Vintner Spotlight: Uvaggio
June 19, 2012
Ma(i)sonry Napa Valley is delighted to spotlight vintner partner, Uvaggio. As stated on the Uvaggio website, “Uvaggio produces interesting wines from very interesting Italian grape varieties offered at extremely interesting prices. They are fun, refreshing and food friendly. Oh, and we should mention they are quite delicious, too!” These qualities make Uvaggio a perfect fit for the Ma(i)sonry portfolio of vintner partners.
Uvaggio’s wines and have become a local favorite and have excellent and interesting placements in niche markets like Dean and Deluca, Oxbow Wine and Cheese Merchant, Backroom Wines and Ma(i)sonry Napa Valley.
When speaking to proprietor and winemaker, Jim Moore, you quickly understand his dedication to making limited-production, quality wines that can compete with their more-expensive shelf mates. His 2009 Vermentino, a refreshingly dry and citrus-forward white wine retails for $14 per bottle. The succulent 2008 Barbera is a value at $20.
Moore, who moved to Napa in 1976, began his career in the enology department for Robert Mondavi. There, he helped guide (and sometimes define) the Mondavi winemaking style. His work earned many accolades including a listing in Wine Spectator’s ”Top 100 Wines of the Year” for two of his Zinfandels and a bottling from Luce and Lucente from Tuscany – a collaborative effort with the Frescobaldi family of Florence.
Moore left Mondavi in 1998 in pursuit of his dream to run his own winery. Originally called “L’Uvaggio di Giacomo” and simplified today to Uvaggio, the portfolio of wines offer oenophiles juice with accessibility, harmony and value.
Jim Moore was kind enough to answer some interesting questions about Uvaggio and himself:
1) Describe Uvaggio wines in 4 words or less.
Flavorful, approachable, affordable & food-friendly (sorry, that’s 4.5 words)
2) What is your most marked characteristic?
A combination of persistence, stubbornness, and tenacity
3) Walking through the vineyard makes you feel…
Thankful that I am out of the office, working in relative solitude
4) What is the one topic you could talk about for days on end?
Nothing, really. I get bored easily and need a lot of variety in my life. But if you must have an answer – today it would be politics, the economy and current events.
5) Which living person do you most admire?
Chesley Sullenberger (pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 which landed in the Hudson River)
6) If you only had one last sip of wine, what would you choose?
Giacomo Bologna Barolo Monfortino Riserva
7) What do you consider your greatest achievement?
To have helped raise two rather remarkable children
8 ) What is your most treasured possession?
Mainly childhood stuff – coins, stamps, electric train, etc. But if it has to come down to a single item, it probably would be my post card collection – because when I look at them, I could be (mentally) transported anywhere
Make reservations to experience Uvaggio Wines at Ma(i)sonry Napa Valley, or acquire them at Ma(i)sonry’s online store.
Posted in Ma(i)sonry Napa Valley
