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IN THIS ISSUE

NOW'S THE BEST TIME
TO VISIT NANTUCKET
Part Two
By John Mariani


NEW YORK CORNER
THE WRITING ROOM
By John Mariani

NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR
THE WINES OF THE VOLCANO
By John Mariani


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NOW'S THE BEST TIME
TO VISIT NANTUCKET
Part Two
By John Mariani

Nantucket Ferry

      I was recently on Nantucket for its annual Book Festival, as a speaker, staying at The White Elephant (left), which is just enough removed from but proximate enough to walk into town. 

        The main building, with 67 rooms, stretches over a considerable piece of island turf, and its room decor has that balance of New England tradition with modern amenities--fireplaces opposite well-made king-sized beds--and it is idle pleasure to curl up onto a sofa in the Library or lounge on the Harborside Lawn. 

         The rooms are actually a collection of cottages, all with the island's requisite gray shingles, and it was opened in the 1920s by a local socialite named  Elizabeth T. Ludwig, who believed a fine hotel had a future on the island, although her critics dubbed the place "Mrs. Ludwig's white elephant" (which explains why it's not called The White Whale, which was in itself Captain Ahab's own folly). The original structure was demolished in the 1960s and in 1999 everything was updated.

    The Brant Point Grill at the hotel has had its ups and downs, and currently its menu reads "LOBSTER STEAK SPIRITS," along with listings of the usual hamburgers and roasted chicken breast.  I did not have time to dine at the Grill except as a banquet guest for the Writers Weekend, and I wouldn't judge the full à la carte menu by the lackluster food that night.

   For the grand splurge at The White Elephant, book the three bedroom Loft in town, with its own dining room and kitchen, and you even get the use of your own BMW X5.
    That was well beyond my expectations, for I was booked in a suite at the White Elephant's new Village  (right) adjunct, a short walk away.  Beautifully decorated suites, a mix of modern and traditional motifs, coupled with a superb staff, bicycles and a driver to take you into town, this is a highly civilized place to stay and zone out if you wish.  My suite had  a bedroom, separate sitting area, and bathroom. The bedroom features a king-size bed and HD flat-screen TV, while the sitting area comes furnished with a full-size sleeper sofa, refrigerator.

 

     I had the pleasure of hosting a lunch at the bright and sunny Italian restaurant Ventuno, owned by Gabriel Frasca and Amanda Lydon, who also run Straight Wharf Restaurant and Provisions. The name Ventuno is the number twenty-one in Italian, for the premises were for a long time home of the 21 Federal Restaurant and it's also the address.  Once low-lighted and somewhat formal, the premises are now lightened up (left),  with simple colonial colors and furniture,  black and white photography on the walls  and vases of herbs on the tables.
      The menu is divided into five sections: morsels, appetizers, pastas, entrées and desserts. And since this was an arranged event, the dishes kept coming fast, starting with various Italian charcuterie and cheeses, a very savory antipasto of pork and beef meatballs in a tomato sugo  ($14), and frittelle chickpea fries ($5) with tomato and a touch of  yogurt for brightness and creaminess.
        I could have gone on noshing, but there was a plate of light ricotta tortelli (right) with green garlic, asparagus, fava beans and chanterelles ($17) to be gobbled up, and pappardelle with suckling pig, cracklings and the scent of marjoram ($17).
   For dessert have the honey mousse ($10) with a walnut dacquoise crumble and a roasted blood orange granita, or the chocolate bombolini donuts with coffee gelato ($11).
    The all-Italian wine list is remarkably well chosen, if top heavy with very pricy bottlings, though those prices are reasonable at that level of quality.
      As much as I ate at Ventuno, I wanted more of everything, which, given my dining regimen, is a very high compliment indeed.

 Ventuno is located at 21 Federal St; 508-228-4242. Open for dinner nightly.

      

  I was glad I had a chance to pay a quick visit to what is widely considered the best pizzeria on the island, and I’ll throw in all of New England, too. Evan and Maria Marley’s Pi Pizzeria (right), about ten minutes from downtown, has been turning out very credible Neapolitan-style pizza since 2006, baked in minutes in a wood-fired oven. True to Neapolitan style, the pizza ($12 to $16) is a little soft in the middle, with the right charred bubbling on top.  It’s a very simple formula--crushed tomatoes, good mozzarella, first-rate olive oil and a little basil to make the admirable margherita.

    The Marleys opened the place in 2001 as a wine and cheese shop, but pizza mania took hold of Evan, and by 2006 the crafted oven was turning out pies to a grateful public seemingly starved for the real McCoy.    Depending on their size and ingredients, the pizzas     run $10-$22,  the latter for the "Gambella," topped with shrimp, garlic, tomato, basil, and mozzarella.
    The bar room is fun and the bartenders love their handiwork. 
The rest of the menu is stocked with the usual Italian-American items: Spaghetti or penne with meatballs ($18-$26), chicken parmesan ($20), cod puttanesca ($24).  I let Evan talk me into trying his strip steak ($29), which comes with gnocchi, and I suspect it’s the best on the island; seared and seasoned impeccably, with meat that has a good mineral and fat content.
    Pi is always jammed, but eating at the bar, as I did, is a whole lot of fun.

