Italian wine: Articles

Jan

13

Wine Discoveries: Not Your Typical Italian Wines

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Planet Wine, one of my neighborhood wine shops in Alexandria, Virginia, started Wednesday evening wine tastings, in addition to their usual Saturdays. I noticed on Twitter, Siema Wines, a local importer/distributor I like, was going to be featured on Wednesday so I stopped by for what turned out to be a tasting of fun and different Italian discoveries.

La Cappuccina San Brizio Soave

The Tessari family has been growing grapes at La Cappuccina, the site of an ancient chapel of Franciscan friars, for over a century. The vineyards, which surround the family villa, are locaed at Cosalunga, in the Soave DOC production area of Verona in northern Italy. La Cappuccina is a certified organic wine estate.

  • Grape Variety: 100% Garganega
  • Aroma: Sparkling lemon
  • Taste: Creamy lemon curd with touch of spice
  • Price: $12.99
  • My thoughts: Gorgeous golden color. Not your typical Soave wine…it is still lemony and grassy but also has a spice (due to 7-8 months in barrique barrels), richness and weight to it. As Timothy said at Planet Wine, “This is a good white for red wine lovers.” Bought a bottle of this and enjoying a glass now. :)
From the same winery as above. Madégo, the name of the vineyard from which this wine comes, is the word in the local dialect for the second harvest of the alfalfa that was once grown on this plot of land.
  • Grape Variety: 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc
  • Aroma: Herbal, berry
  • Taste: Raspberry, cedar, clove and cinnamon
  • Price: $11.99
  • My thoughts: This combination of grape varietals is a class Bordeaux combo wine yet this is from northern Italy. Extremely unique wine in Italy…French yet Italian!

The Kaltern estate sits in one of the most beautiful corners of the Dolomites, overlooking Caldaro Lake, in the Alto Adige region of northern Italy. There are 400 tiny growers who are the members of this winery and some of the parcels of land are as small as 1/4 acre. The patchwork of vineyards form a design that is breathtaking.

  • Grape Variety: 100% Pinot Nero (the name for Pinot Noir in Italian OR Blauburgunder, the name for Pinot Noir in Austrian)
  • Aroma: Berry
  • Taste: Strawberry and cranberry
  • Price: $15.99
  • My thoughts: It’s a light bodied Pinot Noir yet long on the finish. You don’t typically find a Pinot Noir grape in Italy. And this one is so far north in Italy, close to the Austrian border, they also use the Austrian grape name.
This is a UNIQUE wine!! Lacrima di Morro d’Alba is the smallest DOC (Italian designated wine region) in Italy. Name meaning “the tears of the Moors from Alba.” The story goes that this tear drop shaped grape starts to ‘tear’ from the top when its ripe…thus the name.
  • Grape Variety: 100% Lacrima
  • Aroma: Smells just like a Cru Beaujolais, the French wine, with strawberry and spice
  • Taste: Fragrant floral, strawberry, herbal, nice tannin/weight in the mouth feel of the wine
  • Price: $17.99
  • My thoughts: This is another extremely unique wine in Italy…French yet Italian! Brought home a bottle of this as I’m a Cru Beaujolais fan.

Cheers to new wine discoveries from Italy! Thank you Planet Wine & Siema Wines!

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Nov

10

Sip a Dream of Italy

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Two new Italian wines exclusively for Disney Parks, Sogno d’Italia, were introduced at this year’s Epcot Food & Wine Festival. Bottled by Placido in Tuscany and imported by Banfi Vintners, these easy drinkable wines will continue to be available after the festival at Enoteca Castello in Epcot’s Italy and begin to be served in many Disney restaurants.

Sogno d’Italia means dream of Italy. “When we dream of Italy, we dream not only of its noble traditions but of its appealingly easygoing lifestyle. These wines embody both of those ideas,” says Placido winemaker Paolo Benassi.

I really enjoyed these wines and they are great examples of wine from Tuscany.

Chianti, DOCG

  • Like most Chianti, this wine is made of predominantly the region’s native Sangiovese grape.
  • Aroma: Classic violet.
  • Taste: Soft round plum and cherry with hints of spice.

Pinot Grigio, Toscana IGT

  • This wine is unique in that typical Pinot Grigio comes from cooler northern Italy. This one from warmer Tuscany so the grape variety has slightly different characteristics.
  • Aroma: Fragrant white flowers.
  • Taste: Crisp freshness yet pear forward.

Each bottle costs $16.95 or $6 for a glass. For more fun wine photos from the festival, visit the gallery.

Salute to dreams of Italy!

