’s a woman. And then everything will change.

The future is already here. The world is getting smaller, and despite trying to raise new walls and barriers, ideas, trends and knowledge travel fast, even in the world of food. Cultural contamination is and will be unstoppable, in step with the digital connection between things and people. Let’s move towards a progressive mixing (not homogenization) of tastes, ingredients, formats but above all of lifestyles, at least in the big cities. We will cook less and less, we will eat out more and more, chefs and restaurants will increasingly become a “service”, resuming their original function as meal dispensers. If we continue to eat food with a fork, the way we access it, consume it and talk about it is already changing: technology will become an essential ingredient.

MARGO SCHACHTER food & lifestyle journalist

LUCA IACCARINO food editor for Edt

The green wave may indeed have triggered the click in the minds of businesses (at least, I hope). In terms of technology, I imagine there will be increased means of storing and reusing waste.

I believe that the second/third generations of peoples arrived in Italy years ago will give us many satisfactions from a culinary standpoint, with kitchens increasingly attentive to the mix between two cultures or with the specialization in regional cuisines. A bit like what happened to Chinese cuisine in Milan. We’ll talk less about food in terms of “gourmet” and “star studded”, and we will distance ourselves from the various dietary cults. And slowly we will appreciate taking ourselves less seriously, at least us specialized Editor in Chief at Munchies Italia media.

ROBERTA ABATE GAMBERO ROSSO

22

JANUARY 2020

The world of food has started to react to climate change, but I believe that concepts regarding “sustainability” will be increasingly present in restaurants and in people’s homes. Attention to work in the kitchen is also growing: people have begun to understand more about the heavy psychological burden professionals undergo in stressful and intense work environments such as restaurant kitchens. I also believe that female chefs will be more present and will have greater visibility.

The kitchen environment now shows greater respect, but there is still a long way to go.

DIOGO LOPES

editor for Observador

DECADE PREVIEWS

The main trend will be sustainability, unlike natural wines, which will continue to grow but with little environmental impact. Consumers will seek less status and more pleasure, and ecofriendly products. I foresee the weakening of social media at the benefit of books, newsletters and paid online content. Training and commerce will increasingly happen online, with use of big data and personalized assistance. Tourism journalist, consultant will be “disney-fied”, turning evand event organizer erything into fun experiences.

MARCELO COPELLO

There will be two diametrically opposite currents.

On the one hand, the trend that’s already underway, of returning to nature and origins: where sustainability will push even more, with chefs reducing meat, using the simplest possible ingredients to create refined dishes. The logical consequence of this will also be focusing attention on the producers themselves, who could become the new stars.

On the other hand, the perpetual human need for theatricality will find its way (again) also in dining.

We have seen it with restaurants like Gaggan, Sublimotion, Ultraviolet and the latest, Alchemist.

I think many chefs will try to shock, provoke. This will also affect gastronomic events: the classically structured conventions are on the decline, the hottest events are more casual with pop-up dinners, interdisciplinary situations, all mixed with natural wines and more intimate meetings with chefs in unorthodox places.

KAJA SAJOVIC

food journalist and author

With all the buzz on climate change, I believe that more and more people will change their habits in favour of a more sustainable lifestyle, whether that happens voluntarily or regulated by law. In terms of food, this means less waste, less animal protein and a more vegetablebased diet. At least in western developed countries. The big (huge!) challenge will concern China and the other large emerging economies: will they follow the current?

I hope for more freedom in wine. Going beyond the ideas of right or wrong in choosing a grape variety, production method, types that becomes “trends of the moment”. Competence and usability will be fundamental to stimulate awareness in consumers, especially the younger ones. It will not be easy: more understandable wine language may help, deeper critique, and non-self-referential media.

Saving a virtuous past will find the way, or build a new one..

LAURA DI COSIMO

journalist for La Repubblica

MIGUEL PIRES food journalist and author

The Twenties that are about to begin (what a relief: the Tens sounds awful) will be plural years: no single winning trend but many (hopefully the decade of coffee!). The fences between high and low cuisine, between types of restaurants will come down; the word “fusion”, which someone still insists on using, will no longer make sense because contamination, cross-over, will be the norm and not the exception. Concepts such as natural, ethical, healthy will no longer be marginalized. These will also be years of rethinking criticism, which came out of the Ten with broken bones. Will food critique be able to journalist for Il Giornale reinvent itself?

ANDREA CUOMO

GAMBERO ROSSO

23

JANUARY 2020

STORIES

Natural wine, enfant terrible and under special observation in the sector for some years, will continue to grow and influence the way conventional wineries work. It’s a process that’s already evident in the agricultural approach (conversions to organic), but it will soon also conquer the oenological front. We will see increased industrial wines that are unfiltered or without sulphites (but corrected by yeasts and stabilizers, therefore not natural). It will be a sign that the trend of natural wine has ended its cycle of innovation, and – if it wants to survive – it will have to claim its identity on another level. Maybe freed from that adjective that’s become too tired and abused to actually betray its diversity.

DILETTA SERENI

journalist for Vice

We are about to enter a decade where we will finally say goodbye to meat and plastic. And any new developments will be directly related to this. Europe will begin the process of banning industrial animal husbandry, to the advantage of test-tube beef and vegetable fiber chicken, which will be improved in laboratories. Balconies and roofs will thrive thanks to urban gardening and we will welcome bacteria capable of converting waste into organic materials capable of replacing plastic. I also expect a decade where the gap between those who can afford everything, and those who have to do without, will greatly increase.

AGNIESZKA BERLIŃSKA

journalist for Kukbuk Magazine in Polonia

There will be a return to traditional substance, more aware and less tied to the birth and death of trends. I speak mainly in Italy, but also abroad (in many cases decidedly already more focused and loyal to the territory), and this language can bring benefits to customers and an authenticity of message. There will be a natural selection of unrealistic rankings, by virtue of a more targeted and effective authority, promoted on already consolidated channels. But lightening the chef’s flaming media power and addressing a wider and more diverse audience with greater interest. The glorious return of artisans, farmers, breeders as real protagonists of a fundamental movement giving depth to the gastronomic world. In an increasingly ethical, rational and sustainable key. In practical terms, and not just in journalist and food critic words.

LORENZO SANDANO

In the next few years I believe (and hope) that two trends already in place in the world of gastronomy will become common heritage. The first in the kitchen: a complete re-evaluation of the plant world and green cuisine, increasingly widespread even in Nordic countries despite the traditional shortage of products. The second is in the bottle: a change in the parameters for assessing the quality of the wine, now too marked by the formal perfection of the wine and not by being an agricultural and artisanal product.. responsible for Repubblica Sapori

ANTONIO SCUTERI GAMBERO ROSSO

24

JANUARY 2020

DECADE PREVIEWS

Vegetarianism/veganism and laboratory meat will become increasingly common, both thanks to the new generations and thanks to sensitivity towards environmental sustainability. And so we’ll see the emergence of alternative proteins such as in-vitro meats and plant-based diets will be increasingly strengthened as a market response to the great demand. I also foresee the growth of delivery, food subscription services and take-away.

