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funkin Sour Mix The perfect blend of lemons, limes and cane sugar Claudio Villani of Perbacco. Popularizing Piedmonte F lorence native Claudio Villani has taken the helm of the wine program at Perbacco, one of San Francisco's busiest Northern Italian restaurants, averaging 300 covers a day. Villani became an integral part of San Francisco's dining scene ten years ago when he moved from Florence to work as the opening manager and wine director at Incanto. Like many of the Bay Area's über-talented wine professionals, he then spent three years in Las Vegas, where he ran a $5-million wine program at Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare at Wynn Las Vegas. Villani currently has 430 labels on the list at Perbacco, of which 40 percent is devoted to the wines of Piedmonte, 20 percent to domes- tic labels and the remainder to global wine regions. "My intention is to showcase all forms of Sangiovese," said Villani, who will offer multiple verticals of Barolo and Brunello, beef up the selections from Tuscany and include more Brunello di Montalcino produc- ers. "Tuscany is a popular destination for Americans; they're more familiar with the wines there. Our job is to demystify the wines of Piedmonte, which is still more of a culinary destination." With a reputation for taking reasonable markups, Perbacco is a destination for Barolo and Brunello fans, and Villani offers in excess of 30 wines by the glass, including private labels created specifi cally for the restaurant. His current top picks include Giuseppe e Figlio's Mascarello Monprivato and Barolo producer G. B. Burlotto. —Deborah Parker Wong For creating expert cocktails You I Spirit I funkin I The Perfect Cocktail Tel: 800 380 4413 info@funkinusa.com may 2012 / the tasting panel / 17 PHOTO: DEBORAH PARKER WONG