I have been reflecting lately on how strange it is that so many people now know what a Credit Default Swap is and how Mortgage Backed Securities work. It would have been nice if we had been given a slow training session instead of one month of panic about what these concepts mean without having to watch our 401K accounts plunge. Unfortunately that is not the case. I first learned this financial lingo when I was a reporter at Dow Jones in Milan in another incarnation. That was 1995. At about the same time, I started seriously studying Italian wine varieties and it was just as foreign to me. The names were exotic and ancient and I felt that I had been given a key to a new world.
I am interested in finance so reading the papers has been upsetting but edifying as well. I think it is equally interesting that American wine lists now contain Italian varietals that I would never have dreamed of seeing in the States just a few short years ago.

Aglianico del Vulture is a case in point. Eric Asimov wrote a piece in the New York Times about Aglianico del Vulture last month and has likely assured its future. I had once made a stand that I wouldn’t leave Italy until I visited Basilicata, the region where this Agliancio comes from, and finally went to Matera in May 2002. It took many more years for me to leave Italy but Basilicata and Aglianico del Vulture has remained nel mio cuore…
I was at a wine event at Aroma Kitchen & Wine Bar this week and had a conversation with Vito, the owner, about all of the new products coming out of Italy and how exciting it is. Vito used to sell wine and was extremely knowledgeable and his wine list shows that clearly. He told me about a producer from Campania that now makes single varietal Coda di Volpe wines. It is hard to believe that the wine scene has evolved to that extent. As it happens, Vito is from Basilicata.
I had never been to Aroma and was glad to have the chance to appreciate the place. While I only got to taste a small variety of Vito’s foods, they were delicious and I will definitely go back for more. I found the whole place and Vito and his wife very appealing. I was very interested in Vito’s Asprinio di Aversa Frizzante from Campania from I Borboni. I have only ever seen Asprinio on the wine list at Terroir. This white grape makes light fruity and floral wines. I love seeing new varietals on wine lists.

Surely we will learn many more financial concepts in the months and years to come but I hope that at the same time new varietals and small producers will also be arriving on the scene to bring us Allegria.