An Interview with A Itlo-American Winemaker: Pietro Buttitta of Prima Materia Winery
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Introduction to Pietro Buttitta of Prima Materia Winery
Pietro -- a trained restaurant chef, as well as a winemaker -- founded his Prima Materia Winery about a dozen years ago, when he began making wine from his family's 12-acre vineyard in Lake County, Calif. From that parcel of land near Clear Lake and in the shadow of Mt. Konocti northeast of Napa Valley, he's making balanced Italian-American wines from small plots, each devoted to about a dozen varieties. His winemaking philosophy is mostly hands-off, but sometimes he employs his feet to crush his grapes in the traditional Italian way.
He's a one-person sorcerer, that Pietro Buttitta is, as he works his 12-acre Lake County vineyard -- divided into micro-blocks of Italian varietals -- being sure to touch each vine at least four times(!) before harvest. What results from his hands are meticulously balanced old world-in-the-new world wines that are, some would say, ridiculously affordable enrichments to food. And to simple comfort.
With his Prima Materia wines, Pietro is a person of many words but one with a shyness to express them. See Interview Below.
“It’s a balancing act, not slavishly trying to imitate something because they (Italian wines) are cornerstones, but trying to respectfully fill in the lines. If you’re going to label something varietally, there’s a tacit agreement between winemaker and consumer; there are some historical markers you want to hit. It doesn’t have to be varietally correct, but there has to be something in the wine that is consistent with its historical lineage and manifestations. There’s a responsibility to maintain typicity.” – Pietro Buttitta
Pietro Buttitta is now is doing some consulting with other Italian-American grape variety growers in places like the Hill Country of Texas.
Shop the wines:https://www.prima-materia.com/buy-wine
The Dinner: Wine and Food Pairing
Our Italian-American dinner featured three wines from Prima Materia: Tocai Friulano (White wine), Aglianico (Red Wine), and a Negro Amaro. These were paired with Bruschetta, a mixed salad, and Veal Scallopini with angel hair pasta. The salad and Bruschetta were perfect with the white Friulano wine. The six of us were split on the best veal pairing with the Negro Amaro and the Aglianico. Both were perfect for the Veal Scallopini.
Tocai Friulano $25
91 points, Wine Enthusiast - Hints of rosemary and thyme meet tempting, ripe melon and pear flavors in this aromatic, full-bodied and richly textured wine from winemaker and former chef Pietro Buttitta. It's an unusual—but at the same time very appealing—flavor profile.
Aglianico – $40
91 points, Wine Enthusiast - This is a seriously structured and concentrated multi-vintage blend that's based in dark chocolate, black pepper and pomegranate flavors, and coated in firm, fine-grained tannins. This gutsy Italian varietal will be ideal to pair with a roast or braise. It paired well with the veal. This wine is like a mountainside Cabernet Sauvignon, but more Italianate.
2019 Negro Amaro $28
Tasting notes: Juicy, round, and bright with a dusting of fine tannin, like an Italian Gamay. Plum, cassis and general grapiness abound with notes of fig, olive, black pepper, and pleasingly rustic earthiness that is still light on its feet. There is a wonderful fresh funk that always accompanies Negroamaro as well in a bright, vibrant style.
“The Negro Amaro I’m really sort of becoming enchanted with. It spent about eight months in barrel, so it still has very fresh and vibrant fruit. It has a a lot of plum and some black pepper [aromas.] I tend to think of it as sort of like a [red] Zinfandel. It is medium weight, has not too much tannic, and has a nice ripeness. I really enjoy it with pizza, Neapolitan-style with nice and sharp crust.” – Pietro Buttitta
An Interview with Pietro Buttitta
“We talked about hands off winemaking. But that means using a lot of hands a lot of the time and other places and being very protective and careful with what we're doing, especially in the vineyard. It's a lot of work, but it's also a real opportunity to pursue a vision and, you know, adapt every year [in the areas of] winemaking experiments change up some practices in the vineyards, canopy management, you have the wine is resulting from that. It's a lot of fine tuning with small hands on high input sort of style and just being in the vineyard and the winery constantly. I love it. I can't imagine doing anything else. As much as I love cooking professionally in kitchens, I realize that being outside kind of takes the best part of that and then puts it into sunlight, which I prefer to fluorescent lights.” – Pietro Buttitta
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