Special Event: Tasting the Wines of Calabria and Puglia–Ron Fenolio

Our “Fifth-Thursday Wine Tasting” will be presented early this month. Last year, Ron Fenolio began our tour of the regional wines of Italy with the islands of the Mediterranean, Sicily and Sardinia, and now we continue our tour on the mainland, moving from south to north. This time, Ron will review wines of Calabria and Puglia, the “toe” and the “heel” of Italy’s famous boot. He will discuss the different grapes, climate conditions, and other factors which determine the quality and taste of the wines from that region. Wines included in this tasting will be a Primitivo, a Negroamaro blend (usually blended with Malvasia Nera), and an Aleatico (one of the world’s rarest varieties, always used to make a dessert-style wine.) Ron is also working towards securing a rare Calabrian wine.

Ron comes from a historic winemaking family. His great-grandfather was a vineyard owner in Friuli (northeast of Venice) in the 1880s, and in the early 1900s his grandfather and a great-uncle both started vineyards in Eastern Contra Costa County. Ron and partners started his beloved Veedercrest Winery in 1972, at a time when there were fewer than 50 wineries in Napa. In 1976, Veedercrest was one of the participants in the historic “Judgement of Paris” wine competition, where the California wines bested the French wines, to the dismay of the French (as dramatized in the movie “Bottle Shock”).

Ron is now sole proprietor of Veedercrest, an award-winning Napa Valley Cabernet producer and 2017 Winery of the Year at the American Fine Wine Invitational. He is also a member of the California Wine Institute and is Chair of Family Winemakers of California, a winery trade association of 350 California wineries. Veedercrest is currently the second largest west-coast-based importer of Portuguese wines. Ron has been an investor in and owners’ representative for restaurants in California, Oregon and Hawaii. He also attended cooking school in Verona, Italy, and lectures and writes extensively about food-and-wine pairing and wine topics, including Il Cenacolo’s very own food blog: “Vino e Cibo: Secrets of the Italian Home Cook.”

The cost of the lunch is $65, and includes a $20 surcharge for the wine and paired dishes.

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