The 10th Vanguard Grand Portfolio Tasting once again brought the wine world to Columbus.
It is hard to believe it’s been a year since my first Vanguard Grand Portfolio Tasting, and it’s likely even harder for those involved to realize 10 years have passed since the first grand event was held here in the Capitol City.
On a glorious mid-summer day that felt more like California’s Central Coast than America’s Midwest, some of the world’s finest vintners again converged on Bexley for the incredible Vanguard event that is as down-to-Earth as it is decadent.
Vanguard is, of course, a wholesaler, importer and distributor of wines, and its goal is to bring the highest quality labels and vintages to restaurants and retail outlets across Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
Michael Flaherty, left, and Jordan Levine of L’Albatross in Cleveland chat with from Leah Sullberg as she pours Michael Sullberg chardonnay.
That is the professed rationale behind the portfolio tasting, but I believe it might really just be an opportunity to bring together friends who produce great wine with friends who love great wine in a beautiful afternoon setting, so everyone can hang out together.
It was a truly familial gathering, as wine shop owners and restaurateurs, chefs and sippers mingled at St. Charles Prep like a giant cocktail party.
But underneath the surface of celebration, this was clearly serious international business–and I do mean international. Vanguard brought in no less than 50 winemakers from five different countries, and we let that geographic diversity be our guide for traversing the wines this year.
An early stop brought us to the smiling Steve Anderson, winemaker of Eola Hills in Williamette Valley, Oregon. Steve told us he started at Enola on Oct. 3, 1993 at 3:15 pm (he remembers exactly because he was 15 minutes late for his shift as a cellar rat). Within five years had moved up to winemaker, and has been there ever since making a beautiful pinot noir that seems destined to help put Oregon on the winemaking map.
We next practiced our Italian with Simone Santucci of Tenute Rio Maggio and his delectable Telusian, a honeysuckle blossom in a glass that combined Passerine, Percorino and Trebbiano varietals into a delicate white with satisfying finish.
His Rosso Piceno, mixing montepulciano and sangiovese grapes was arguably the best bargain I drank on the afternoon.
We spent a fun 15 minutes with the lovely Leah Sullberg, owner and assistant winemaker of Michael Sullberg Winery. It’s her late father’s name on the label, but the heart over the past two growing seasons since his death has come from Leah, who strives to carry on at the central California winery.
Simone Santucci shows off offerings from his Italian winery, Tenute Rio Maggio.
She spent her childhood learning the business at her father’s knee but did not imagine she would take the business over so soon.
She shared her story over a French-like chardonnay, cassis-like merlot and a well-priced, well-pointed cab.
After meeting up at the show with our son’s French tutor, we took a few minutes to parlez francaise with winemaker Richard Case and his lovely wife, Sarah, who own Dom de la Pertuisane. The British ex-pats told us they got as far as Maury, France, on their way to Italy’s wine growing region and went no farther.
Their “labors of love,” came in the form of the beautifully made The Guardian grenache gris, with just seven barrels made from hand-picked grapes that grow amid the grenache noir grapes they grow for Le Nain Violet. Boutique in taste but not price, it was all I could do not to return for pour after pour of The Guardian.
We ventured to Italy by way of Marco Cecchini’s fruit- and spice-filled wines from his Marco Cecchini d’Orsaria Winery in Friuli, located where Italy, Slovenia and Croatia come together on the edge of Eastern Europe.
I am a big fan of Croatian wines after a trip in 2011, and the Refosco offered complexity brought in with the Italian style that provided a broad and balanced structure.
Cecchini’s offerings have proven so popular in Ohio, selling at The Anderson’s, that Marco has cheerfully ventured annually for the last five years to the Vanguard event to show off his new wares.
Finally, we said muy bueno for the opportunity to share the Spanish sparkles of Raventos i Blanc’s Brut Gran Reserva, before heading into South America for ocho offerings from Argentine winemaker Cristian Allamand.
He brought pours forth wines from his two vineyards: Allamanda Vinas & Vinos and Luminis. What fun to try what he called the male and female versions of Malbec–the Lujan de Cuyo a berry-filled version on the masculine side and a more complex Valle de Uco, a more female wine with “attitude.”
Though you may have missed the Vanguard event, the best part is many of these wines are coming to a shop near you, and at least one four-star restaurant– chef/owner Matt Litzinger and sous chef Vince Martin of the brilliant L’Antibe in the Short North—said they were envisioning possibly menu evolutions around pours they sampled.
Once again, Vanguard proved the world of wine stretches far, but it does its part to ensure the best and brightest make it home to Columbus.