I foresee general fatigue. The kind that happens when every inexperienced cook defines himself a chef, of when we find chefs everywhere, in any TV program, on any magazine cover... this way their uniqueness is corroding, not so much from the standpoint of sector specialists that for better or worse know who is who, but for society in general. The same goes for the word “gourmet”, which will increasingly lose value. In short, after a decade of overexposure and celebrity chefs, a sort of fasting from all this will necessarily follow. And most likely the chefs will appreciate it.

JOÃO WENGOROVIUS author of We, Chefs

FLÁVIA PADILHA

food and travel columnist

In the new 20s we will eat better. A glad tidings for those who are content to conceive cuisine as a humble artisan challenge. But a reason for pessimism for those who wish to push cuisine beyond mediocre borders. Because the progressive direction of cuisine must be art. Art as an avant-garde power of meaning and semantics, as creative destruction. Then eating well is not enough. Indeed, eating well is bad, while eating badly is good.

There is a desperate need for places where one can eat badly. Where poor quality food must be understood in its round, full, etymological and symbolic sense. Bad, that is, as an avant-garde art: as an instigation to the violence of the senses and meanings. In the authorial kitchen we desperately need poor quality, reckless artists, eager to induce the escape of the painful horde of customers brought by fashion.

So fuck the craftsmen of the precious artifact!

GOURMET CONCERTO new restaurant classification project voted with 1 to 3 brains

GAMBERO ROSSO

25

JANUARY 2020

I believe that in 2020 the trend will be to respond to the needs of multiculturalism and sustainability, in short, the increasing attention by cooks and consumers to a waste-free cuisine, and greater attention to the vegetarian and vegan world, but also to spirituality (Ayurvedic nutrition is on the rise, with gurus in Italy like Simone Salvini); to enhance the province with young chefs who choose ‘peripheral’ places.

As for drinking, more and more orange style wines and nonalcoholic cocktails or mocktails for mixologists.

ELEONORA COZZELLA journalist for La Repubblica

STORIES

Good news: in the next 10 years the popular cuisines of unrecognized places will continue to be popular, the kitchens of West Africa and the Middle East will proceed proudly barefoot – like the gastronomic version of the Fourth State painting. Bad news: everyone says that the kitchens will disappear in the sense of the physical space. In big cities the costs of rent is too high and therefore kitchens will move elsewhere, centralized in some peripheral structure that supplies various restaurants; if the delivery trend continues, the kitchen will also disappear from households, as in New York where the oven is generally a storage space.

SARA PORRO

food columnist

The high end restaurant of the next generation, will be defined by two trends. On the one hand a more clear and selective structuring of “experiential” venues, of very high cuisine imbued by other contents (cultural, artistic, social), with iconic chefs who cater to international foodies, in a global fine dining circuit, for the few. On the other hand, the redefinition of the “bourgeois” approach, which will be renewed on a model that draws elements of haute cuisine, authorial bistros, the old trattoria. journalist for Identità Golose

CARLO PASSERA

I believe that the most amusing part of the matter will be represented by artisan wines and their original, authentic journeys, in the sign of territoriality that is not at all written but that needs to be conquered.

Also for prices, of course, since drinking the so-called big bottles will be increasingly complicated.

But “natural natives” won’t care.

Each will have its own space and the dialogue will be increasingly complicated; I see fragmentation on the horizon, including for markets.

ANTONIO BOCO

wine taster

In the face of increasingly frequent disasters connected to climate change, the sustainability of the food system has become a priority, especially for newer generations. Technology, until now often the cause of environmental and health issues, can become a tool to increase the level of sustainability of the entire food system, from fields to landfills: the Internet of Things and blockchains, for example, can support the introduction of production techniques inspired by the past without compromising the future, promoting biodiversity and facilitating the conservation of land and water.

FABIO PARASECOLI professor of New York University

GAMBERO ROSSO

26

JANUARY 2020

We will abolish expressions such as “in between tradition and innovation”.

We’ll stop calling genius tasting the nth remake of other people’s dishes. We will not think that “tough” is the most flattering adjective for a female chef.

We will abandon provincialism and offer ourselves to the world without inferiority complexes, without partisanship, thanks to our gastronomic identity that we have not had to invent and that is ours, and has been formidable, for centuries. Let’s make an effort to find new words, to study, to unhinge stereotypes, to make our voice sing. In ten years, perhaps, we can do it.

LAURA LAZZARONI

DIRECTOR FOOD&WINE

DECADE PREVIEWS

To predict is like placing a bet, given the vastness of the mass of information we are invaded with. Beyond individual trends, from my point of view I see (or rather I would like to see) first of all the transformation of language through which the world of food and wine communicates. From elitist and exclusive to understandable and usable, yet not trivializing and flat.

This is why the little valued concept of recognizable and certified professionalism will have to assert itself.

MARCO COLOGNESE food and wine critic

I believe there will be a further drop in consumption in developed markets and an increase in new markets. The production areas will expand and begin to change the preferred exposures. Perhaps it’s still early for wines from resistant vines but more and more will be discussed. Green and sustainability will become essential concepts. Drinkers of labels and drinkers of “puddles” will be more and more enemies with all due respect to those who drink good wines. The whole world will talk about the Castelli di Jesi and then Lambrusco, mortadella and Parmigiano will become listed as UNESCO heritage.

ALESSANDRO MORICHETTI

giornalista, wine merchant and ghost writeR

Among the main trends I certainly include laboratory meat, we will see the birth of many brands that will qualify and diversify the offer. Not only hamburgers, but also steaks of various cuts and various animals (currently with pork, the most consumed in the world we are still in the infancy stages). Another growing sector will be food delivery, which today is quite rudimentary and not very protected. Food delivery will see innovations on the packaging and automation front. Then the themes of the supply chain with blockchain applied to food and the use of data to allow producers to be more responsive to demand fluctuations.

PETER KRUGER managing partner At Peakbridge

I have great regret that Santi Santamaria did not survive until 2020 to see that, although Adrià is confirmed a genius, in their historic diatribe he was right all along: awe and playfulness in the kitchen are only for a selected few, but continuity rewards those able to make guests feel welcomed both in the service and with the dishes. On the horizon there’s no sight of avant-garde, but rather the need to consolidate material and technical culture that embrace both old village artisans and novel stars from abroad. gastronomic narrator

PAOLO VIZZARI

GAMBERO ROSSO

27

JANUARY 2020

STORIES

There will be greater attention towards the sustainability of product, service and system. This is not just about packaging or reduced use of plastic: professionals will find increasingly concrete solutions to deal with food waste. Yes to the development of new proteins and alternative ingredients, but only if we are able to decline them into products that are important for the planet’s sustainability. There will be less healthy products and “sans” something. Dining and delivery services supporting and promoting communities or identities in emergency situations will become more attractive. Food and environmental education will be a compulsory study subject. And restaurants will be equipped with 3D printers.

SONIA MASSARI Docent at Università Roma Tre and Director of Gustolab

Territorial footprint, cultural values and a green wave that proceeds on a solid basis, without feeding on current fashions: I don’t know if in the next decade we will drink better, but surely we will drink with more awareness. As for viticulture, global warming could begin to present some problems for precocious international vines, while at the same time representing a great opportunity for our native and late vines. A flashback for southern reds? Maybe!

