ROBERT PARKER Jr. "The WORLD'S WORST WINE CRITIC"

Robert Parker

To DRINK BETTER WINE

DO NOT LISTEN To PARKER

HOW ROBERT PARKER ALMOST DESTROYED WINE

Most Wine Drinkers may not know this, but they'd be well advised not to ever listen to Robert Parker and his ill-advised wine news-letter The Wine Advocate. Not if they want the best wine drinking experience possible and they want to choose a good wine to go with their meal, they will not follow the terrible advice and reviews that Robert Parker gives on wine. The kind of wines Parker loves the most are overly oaked, Overly-Rich, heavily concentrated wine that are crafted to be Heavy Thick Full Bodied Oaky Fruit-Bomb Wines. Wines that clash with food instead of complimenting it. If it was up to Robert Parker he'd have all the wines in the World tasting like over-manipulated, big, fat powerful wines like California Cabernets and Meritage Blends instead of wonderful food complementary wines like; Chianti, Barolo, Brunello, Beaujlais, some Bordeaux wines and the like. Wines  that go well with food instead of clashing with it as many of the so-called Parkerized Wines do. The man has ruined the publics perception to what good wine is and should be. The public thinks because he is a famous wine writer, that he knows best and what he's talking about. Maybe he does, but the style of wine he likes, well?
    If the general public wants the best wine drinking experience possible, they'd be wise to steer clear of The Wine Advocate and any wine advice dished out by Parker.

      Robert Parker's advice on wine is advice that steers and influences peoples perceptions of what great wine is, into a quite a bad, almost one-dimensional place of homogenized overly thick un-natural wines. People should stop taking advice of Robert Parker, the World of Wine would be a much better place, a place of real wine that is  It SUCKS! Robert Parker's advice reviews, and Ratings of Wine that is.

     If you want to is true to the local terroir of whereever any particular wine might come from. In other words, Chianti should taste like Chianti, Barolo like Barolo, and Bordeaux like Bordeaux and not like a "Big Fat" California or Autralian Cabernet or Meritage Blended Wine and such.

 People should drink Wonderful Wines that go great with food and are "Real Natural Wines" the kind of Wines that were made for 100 of years and still are except for those wines made by owners who have fallen into to whole Robert Parker "Spin Doctor" realm and make "Overly-Concentrated Wine" that taste fake and un-natural, they are manipulated and are the kind of wines that Parker likes and gives High 90 Plus Ratings to.

   Drink real Chianti (not any that contain Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot), drink Barolos that have been aged in large gentile Slovenian Oak Cask instead of small 225 liter Barrique Barrels that make many wines taste more of Wood (the way Parker likes them) than beautiful unadulterated with natural fruit (Grapes). Wines like; Brunello, Cote du Rhones, and just about anything other than overly-concentrated, overly Oaked, minipulated overly-oaked wines from Australia and over-powering Californian and Australian monsters and you'll be doing OK.

   "Just DON'T Listen to anything ROBERT PARKER and his highly popular but we say awful newsletter "The Wine Advocate" has to say or Write about Wine." The man almost single handily Destroyed what Good Wine "is" and should be.

Be "Anti-Parker" you'll be glad you did. "Do."

Daniel Bellino Zwicke

Philip Ulanowsky on Parker

"Mr. Parkers "illigitimate" reign as wine-oracl and suprem arbiter of taste and quality has not only addicted a generation of Yuppies to his mythical 100- Point rating annoucements, but has played a major role of leading many of the world's great winemakers to compromise "their art" to make wines to suit the ratings, in order to sell, rather than making wines that will do poor early in early tastings but will mature into masterpieces over decades."

NO BARRIQUE

NO BERLUSCONI

NO ROBERT PARKER

NEW YORK BEST COFFEE

PORTO RICO COFFEE

Bleecker Street

Greenwich Village

NEW YORK

The BEST COFFE BEANS In TOWN

CHATEAU CHEVAL BLANC & PASTRAMI NEW YORK

CHATEAU CHEVAL BLANC

&

PASTRAMI

PASTRAMI SANDWICH
KATZ'S DELI
NEW YORK

DeGrezia Wine Director Author DANIEL BELLINO-ZWICKE

DOES CHATEAU CHEVAL BLANC And A PASTRAMI SANDWICH

At WINE SPECTATOR GRAND TASTING at MARRIOT MARQUIS

NEW YORK, NY
October 2013

CHEVAL BLANC And A PASTRAMI SANDWICH ?

