Welcome to the 

DRUNK DAGO

the personal wine blog of 

ERIC PETRUCCI

Thanks for stopping by!

I started this wine blog as an expansion of a wine pamphlet intended to educate my friends who didn't know much about wine. In these following pages you'll find the information I've garnered by drinking a lot of wine. I don't purport to be an expert; I do not work in the industry and I have no professional affiliations. My goal for this blog, really, is to consume wine from a curious and critical perspective, to track the wines that I do consume, and to notice trends in what I like and dislike. I believe every avid wine drinker should do this in some form or another.

The wine industry is so much more than just a smattering of random bottles. It's important to get to the heart of it: the wineries themselves. I'm fortunate to live two hours away from two of California's most important wine-growing regions: Santa Barbara and Paso Robles. Every so often I feature articles about wineries in my area to expand their recognition. 

Anyone who has entered a wine shop with me knows to stand back. I'm always on the hunt for the right bottle at the right price. Finding a reliable, consistent purveyor is very important, so spend some time in the "Wine Shops" section. I'm familiar with wine shops in my home base of Ventura County, California, but also Los Angeles, New York, and Boston.

Feel free to send me an email with comments, ideas, or suggestions. You can reach me at ericmpetrucci@gmail.com. I also accept free wine to review! 

The Drunk Dago with friends Heather, Laura,
 and Marcum in an oh-so-candid
photo at Ty Caton in Sonoma. 

Why drink wine? First, wine is elusive. No two bottles of any wine are exactly the same, and winemakers have never guaranteed that they will be. Nothing drinkable is more dependent on storage, the air, and specific drinking conditions. You open up a bottle of Stoli vodka, pour yourself a drink, and put it away. The next day you’ll still have Stoli vodka, with almost no noticeable difference in taste. Put away a bottle of wine overnight and in the morning you will have an entirely different drinking experience. A particularly harsh wine when opened will soften in a matter of minutes. A wine of quality will exhibit different characteristics with very sip, sometimes even during the same sip. Sometimes you’re doomed to fail even before you pop the cork. For one, bacteria can grow in the bottle, essentially making the wine undrinkable. What’s more, the bottle may have been stored improperly by either the vineyard or the distributor, contributing to an “off” taste that’s otherwise uncaused by any inherent of its own. Finally, either you or the seller may have kept the bottle in an unfavorable location exposed to heat. Enumerating these flaws of the product may turn some off to it all, but I believe anyone who has enjoyed a wine drinking experience—the result of a series of intelligent and fortuitous events—will vouch for the intangible allure it offers.

Wine is exposed—vulnerable. You add nothing to it—do nothing to it—to drink it, and all its flaws and attributes are presented immediately without defense. While is customary to chill beer and add dilutions and ice to alcoholic drinks (in essence masking the flavor), we drink wine either room temperature of slightly chilled.

Wine is celebratory. Even from biblical times we have used wine to chaperone many of life’s rites of passage—weddings, graduations, promotions, and the like. Reserving a special bottle for an anticipated event can be memorable.

How I Began to Love Wine

It was one of my first nights in Bologna, Italy, as part of a year-long intensive full-immersion study abroad program. Designated as the “wine guy” by my peers, I was the favored winner of the competition to secure the most amount of wine for the cheapest price. It would be our fuel for late-night carousing.

I asked her to recommend me a bottle, in my broken knowledge of both wine and Italian. “Signora, un vino rosso, buono e robusto.” A good, robust red wine. She showed me the display of bottles I knew nothing about, at prices I couldn’t afford. I inquired into the gallon-sized jug at the bottom of the shelf, on sale for 4 Euro. “Insomma, e un vino per ogni giorno.” An everyday wine. I smiled, paid my 4 Euros, and returned to camp. Thus began my love affair with wine.

My Background

I was raised with an appreciation for fine dining with wine always present, my parents having owned a fine-dining Italian restaurant for ten years in my home town of Camarillo, CA. I began washing dishes at 10, bussing tables at 12, and was known for some killer dessert presentations. As time went on all the members of my immediate family helped in creating the vibe of the restaurant, and it was this commitment to family that earned its reputation as being warm, hospitable, and generous.

What I Drink

I drink primarily red wine. I don't harbor resentful feelings towards white wine, and some really well-made Chardonnays and sweet dessert wines will at times peak my interest, but for the most part I just don't find much to talk about.