ADELE GRANIERI If I have to venture a prediction, I believe that the new 20s will be characterised by an even more marked trend towards food as an element of status. Food tribes will grow and the choice of restaurant, wine, and products to buy will increasingly become a gesture of social identification. As for us “experts” who live inside the bubble, we’ll eventually tire of the formality of fine dining and will rejoice in the return to oxidative-style wines.

GABRIELE ROSSO editor, copyeditor, food columnist

food journalist and taster

Technology applied to entire sector will be the harbinger of surprising new discoveries also involving what’s most dear to me: Gastrophony. A project started years ago that will bring great results also thanks to the involvement of Sicilian universities engaged in attentive studies. In simple words, food has its own frequency and each ingredient vibrates like a musical note, so any recipe can be the musician, trumpet spokesperson for a particular sound. The 20s player, songwriter are ready for acousmatics 3.0, far from antics and gourmand and imitations.

ROY PACI

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DECADE PREVIEWS

The cook of the future will be a woman. She will have the genius of Ferran Adrià to draw new rules and dictate them. The porous humanity of Mauro Uliassi, the cultural knowledge of Riccardo Camanini, the vision of Corrado Assenza, the broad shoulders of Pietro Zito. She will have the genius of Renè Redzepi and the charisma of Massimo Bottura. The liver of Virgilio Martinez and Jock Zonfrillo combined. In short, she will be a cook with super powers, she will speak to the mother yeast woman to woman and will address crowds. But only the former will respond.

SONIA GIOIA food columnist

New and unexpected countries will appear on the international fine dining scene thanks to an avantgarde movement of young chefs who, in the perspective of creating a new cuisine in their own country, are going to be trained in the world’s great restaurants. In countries where innovation has reached a stage of maturity, a renewed interest in traditional or classic cuisine will come about, in a revisited and updated version, as in the case of Spain where the cocina de producto could make us forget the molecular one.

CARLOTTA CASCIOLA travel organizer

Despite technologically advanced food products, in the Singapore concrete jungle, for example, people are returning to natural foods, planting their own fruit and vegetables. As for wine, consumers are now spoiled by quality and will increasingly want to taste the wines of the new regions of the old world. Generally speaking, in the next decade there will be a return to purity with “real” wines and foods.

JESSICA TAN

It will be the decade of catharsis. Highend chefs will descend from altars and resume cooking for customers, the forgotten people. Mafias will be forced to abandon the world of dining, saturated in the previous decade. Large-scale retail trade will ban intensive livestock farming. All food critics will begin to write what they really think, in a dialogue with readers, more people fished out of oblivion. Or? Or, nothing: the usual ephemeral gasps on a cheerful theme, but not too much.

VALERIO MASSIMO VISINTIN food critic for Corriere della Sera

journalist for SingaPoured

Environmental sustainability will continue to be at the core. And this time producers will be the new protagonists. Along with chefs, they will represent a positive resistance that can start ans involve consumers and territories on an even more conscious use of resources, recycling and no-waste. It will be the decade in which we will explore new culinary latitudes, such as Africa and regional India. Products native to these continents are extraordinary and the work of local producers must be supported. In Italy identity cuisine will change reach, from national and regional to emotional and personal. Thanks to the second or third generations of foreign chefs.

ALESSANDRA GESUELLI food columnist

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STORIES

Cuisine of the future will only exist if it will be capable of learning something from the past, given the ongoing environmental emergency. The last seventy years have been in the name of mass food production. But the hope that this attitude could feed the whole world on the one hand, and greed of large corporations on the other, deeply undermined small agriculture. Environmental problems, slavery in the fields, diseases deriving from poor nutrition, obesity in disadvantaged classes, all betray the need for a radical strategy for agricultural and nutritional choices. Cooks should resume the great peasant cookery texts, chock full of ingenious and thrifty dishes. Not for a conservative idea of cuisine, but rather foresight.

DANIELE DE MICHELE DONPASTA artista ed esperto di cucina popolare

Those who were once dystopian futures with respect to global nutrition are getting closer and closer to reality. The end of this decade saw the explosion of companies such as Huel (substitute nutrients at meals) and Beyond Meat (meat made from vegetable protein), which have increasingly placed man as a god compared to what he eats. It will also be interesting to understand the state of freshwater resources at the end of the decade, if you want to invest in the fufood scout for Terroirs d’Avenir ture, buy one now.

TOKYO CERVIGNI

I see a world in which we’ll finally understand that authorial and avant-garde cuisine actually exists. Maybe 10 years won’t be enough, but I would like the world to be like this in a decade: only five hundred gastronomic experiences around the world that express pure avant-garde, research and art. Trips, destinations, routes that go far beyond just eating well in a beautiful place, with fine service. Restaurants that interpret their work as research before nourishment. Places where everything makes sense. And the others? Let them cook and simply do that. Beyond art, only the kitchen remains. author and consultant

ELISIA MENDUNI

With an ever deeper knowledge of the history of restaurant dining, we progressively question features long considered unchangeable, encouraging new models. We will distinguish less and less between cooks and pastry chefs or waiters; we will cancel the hierarchies of the old school kitchen brigades; we will cook dishes increasingly tailored to the single (and not on the table); we will relativise the concept of seasonality with more effective conservation techniques. editor in chief of the Identità Golose guide

GABRIELE ZANATTA

The world of wine faces a decade full of challenges. Not only an increasingly competitive global market that obliges our companies to leave the “proximity markets”, thus facing others further away, starting with the Asian ones, but also climate change that puts a strain on the vine cultivation in traditional producing countries and which will see both a shift in production to Northern Europe and greater budgetary constraints that will lead our winemakers towards sustainability.

This innovation will be applied to all its aspects, I think primarily of 4.0, becoming the keystone to overcome challenges.

First Vice-President of the Agriculture

PAOLO DE CASTRO

Commission in the European Parliament

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top italian restaurants www.gamberorosso.it/en/restaurants/

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THE IDENTIFYING WINE OF A LAND OF GASTRONOMIC BOUNTY. WHY IS OLTREPĂ’ PLACING ALL BETS ON PINOT NERO? A historical territory of Italian wine struggling to find an identity and hides its gastronomic treasures. In this sort of South of the North, it has increasingly been understood that the true identity grape variety is Pinot Nero: stubborn, multifaceted and difficult.

Here it finds expressions that are difficult to reach elsewhere, and the winemakers have started to concentrate their efforts on it

words by Lorenzo Ruggeri - photos by Alessandro Anglisani

STORIES

F

rom Ponte della Becca we already think of Pinot Noir.

We leave behind the Po and Ticino rivers, which meet here, and set foot in Oltrepò Pavese. The bridge marks a break, creates discontinuity and prepares for a territory that is truly a beyond. Also from the wine point of view. We travel a couple of kilometers in flat terrain, segmented by the ubiquitous roundabouts, and then the hills emerge, entirely covered with vineyards.

We are in the cradle of Pinot Nero: more than 3,000 hectares of vineyards, the third area in the world for size of the most sensitive and capricious variety in the world, after Burgundy and Champagne. It’s easy to get lost here: to appreciate this place it takes patience and time, but the taste of discovery is around the corner.

