Page 14 - Italian-American Herald - December 2023

14 ITALIANAMERICANHERALD.COM | DECEMBER2023 ITALIAN-AMERICANHERALD
THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE
Wine questions? The answer may be right under your nose
By Natalie Pantaleo
If you’re a wine devotee, it’s likely you’ve sniffed your share of corks and have relied upon your olfactory
senses for vetting many a bottle of wine. And, as a connoisseur, you most likely know that swirling a sample pour in a glass mixes it with the air, facilitating the emergence of aromas.
However, if you’re more like me who is, well, a novice – I mean I’ve gleaned enough superficial knowledge over the years to
pair a decent bottle of wine with dinner, having worked in fine restaurants during college, visited the California wine country, and perhaps picked up a thing or two at tastings —then you may not fully understand what certain aromas can tell you about
the fermentation process of a wine you’re about to drink, or what your palate might experience from drinking it.
“Vanilla, cherry and tobacco,” I answered my crash course teacher, friend and local winemaker, Vincent Novello of the 2400 block of S. 21st St. in the charming Girard Estates section of Philadelphia.
That was 12 years ago, for a feature
piece about the annual Vendemmia Wine Festival that year, for which Novello served as director. He earned that rank and garnered respect from his fellow, (serious) local winemakers, for his award-winning Brunello, zinfandels and others.
Vince had explained to me how aging wine in oak barrels contributes to the vanilla I detected, for one thing.
Last month, I had the pleasurable coincidence of being seated next to Vince and his lovely wife, Renee, at a wedding. Through our bouts of conversation between traditional dances and speeches, we sipped an elegant 2021 Amarone. Vince asked me what I tasted first on the sides of my mouth.
“Smokey cherry.”
“Yes,” he nodded.
I was reminded not only of the knowledge
Vince imparted to me a dozen years ago, but of the sentiment that remained with me.
“[Winemaking],” he had told me, “is
a process, and at the end of it, you have something beautiful to share and savor and to experience as it changes over time.”
Thanks to a LinkedIn re-connection with Barbara Ann Zippi-Och, associate publisher of the Delaware Valley Italian American Herald, an opportunity surfaced to write this column. Naturally, my first call was to Vince Novello.
We sat in the Novellos’ living room chatting about wine and life just like last
time, before heading downstairs to the wine storage room.
While perusing over a hundred bottles
of wines on his storage racks in search of specific batches and years, like a Barnes & Noble sales attendant pulling books from the shelves on a requested topic, I asked Vince how long the entire process takes from purchasing the grapes to pouring a glass.
“About a year,” he said, without breaking from his search. “There are many steps involved beginning on ‘wine day’ when
we crush the grapes. During the various fermentation rounds, we test the batches. If a little more oak is needed, say, we can add oak sticks, etc.”
Novello shares a winemaking cellar walking distance from his home with his “Valloreo” wine club pals. The club’s name honors the late Frank “Blues” Valloreo, widely respected in local winemaking circles and remembered as one of the best. I found it fascinating to learn there are roughly 1,500 wine cellars in Philadelphia alone.
For Novello, partaking in the fruits of his labor with friends is cultural and meaningful. Just like hosting huge family dinners at his home or dressing as Santa Claus for various organizations during the Christmas holidays. Vince tells me soberly (as if speaking on behalf of a long line of ancestors), “it’s all about sharing an experience.”
Vince pulls a 2020, 2021, and 2022 Bordeaux blend from the racks for me to take home . . . with instructions: “Pay attention to the taste you experience as the wine passes through the inside of your cheeks, the back of your tongue, the roof of your mouth,”
the winemaker advised.
What should I be looking for?
“Just follow your nose,“ he said, with a smile. IAH
Experienced wine and features writer Natalie Pantaleo is an independent marketing and communications consultant who lives in Haverford Township, Pa. She is the author of the novella “Lying Down with Dogs,” published in 2022.
Vincent Novello, local winemaker, general contractor and seasonal Santa, holding a bottle of his 2021 Bordeaux blend.