Lunch with Lorenzo

It was a magic moment, the type wine lovers dream about but almost never experience--the chance to drink history!

When I accepted my friend Lorenzo Scarpone's invitation to attend the annual Porchetta lunch at his wine warehouse, Villa Italia, I expected superb food, excellent wine and conviviality. Lorenzo's Italian heritage and his fidelity to the Slow Food Movement would permit no less.

When Lorenzo said he had some special bottles that no one was brave enough to open, I was mystified. I was introduced to Attorney Charles Lewis, who brought the bottles to the event; they were among several found under a set of stairs in the house of his wife Bonnie's late aunt, on Francisco Street in San Francisco's Marina District. The wine had been bottled by Bonnie's grandfather, John Moscone, in 1909. He was a founder of the Sunset Scavenger Company. The wine was 100 years old and most likely had turned to vinegar, but then there was the rarest possibility it had not.

Finally a brave soul was cajoled into opening the bottles, which both showed significant sediment deposits. The first we tasted directly from the bottle; the second we filtered. The wine was outstanding. It had a clear golden to caramel color, had the aroma of a fine sherry and the taste and body of Madeira. We don't even know the grape variety. It was most likely zinfandel or even an early field blend. It appears the wine "Madeira-ized." During its long storage in less than ideal conditions, the wine baked in the heat and oxidized, thus being subjected accidentally to the two processes by which great Madeira is made.

It's one thing to be fortunate enough to quaff a wonderful old vintage at a great estate, or in the cellar of a friendly monarch or oligarch. Imagine drinking a hundred-year-old "accident." The former might be seen as good luck; the latter is pure serendipity!

Gene Burns