Most of the best wines, here, are not part of the denomination. The cured meats - often worthy of a world championship - do not bear tags or labels, and are handled by small artisans.

There are excellent truffles and sold at incredible prices, plus risotto is artfully made. But please keep it on the hush hush: Oltrepò is terribly loyal to its secrets! Despite achieving great results on the authorial restaurant dining front for some time.

FRONTIER LAND Map in hand, we are talking about a South within the North: and this is so in many respects. For sure, it represents the southern part of Lombardy, an authentic crossroads on historical, social and cultural levels. To the east there is Emilia, in Stradella and in the Versa Valley the Emilian influence can be felt very well, starting from the way people talk, for their certain joie de vivre. In the center there is the Scuropasso Valley, with the Cigognola Castle guarding the middle ground.

Then there’s Casteggio, the historic core, a little further west the spoken cadence changes already. In fact we 

MORE INCOME FOR THOSE WHO PRODUCE AND MORE WINE TOURISM We will work in synergy on two fronts: on the one hand to create a new positioning on the market that allows Oltrepano wines to be sold at a higher price, consequently increasing profitability for companies; on the other, to also make market the beauty of the area, increasing its fruition and incoming tourist offer. The most difficult task is bringing together small companies and large cooperatives, customizing actions and targets for each. We must create opportunities for dialogue, comparison and growth, the projects we want to implement develop on multiple fronts. In the next two years, an important investment is expected in communication with actions that will promote the entire oenological territory and only for some specific products. Marketing campaigns launched will promote wine tourism in Oltrepò, allowing incoming travellers both nationally and internationally. We will participate in trade fair events such as Vinitaly and Prowein, we will also promote various activities to win the challenge of encouraging the consumption of our Classic Method both in Italy and abroad, such as participation for the first time in the Tre Bicchieri Wine Paris and the organization of masterclasses dedicated to our top line. The cultivation of Pinot Nero occupies over 3,000 hectares of vineyards, the Classic Method, both in the white and rosé version, is a totem product of our territory and the one on which to engage the most.

– Carlo Veronese, Director of Consorzio Tutela Vini Oltrepò Pavese

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OP PINOT NERO METODO CLASSICO OP Pinot Nero Dosaggio Zero Vergomberra 2015 Bruno Verdi Canneto Pavese 23 euro Paolo Verdi is a true, talented winemaker: few words and a lot of work. His is undoubtedly among the most solid and virtuous cellars in the whole territory. The Vergomberra is wonderful, pinot nero with a balance of chardonnay and pinot meunier. Intense and vibrant, scents of thyme, small red fruits, very fine and persistent bubbles: it has lots of determination and energy. And that typical mint signature: welcome to Oltrepò.

Roccapietra Pas Dosé 2013 Scuropasso Pietra de’ Giorgi 24 euro We christened Fabio Marazzi the Selosse of Oltrepò. Because of his unique and fascinating style: harvested at complete phenolic ripeness, 60 months on the lees, no addition of sulfur dioxide, if not in the draft phase. There is all the aromatic fullness of the great Pinot Nero, controlled oxidation, spices. The mouth is super savoury, intact, fleshy, chalky and enveloping. Taste and consistency: the spark of great wine.

Farfalla Zero Dosage Ballabio Casteggio euro 22

Only Pinot Noir, only Classic Method for the historic winery founded Angelo Ballabio in 1905. The spearhead is the Zero Dosage, scented with berries, with a very fine and creamy bubble, intact, mineral, ripe, vital and very long. 30% of reserve wines gives complexity and depth in a context of great freshness. A nice lunge from a real Oltrepò..

OP Top Zero Giorgi Canneto Pavese euro 25 Fabiano Giorgi has revolutionized this winery, bringing the average of production quality higher and higher. Top Zero is a pure Pinot Nero, not dosed: complex, ripe, bewitches with the tones of licorice, truffle and ripe red fruit, strong of a long aging on the lees: vertical, opulent and incisive. So much flavor and character. The award-winning Giorgi 1870 cuvée is soft, creamy and refined.

Nature Monsupello Torricella Verzate euro 20 A style that has made the history books. Harvest in boxes, only flower must, strong acidity, full phenolic ripeness, 30 months on the lees. It attacks with tones of anise and raspberries, in its typical slightly coppery robe. It is dry, crisp and precise, tangy and rich, to drink in rivers. And with the

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vintage cuvée you can fly even higher.

Brut Nature Rossetti & Scrivani Montebello della Battaglia 21 euro Burning the stages of brothers Michele (winemaker) and Fabio Rossetti. And here we are in front of the best corporate Nature ever: what a delight!

The scents of small fruits and medicinal herbs are sharp, but it’s in the mouth that it changes pace: beautiful finesse and creaminess of the bubble, with a very vivid vertical vein, for a fresh and long finish.

OP Pinot Nero Dosaggio Zero LB9 2014 Ca’ Tessitori Broni – 22 euro LB9 well represents all the verticality and incisiveness of the Montecalvo Versiggia grapes.

It highlights the vertical grit, the nerve, the breadth of the bouquet in which citrus and aromatic herbs stand out. The credit goes to Luigi Giorgi, supported by his sons Giovanni and Francesco, who knew how to lead this classic Oltrepò winery towards qualitative levels of considerable substance, in clear growth.

Pas Dosé Riserva dell’Angelo 2012 Castello di Cigognola Cigognola

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42 euro Cigognola Castle has ancient origins: founded in the year 1212, in full feudalism, it is today a wonderful structure at the entrance to the Scuropasso Valley. In honor of Angelo Moratti, here is the Pas Dosé ‘12 fascinating in the ripe notes of pastry, long persistence, vital structure, the finesse of the bubble caresses and revives.

OP Pinot nero Brut Nature 110 Riserva 2014 Torrevilla Torrazza Coste euro 23 The Classic Method proposal of the cooperative chaired by Massimo Barbieri is clearly improving, the result of a careful study of the best land parcels of the conferring members. A bubble of beautiful finesse, scented with aromatic herbs and small fruits, broad and rich in the mouth, creamy with a mineral and persistent finish.

OP Pinot Nero Brut Cuvée Nero d’Oro Bertè & Cortini Broni - euro 19 Space for Matteo Bertè who gave new lifeblood to this historic winery. His great passion is the Classic Method, and he knows how to be a boy. The Cuvée Nero Nero d’Oro is an original Pinot Nero, with a rich and ripe nose in the fruit, the mouth is thick and creamy, well pushed by acidity. The very juicy finish of small red fruits.

Vini d’Italia 2020. The best labels according to Gambero Rossoo

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STORIES

are now in Piedmont; going into the more inaccessible mountainous areas we touch Liguria. With so many hot rods under a single hat, it’s difficult to find a common denominator. Well, one can be Pinot Nero, present everywhere and available in three main versions: Classic Method, Classic Method Rosé, Cruasé dream. Plus the declination in red. We neglect the fourth, as widespread, of Pinot Noir Frizzante, which still resists in bars and old-fashioned trattorias. Big, pointy bubbles.

We are in the Po River Valley, the fizzy way of Italian wine, the Via Emilia, which acts as a glue between the different areas, with the productive fulcrum in the pre-Apennine hilly area.

