Homemade "Cult wine"

Homemade "Cult wine"

In the East Village in NY in an apartment of about 50 m2 the first domestic winery was born, created in the home of a young engineer of Italian origin

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini Brunello Casato Prime Donne

I read about this in “Gambero rosso”, the article regards an engineer of Sicilian origin who lives in the East Village in New York and is called Matthew Baldassano. At a first glance it resembles an urban winery like others in London and in Canada but, in this case it is a flat where the up and coming winemaker lives usually, plus the production aims high , it aims at becoming a  “cult wine” , term usually used to indicate wines with a high price and great image such as, to quote Wikipedia <<for example, Screaming Eagle from California and Penfolds Grange from Australia, among many others ….Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Latour, Château Margaux, Château Haut-Brion, and Château Mouton Rothschild>>.

And here on the contrary the concept of cult is turned over. The value given to the wine does not come from the Robert Parker rating or from the vineyards as for Romanée Conti and neither from the prestige of an historic name such as Frescobaldi, but from the fact that the consumers of these bottles personally take part in its production. This is how Baldassano created the “Village Winery Club” and twice a year he buys grapes from California and Chile (petite Syrah, Cabernet and Zinfandel) and invites people to participate via his  Facebook page <<Tempus Est Iam For those who want to get involved in the‪#‎urbanwinemovement>> is what he wrote on September 16^th last. The Village Winery Club has more than 100 members and to participate costs 200$.

The winery is actually in Baldassano 50 m apartment. Between the settees and TVs one finds the crusher, a small press, a hand corker, a few barrels and a bottling machine with three sprouts to produce 1.000 bottles per year. Put all together it does resemble the garages in many Italian homes, where the family still has some vines in the garden, and in fact Matthew took inspiration from his granddad that emigrated from Italy and made wine. In the video he demonstrates the production of his cult wine, you can see pots and pans, aluminum oven baking pans,  a “domestic” set of equipment which he shows without embarrassment putting an accent on the “natural “ characteristic of his wines. What is amazing is that once it is bottled this wine is sold normally, something that in Italy would be impossible. But maybe it is for this reason that the Village winery club exits only in New York City and is publicized on Facebook together with exhibitions by young artists and underground concerts. And it is probably the cohabitation of people and barrels in a city apartment that this project has travelled the world over obtaining envy from many wine lovers and an extraordinary press collection and photos, with titles such as “the most innovative winery in America”.

And this is not all, the ex-engineer dreams of opening a wine school and of selling his bottles in a big way.