Uncork the season, it’s time for wine

Photo by Ashley Stites/Special to the Daily News

Bottles of wine at Campiello with ties to local vintners.

At midnight on the third Thursday of the month, France erupts in massive celebration with the uncorking of Beaujolais nouveau. A light, fresh, and fruity red wine made in the Burgundy subregion of Beaujolais, French farmhands historically gulped it down to observe the end of harvest. And now, people drink it the world over the third Thursday of November every year to celebrate the first wines of the season.

For many people stateside, its timing marks the start of the holiday season. With its coincidental release one week before Thanksgiving, Beaujolais nouveau often makes its way onto the table with the turkey. The great thing about Beaujolais nouveau is that it’s intended to drink young and fresh as a knock-back wine. It’s meant to be celebratory.

There’s no better time or place to celebrate with wine than the start of our season here in Naples. Be it Beaujolais or not, wine magnifies the pleasure we find in good company and good food.

Campiello, 1177 Third St. S., Naples, and Café and Bar Lurcat, 494 Fifth Ave. S., are celebrating the start of the season by highlighting a unique wine phenomenon we have here in Naples: local vintners.

Now, this might not sound remarkable at first mention, but this is not something you’ll find outside of the wine growing regions on the west coast. And it’s an anomaly. We live in a subtropical climate that cannot grow quality grapes to make quality wine, and yet we have quality wines and local vintners.

We have winemakers from five highly regarded wineries with roots here in Naples. “We’re grabbing onto something that is truly unique to Naples,” says Café Lurcat and Campiello beverage director Jeff Mitchell. “And it’s wine.”

These winemakers give Naples a special wine cachet, and Campiello and Café Lurcat restaurants are celebrating them by adding a Local Vintners category to their bottle list this month. The two D’Amico & Partners downtown restaurants will recognize Swanson Vineyards & Winery, Figge Cellars, Trout Street Wines, Gargiulo Vineyards in California and Domaine Serene in Oregon.

Campiello and Lurcat already pour wines from these vineyards, with Swanson pinot grigio starring on both restaurants’ glass lists, but this new bottle category recognizes them as part of the heart and soul of our local and anomalous wine culture. Restaurant owner Richard D’Amico came up with the idea of a local vintners list purely to support them in helping generate and flourish this wine culture.

They happen to make great wine, too, many of them scoring in the 90s with Robert Parker, Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast rating systems.

The Domaine Serene vineyards produce pinot noir and chardonnay from the Dundee Hills in the north Willamette Valley in Oregon and routinely score in the 90s. That puts them in the excellent to exceptional range.

Café Lurcat plans to pour the “Evenstad Reserve” label, so named after both owners Ken and Grace Evenstad, by the glass with the introduction of their local vintners list. Campiello currently has the Domaine Serene “Grace Vineyard” label, so named after Grace Evenstad, on their Captain’s List, which recognizes the restaurant’s superior vintages and extraordinary wines. With a price tag of $220 at Campiello, it certainly commands a serious pinot noir drinker’s attention.

Rest assured, not all the local vintners’ bottles dip that deep into your pockets. The Swanson merlot and Alexis cabernet sauvignon cost $72 and $125 respectively, the Gargiulo merlot $102 and the Figge “Pelio Vineyard” chardonnay sits at $100 for the bottle. It’s not two buck chuck, but it’s special to Naples.

It’s worthy of a celebration. ‘Tis the start of season.