Valleys and streams are the units of measurement to tune into a panorama that is nothing short of complex and varied in terms of soil composition, altitude, exposure, rainfall. In principle, we must note a first distinction is between low and high Oltrepò. Pinot Nero for the reds is the protagonist in the first range, between 150-250 meter elevation. Going further up we find the ideal grounds for the sparkling wine bases. Among the many streams, there is one well imprinted in the mind of those who love big bubbles: the Versa. We cannot find a happier Italian territory for the great sparkling wines of the Alta Valle Versa.

A LARGE TERRITORY, BUT THESE OLTREPADANI… I think of Pinot Nero from Oltrepò and I think of how eclectic it is: more or less long charmat, great classic method, young and fresh reds, important reds. The future of Oltrepò is Pinot Nero. It allows you to fully express all the situations of the territory, its enormous altimetric differences, of soils, exposures. Style? We must think that here we are in an average warmer area than the other Pinot Nero areas, in some vintages in red it is very reminiscent of areas of the Loire, there are assonances in the fruit; it is a more Mediterranean product as a concept. And then there are the great sparkling bases, I think above all of the Versa Valley, from Montecalvo Versiggia upwards it is an area of bubbles, as well as the upper Scuropasso Valley and the upper part of Torrevilla. There are many suitable areas, I also think towards the Staffora Valley, you can safely get to 800-1,000 meters above sea level. I always say this to my companies: we buy high, there are many uncultivated terrains to explore. It is not possible to do everything in the same area, we are late but we must start again immediately. We must work on vocationality, go into detail, work on microspecificities as we are doing at Torrevilla by comparing all the data, the ampelographic and climatic discourse, study between altimetry, thermal and light exposures. The problem is the Oltrepani citizens: if they really wanted to commit themselves, there would be none for anyone else. I believe a lot in the new generations, many like Christian Calatroni or Alessio Brandolini were trained by me, but we need to do even more. It will take time..

– Leonardo Valenti, winemaker, professor at the University of Milan

THE “CASA DEL PINOT NERO” “This is the home of the Pinot Nero. The phenolic maturation is perfect, with marked acidity and perfect alcohol balance, low pH and mineral verve”, says Francesco Cervetti, winemaker who for many years followed the production of La Versa, one of the symbolic cooperatives of the area, founded back in 1905 and brilliantly led in the 60s80s by the Duke Massimo Denari, one of the fathers of Italian sparkling wine. Traveling often to France, he understood that in Oltrepò, and in Italy in general, there were no numbers and impact strength enough to com- 

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OP PINOT NERO METODO CLASSICO ROSÉ Op NorEma 90 Dosaggio Zero 2010 Calatroni Montecalvo Versiggia - euro 35 A beautiful tribute to the longevity and purity of the upper Versa Valley. The Calatroni brothers, fourth generation in the field, offer an embroidery with the Norema ‘10, 90 months on the lees. From the light onion skin colour to the wide, fine and ripe aromas, to the creamy bubble, to the savoury substance: a Rosé of extraordinary personality.

Oltre Il Classico Rosé T4 Ca’ di Frara Mornico Losana 20 euro Luca Bellani, who took over the reins of the company 20 years ago, took delight in the bubbles. 84 months on the lees, soft pressing and no dosage; blend of 4 vintages, 2012 as a reference. Soft color, very fine and sweet bubble, floral background well in focus and perfect total balance. Such class.

OP Pinot Nero Pas Dosé Centoventi Rosé Luca Bellani Mornico Losana 28 euro First vintage for the Luca Bellani brand which will be entirely dedicated to bubbles. Pure Pinot Nero fruit

Note d’Agosto Rosé

of the happy 2008 harvest, 10 years on the lees. Gently coppery colour for a generous fruit, equally intense is the floral imprint. Elegant echoes of mandarin and licorice revive a deep and compelling cuvée.

Brandolini San Damiano al Colle – 18 euro Still young but already experienced, Alessio Brandolini leads the family business with passion and rigour, following a path aimed at bringing out the best from his land, planting the varieties according to the vocation of the individual crus.

Onion skin colour, creamy, characterized by ripe tones of peach and plum. At the sip it is rich, satisfying and safe in development.o.

OP Cruasé Fiamberti Canneto Pavese 24 euro Giulio Fiamberti has made a marked leap in quality, strengthened by some of the most suitable vineyards of the “spur of Stradella”, that is the first hilly area that separates the Versa and Scuropasso valleys. The red fruit of the Cruasé is really greedy, just a bit heavier than the average colour, it is enveloping, creamy, with a relaxed and very pleasant drink.

Farfalla Extra Brut Rosé Ballabio Casteggio - 21 euro Over time the hand on the rosé of this cellar specialized in the Classic Method has changed considerably, under the oenological supervision of Carlo Casavecchia. About 30 months on the lees for a fine Pinot Nero, fragrant in tones of pomegranate and anise; the sip is full of pulp and spices, with nuanced and creamy finish.

Victoria Pas Dosé Rosé 2014 Vigne Olcru Santa Maria della Versa 24 euro The winery founded in 2013 by brothers Massimiliano and Matteo Brambilla in the Alta Valle Versa is clearly growing. Victoria ‘14 is an Undosed Rosé with a strong light colour of a bouquet of red fruits and very clear officinal herbs. The sip is airy and savoury, gritty and substantial, full and long in the finish. Compelling.

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Brut Rosé Monsupello Torricella Verzate euro 20 Marco Bertelegni, a longtime winemaker at Monsupello, is undoubtedly among the great talents of Italian sparkling wine. His Rosé is a 95% pinot nero cu-

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vée with a balance of chardonnay, which rests on the lees for about 30 months.

Fruity of raspberries well in focus, mint tones and a rich mouth, tannic contrast, for a creamy finish, balanced by a sugary residue, around 7 grams, well centered.

OP Cruasé 2013 Pietro Torti Montecalvo Versiggia 22 euro Sandro Torti is a tenacious and stubborn winemaker, supported in recent years by his daughter Chiara. These wines bear a strong personality that betray the vintage very much. Cruasé ‘13, a beautiful Classic Method with a fairly intense pink colour, offers intense aromas of red fruits, juicy, fine in the bubble and long in the continuous and energetic persistence.

OP Cruasé Roccapietra 2013 Scuropasso Pietra De’ Giorgi The company run by Fabio Marazzi with the support of his young daughter Flavia is getting better. 15 hectares of vineyards in biological conversion in the Scuropasso Valley. Change of pace and style, for the Cruasé, with a lighter colour, with that typical full fruit, fine bubbles, rich, tasty, wine trait and final saline energy.

Vini d’Italia 2020. The best labels according to Gambero Rosso

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10 MUST TASTE SPECIALTIES Oltrepò Pavese has several points in common with Piacenza, starting from the cured meats and game. Here are some of the most delicious local specialties

1 Salami from Varzi

2 Coppa Piacenza style capocollo

3 Ravioli with stewed meat filling

4 Pisarei e fasò Flour gnocchi with borlotti beans

5 Tortelli with pumpkin no mustard or amaretti in the filling

6 Panzerotti Crust cylinders filled with ricotta, spinach and Grana, baked in the oven

7 Wild boar in salmì with polenta

8 Barsadè Double-cooked biscuits, in boiling water first and then baked in the oven

9 Crucànt The traditional brittle: toasted almonds, honey, caramelized sugar

10 Honey

pete with Champagne. He dreamed of a single denomination for the Italian Classic Method produced with the grapes of Oltrepò, Franciacorta and Trento, the characteristics were perfectly complementary to each other.