"ONLY In NEW YORK"

Click For SUNDAY SAUCE

CLICK HERE !

Daniel Bellino Zwicke Does Wine Spectator Grand Tasting NY

. .

ANGELO GAJA With 2009 GAJA BARBARESCO

Wine Spectator Grande Tasting New York 2013

Photo Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

GAIA GAJA

TERLATO TASTING

OCTOBER 2013

NEW YORK

 

Photo Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

The BARONESS ROTHSCHILD

At Wine SPectator Grande Tastin New York

2013

 

Photo Daniel Bellino Zwicke

Imbroglio Folnari

Castello Nozzole

Greve in Chianti

With Famed Super Tuscan "IL Pareto"

 

Photo Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

SEBASTIANO ROSA WINMAKER OF SASSICAIA

AND GARI PUNIC "BARUA"

WITH DEGREZIA WINEDIRECTOR DANIEL BELLINO-ZWICKE

 

Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

With Giancarlo Grasso

and

His Great Barolo Runcot

 

 

 

Elena Penna Curado

With One of Her Family's 

Famed VIETTI BAROLO'S 

at Wine Spectator Grand Tasting

 

Photo by Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

 

DeGrezia Wine Director and Author Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

Flanked bt Two of Italy's Greatest Wine Guys

Marches Lambero Frescobaldi (Left)

And His Uncle Marchese Leonardo Frescobaldi

At Wine SPectator Grande Tasting in NEW YORK

 

FAMED WINEMAKER SEBASTIANO ROSA

And HIS BEAUTIFUL WIFE

At THE WINE SPECTATOR GRANDE TASTING

NEW YORK

SASSICAIA  2009

From TENTA SAN GUIDO

AND FAMED WINMEAKER SEBASTIANO ROSA

 

"THIS WINE IS da BOMB" ONE of THE GREATEST SASSICAIA VINTAGES EVER

OPUS ONE

FROM

THE BARON ROTHCHILD & ROBERT MONDAVI

NEW YORK, NY

2013

BORDEAUX

Cos D' Esternol

A GLASS 

of CHATEAU CHEVAL BLANC 

and a PASTRAMI SANDWICH

 

"ONLY In NEW YORK" !!!

 

At Marriott Marquis

NEW YORK

 

 

 

WINEMAKER ALESSANDRO CELLAI (Castellare)

And Wine Director DANIEL BELLINO-ZWICKE

At DeGrezia Restorante NEW YORK

MASI AMARONE

 

 

 

 

 

CLICK HERE !

 

 

 

BOOKS by DANIEL BELLINO-ZWICKE ... ITALIAN NEW YORK FOOD & WINE

 

WINE DINNER With CINZIA TRAVAGLINI New York

GREAT GATTIINARA And NEBBIOLO FROM TRAVAGLINI

at TRAVAGLINI WINE DINNER With CINZIA TRAVAGLINI

Trattoria GUGINO

Tribeca NEW YORK

AWESOME GATTINARA From TRAVGLINI

With DAM TASTY PIZZA MARGHERITA

TRAVAGLINI TASTING DINNER at GUGINO

With Antonio (Palm Bay Imports)

CINZIA TRAVGLINI

and Author

Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

Been invited to a Wine Dinner tonight by Cinzia Travaglini to be held at Gigino Trattoria in Tribeca (New York, NY) ... Can't wait! Will be dining with Cinzia Travaglini, Chef Luigi, Antonio from Palm Bay and other restaurant wine people who have been lucky enough to get this rare and coveted invitation .. I don't know who the other guest are ..  Will report back tomorrow on the evening, the food, wine, and guests, etc..

THE REPORT

DINNER PRIVATE WINE TATSING With CINZIA TRAVAGLINI at GUGINO

We drank, we ate, whe talked we enjoyed .. A private tasting dinner with Cinzia Travaglini. Actually I thought there were going to be more people. Basically it was just me and Cinzia Travaglini tasting me on Travaglini's current vintages of fine wines. We were joined by ANtonio from Palm Bay, Travaglini's Importer, and then when we were finished eating, Chef Luigi joined our table as well. Cinzia started us out with her Nebbiolo Coste Della Sesia .. Travaglini is the unquestionable King of Gattinara, a small zone in northern Peidmonte .. The zone is only about 200 acres of which Travaglini comprises have of the entire zone. Gattinara is made mostly of Nebbiolo at 90 to 100% .. Gattinara may have up to 10% of Bonarda and Vespolina grapes, but all of the Travaglini Gattinara wines are made of 100% Nebbiolo ... Travaglini are Kings of Nebbiolo of which about 97% of their entire vineyards are planted to the grape, along with a very small amount of Uva Rara, Bonarda, and Vespolina .. Yes they are masters of Nebbiolo of which they have been growing since the 1920's ...

