As winter fades away, those residing in cold weather environments (especially golfers) may want to consider a visit to south Florida’s Innisbrook or Saddlebrook Resorts, each located less than an hour car ride from Tampa International Airport, both offering moderately priced lodging, a range of dining options, fitness centers, spa pampering and multiple golf courses.
    At the recently refurbished Innisbrook Resort (www.innisbrookresort.com) in Palm Harbor, situated along the Gulf of Mexico just north of Clearwater, nightly winter rates for condo units start at $250, with a number of golf packages available. The resort also features a range of dining options, a fitness center, six individual heated swimming pools and a state-of-the-art spa, featuring treatments ranging from manicures and pedicures to a variety of facials and whole body massages with lime and ginger salt.
    As for golf, it’s available on the spectacular Copperhead (left) course, which hosts the PGA Tour’s Valspar Tournament (this year March 18-22), as well as three other well-groomed courses ranging in difficulty from the links-like South course to the North course, which offers a mix of narrow tree-lined fairways and wide, water-protected holes, to the “water, water everywhere,” very challenging,  Island course.
    There’s the availability of breakfast and lunch at each of three golf clubhouses,  with nightly casual dinner at The Market Salamander Inn offering an array of salads, soups and flatbreads, including one loaded with mozzarella and mushrooms and doused in a mix of balsamic and fragrant truffle oil, flatbreads and small plates like meaty ribs with mango slaw, a dewy fresh ahi tuna poke bowl (right) and wings coated in a tangy “Calypso” BBQ sauce. Two excellent main courses tried were the tasty blackened grouper and a thick pork chop that was crunchy on the outside and moist inside, accompanied by a heady Granny Smith apple chutney. For dessert we shared a decadent Ghirardelli chocolate brownie with coffee ice cream and chocolate sauce.
    There’s a good choice of wines, like the Faustino VII, with a  bouquet and taste of ripe berries, we’d chosen to accompany our dinner, as well as a long list of spirits, featuring locally made whiskey. (Expect dinner for two to cost $90-$100,  excluding wine, tax and tip.)
    And there’s Packard’s Steakhouse (left), which gives Tampa’s Bern’s Steak House a run for the money in quality of fare and service. In particular at Packard’s we enjoyed appetizers of grilled lollipop lamb chops drizzled with white truffle oil and a tuna poke bowl with a tasty yuzu citrus marinade, then both the filet mignon and NY prime strip steaks (cooked exactly to our specifications), both of which had robust beefy flavor that mated well with a Robert Hall Syrah, which had a bouquet and flavor of just-picked blueberries with a touch of tannin in its finish. The experience provided by Packard’s service from two very caring, yet professional and knowledgeable servers, each with over 30 years at the restaurant was a cut above the rather formalistic Bern’s experience. (Open daily. Dinner runs $140-$150, excluding wine, tax and tip.)
    For those who want to venture outside the resort, there’s the nearby, very popular Mystic Fish (3253 Tampa Rd in Palm Harbor; 727-771-1800) a storefront eatery with an eclectic nautically themed interior featuring a row of tropical fish tanks (right) separating the two dining areas. Served are perfectly prepared small plates like spice-rubbed, grilled Gulf shrimp atop a roasted sweet onion aïoli. Grilled octopus accompanied by feta and kalamata olives, and rare ahi tuna with ponzu sauce were also fine choices as apps. As for main courses, they run the gamut from seafare preparations like delicate, bronzed (slightly blackened) Chilean sea bass and flaky, sweet panko-crusted hog fish, to a range of chops, ribs and lamb dishes for the carnivorous crowd, all served with a vegetable and choice of potato or rice. Moreover, there’s a good choice of desserts like a rich white chocolate bread pudding as well as a sensibly priced wine list with gems like the elegant, toasty Jordan Chardonnay. (Open daily for dinner. Expect a meal for two to cost $100-$110, excluding wine, tax and tip.)
    Other notable relatively nearby dining spots include: Dimitri’s On The Water (690 Dodecanese Blvd.;727-945-9400) in Tarpon Springs overlooking the Sponge Dock harbor, which serves huge portions of toothsome Greek-inspired dishes like grilled octopus (left) and Gulf grouper to rack and leg of lamb, all served with a choice of vegetable and starch. Also, as expected, there’s a spectrum of classic honey-laced Greek desserts available.  (Open daily. Expect dinner for two to cost a very reasonable $80-$90, excluding wine, tax and tip.)
    Tarpon Turtle (1513 Lake Tarpon Ave.; 727-940-5360), a casual lakeside spot (below) with excellent service overseen by affable manager Mike Hodges, features well made, very generous portions of appetizers like tempura-battered calamari strips and pulled pork flatbread, as well as main courses of mahi tacos, grilled grouper and a range of burgers. And for dessert we enjoyed a rich, flavorful homemade Key lime pie. (Open daily for lunch and dinner. Expect dinner for two to cost $70-$80, not including wine, tax or tip.)
    And for some diversions while in the area there’s Aspirations Winery (22041 US Hwy 19 N, Clearwater 727 -799-9463, open Wed.-Sun.) with a lively tasting area; the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art (600 Klosterman Rd, Tarpon Springs 727-712-5762, open Thurs.–Sun.) that features work of modernist artist (and Picasso friend) Abraham Rattner, and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium (249 Windward Passage, Clearwater, open daily ) that also serves as a rescue and rehab facility for injured dolphins, rays and sea turtles and allows visitors to see (and feed) dolphins up close, with fascinating hour-long tours of the behind-the scenes activities given a few times daily.
    At the more compact Saddlebrook Resort (www.saddlebrook.com) in Wesley Chapel (a 30-minute car ride northeast of Tampa) condo units are available in winter from $250 per night, with some well priced golf and dining packages available. The resort features swimming in a centrally located area with multiple pools (heated, of course), a spa and fitness center, with daily breakfast, lunch and casual evening dining in the clubhouse at TD’s Sports Bar, featuring a range of cut-above-the-average pub fare, like a tuna poke bowl, slow-braised, flavorful short ribs and a tasty pulled pork entrée. And, there’s more upscale fare available at Dempsy’s (also in the clubhouse), where the offerings range from appetizers of seared, dewy diver’s scallops and jumbo lump crab cakes on a lime emulsion and topped with a yellow tomato salsa, to baked oysters and a wild shrimp cocktail.
    Popular main courses are the 26-ounce prime Porterhouse, rack of lamb, the 14-ounce pork chop with a cider-bourbon demi-glaze and the teriyaki-basted Chilean seabass, with the usual steak house sides available. (Open for lunch and dinner daily. Expect dinner for two to cost $120-$130, excluding wine, tax and tip.) Golf is offered on two challenging Arnold Palmer-designed courses – both scenic tree-lined tracts, with gnarly, steel wool-like rough and rather small, sand trap-protected greens, requiring great accuracy on drives as well as approach shots

