Read more of Cristina wine picks
Cristina Mariani-May is family proprietor and co-CEO of Banfi Vintners, America’s leading wine importer, and the award winning Castello Banfi Vineyard Estate in Montalcino, Tuscany.
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Ambassadors for a Finer Wine World
Cristina Mariani-May
co-CEO Banfi Vintners
America's Leading Wine Importer
Wine can be many things. Wine can act as an adhesive to bring people together and bind them in a common passion. Wine can perform as an anti-coagulant to loosen formalities and inhibitions between people. And wine can be a river upon which to transport oneself, literally and figuratively, around the world. And at its best, wine can do all of that at the same time, and then more.
Wine has broken down boundaries for me with politicians and journalists, royalty and immigrants. In wine I have found a common bond with kindred souls such as Hugh Johnson, Philippine de Rothschild, and an early mentor, Wanda Ferragamo. I have had the fortune to sail that river of wine around a good part of the world to such diverse places as China and England, Japan and France, Bermuda and Mexico, Puerto Rico and Canada, and, most recently, Russia.
To say that Russia was fascinating would be an understatement. My tour last month took me to Moscow and St. Petersburg, two fascinating cities, and two booming markets for wine.
In Moscow I had the pleasure of presenting our Poggio alle Mura cru of Brunello di Montalcino to the very demanding, very inquisitive wine journalists of Russia. Our venue was about as dramatic and glamorous as it gets – Bosco Café, with its picture windows looking out onto the iconic Red Square. After an interview with a writer for Vedemosti, Russia’s most influential and independent newspaper (a joint venture between the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal), I was whisked off to the nearby Moscow Marriott Royal Aurora Hotel to taste with professional sommeliers at the hotel’s Polo Club restaurant. I had a couple of chances to meet with consumers over winemaker dinners in some incredible restaurants, including Moskvich, owned by socialite Elena Baturina, wife of Moscow Mayor Jurij Luzhkov.
The river of wine then brought me northwest to St. Petersburg, a city equally as fascinating as Moscow yet somehow more homelike to me because of the design influence of so many Italian architects. It was a similar whirlwind, including stops at Grand Cru, the multi-venue wine bar and boutique owned by Simple, Russia’s leading fine wine importer and distributor. They were kind enough to feature our wines in their cover story for this month’s issue of their “Simple Wine News,” and those tomatoes who can read Russian can check it out on their website, www.simplewinenews.ru.
One of the highlights of my tour was an evening of cruising St. Petersburg’s canals by private boat, cruising past the hermitage, cathedrals and fortresses under one of the legendary white nights when the sun barely sets, enjoying a glass of one of our own white knights,
Fontanelle Chardonnay.
Russia is a booming, vibrant wine market, where luxury and value are closely linked. These hospitable, warm people are fascinated with Italian wines for good reason – they are as open and expressive as the Russians themselves!
Wines for a White Night:
Fontanelle Chardonnay – Fresh, harmonious with well-balanced fruit that hints of apple, peach and apricot. Barrel-fermented , partial oak aging for balanced complexity, and unfiltered. Average national retail is around $19
Poggio alle Mura Brunello di Montalcino – The tangible result of years of intensive clonal research on Montalcino’s native Sangiovese grape. Estate bottled from the splendidly sun drenched vineyards surrounding the medieval Castello from which it takes its name. Seductive, silky and smoky. Deep ruby in color with an expressive bouquet of violets, fruits and berries as well as cigar box, cedar and exotic spices. Average national retail is around $82.