On the chessboard, Oltrepò was the hypothetical Aube in terms of style: power, structure and acidity. Today’s numbers? Still the sore point. In Oltrepò the Classic Method does not exceed 800,000 bottles, against 18 million in Franciacorta and 9 million in Trentodoc. Champagne travels around 330 million bottles per year. Yet there’s so much beauty in the bottle.

THE HIGHER YOU CLIMB, THE MORE YOU DREAM Montecalvo Versiggia is the core of the Versa Valley, the higher you climb, the more you dream. The outcrops of marl, limestone, galestri and chalks are remarkable. There is a common character that we find in the cuvées elaborated in this area: that crisp

character, vibrant with freshness and flavour, a click that makes the mouth vibrate and is not easily forgotten.

Among the young producers who have vineyards here is Christian Calatroni, who has shown to have a firm grip on the situation, especially on the Cruasé front, a word that comes from the fusion of the words cru and rosé from pinot nero grapes, ça va sans dire. Taking full advantage of its verticality of flavour, and combining finesse and aromatic precision. It was ebullient Fabiano Giorgi who mostly believed in the denomination, by recalibrating the company balance: «Pinot nero is our image of the territory, a great grape that we have not yet fully exploited. The higher hilly part above Santa Maria la Versa is a special area». In the last harvest Fabiano created 140,000 bottles of the Pinot Nero Classic Method; sales increase by 20% every year. The views of the Versa Valley are spectacular, the ritocchino system rows follow the orientation in 

A DEEPLY TERRITORIAL WINE CELLAR It’s a family tradition, we had an old tavern in the Versa Valley since the late 1800s: hotel, tobacconist’s, village shop. Since 1970 I have chosen to dedicate myself only to restaurant dining, and in Prato Gaio I have always followed three guidelines: territory, tradition, seasonality. Five to six fixed dishes and the menu changes every 3 months. Tradition, as I said, is a successful innovation, over time I have included many small local artisans on the menu, think Boscasso goat cheeses, Pura Delizia chocolate from Borgo Priolo, and many virtuous suppliers, from coffee to salami. There are classic dishes such as goose neck stuffed with liver, and I like unusual recipes such as “dolce e brusco”, cod in many ways, all the stuffed pastas. The agnolotti, those are always present as the Oltrepò flag. Each season has its own dish, now I have onions stuffed with local black truffle. Among the most evocative dishes is La via del sale, a story of flavours featuring the three traditional fish that are easier to preserve: salted cod, anchovy and saracca, smoked herring. The wine list is absolutely territory-driven. I believe a lot in the Pinot Nero of Oltrepò Pavese, in particular with sparkling wines, that acid core is so strong. And then those noses sometimes even upturned, like the inhabitants of the Oltrepò, but which ultimately reserve a portentous mouth, and then that duration and incredible longevity. Yes, that consistency and pulp are values to focus on. In short, you can recognize Oltrepò immediately. It’s not Burgundy, it’s Oltrepò.

– Giorgio Liberti,owner of the restaurant Prato Gaio in Montecalvo Versiggia

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OP PINOT NERO Tavernetto 2016 Conte Vistarino Pietra de’ Giorgi 35 euro The estate consists of 800 hectares of property of which 120 are planted with vines, most of which are Pinot Nero, a variety introduced to the area over 150 years ago.

The Tavernetto is a beautiful amphitheater-shaped vineyard, with slow and prolonged maturation. The wine is complex with its fabric of berries, spices and aromatic herbs, clear, deep, wide, has further margins for improvement over time.

Bertone 2015 Conte Vistarino Pietra de’ Giorgi 35 euro Bertone is a great Oltrepò cru.

It’s a vineyard facing southwest, at 450 meters above sea level, with good ventilation and very fresh, to say the least steep. The breadth of the very fine and fruity floral aromas, the balsamic breath, the silky and infiltrating tannins are enchanting. The finish is light and tasty. An authorial Pinot Nero. It was not produced in the 2016 vintage.

OP Pinot Nero Rile Nero 2016 Marchese Adorno Retorbido – 22 euro This company, owned by the Cattaneo Adorno family since 1834 and now followed by

the Marquis Marcello, has achieved remarkable results under the technical supervision of Francesco Cervetti.

The Rile Nero has a very personal mentholated tone, blueberry and coffee tones.

Tasting has a smooth, precise, long and crisp tannic fabric in the finish.

OP Pinot Nero Carillo 2017 Frecciarossa Casteggio – 13 euro The estate was purchased by Mario Odero in 1919 and completely renovated by his granddaughter Margherita, with the 19th-century Villa Odero, the peasant courtyard, the cellar and the vineyards curated by Pierluigi Donna, is beautiful. In the range, we find the Carillo particularly good, an immediate Pinot Nero, but far from banal, nuanced and elegant, territorial, juicy and very pleasant.

Calonga 2016 Bisi San Damiano al Colle 19 euro Claudio is a firm, tenacious, closed and at the same time generous man, and so are his wines, especially those for aging. Barbera is its wine but Pinot Nero Calonga is no less, aged 15 months in barrique, it has gained grace and thrust over time. The 2016 version features class and character, a creamy and mature finish.

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OP Pinot Nero Noir 2016 Mazzolino Corvino San Quirico 30 euro Beautiful estate, consisting of a 19th-century village with villa, Italian garden and enchanting views of the Po Valley. Since 1980 it is owned by the Braggiotti family. Redolent of red and black berries, spices, chocolate, undergrowth Noir ‘16, rich Pinot Nero, tasted in a phase in which the sharp and ripe fruit was enhanced. The house Cruasé is also very good.

Pinot Nero Arfena 2017 Picchioni Canneto Pavese 18 euro At 52, Andrea Picchioni can undoubtedly look with satisfaction at the work done so far.

Forged on the impervious ridges of the Val Solinga, where the recovery of old abandoned vineyards has allowed it to give life, year after year, to wines with an increasingly incisive character.

His Pinot Nero is unique, it has light herbaceous nuances, a delicious fruit and hard parts that are just highlighted for a drink of great character.

OP Pinot Nero Poggio della Buttinera 2016 Travaglino Calvignano 22 euro The company owned by the Comi family is one of the historical ones of the Oltrepò Pavese, with land very suitable

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especially for the cultivation of Riesling and Pinot Nero. We are delighted to find a new interpretation of the Poggio della Buttinera, fine and graceful in the extraction. The tasting reveals great personality and length. And among the bubbles, the Gran Cuvée is a truly pleasant drink.

OP Pinot Nero Vigneto La Fiocca 2017 Piccolo Bacco dei Quaroni Montù Beccaria 12 euro Cellar and vineyards in organic regime, farmhouse with highly recommended cuisine: it is the reality of the Cavalli family, one of the first to believe in Pinot Nero in red. Excellent fragrance for this wine aged in steel tanks. Flavoured tones of pepper and coffee anticipate a quick, relaxed palate, with a beautiful fruity and energetic touch.

