Serendipity



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/

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