Who said we only make hamburgers and SUVs?

My colleague was nice enough to pick me up a bottle of some fine Californian Zinfandel (In Italy Zinfandel is known as Primitivo) on his last trip to the US. I regret not appreciating wine more before I left the US. Californian wines are expensive to begin with, and if you do happen to find them in Italy then they cost twice as much as they do in the US. Plus, due to what is available in Italy it does not make much sense to buy a US wine. That said, I really enjoyed This one was St Francis Winery's Old Vines Zinfandel. The Californian Zinfandels tend to be much stronger and sweeter than the Italian ones, which are typically produced in Puglia (the heel of Italy). This one was fruity and peppery and went very well with pan-seared steak and roasted potatoes.

I recently watched the documentary Mondovino. It was a little slow and boring, but it had some interesting comparisons of the new school and old school wine industry. The director would go back and forth between little old peasant winemakers and younger "wine-consultants" and producers in flashy suits and expensive cars. Of course, I agree with the idea that quality is lost on all things mass-produced, but, according to my wine class teacher, technology has helped the winemaking industry enormously. Multi-billionaire wine producer Robert Mondavi was portrayed as the evil American plotter set out to "Cocacola-ize" wine. He was of course helped by the even more evil enologist Michel Rolland and the famous American wine critic Robert Parker. The director did a good job of pointing out how the world may be in danger of fat cats set out to create un-unlikeable sweet vanilla oaky wines because of the sinister collaboration between these 3 individuals. One buys up land, 1 "makes" the wine, and the other writes favorably about it, knowing that the combination of these actions is bound to bring in millions of €£$. It was funny how a small French town resisted Mondavi's billion dollar takeover of their land to preserve their wine-making traditions while Italian producer Antinori sold 500+ years of a family tradition to an American corporation in a heartbeat.

Wine class is going quite well. Although, my friend who I am taking the class with and I are known as the guys "who finish all of the wine". Most of the class either takes a few sips or spits it out. The sommelier who sets up the classroom doesn't even bother putting the spittoon on our table anymore. She has even started skimping a little when filling our glasses. Come on, the other day we tasted a €60 Barolo. Who would spit out or not finish a €60 Barolo? I will make some recommendations of the wines we tasted in class shortly. For now, I'll leave with these:

Limontone dei Greci Salice Salentino: One of my current favorites. Thick and strong (9.0/10)

Orfeo: Same producer and like Limontone but stronger and tastier. Costs about €16 a bottle so the former is probably a better bargain. Then again, this might be better if you are preparing a particularly tasty dish (8.8/10)