OP Pinot Nero Costarsa 2016 Montelio Codevilla - 15 euro There is always a “craft” dimension, in the good sense of the term, in the company of the Brazzola sisters, conducted today by cousins Edoardo Scanavino and Roberto Tinelli.

Costarsa ‘16 is very good Pinot Nero, precise in the aromas of spices and small berries, full in the mouth, elegant, with a long clear finish.

Vini d’Italia 2020. The best labels according to Gambero Rosso

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A BREATH OF FRESH AIR IN THE REALM OF CONSERVATIVES Before coming here I didn’t know anything about Oltrepò. I saw the villa, and I saw enormous potential: as a territory it is not used and sponsored in the way it should. I immediately went in search of small producers and companies, goat cheeses, riserva San Massimo rice, Garlasco black pig, small fruit and vegetable productions, I think of the red onion from Breme. Around here all the restaurants are super classic.

I wanted to do something different, my cooking is anything but tradition. The difficulties in the first months were present. At the beginning customers were hesitant, but after three months I had good results, the clientele returned and was happy. It has been an incredible year, a lot of work and many satisfactions: the first Michelin star (the first in Oltrepò), and the Una Forchetta. The province is a challenge every day, we need to talk and explain even more at the table.

And then such a large territory from the wine point of view: there are many wineries that I had the opportunity to visit, they make excellent products, we must get news of it out in a more direct way. Among my fixations are Roccapietra, Ballabio and Verdi. Winter dishes? I will put on the menu my risotto cacio e pepe with glazed sweetbreads and coriander, as well as venison with roasted beetroot, wasabi and quinoa. Wines? The wine list has more than 350 labels, lots of Pinot Nero, between Oltrepò and Champagne.

– Alessandro Proietti Refrigeri, chef at Villa Naj (Above “venison with roasted beetroot, wasabi and quinoa”. Photo by Villa Naj)

the direction of the maximum slope, it’s like skiing among the vineyards.

Descending just a little, we immerse ourselves in one of the highest density vineyards in Italy: Canneto Pavese. In these parts we find the proud and shy gaze of Paolo Verdi, a man of few words and many facts. His Vergomberra is our idea of Oltrepò Classic Method: tense, crisp, incisive. An extraordinary “local bubbly” that we put at the national step on the podium; along with a slice of Varzi salami, strictly oblong, on the company business card. Among Paolo’s neighbors there’s Andrea Picchioni, an equally serious and talented winemaker and favourite pupil of Lino Maga. His interpretation of Pinot Nero in red is sensational: it highlights even the hardest and delicately rough parts.

Around here Pinot Nero is not exactly a marketing gimmick. Several ampelographers hypothesize the presence of Pinot genotypes on these hills since Roman times, in the 

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year 1500 it was identified in the area with plants known to the ancient Romans as helvolae, that is, with gray grapes. We continue west and chase another stream: the Scuropasso.

The Italian Classic Method was born here in the second half of the 19th century. The first plants for production date back to 1865, in Rocca de’ Giorgi, at the hands of Count Carlo Giorgi di Vistarino who, together with Carlo Gancia, began to develop and market what was once called Italian Champagne. «Pinot Nero is my life.

My grandfather and great-grandfather did great things, I feel the responsibility to give topicality to that intuition,» says Ottavia Vistarino who recently relaunched the challenge of her company, Conte Vistarino, with a beautiful new and functional cellar, adjacent to the stream. Surrounding it is a true and wild landscape with currents of cold air to guarantee an excellent temperature range, and where the vineyards are the extension of the forest.

OLTREPÒ PAVESE

Mazzolino

ADDRESSES

Monsupello

Pavia

Torrevilla

Where to eat

Bruno Verdi Ca’ Tessitori

Frecciarossa

Ponte della Becca

Po

Bertè & Cortini

lla

a tr

S

5

Castello di Cigognola

12 4

2

Casteggio

Montelio

Va l

9

le

11 1

op

so

Brandolini

Vigne Olcru

6

Travaglino

Piacenza

Bisi

as

8

3

Tortona

Giorgi

Piccolo Bacco dei Quaroni Sc

ur

Voghera

Marchese Adorno

Picchioni

de

Rossetti & Scrivani Ballabio

1 Prato Gaio Montecalvo Versiggia - fraz. Versa, 16 038599726 – ristorantepratogaio.it

Fiamberti

Calatroni

4 Ristorante Lo con Enoteca di Losio Tiziano Bosnasco - via Mandelli, 60 0385272648 – ristorantelo.it

Where to shop

Conte Vistarino

EMILIA-ROMAGNA Casa Matti

Luca Bellani

3 Il Selvatico Rivanazzano Terme - via S. Pellico, 18 0383 944720 - albergoselvatico.com

5 Villa Naj Stradella - via Martiri Partigiani, 5 038542126 – najstradella.com

10

Ca’ di Frara

2 Bazzini Canneto Pavese - via Roma, 11 038588018 - ristorantebazzini.com

7

Scuropasso

7 Dedomenici Santa Margherita di Staffora fraz. Casanova Destra, 8 0383551341 –salumidedomenici.it

PIEMONTE

5km

Pietro Torti

Ottavia has aimed high by exploiting the 800 hectares of land, practically the entire valley, planting Pinot Nero vineyards even at 450 meters, under the supervision of oenologist Beppe Caviola, to offer four excellent artisanal cru. They are the best Pinot Nero in red of the denomination. Now she is rethinking her Classic Method and is challenging colleagues: «There are many areas in Oltrepò that are too hot and unsuitable for aging Pinot Nero; as a colleague suggested, why don’t we use them to focus strongly on a still Pinot Nero Rosé?».

THE VERSATILITY OF A GREAT GRAPE VARIETY Intertwined with the happenings of the Vistarino family, is a native of the Scuropasso Valley: Fabio Marazzi.

«The so-called 7 Piedmontese sisters came here and took away the raw material: our oil, our gold. Before, we went around the world with the names of oth-

ers. Today we go out with our brand and our own label». Roccapietra, the name of the Classic Method line, was born from the merger of Rocca de’ Giorgi and Pietra de’ Giorgi in order to summarize the territorial sense of belonging. Here Pinot Nero takes on more fleshy traits, a maturity that gives it a more enveloping consistency, more flavour than tension, more bright red fruits. It rains less than in the Versa Valley. «These Pinot Nero vineyards are a heritage, they do everything by on their own, the ripening is perfect. For the harvest, better one day more than one day less, with a long rest on the yeast, from 48 to 60 months, no final sulfur. Simple things, done well», Fabio says. In his bubbles we sense truth and territory.