I drink mostly Italian wine, for a variety of reasons. My year spent in Italy gave me an opportunity to drink good local wine at a very reasonable price. I never had to worry about shipping costs and only the most sought-after collectible Italian wines are overpriced, so I rarely had to worry about getting ripped off. Whether it's in my blood to love Italian wine or whether this was the first wine I came to know intimately I'll never be able to say. What's more, due to my background in Italian cooking, that's basically most of what I cook, especially when I'm entertaining. I feel most comfortable preparing a bowl of pasta with homemade bolognese or risotto with mushrooms than I do anything else. What's a barbeque? I think nothing starts a meal off quite like the smell of onions and garlic sauteed in olive oil. And almost any Italian wine, be it Brunello or Dolcetto or Negroamaro, will go great with traditional Italian fare. Finally, I've noticed in my tasting, conversing, and researching that many wine drinkers don't drink Italian wine even though it's underpriced and versatile. Either they're intimidated by Italian labels which provide almost no useful information (This is, in fact, a problem) or they're stuck in the mid-1990s mentality that the only wine out of Italy is cheap Chianti to go with delivery pizza. I've found it my personal mission to educate others about Italian wine and in some way to represent my people, no matter how far removed historically or geographically I am from them.

Without sounding noncommital, I gravitate toward medium-bodied wines with moderate tannin, acid, and alcohol levels. Certain varietals such as Pinot Noir and Gamay, for example, sometimes lack the brightness that acid offers or the structure that tannins provide, leaving my palate unsatisfied. On the contrary, big burly wines such as Syrah or Zinfandel tend to overwhelm many meal selections and their high alcohol contents leave me feeling full after one glass. Not to mention unintentionally boozy. This "middle of the road" style is embodied in wines from the Sangiovese grape and from the Rioja region of Spain above all others, in my opinion. This is why I flock toward these wines.

I'm always on the lookout for something new and different, and I will rarely go back to something unless it truly changed my life. There are so many different varietals and styles from so many countries that I find it a crime to do what most wine drinkers do, which is to find one wine they like and to never deviate from drinking it. Yes, when you experiment with new things, you will make mistakes and lose some money in the process, but you will learn so much more about what you like and how different wines can taste. If I come across a varietal I've never heard about, I make it a point to research it and to buy it the next time I'm in a wine shop.

Unless by a strong recommendation from a friend, I rarely seek wines from the New World. It's my personal opinion that New World winemakers lack the knowledge of the terroir-driven concepts of soil and climate that are paramount to creating sound wine. I applaud them for their energy, entrepreneurship, and eagerness, but I also fear that some of them may be part of a grand scheme to capitalize financially on a growing market and interest, especially in countries like the US that have the economies to support such speculation. I suspect that these winemakers ignore warnings that only certain grapes can be grown in certain climates or that years, if not generations, of winemaking are required to produce that "perfect" bottle. Rather, they take shortcuts in the vineyard and the cellar and produce wine with flaws that would make any Old World producer blush with embarrassment. It's been the tradition of New World winemakers to inundate drinkers' palates with alcohol and sugar--two of the most addictive substances known to man--so that no other traits of the wine come through. Compare this to the paradigm of the Old World producer--a farmer, intimately connected to his land, whose main goal is to enjoy the wine he creates and to improve it year after year--and there seems to be no reason to even drink New World. Of course, this is all opinion, and I try not to judge those whose tastes differ from mine.

There are some types of wines that get me very excited. As you will soon discover from reading my reviews, I am a devotee of the Sangiovese grape, in all its iterations. I love the fruit, the acid, and the crispness of it. It can be very good when blended with traditional French grapes such a Merlot and Cabernet. Wines from the Rioja Region of Spain or wines made in that style I do also greatly enjoy. I find the blend of Tempranillo and Grenache to be brilliant. I am a big supporter of any counter-cultural California winery that dares to plant and bottle varietals and styles not traditionally associated with the area, such as the Rhone Ranger movement and any Cal-Italian winery.

I don't subscribe to anything trendy. That is to say, I don't force myself to like a wine simply because there is big hype about it or because large publications such as Wine Spectator tell me to like it. Nowadays everyone's crazy about Malbec from Argentina. I can't stand Malbec, so why would I recommend it? Why would I buy it?