TN: Montiano Vertical

Wild boar, Dale? Have USDA rules been relaxed to allow the service of wild game in restaurants now?

Thanks for the interesting notes, too. Not a wine I'm familiar with, and like you I probably won't run out and buy any (Merlot is not typically one of my favorite grapes -- though I have no objection to Pomerol -- and International style is not a house favorite either), but very fun to read about.

Mark Lipton

Great notes and making me envious of the New York life-style. (But I'll get over it as I look up at the bright blue Colorado sky and check out the receding snow-cap on Pikes Peak--from which you can see the purple mountains majesty and amber waves of grain, I'm told.)

I did a quick web search for Falesco Montiano and came up with confusion.

I got this back from Sam's in Chicago:

Then checked Wine-Searcher and got two its on Falesco Montiano 2001, but priced at $39 in one shop and $47 at another. No additional details on the wine at either link.

The Sam's wine sounds like the family you were reporting on. Is it?

Ed Rasimus Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret) "When Thunder Rolled" Smithsonian Institution Press ISBN #1-58834-103-8

Hi Ed,

Same winery, different wine. Falesco makes a number of different wines across a range. They make Vitiano at the low end, then comes a wine labelled Merlot, then I think there is reserve/single vineyard type of Merlot, and then Montiano at the top of the range.

The ones I've tried are well made, though I wouldn't call them classic Italian in style.

Andy

Were USDA rules ever a problem? I can think of several restaurants in New England with seasonal game menus. There's a butcher shop here in Boston (Savenor's)that has been selling all kinds of wild game (from alligator to giraffe to hippo to rattlesnake) for years. And I remember a restaurant in my midwestern hometown when I was a kid that served a number of exotic meats.

Wild boar has been a sort of trendy alternative to pork, at least around here, for a couple of years now, and has almost become mainstream (heck, you can get "Wild Boar with hot basil" at a little hole-in-the-wall Thai place near me). However, I think a lot of this "wild" boar is actually "farmed" boar, offered by producers such as the Broken Arrow Ranch (

Marcel

Marcel, Let's distinguish here between "exotic" meats and wild game. The question that I was getting at was whether a restaurant could serve truly wild game (i.e., not farm raised).

However,

And this gets to the heart of the question. I have had venison, antelope, buffalo, alligator, etc. in restaurants -- but all of it has been farmed. IIRC, the USDA insists that any meat served in a restaurant must be USDA inspected, which clearly presents a problem for animals caught in the wild. ;-)

Mark Lipton

I like the Merlot Umbria. Think it is outstanding.

The Montiano I did not enjoy the 99 or 2000. Perhaps it is a style issue. Or I drank to young...they were big for Merlot.

Hmm, I posted replies to Mark and Ed yesterday, but they're not showing up. So here they are, combined (kind of echo JEP and Marcel's posts):

Ed, Falesco is a winery run by (I think I have this right, others knew more about it that I Friday) Riccardo Cotarella. There are 2 Cotarella brothers who do a lot of contract consulting/winemaking, kind of Italian equivalent of M. Rolland, I think this is one of the brothers' personal winery. Maybe Mike or someone could correct/expand upon that?

The three main wines from Falesco I've seen are: Vitiano, usually a good deal ($8-10), a blend of CS, Sangiovese, and Merlot. The Merlot, from Umbria, which is also a good deal at $15-18 The Montiano, a single vineyard Merlot from Lazio (just over the Umbrian border) at $35-50. All of them are somewhat internationally styled,but with that proviso are quite well-priced for the level of quality.

Mark,I know nothing of USDA rules, but I've been ordering wild boar (typically Texan) in NY restaurants for years. My impression is these are feral swine on ranches. A quick google turns up :

You know, in most vintages this didn't show that differently from a similarly priced modern Pomerol (I'm thinking along the lines of La Pointe, Rouget, Le Croix de Gay, and Vieux Croix de Gay). Dale

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Mark, as I responded in the lost post, I think these are feral swine on large ranches. My memory of an article is that these are herds of swine that date back to the 1800s. They really don't have human contact until "harvest"; though I think there was some suggestion that in extreme situations (blizzards?) there were food drops. Dale

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The restaurant that serves wild boar has to worry about USDA rules on the handling of the meat but we have laws here in the US that basically say that no wild game can be sold commercially. The ranch in Texas provides an enclave where they can legally hunt/harvest/kill what is certainly wild game. In the case of wild boar, they probably don't need to fence them in since they do not migrate but in the case of elk or caribou which you have also likely eaten, they do need to fence them in to prevent migration so they are not as wild as the boars by definition.

Actually, Falesco imports more wines than I knew into US. See:

Dale

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Hi Mark,

It's not an insurmountable problem, though. Inspections can be carried out regardless of the origin of the animal.

In fact, as I read the FDA 2001 food code, as presented on

Marcel

They may not be as "wild" as the boar, but I think what people are looking for is meat that is not raised on corn. The flavor of the meat is effected by what the animal eats and the standard farm raised meat is just too bland. Of course, it's cheaper to feed them corn and many people (at least in the US) prefer the bland meat.

I don't see why wild game couldn't be simulated using farm raised animals. Just give them more room to move and feed them a varied diet based on the locality. This would bring back "terrior" into our meat as animals raised in different areas would be fed differently. We could even have seasonal differences.

Andy

Thanks, Marcel. I'm glad I supressed the ad hominem swipes at biochemists when recently discussing the Henderson-Hasselbach equation here! ;-)

Mark Lipton

Andy, I think that is generally the intent with "free range" meats. I recently saw a local beef rancher advertising their meat as "grass fed"

-- a healthy trend, I think.

Mark Lipton

Me too -- because even though I might have enjoyed the swipes at the biological types (my undergraduate degree is Chemistry), I would still have felt morally bound to return the favor to the organic chemists. And this group probably doesn't need an all-out chemical war. :-)

Marcel

Mark,

The only "free range" I've really seen around here (Boston, MA) are birds. Mostly chicken, but I've found goose. The only problem was the free range goose was frozen and the regular was fresh. I thought that was rather strange.

Andy

thanks Michael, I thought it was something like that! Dale

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