We continue the journey to Casteggio to meet another long-established winery, founded by Angelo Ballabio in 1905. “For me, pinot nero is a diamond in the rough. We have decided to produce only Classic Method, working to enhance

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6 Il Boscasso Colli Verdi - loc. Boscasso, 1 0385955906 - ilboscasso.it

JANUARY 2020

8 Fattoria I Gratèr Torrazza Coste - via Schizzola, 68 0383364212 – fattoriagrater.it 9 Il pane di Rosa Casteggio - via Emilia, 98 0383804825 – ilpanedirosa.com 10 Thogan Porri Cecima - loc. Casa Cucchi 038359335 - salamedivarzidop.it

Where to stay 11 Prime Alture Wine Resort Casteggio - sda. Madonna, 109 038383214 - primealture.it 12 Tenuta Scarpa Colombi Bosnasco - via Groppallo, 26 0385272081 - colombiwines.it 3 Il Selvatico Rivanazzano Terme - via S. Pellico, 18 0383944720 - albergoselvatico.com



STORIES

its finesse, preserving acidity and drinkability. Here in the Valle del Coppa there are many white soild, in the Calvignano area there is a limestone vein that recalls the Versa Valley», says Mattia Nevelli of Ballabio with passion. The former Berlucchi winemaking center has become a beacon for the production of the Oltrepò Classico Method: increasing numbers and quality, at hyper-advantageous prices.

MARKET IN CONSTANT RISE Only a few kilometres and we are the flagship company of the typology thanks to the intuitions of Carlo Boatti who founded it in 1959. «The Pinot Nero from Oltrepò is crisp, decisive and structured. Among the first we believed in the zero dosage, it was 1982. We went from 20,000 bottles to over 120,000 with this type. We have launched a trend», say Pierangelo Boatti of Monsupello, proudly. He found in the winemaker Marco Bertelegni one of the greatest interpreters of the Classical Method in Italy. Again, requests continue to increase, the trend is clear.

And the quality improvements are also evident in regards to the pink version. «At the beginning we thought a lot about colour and maceration. Today we do a soft pressing and vinification almost in white, only flower must and steel, no oak», explains Luca Bellani, who found his way precisely on rosé bubbles with long refinements. Slowly, even those stubborn from overseas are giving in to the evidence: Pinot Nero is the future. It expresses all the complexity of the territory, gives identity and value, finding a character of great personality and freshness in various variations. It’s time for redemption: «The Oltrepò has been a large container at the service of bottlers for too long. We need to rebuild the agricultural supply chain and the value chain to make the values of the land grow, they are our wealth», summarises Francesco Cervetti. Aim high and head down. . 

A GEM: SALAME DI VARZI. FOLLOW THE CARVING GUIDELINES! The memory is myself more than twenty years ago, a city boy transplanted to the countryside. The voice is of Mario Maffi, supreme connoisseur of these lands. I vaguely knew that the salami should be cut keeping the knife oblique, but I didn’t know how for the Varzi this was an OBLIGATION. A clarinet mouthpiece cut, locally called “lippa” ... Practically, at 45 degrees. The slice must be neither too thin nor too thick. But I admit, I prefer the “cartwheel” slice, which is so thick it stands on its own! Varzi is a charming small village in the centre of the Staffora Valley. Here, starting from the 1950s, a number of pork butchers joined together to establish common production and marketing rules, but the Voluntary Consortium wad born only in 1984, in 1989 it obtained - as the first salami in Italy - the Designation of Origin, and in 1996 the European PDO. Varzi is a salami made from half-carcass, that is, obtained from the whole half of the pig, which must come from certified farms in Lombardy, Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna.

The grind is coarse-grained, while the seasoning involves sea salt, whole-grain black pepper and crushed garlic. The salami is then infused in red wine, which is subsequently filtered. There are four types: filzetta (5-7 hectograms, minimum aging 45 days); filzettone (7 ounces-1 kg, minimum aging 60 days); single gut sottocrespone, 1-2 kg, minimum aging 4 months; finally the double gut stitch, the real Varzi, sizes over 2 kg, minimum aging 6 months. To be eaten with the classic Stradella miccone bread. And sliced likle the clarinet mouthpiece, remember.

– Francesco Beghi, journalist

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PORTRAIT OF A CHEF IN THREE DISHES

ANTONINO CANNAVACCIUOLO MY CUISINE A Campania native who meets the Piedmontese cornucopia after passing through France must be a true catalyst of flavours and ingredients! «I always look to the infinite heritage of that culinary culture I belong to, where dishes have evolved from generation to generation, giving me riches from which I draw lessons and inspiration».

How do you put your experiences together?

«I enjoy playing with my imagination. I experience cuisine in my own way: it involves my senses and allows me to express myself through dishes».

WHERE VILLA CRESPI Orta San Giulio (NO) via G. Fava, 18 0322911902 - villacrespi.it POINTS IN THE 2020 GUIDE Cuisine 46 Canteen 18 Service 28 Bonus 1 Total 93 OPEN SINCE 1999

by Stefano Polacchi - portrait by Francesco Vignali

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RECIPES

“

TONNO VITELLATO This is a historic dish on the menu offered at Villa Crespi: it represents a real game that I love offering my guests.

Inspired by a classic of the Piedmontese tradition, I thought of this course by overturning the concept of the original recipe and creating opposite textures: the protagonist and solid part of the composition is tuna, served raw; the veal, unlike the classic version, becomes the sauce served with the dish.

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PORTRAIT OF A CHEF IN THREE DISHES

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RECIPES

“

LINGUINA DI GRAGNANO, CALAMARETTI, SALSA AL PANE DI SEGALE This is one of the dishes that most shows who I am: it fully represents my Neapolitan origins and how it merges with Piedmont, my aquired home. In this dish, I combine linguine from Gragnano with the flavour of my sea, added it with baby calamari, all accompanied by a Coimo bread sauce, typical of Piedmont. In this dish I enclose my deepest loves: the typical pasta of my homeland, my love for the sea and for Piedmont, of which I immediately appreciated the typical products that represent it.

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PORTRAIT OF A CHEF IN THREE DISHES

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RECIPES

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PORTRAIT OF A CHEF IN THREE DISHES

“

PICCIONE, FOIE GRAS AL GRUÉ DI CACAO, SALSA AL BANYULS I found inspiration for this dish in France.

I was so fascinated by the processing and taste of this fine meat that I could not help but imagine my version and offer it at Villa Crespi. I am very fond of this renowned dish, which I offer occasionally with modifications dictated by season and inspiration. Among the various combinations, I like to serve it with foie gras, or with a Banyuls sauce and served in crepinettes. I always recommend it.

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GAMBERO ROSSO www.gamberorosso.it SENIOR EDITOR Lorenzo Ruggeri PHOTO EDITOR Rossella Fantina LAYOUT Maria Victoria Santiago CONTRIBUTORS Stefania Annese, Michela Becchi, Giuseppe Carrus, Stefano Polacchi Gualtiero Spotti, Annalisa Zordan

PHOTOGRAPHS AND DRAWINGS Agostino Iacurci Francesco Vignali GR USA CORP PUBLISHER & PRESIDENT Paolo Cuccia Advertising Class PubblicitĂ SpA Milano, Via Marco Burigozzo, 8 - tel. 02 58219522 For commercial enquiries: mprestileo@class.it Advertising director Paola Persi email: ufficio.pubblicita@gamberorosso.it Gambero Rosso and are registered trademarks belonging to Gambero Rosso S.p.A. GAMBERO ROSSO is a Registered Trademark used under license by GR USA CORP Copyright by GAMBERO ROSSO S.P.A. 2020.

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January 2020

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