The sommelier Gabriele Scalici has created a selection dedicated to "salt wines"
To guide Stage #37 of the Sommelier Wine Box (April 2021) we turned to sommelier Gabriele Scalici.
Here is his story:
«I have always had a passion for wine, ever since I was a boy a voice rang in my head and told me «sooner or later you will become seriously passionate about it». Fortunately, I have never lacked passions to take care of, but the financial availability to manage them all is a completely different matter!
I can say that I was definitively struck by wine in 2011 after years of (alas) mediocre bottles. Since then, an exclusive journey began aimed at seeking quality - not only in this sector - which led me to obtain the diploma of Sommelier first and then of Taster. Since 2015 I have participated in the drafting of the Vitae guide, published by AIS.
At the same time I undertook another adventure with the aim of sharing my experiences (and my emotions!) with wine lovers and enthusiasts and at the end of 2012 the blog amministrazionedidegustazione.it was born, renamed to Parole di Vino from March '17.
It is a space for meetings, stories, impressions that I carry forward with a group of friends: the common thread of unconditional love for wine unites us. And about living well.
This reality (with 5,400 followers on Twitter and over 3,400 on Facebook) is designed to put producers and the public in direct contact also thanks to events that we link to the hashtag #personedivino.
Among my small great successes I like to remember the victory in 2014 of the Young2Young contest at Vinitaly, the participation in 2015 in the radio program "Falla Girare" by Radio Reporter and the television interview on "Terminal 1" on Telecolor.
For me, wine is synonymous with passion , the one I see in the winemakers I meet every day, the one that binds me to the friends with whom I write the blog, the one I find in people who are not afraid to launch new projects, capable of bringing lovers together. of wine to producers.»
Discover the proposed Wine Boxes
Gabriele has chosen for us a selection dedicated to salt wines . And he told us why.
«For a sommelier, the communication of the organoleptic characteristics of a wine passes through the expression of its essential traits. In the few - but intense - years of experience as a humble communicator of wine, I have understood something that may appear paradoxical, but in reality is perfectly logical: the best communicators of the wine verb, when they have the glass in their hand and an audience listening , first of all tell us about the essential nature of the wine being tasted. And the better they are, the more they use simple words, everyday adjectives, avoiding bombastic descriptions and panegyrics. And don't think it's easy to reach the essence of wine: wine is like people, it often shields itself, protects itself. It takes time and experience to touch its heart.
I believe that a wine enthusiast determined to plumb the depth of a sip cannot ignore one of the key aspects of tasting: flavor . The debate on these topics is always alive and we will certainly not forget that over the years global taste - a revisable expression, of course, but I can't find any better ones - has praised other organoleptic peculiarities, from tannin to alcoholic strength. However, flavor will always play a fundamental role in the tasting experience , especially in wines intended to accompany a good meal.
What is flavor in a wine? And why do we think we perceive it? Leaving aside the cold physical explanation, which speaks of metals, of anions of organic and inorganic acids, the flavor in wine is given by the presence of mineral substances , which vary according to the characteristics of the soil, the climate, the proximity of the sea or to a stream of water. Cellar practices , refinement and conservation have a further influence: one can easily understand how much flavor reveals the wine in the glass, without forgetting that it is often precisely the mineral sensation, together with acidity, that generates the desire - to sometimes irrepressible - to take another sip, and then another, and another .
I decided to propose "salt wines" as an experiment for myself, to compare - and have all of you do it - different wines from different territories, united by precise saline sensations, whose pleasantness clearly indicates, like the north in a compass, the quality of what we are drinking.»
The wineries proposed are Giannitessari , Fabio Ferracane and Monti Cecubi .
Gabriele Scalici
