This week’s indigenous variety post is a bit delayed on account of a long birthday weekend, mine. I love my birthday and always have since I was a little girl. As a child, presents used to arrive in an old red wagon. As I grew older the gifts got smaller and more exquisite. As an adult, the most meaningful are no longer gifts but words, actions, shared moments, shared meals and wines.

I like to celebrate all month long in July and tomorrow’s Piedmont tasting feels like a perfect occasion for further celebration. This is a maxi consortium tasting or a group of consortium that have put their full force behind this initiative. I’m not sure exactly which producers will be present but I am sure the lineup is very impressive.

Some producers and consortium I know well wondered why Piedmont would choose mid-July for a big tasting in New York. I too had that thought when I was looking at the region primarily as one of big red wines.

Instead today I thought of all the fabulous white grapes that are made into great wines that come from Piedmont, be it Arneis, Cortese, Erbaluce, Favorita, Malvasia or Moscato Bianco, to name a few indigenous varietals that make Piedmont proud. I have tried many an Arneis that made me happy in the past years, including a great one from Malvira’.

Moscato is all the range in the States but I think that it’s sister grape, Malvasia has been sorely underrated on these shores as has Gavi made from the Cortese grape. The most memorable Moscato I have ever tasted was from a producer named Gianni Voerzio. I wrote a long post about him back in 2008.

The idea of trying some of these wines brought a smile to my face despite the 100 degree weather we are experiencing here in New York. I hope to see some of my dear friends from Piedmont as well.