NEW YORK CORNER
By John Mariani

    Calvin Trillin, upon suddenly remembering a favorite Chinatown restaurant, remarked that New York is the only city in the world where you could forget a restaurant that good existed. So, too, how could I possibly have forgotten about Gnocco, now twenty years old, a place I haven’t visited in a decade?
    Now that I’ve gotten back there, I was happy to see owner Gian Luca Giovanetti  and partner Pier Luigi Palazzo and to find the food better than ever. Gian Luca (left) is the kind of fellow who fills a room with his spirit and knows almost everyone. Get him to talk about his food and you are in for an education about every element that goes into the procuring of ingredients, their preparation and presentation. You’ll come away with a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of Italian food, most of all from Emilia Romagna, whence come the owners.
    I asked if he ever prepared that quintessential Emilia Romagna dish bollito misto—a boiled mix of meats and vegetables served with its own broth. Gian Luca sighed, “No, because we could not do it correctly. We don’t have the room for the cart you need to wheel the bollito to the table and serve it, and it is not a dish that can ever be served the next day. In Modena it is cooked and served and finished the same day.”  Which pretty much sums up Gnocco’s commitment to both authenticity and integrity in every dish.
    The word gnocco means “dumpling” as well as being affectionate slang for “pretty girl,” and there is a playfulness—call it la dolce vita, if you wish—about an evening at Gnocco. The long dining room enters onto an enclosed garden whose cherry tree will burst into bloom in a month or so. The rough brick interior walls are hung with the work of East Village artists and photographers, and the lighting is quite pleasant.
    The wonderful new West Side trattoria Rezdôra has garnered praise for serving the puffy fried dumpling called an gnocco, though Gnocco has been perfecting them for twenty years.  Served with prosciutto ($17), they would be seriously addictive were it not for the allure of the rest of the menu. The pizzas, crafted by master pizzaiolo Federico Crociani, have also been perfected, certainly among the best in New York, with crackling, yeasty crust and just the right amount of toppings so as not to smother it. The one with Speck bacon and truffles (below) is both unusual and very, very good ($22).
    For an antipasto the carpaccio di polpo (left),a paper-thin rendering of octopus bound by its own natural gelatin, served with pink peppercorns and a lemon vinaigrette ($16), should be requisite, for it shows how carefully this delicate dish must be prepared to make all textures, tastes and temperatures work their magic.
    All the pastas are house-made, from fusilli piccante with roasted tomatoes, eggplant, sweet peppers and guanciale bacon to gnocchi with tomato, buffalo mozzarella and basil. I was enchanted with a plate of tortelli ($24.95) stuffed with pumpkin, Parmigiano, nutmeg and amaretti cookies and lavished with a beef ragù (left), and one of the true specialties is “rosetta” pasta ($25) folded like a rose and stuffed with mozzarella di bufala, white truffle, Parmigiano-Reggiano and Speck.
    Last time I visited Gnocco I couldn’t manage even get to the main course, but this time I paced myself so I could enjoy a great tour de force—maialino al latte, a dish of very tender, young pig cooked in milk, seasoned with rosemary and served with mashed potatoes and spinach ($25).
    I struggled to make room for dessert and was happy I did: Tiramisù ($9), torta al cioccolato ($9) and ricotta cheesecake ($9) were as good as any in town, but the piéce de resistance—or coup de grace—was a fat calzone pastry spread with Nutella ($15.95), not a sophisticated dish, just an irresistible one made for sharing.
    The wine and cocktails are Pier Luigi’s domain (there’s a cocktail hour held Sun.-Thurs, when some cocktails and wine are half price), and the list is admirably all Italian, with 60 labels and 55 of them by the glass.
    Gnocco’s owners believed in the East Village when it was largely a place most people avoided, and today it is still a beacon of good taste and very warm hospitality at a time when the area has again become a true New York neighborhood with a lot more baby strollers in the park and fewer cop cars in the streets. I’m not going ever to forget again how good Gnocco is and right where it belongs.