 Pi Pizzeria  is located at 11 West Creek Road; 508-228-1130; Open daily for lunch and dinner

 

   

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THE WINES OF THE VOLCANO
By John Mariani

  

      In the Aeneid, the poet Virgil described a horrifying eruption of Sicily’s Mount Etna as “Shooting out globes of flame, with monster tongues that lick the stars . . . and the molten rock rolls screaming skyward; from the nether deep the fathomless abyss makes ebb and flow.”

         Most Sicilians would agree with that assessment, yet many others--the island’s winemakers--count the aftermath of an eruption as a gift of the gods, because the new volcanic soil layers in time become rich in limestone, granite and basalt that imbue wine grapes with complex flavors.  Indeed, the legend is that Bacchus himself brought wine to Sicily. There is now even an Etna appellation for wines grown in the shadows of the volcano.

         For centuries, however, Sicilian wine production was built for quantity, not quality, made on a mass scale and, under EU rules, subsidized by being turned into raw alcohol that never saw a wine bottle.  In the past two decades, however, young, forward-thinking Sicilian winemakers have made enormous strides, both by forming co-operatives of the best wineries or by building on tradition at small, family-owned estates.

         The island has 23 approved appellations, with many in the eastern region especially affected by Mount Etna, including Faro, Moscato di Noto, Moscato di Siracusa, Cerasuolo di Vittoria, and Eloro, while western regions have enjoyed Etna’s dispersion of minerals blown hundreds of miles away, including Regaleali, Alcamo, Riesi, and Sambuca.

         There’s no question that there has been a great deal of global interest in these wines, made from once-neglected red grapes like Nero D’Avola (right), Nerello Mascalese, and Frappato, along with new red imports like Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Shiraz.  White wines on the island, once oxidized and sulphurous tasting, are now cleanly made, full of sunny Mediterranean fruit, and fine acids, from grapes like Cataratto, Grecanico, Grillo, Inzolia, Zibibbo, and Moscato Bianco, with European varietals like Chardonnay and Viognier recently introduced.

        Today, wine producers like Planeta, Duca di Salaparuta (below), and Regaleali have had considerable success in the world market. Rapitala Hugonis ($35),  a blend of Nero d’Avola and Cabernet Sauvignon, is a very well made, balanced wine, whose native grape has plenty of ripe fruit, tamed by the tannin of the Cabernet. I am also impressed by the depth and richness of Donnafugata Mille e Una Notte ($50), which is 90 percent Nero d’Avola and 10 percent other varietals, a deep purple, very tannic wine with real complexity from the edge of the palate to the finish. Its lovely name means “A Thousand and One Nights.” Two of  the most widely exported Sicilian wines  are Duca Enrico from the producer Duca di Salaparuta and the Tasca d'Almerita Regaleali Rosso del Conte, both selling above $50.

        Interest in the region's wines has grown so that there are now luxury wine tours of Etna and Taormina, available through Cellar Tours, which include your own driver in a Mercedes, accommodations and visits to local wineries and restaurants.

        The area is rich with fine restaurants and quaint trattorias where you can and should drink the local wines that go so well with Sicilian specialties like sweet-sour caponata of stewed eggplant and zucchini; spaghetti alla Norma, with tomato, eggplant and mozzarella; seafood cuscus; and cream-stuffed pastries called cannoli.

        In the city of Catania, don't miss eating right in the fish market itself at Trattoria La Paglia--said to be here since 1814. In Messina, Trattoria Piero is known for its stuffed, baked pastas.  In Taormina--of which the locals say, “If you want to know what Taormina is like, think of paradise, then think harder”--the maccheroni alla Norma is the specialty at Ristorante al Feudo, and La Torinese is a wineshop piled high with shelves of Sicilian wines to take home.
        Once home, you may well have been enthralled enough with Sicilian wines to want to ferret them out in the U.S., and fortunately you’ll find a good array of them in some of the best Italian restaurants here.  At the  New York restaurant L’Artusi, you can drink an Etna Rosso “Caldenara Sottana” ($30 retail) with your spaghetti with garlic and chile peppers or squid ink fettuccine “nero” with rock shrimp.

       In Houston, at one of America’s finest restaurants, Tony’s, owner Tony Vallone infuses dishes like lamb shank braised in Marsala with memories of his Sicilian grandmother’s cooking, to be enjoyed with a bottle of Planeta “Santa Cecilia” Nero d’Avola ($30 retail)

        No one has been more of a cheerleader for Italian wines in general, and Sicilian wines in particular, than native son Piero Selvaggio, born in

Modica, who has owned Valentino in Santa Monica, CA, for four decades (with a younger branch in Las Vegas).  Among the 80,000 bottles in his cellar, Selvaggio offers a Regaleali Cygnus Sicilia ($15, retail) to marry perfectly with a pasta dish like fusilloro alla Norma.  “I am so proud of the progress of Sicilian wines in my lifetime,” says Selvaggio, whose customers include an array of Hollywood stars. “Not only are they now some of the best in Italy, but for the price they are amazing quality.”

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Wine Column Sponsored by Banfi Vintners
A TWIST TO THE SEASONS