So Nenniolo and Gattinara are the thing of Travaglini .. They are the biggest as well as the most famous Gattinara with their signature Trademarked Gattinara Bottle .. OK, so we started out with the Nebbiolo Coste della Sesia which blew my mind. I absolutely loved the wine. It was in perfect balance, full of flavor, yet light in weight, the perfect combination in an Italian Wine which are among the most food friendly wines in the world. And that's what we were doing, food and wine, and yes friendliness too. This wine Coste della Sesia was an absolute marvel of a wine, that is very reasonably price and half to a third the price of the Travaglini Gattinara's which are at their price points quite reasonable for wines of the highest of quality. This is thought of as an entry level wine, but it is anything but. Yes I loved this wine that was perfectly in balance in flavor, tannic and acidic elements along with the correct weight and wonderful flavor of ripe berry fruits with a nice twinge of licorice, just lovely. Cinzia poured me just a little, but it was so good I had to ask for a little more, and then more a thrid and forth time. That's when you know a wine is good.

After the lovely Nebbiolo we moved on to the Gattinara's, thee wine of Travaglini .. We ordered some grilled Clamari and a Pizza Margherita and Chef Luigi sent us some special bread and a platter of Salumi. We all flipped for the Pizza which we all thought was the equal of the finest Pizza from Napoli "The Pizza Capital of The World." Well after all Chef Luigi is from Positano in the area near Naples on the gorgeous Amalfi Coast. We drank the Gattinara 2007 which as well as the Nebbiolo before was absolutely wonderful and a wine in perfect balance. Just delisous. It was then on to the Gattinara Riserva 2006, another winner, and then a very special and rare wine.

The special rare wine in question was il Sogno, which was a special project created by Cinzia's father Giancarlo Travaglini in 2004 ... Giancarlo wanted to make a dry table wine using the appassimento method of drying grapes before the fermentation process as with the famed wines of Amarone and the lesser known Sforvato of Lombardia. Giancarlo picked some of his best Nebbiolo Grapes and set them out to dry on matts. Unfortunately Giancarlo passed away in November of 20024 when the grapes had only been drying for 1 month. Cinzia and her winemaker husband continued the project.  They finished drying thr Nebbiolo grapes, fermented them and made the wine that tey called il Sogno "The Dream." 

So Cinzia poured me a glass of il Sogno, and again my mind was blown. The wine an absolute gem had all sorts of wonderful flavors running through my mouth. It was delisious, it had power, but not too much as some big AMarone sometimes do. The wine was a delight and I'm looking forward to putting it on my own list.

We also drank the Gattinara "Tre Vigna," The Three Vineyards .. The fruit for Tre Vigna comes from 3 very special small vineyards on the Travaglini Estate. These 3 different vineyards have different geographical vineyards on the estate and bring different characteristics to the wine to make up one complete and wonderful structure of a wine, 

Travaglini Gattinara "Tre Vigne"

 So we drank the fine wines from Cinzia Travaglini, we had perfect Pizza, Antipasti, followed by some wonderful Tagiatelle con Tartufo and Brasato di Manzo (Braised Beef), and finished up with some tasty desserts. It was a fine night and a dinner that along with the many wonderful private luncheons and dinners I have had over the years with some of Italy's most prestigious winemakers, like Cinzia, I remeber them all, and I will always remember this one, absolutely Wonderful!

Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

CINZIA TRAVAGLINI

WTC1 at NIGHT

WORLD TRADE CENTER 1

aka  FREEDOM TOWER

Looking Down From GUGINO'S

October  21, 2013

Tribeca, NEW YORK, NY

NEW YORK'S BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANTS

 

BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANT In NEW YORK

 

BAR PITTI Is The BEST

# 1

 

 

 

NEW YORK'S BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANTS

 

 

1.  Bar Pitti  ... Greenwich Village

 

2.  Rao's ...  East Harlem, New York, NY

 

3.  Manducati's,  ... Long Island CIty, Queens

 

4.  DeGrezia Restorante ... Midtown Manhattan 

 

5.  Elio's ... Upper East Side Manhattan

 

 

 

"FRANKIE NO"

Frank Pellegrino Sr.