 

Open daily for lunch and dinner.

NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR

 

    Chianti Classico, which is an appellation under Italian wine laws, is a topographical region distinct from seven other Chianti zones, which include Colli Aretini, Colli Fiorentini, Colline Pisane, Colli Senese, Montalbano, Montespertoli and Rufina. But it is the Classico zone that has long been considered the most distinguished, the only zone with its own separate DOCG. It has also been the zone most in the forefront of Italian viniculture, currently with more attention and commitment to sustainability and battling climate change in Europe.
    Last year alone, marking the 300th anniversary vintage of the first official definition of the production zone, 24 Chianti Classicos earned the highest rating of “Three Glasses” from the food and wine guide Gambero Rosso.  More than a third of the Touring Club “Vinibuoni d’Italia” Guide crowns (16 out of 45) were awarded to Chianti Classicos, and four wines made it into Wine Spectator’s Top 100, the designation with most wines in the international classifications.
    To find out what drives Chianti Classico producers and to get an assessment of the 2019 vintage, I interviewed Giovanni Manetti, chairman of the Chianti Classico Consortium (left).

Q: You report that 2019 “ended on a very positive note for Gallo Nero.” Can you give us some details?

The vintage of 2019 has closed on excellent results for Gallo Nero [Black Rooster] wines with the success of the latest harvest, while 2020 makes an auspicious start. It may still be too soon for a definitive assessment, but the wines destined to become our 2019 Chianti Classicos are expected to be fresh and well-balanced, thanks to the good balance between acidity and tannin, perfectly concentrated texture and excellent aromas. The alcohol content is slightly lower than average compared to previous vintages, in line with the market trends. To summarize, we are looking at an excellent vintage year that will perfectly enhance the characteristic features of the Sangiovese grape and the many facets of such a widely varied area in terms of soil diversity and microclimates.

Another important and positive piece of news is that in 2019 Chianti Classico was crowned by Italian and international critics as one of the best wines in the Bel Paese, offering pleasant surprises to those with the patience to wait for its maturation in the bottle over the next few years.

Rather than “King of Tuscany,” the more appropriate title for Chianti Classico would be “Grand Duke,” as a tribute to Cosimo III de’ Medici, whose far-sighted judgment defined the production zone for today’s Chianti Classico DOCG back in 1716. The 300th vintage of the Black Rooster region has enjoyed an extremely appropriate success.

 

Q: What are the driving forces behind these results?

Chianti Classico is enjoying considerable success. Behind it all is a globally unique terroir, as well as a great deal of hard work, heavy investments and the deepest respect for the environment. In an area that is two-thirds woods, with only a tenth of the acreage planted with vines, 40% of which is now certified organic, Chianti Classico wine producers are increasingly aiming for ecological balance, working to reduce human impact as far as possible. The wine reflects the terroir like a negative photographic image, and this is why preservation of the environmental context and caring for this prestigious product are so important.

 

Q: You say that “The key word for our 2019 vintage, and to open 2020, is ‘satisfaction.’”  Can you explain further?

