The Wine Lover's Companion

SOMEWHERE IN JOHNSTON, in the middle of winter, three of us huddle around an oak barrel in Jim Verde’s bottle room (read: garage), tasting wine pressed from the St. Croix grapes he grows in his backyard vineyard. The 2005 and 2006 wines are still too young to bottle, but the 2004 has already won awards, and wears the ribbons to prove it.

Mark Gasbarro, fourth-generation owner of Gasbarro’s on Federal Hill, isn’t here to buy; state law prohibits it. He’s ventured out to the country on a chilly Monday morning to encourage, advise, discover and learn from this retired biology teacher and knowledgeable amateur vintner. “Don’t call me an expert,” Mark admonishes. “I’ll never know all there is to know about wine, so when I get a chance to do something like this, to meet Jim and learn about his wine, it’s great.”

For someone who cooks and writes about food for a living, I am almost totally ignorant about wine. I don’t drink (a slight allergy), so it all tastes the same to me (a great tragedy). I do love to cook with wine, though, and whenever a recipe calls for it, I run into the closest package store. I shop by color (red or white) and label, but I don’t pay much attention to the vineyard, variety or vintage. I’m easily seduced by eye-catching graphics, a cute name, and a price that matches my commitment to the recipe. I won’t spend more than $5.99 for a bottle of red for beef stew; after all, it’s going to cook for three hours.

To be honest, I never shop for food with such carelessness. I encourage my cooking classes to buy the very best ingredients they can find, and I seek out specialty shops for things like cheese, fish and produce. Ingredients make the meal, and wine definitely is an ingredient; whether it’s used in the cooking, or accompanying the menu, a wine’s characteristics (acidity, oakiness, fruitiness) affect the character of the food.

If I take food seriously, it’s time for me to wise up about wine. I need someone to point the way, someone who won’t laugh when I confess I barely know ice wine from rice wine. I head for Gasbarro’s on Federal Hill, the oldest wine shop in Providence, to meet a man who has wine in his blood.

ANTONIO GASBARRO’S GREAT-GRANDSON remembers the first time he really tasted wine. The occasion? His father’s wedding. It was 1983. The wine was Chateau Nenin 1966, a Pomerol from the Bordeaux region. Mark was nine years old.

A native of Providence who today lives next door to his childhood home, Mark grew up in the wine business.

Antonio Gasbarro opened his shop in 1898, and moved to Federal Hill in 1903. The store began as a liquor outlet, selling whiskey and bourbon right out of the barrel, along with half a dozen homemade wines. During Prohibition, Antonio’s inventory of wine and spirits was confiscated by the federal government and placed in a warehouse on Harris Avenue. Gasbarro’s continued to sell malt and hops, soda bottles, and wine-making equipment, telling customers (with a wink and a nod) not to make their own wine and spirits. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Antonio went to retrieve his inventory, but (surprise…) the warehouse was empty. Along with other local businessmen, he traveled to Washington, D.C., to demand the return of his stock — and was arrested for being a troublemaker!

By this time, Antonio’s son Ugo (a lawyer who graduated from Brown University) and his eight siblings had come into the business, which now included a wholesale division. The focus remained on spirits until the 1950s and ’60s, when Ugo and Lombard Gasbarro, Mark’s father, began to expand the wine selection by traveling to Italy to discover and meet the winemakers. After Ugo died in 1981, the siblings decided to close the wholesale division, and Lombard focused the business more and more on wine.

In 1997, when Mark graduated from Providence College with an accounting degree and joined his father full-time, Gasbarro’s stocked sixty wines from California. Lombard sent his son out west to learn about the wine business that had exploded there when Robert Mondavi opened his world-class vineyard in the 1960s. Today, the shop carries 450 California wines.

In 2002, when cancer took his father’s life, Mark, the youngest of Lombard’s three children, took on the running of Gasbarro’s. “I never felt any pressure to go into the family business,” he explains, “though I knew I didn’t want to be an accountant. I love this, and I would not change my career with anyone. I feel very fortunate to be here, and to have worked with my father for twelve years.”

Mark’s father’s passing left a hole in his heart, and a desire to honor his memory. In 2003, Mark created the Annual Wine Tasting to Benefit the American Cancer Society. This year’s event, on May 14, will raise more than $50,000 in a tasting of ninety to 100 wines. “We offer wines we feel most people haven’t had the opportunity to try,” Mark explains, “either because the wines are allocated, or they are from small boutique vineyards with limited production. These wines would sell for an average of $50 per bottle, so the $75 ticket price for the event is a great bargain. And at each table, there’s a wine professional, so people will be able to learn more about the wines.”

For cooks who don’t know much about wine, Mark, always gracious and never condescending, offers invaluable guidance. His father got into cooking later in life, but Mark hasn’t followed in his footsteps. However, he says with a laugh, “I do eat a lot! I’m always trying to educate my food palate.”

I pull out my menus for a couple of upcoming dinner gatherings (see sidebar), to solicit advice about choosing the wine. First, he tells me, if you’re trying to pair wine with a recipe, consider the key flavors. The dominant spices and herbs — pepper, curry, rosemary, garlic, and so on — affect the choice of wine as much as the protein in the dish, so it’s not as simple as white wine for fish, and red wine for meat. I ask what to serve with a chocolate cake, and Mark counters, “Is it a flourless cake?” I never imagined there would be different wines for cakes with flour, and those without.

Is it true that you should always cook with a wine you’d be willing to drink? Yes, Mark replies, but it’s not always true that the wine you put into a dish is the same wine you should drink with it. For example, mushroom risotto is almost always made with white wine. “I’d never recommend drinking a white wine with that dish,” Mark says, “because the quality of the mushrooms is so meaty.”

He loves pairing wines to menus — and to your budget — but he rises to the challenge when I present him with some more generic wine-buying situations.

Invited to a potluck where you don’t know what people will be bringing, but you’re asked to bring the wine? Go for a Tuscan blend; a sangiovese/cabernet/merlot/shiraz blend has old-world characteristics, and all-purpose appeal. Gasbarro’s sells Badiola-Mazzei, a perennial good value, for $14 (a ten percent discount applies to all by-the-case purchases).

Going to a dinner party and want to wow your hosts, who haven’t told you what dishes they plan to serve? Mark suggests a French Champagne or prosecco that could accompany an appetizer or dessert. “Don’t show up with Korbel if you’re trying to impress!” he advises. Try a Nicolas Feuillatte rose Champagne, $49 per bottle.

Searching for a very special wedding gift? Consider Chateau Beycheville Bordeaux Grand Vin 2003, $63 per bottle. Meant to be cellared, it would be perfect for a ten- or twenty-year anniversary celebration.
And, for serious collectors, Gasbarro’s offers a small selection of extremely rare wines. The priciest treasure in the cellar at the moment is AA Ferreira 1945, a vintage port retailing for $649 per bottle.

Gasbarro’s stocks 1,800 different labels, 70 percent of which are from Italy and California, with an increasing number of wines from Argentina, Spain and France. They have one of the largest selections of Italian wines in the Northeast. Ugo and Lombard Gasbarro pioneered the importing of good wines from Europe, making connections with winemakers, tasting each wine, choosing only the best. And Mark — wine professional, food lover, community booster and young dad — is happily building his family’s business for the next generation.

Gasbarro’s, 361 Atwells Ave., Providence, 421-4170, gasbarros.com. Contact Lydia Walshin directly at lydia@ninecooks.com.