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Nov

03

On my way to Epcot Food & Wine Festival

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On a flight now to Orlando for this 16th annual food and wine lovers dream festival! Our first visit last year was a blast and this year I’m looking forward to new experiences including:

  • Epcot Wine School: I’m attending one of the five wine schools offered during the festival. Sunday’s school is ‘Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered by Italian Wine’ with Sharron McCarthy, CSW of Castello Banfi Wines.
  • French Regional Lunch: Friday I’ll be dining at Bistro de Paris featuring the Champagne region with Nicolas Feuillate Champagne and their sales director Pascal Boye.
  • Disney Wines: Debuting at this year’s festival are two new Disney wines Sogno d’Italia wines, a Pinot Grigio and a Chianti, developed exclusively for Disney in partnership with Banfi.
  • 25 international kiosks of food and beverage including new this year Portugal, Caribbean and Hawaii.

Follow me on Twitter (@GrapeOccasions) the next few days for updates then I’ll have lots to share on my website next week.

Cheers!

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Sep

23

Giampaolo Tabarrini & His Montefalco Wines

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Giampaolo could not be missed at the tasting table…his enthusiastic tastings of his family’s Tabarrini wines filled the 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference Meet the Sponsor room. You couldn’t resist stopping by to enjoy his wines and listen to tasting notes and stories of his winery and hometown in Montefalco, Italy (province of Perugia in Umbria region).

Four generations of the Tabarrini Family have tended to these vines… then in the late ’90′s, Giampaolo decided to continue the tradition in a new way by bottling their own wine. The results are fantastic!

If you don’t know much about Umbria wine, here are a few facts.

  • Umbria is the region sitting next to Tuscany to the southwest.
  • Wine regions include Orvieto, Torgiano and Montefalco Sagrantino.
  • 850,000 hectoliters of wine produced each year…only a small percent of Italy’s production.
  • Grechetto is the top white grape producing a full bodied white wine.
  • Sagrantino, the typical red grape from the Montefalco area, is the hero of this region first appearing at the end of the 19th century. Traditionally this grape was only made in a sweet version and Sagrantino Passito DOC was authorized in 1977.
  • In 1992 Montefalco Sagrantino Secco and Passito became the 12th Italian wine to be designated a DOCG (a controlled and guaranteed demonination of origin). This designation requires a minimum aging of 30 months before release.

Tabarrini is a leading producer of Montefalco Sagrantino. Half of their twenty-two hectares of vineyards are dedicated to the Sagrantino grape, used in five of the six wines they produce. The wine I’ve sampled the most, thanks to the Live Wine Blogging Session at the Conference and the gift bottle in our Welcome Bag, is their Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG. This wine is one of three under their Colle Grimadesco trademark used for their highest quality wines.

Montefalco Sagrantino, Colle Grimaldesco, DOCG 2004 & 2005

  • 100% Sangrantino grapes
  • 10-15 year old vineyards with sandy, muddy soil mixed with some clay and river pebbles
  • Wine is soaked on the skins for over a month, aged 30 months in French oak then 6 months in bottle.
  • Deep ruby red color
  • Aroma is fragrant of blackberries and cassis
  • BIG red full of berry flavor and spice… uniqueness and complexity of this wine comes through in every sip.
  • Pair with roasts, braised meats, mature cheeses
  • 14% alcohol.

Visit Tabarrini’s website for a look at their full wine line-up then buy them on line here. You can also ‘Like’ them on Facebook and follow Giampolo on Twitter.

And when you’re in Umbria, visit their cantina on the property. It represents Tabarrini’s innovation and tradition…three floors including one for fermentation, one for barrels and a cellar completely underground. On the first floor you can see the ritual drying of the Sagrantino grapes.

You don’t want to miss a chance to taste these special wines with Giampaolo himself!

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Sep

16

Summer’s Last Rosés: Cantina del Locorotondo Cummerse

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The second rosé I grabbed off the wine rack for this week’s last summer beach trip was from our June trip to Puglia, Italy (Italy’s largest wine producer). I was so impressed with Puglia’s wines, especially their rosés made from local varietals like Primitivo and Negroamaro.

This rosé is from the Cantina del Locorotondo just outside the gorgeous little town of Locorotondo, the City of White Wine. The 2010 Cummerse Rosato di Puglia (rosé also called rosato in Italy) is made from 100% Pinot Nero grapes grown just northwest of town. When I opened it on the beach Tuesday at sunset, you could smell the red fruits. The nose is also a bit tart but the taste is BURSTING with strawberries and raspberries. It was perfect with our little cheese assortment. And I love the label which has an illustration of the typical white houses of Locorotondo.

We had a great visit to this winery during our trip and thanks to welcoming Oronzo and Mariella, we tasted 10 of their 21 wines. In addition to the Cummerse Rosato we brought home a white, a red and a sparkling. The winery is owned by a cooperative of 700 farmers who produce 18 wines, 3 sparkling wines and one grappa, one million bottles per year in total. The Cantina Sociale of Locortondo was formed by a group of farmers back in 1930, the first of its kind in Puglia, to promote their wines. Their great work was rewarded in 1969 when Locorotondo was made a DOC.

Cheers to summer’s last rosés…as this weekend back home is looking and feeling like Autumn!

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