Satisfaction means that we are aware of many positive trends going on in the Chianti Classico area. Financially, 2019 was a very positive year for the designation’s wines. At the close of business last year, sales were still slightly higher than the previous year, and this trend has continued in January 2020 (+10% compared with January 2019). Generally speaking, the overall value of the designation is increasing, starting with the grapes: the market price per quintal from the 2019 harvest was 10% higher than the previous year, offering greater profits to grape-growing estates that do not bottle their wines. 
    As far as bottled wines are concerned, the “premium” types of Chianti Classico—Riserva and Gran Selezione—are also growing in both value and sales volume. In 2019 these two types jointly accounted for 42% of production and 55% of the turnover. Gran Selezione performed particularly well, with a 15% increase in sales compared to the previous year. 
    Looking at the Chianti Classico markets, while we wait and see whether or not the threat of import/export taxes will materialize, the USA is once again the top market, as it has been for over 15 years: over one-third of Chianti Classico bottles are sold in America (34% of total sales); holding second place is the domestic market, which currently accounts for 22% of total Chianti Classico sales. Next is Canada in third place (10%), which has proved a very rewarding market in recent years. With or without Brexit, the United Kingdom is a growing market, currently in fourth place (7%): the Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico will continue to invest here in 2020 with various events and promotional activities.

 

Q: Has the number of producers increased in recent years? Why is this happening?

The number of producers of Chianti Classico has slowly but constantly increased in recent years. Nowadays the members of the Chianti Classico Consortium are 515 vine growers, the majority of them (354), not only grow grapes but vinify and bottle their wines as well. Everybody in Chianti Classico is fully aware that quality means more and more AUTHENTICITY and TERRITORIALITY (terroir driven wines). All the vine growers and winemakers in Chianti Classico are more and more confident in the Sangiovese potential for quality and are optimistic in a further growth of the appellation. Another word that I would like to add to “satisfaction” is “cohesion”: all our vintners are in fact united in considering Chianti Classico not just as one of the oldest appellations of the world but also a very modern wine and projected onto the future.

Q: Can you explain briefly the difference between Chianti Classico and other Chiantis made in Tuscany?

Chianti and Chianti Classico are two distinct and separate DOCGs, with two different sets of production regulations and above all, with production zones that are completely separate and different. The Chianti DOCG is produced in various zones of Tuscany, a largest area, which goes from west to east from the province of Pisa to the province of Arezzo.  Chianti Classico, on the other hand, is produced in a territory that is located in the heart of Tuscany between the cities of Florence to the North and Siena to the South. It is composed only by 7,000 hectares of vineyards that represent less than 15% of its total surface. The Chianti Classico appellation is very old, one of the oldest in the world, in fact dates back to 1716, when the territory had been delimited, for the first time, by an edict of the Grand Duke Cosimo III of the Medici family, fixing the borders of the production area.

Q: Has the informal marketing term “Super Tuscans” helped or hurt Chianti Classico’s image? Has the term largely been discarded in the industry?

  I believe that the informal marketing term Super Tuscans has never damaged the Chianti Classico image.  On the contrary it helped to enhance the reputation of Tuscany as a region dedicated to the production of wines of excellence. As you know, Super Tuscan has never been a legally defined classification but a term that was first used in the Seventies. mainly by the American press, to identify some outstanding wines that didn’t meet the DOC standards of the time. The majority of those wines was coming from the Chianti Classico production zone. With the passing of time, the term Super Tuscan has been more and more used to identify all the wines that were produced in the region but outside the recognized DOCs and DOCGs, and therefore its original meaning of excellence in quality was partially diluted. Nowadays it is less used in the wine industry.

Q: In terms of grape varieties, Chianti once, by law, used varietals, as determined by Baron Ricasoli’s model, like Canaiolo, white Malvasia, Trebbiano and Colorino. Are these still used in Chianti Classico?

Under the latest production regulations, Chianti Classico DOCG should be produced with Sangiovese (minimum 80% up to 100%) and other red varieties (up to 20%). Among the latter, there are the indigenous ones (e.g., Canaiolo, Colorino, Mammolo, Malvasia Nera, Pugnitello, Foglia Tonda and so on), and the international ones (e.g., Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Petit Verdot and so on), but we have seen growing use of the indigenous grapes when Sangiovese is blended. White grape varieties are not permitted since the 2006 vintage.

Q: How do Italian producers, in particular those of Tuscany and Chianti, regard the problems that would be caused by a 100% tariff, as well as Brexit?

A 100% duty imposed in the U.S. is to be considered as a kind of sword of Damocles looming over all Italian wine and would have devastating effects in the whole wine industry sector. This is why all of us were sincerely pleased to know that the decision on an eventual imposition of new tariffs has been postponed at least six months. As far as Brexit is concerned, we will see. It is really difficult to predict its effects: until now we have only registered an increase in the volumes of Chianti Classico that have been sold in the market in 2019.

Q: How are the Chianti Classico producers combating climate change?

As I’ve noted, the respect for the environment and the continuous research for an ecological balance are our best weapons to combat climate changes. More than 40% of the vineyards of Chianti Classico are already certified organic and more than 70% of our estates apply good practices in terms of sustainability in order to avoid soil erosion and to manage water supply. In general, big investments have been done by the Chianti Classico winegrowers both in the vineyards and in the cellars and there is much more professionalism than in the past.