RAO'S # 5

 

 

DeGrezia Restorante

A Hidden GEM In Mid-Town 

Ranks an Impressive # 4

 

 

POLP alla GRIGLIA

 

GRILLED OCTOPUS at DeGREZIA

Is The BEST in TOWN

 

 

 

ELIO'S MAKES THE BEST LASAGNA BOLOGNESE

 

Sunday & Monday Nights Only

 

Lasagna Bolognese

 

 

 

 

MANDUCATI'S 

 

Long Island City, Queens New York

 

GREAT OLD SCHOOL ITALIAN

 

 

 

The BAR at MANDUCATIS

"La TAVOLA"  

 

ITALIAN In GREENWICH VILLAGE

 

 

 

 

SUNDAY SAUCE

 

WHEN ITALIAN AMERICAN'S COOK

 

by Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

 

Learn How to Make Bolognese, Sunday Sauce, 

Meatballs, and more ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chianti Comes To New York Town

Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

With

Cavalier Luigi Cappellini

at

DeGrezia 

NEW YORK

Yes Chianti came to town the other day. The town? New York City. The Chianti, Castello Verrazzanno ... Luigi Cappellini of Castello Verrazzano (Owner) visited with me and tasted me on his latest offerings from his equisite wine estate in Greve in Chianti Classico .. Chianti Classico is the great wine region in Tuscany that produces Italy's most storied wine "Chianti" along with Vin Santo and porprietory Super Tuscan Wines .. Mr. Cappellini is the proud owner of one of Chianti Classico's and Italy's finest most beautiful wine estates. They produce three different Chianti wines; a Chianti normale, Chianti Riserva, and a special limited edition Cru Chianti in Sassello which was formally bottled as a Super Tuscan but has by a good choice of Mr. Cappellini been made and classified into Chianti Classico Riserva status. Luigi brought the Sassello to me to taste along with other fine wines. Let me tell you, when I tasted the Sassello, it blew my wine. The "Sassello" Chianti Classico Riserva 2007 is one of the finest wines that I have tasted of a few thousand wines this year. The wine has everything going on for it, and I'm not going to go into some drawn out boring discription other than to say it was delicious, tasty, "In Perfect Balance," and just one of those extra special wines. I love it, and ordered 2 6 packs on the spot. We have many great wines in our extensive cellars of Big Names of great prestige and storied vintages, and I can easily say, that when we take delivery of this wine next week it will be among our greatest wines in our cellars of a couple thousand, the wine is great as great can be, "Basta!"

Luigi also brought his 2009 Chianti  normale and Chianti Reserva 2007, both quite tasty. Unfortunately, I wasn't tasted on their (Verrazzano's) great Vin Santo, which I've drank on numerous occasions in Greve at the Verrazzano Estate .. I wasn't tasted on it, as the importer Palm Bay does not import that particular wine from Verrazzano, but I can tell you from experience, the wine is nutty, lush, and just perfect ...

One wine that Luigi tasted me on and of which I just bought 2 cases as I love it, is a wine called Verrazzano Rosso, with a subtitle of MiniTuscan ... The wine is super tasty and very affordable ... It is made of Sangiovese, Cannaiolo, Mavasia, and a tiny bit of Trebbiano. This wine is made in the classic true old style of Chianti of which white grapes were allowed in the blend of mostly Sangiovese Grapes along with the native Cannaiolo, and white native grapes Trebbiano and Malvasia. The wine is quite tasty of medium body and ripe as well as a tad of bitter fruit flavors. As I said, this wine as made in the way that Chianti used to be made with native grapes of the Chianti Classico wine region. The laws and rules of what is a Chianti Classico by the law of the Italian Government and Chianti Consorzio were changed in 1996 to include the sacraligious inclusion of international grapes like Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon ... For those who know me, they know I distane this practice along with a few other people who are Chianti lovers and purest. We wish for the laws to change back and exclude all "non-native Grapes" like Merlot, Cabernet Suavignon and any others, and for Chianti to incude only native grapes and a blend of mostly Sangiovese and including small amounts of native grapes like; Cannaiolo, Colorino, Malvasia Nero, and very tiny amounts if a property so chooses of the white grapes of Trebbiano and Malvasia Bianco. This is true Chianti and the kind of Chianti Luigi Cappellini makes at the Verrazzano Estate.