In the fall of 2000 I opened a wine shop in Breckenridge,
Colorado. I had been on the US Ski Team
previously…and I declared Breckenridge as the place where I wanted to plant myself
and open a wine shop similar to the one room wine shops I had seen while traveling on the World Cup
circuit in Europe. However, by the
spring of that first year in business I was ready to get out of that two room
1880s Victorian. I was a young
entrepreneur with a previously fly-by –the-seat- of- my- pants lifestyle … I
felt like a captive beast. I had to get
back to Europe…where I had spent so much time as a competitive skier. So I enlisted one of my friends who was also a
fledgling ski shop owner in town to go with me. I think it took 5 minutes to
convince him we should buy tickets to Nice and then buzz around in a rented car
through southern France and over into Italy. It was a wine trip. I had never
been to those places and I was eager to explore. Before I knew it tickets were purchased and
we’d be off in less than two weeks! There was a pet shop across the street from
my shop where I used to get supplies for my dog and Maine Coon cat. When I told the owner (another young shop
owner) that my friend and I were flying to Nice and then headed to Provence, the
Cotes du Rhone, Tuscany and Piedmont on a whirl-wind wine adventure, she
said: “I worked harvest one year at
Domenico Clerico…you should seek them out.“
I knew of that winery's stature and legendary quality and now I had a
mission.
We arrived in Nice and sped down to Aix for lunch. In
Avignon we had a dinner that lasted late into the night and ended with shots of
Genepy with the owners. We checked out the
wine lore stones of Chateauneuf du Pape and observed the sign of Vacqueyras (akin
to Hollywood) on its rolling hillside vineyards. In a field next to a deserted chocolate shop
a few miles up a dirt road outside of Gigondas, we enjoyed a wine and cheese
picnic. Then we jetted back to the Cinque Terre where we hiked a bit, ate pesto
in the timeworn fishing village of Portovenere and spent the night in Santa Margherita
in a vintage hotel that could have been the setting for a classic old Italian
romantic movie. We had appointments to
get to in Tuscany, so we kept up the mad pace down to Lucca, Pisa and into
Siena. We ventured around Tuscany for
several days, exploring the hilltop wine
towns of Montalcino and Montepulciano south of Siena and cruising north to the Colli
Senesi and up to San Gimignano…before heading northeast into Panzano, Greve and Radda in
Chianti. We had lots of espressos and
biscotti! We also had Ribolita and a few
four hour lunches in family owned one room cafes while enjoying fantastic
Brunellos, Chianti Classicos and IGTs. The Tuscan hillsides covered with
vineyards and the small town squares had me believing I could move there. I
envisioned myself chatting with the winemakers, shop owners and townspeople…and
drinking wine in the afternoon until dinner was served at sunset. But the end of our trip was calling and we
had to get to Piedmont.
We drove 3 to 4 hours north along the A1 almost to Milan, took
a left to Asti and continued into Alba. It was raining and overcast. We happened upon a café with a dark and cozy
basement outfitted with a chess table. Nibbling on a plate of local cheese and
salumi, drinking Piemontese wine and playing board games and cards, we sat
there for hours. Later in the afternoon we
wandered down the cobbled streets in and out of the local shops. I kept thinking we’d find a wine shop with
Domenico Clerico on the shelf, but after a few hours I was ready to give
up. We took one last right on to a
small, narrow street towards the end of town and there was an unassuming little
wine shop. I had the sense that my
friend and I were among the only visitors that shopkeeper had had all day. I
looked around and didn’t see any Clerico. Deflated, I inquired: “Do you have
any Domenico Clerico?” He seemed amused and he brightened up. He told us to wait while he disappeared down
into the basement. He came back up with
a bottle of 1997 Domenico Clerico Pajana and explained himself: he only sells
Clerico to customers who ask for it. “If they just randomly pull it off the
shelf I risk selling it to someone who does not know and may not care what it
is.” I paid him in Lira worth roughly
$50 and left his shop thrilled about my purchase in so many ways: I had met an
interesting and astute Alban, I had supported a small shop not unlike my own and
I had found and paid a fair price for a bottle of wine from the producer I had
been searching for.
As the evening wore on, and we grew hungry again, we walked
though Alba knowing it was our only night in Piedmont. We strolled down the main street and neared
its end, not far from the wine shop where we had found the bottle of Clerico. As we turned to head back towards dinner in
the center of town, a well dressed woman approached a dark building without
signage. We watched as she pushed a
button to the left of the door … just as she did the door buzzed. She pulled it open and disappeared down the
steps in front of her. We followed her
lead and had one of the most amazing meals of our lives in a vaulted cellar in
Alba. From what I remember, it started
with truffle flecked risotto, continued with Barolo braised beef and culminated
with a divine semifreddo.
In the morning we drove past Cinzano and along a mountainous
route by the small rustic ski area of Limone and followed the meandering road back
down into Nice. On the final night of
our whirl-wind tour we stayed in a simple hotel on a cliff overlooking
Villefrance-sur-Mer’s idyllic cove.
When we got back to Breckenridge, I ran up the steps to the
pet shop and delivered the bottle of Pajana...it was my thank you for her wonderful
recommendation. The quest for the bottle of Clerico turned out to be even more serendipitous.
My traveling companion soon became my
husband…we were married the next year and spent our honeymoon retracing this
trip but with better hotels and the inclusion of Lake Como!
We have had our wine shop for fourteen years now. My husband runs it and is there most of the
time, but it is our shop together. I do
the purchasing and dream up and host special events. I pay the invoices and the employees, etc. and
I am back selling wine. My wine sales
job keeps me in touch with what is happening in the wine industry and it also
allows me to live a bit more free form.
And, fortuitously, the distributor I work for represents Domenico Clerico.
Domenico has been to our sales meetings…
I shook his hand and asked him about the blend on the Arte. As a wine rep I sell many amazing wines and
we sell a great variety of small production wines at our wine shop, including a
few from Domenico Clerico. Now when my
husband and I travel to wine country we are treated with amazing winery visits
from the relationships and connections we have made over the years.
Nonetheless, that first trip as a newbie will always be first in my heart.
Domenico Clerico
This post was submitted as an entry in the Monthly Wine Writing Challenge. The topic was "Serendipity". To learn more or to submit your own entry please go here:
http://thedrunkencyclist.com/2014/11/01/monthly-wine-writing-challenge-13-mwwc13/
Tweet about it with the hashtag: #MWWC13
http://thedrunkencyclist.com/2014/11/01/monthly-wine-writing-challenge-13-mwwc13/
Tweet about it with the hashtag: #MWWC13
