There is nothing like getting an email
during the day from your local wine shop, Pairings, advertising an overstock on
behalf of the distributor and that a super tuscan wine is being
discounted to only $15.99 for today only at the tasting. Of course
after a long day of work I ran right over to try it out. I can't
ever pass down a good Italian wine tasting. The wine was a 2007
Super Tuscan called “Viper” from the Tenuta Santo Pietro winery
in Tuscany.
This wine comes from the small town of
Pienza, which I actually visited years ago driving through the
gorgeous Tuscan hills. I had decided to stop for some lunch at a
small salumeria, somewhat similar to our deli's in the US.
Nothing like a fresh pecorino and prosciutto sandwich on crisp tuscan
bread. Simple, but the flavors were delicious. Sitting on the wall overlooking the landscape, what more could I ask for. I digress.......back to the wine.
This wine is made up of 80% sangiovese,
15% merlot and 5% syrah. To remind all, sangiovese is the primary
grape that makes up chianti so it had a lot of the typical
characteristics of sangiovese, including nice ripe cherry and red
fruit, but it had a great balance between the acidity and tannin in
the wine and good body. This wine was drinking well now. Why the viper you ask? It definitely jumps out at you on the shelves. When the owners bought the estate over 10 years ago in Pienza they revamped the vineyards and upon doing so the vipers that are indigenous to the area were underneath the vines. I'm glad I didnt know about the vipers from all my visits there. What does the name super tuscan mean? No it is not the superman of italian
wines. The name super tuscan was created because wineries of the
area started to experiment with the sangiovese grape and wanted to
add other grapes as well like cabernet sauvignon, merlot, syrah.
Unfortunately due to the DOC and DOCG standards this wasn't allowed,
so the IGT, Indicazione
Geografica Tipica, status was established in 1992. Some of the
top wines of this region are IGT wines like Ornellaia, Tignanello and
Sassicaia. If you want to experience a Super Tuscan, this wine
at retail price around $20 is a good way to do so.
Over the weekend I attended a grand
tasting at a new wine shop I had never been to called Pairings.
A cozy wine shop where owners Laurie & Ray travel the world
meeting meeting with lesser known wineries whom produce quality wines
that they hand select to sell in their shop. They also have a great
selection of artisan cheeses and meats as well as fresh breads and
many other gifts and products throughout the store.
There were a couple of highlights of
the tasting that I enjoyed including a white nebbiolo (that I believe
was the first I have ever had as it is pretty rare) and a fantastic
dolcetto. The others I will share with you this week include a
comparison of a still Arneis wine against an Arneis dessert style
wine from the same producer, a Barolo, Super Tuscan, Chianti Classico
Riserva and a Franciacorta.
If you go back to my previous post when
I discussed Nebbiolo,
you will understand that this is a red grape and is the principal
grape in producing the prized wines of Italy: Barolo and Barbaresco,
but here it is produced as a white wine, obviously not coming in
contact with the skins. It was a 2012 Pietro Nera “La Novella”
Bianco from the Caven
Camuna winery in Lombardy, in particular in the Valtellina area. The Nera winery started back in 1940 by
Guido Nera and his son, Pietro, later took it over in the 50's. Now
it is owned by two brothers, Stefano and Simone Nera, as of 1982 and
is known as the Azienda Agricola Caven. This wine is made up of
about 90% nebbiolo and 10% chardonnay, rossola and incrocio manzoni.
I found the wine to be very light to medium bodied with nice green
apple and some tropical hints. I'm not sure what I was expecting
with the nebbiolo grape being present in this wine, but I found it so
interesting how different the wine becomes and the flavor profiles it
develops when it's not being macerated with the skins. It's a great
way to see the true expression of the fruit separate from all the
other aspects during the winemaking process.
Next, which was my favorite Italian
wine of the day, was the 2011 Dogliani Dolcetto Superiore DOCG from
Anna Maria Abbona Maioli.
This wine is made of 100% dolcetto aged in steel for 22 months. The
Maioli vineyard, where this wine comes from, was planted back in
1936. Anna Maria left her job in 1989 to continue the dream of her
great grandfather and father and saved the vineyards that her father
was ready to uproot. Both her and her husband with their children made it their goal to take on this endeavor and produce quality wines. This wine was a fine
example of a dolcetto and due to it being produced in Dogliani the
quality was much higher than some of those of the Dolcetto DOC wines that I have tried in the past that were lighter and didn't have as much complexity. It was
dry and very aromatic with great structure, nice dark fruit, black
raspberry profiles. It had a good meatiness to the wine with nice
tannins that I found very enjoyable.
Dolcetto is one of the top grapes of
the Piedmont region behind Nebbiolo and Barbera. It's a grape that
grows well in cooler climates, so in the Piedmont region it grows best
on the slopes with the grapes can retain their acidity. It's typically
an easy grape to grow and it ripens weeks before the nebbiolo grape.
The areas that are noted for producing the DOCG wines of Dolcetto
that were granted this status in 2005 are Dolgiani, Ovada and Diano
d'Alba and you can find some of the DOC Dolcetto's from Asti, Alba
and Acqui. These wines are typically soft, fruity wines with low
acidity.
I look forward to sharing the other
wines from my tasting with you this week.
Outside of Bologna, and only then
having visited for the day, this past October for my honeymoon was
the first time I spent a few days exploring the Emilia-Romagna. I
can understand why they call this the food capital with all the fresh
prosciutto, parmigiano-reggiano, balsamic and salami. I'm going to
focus on the region including both their wine and food as the wine of
this region. Plus, I have a special visit to an acetaia (Acetaia di Giorgio), where
traditional balsamic vinegar is produced.
Aceto Balsamico
Tradizionale/Traditional Balsamic Vinegar with Acetaia di Giorgio
The Sunday I was in Parma, my husband
and I ventured out to find a place to do tastings of the traditional
balsamic vinegar of Modena, that is also produced in Reggio. There
is a big difference between this that they call Aceto Balsamico
Tradizionale and the kind that many use in the United States. Most
of the ones that we find in the supermarkets will say Balsamic
Vinegar of Modena, which are wine vinegars that are thickened with a
grape must, known as saba,
and then colored with caramel and are not even aged. After
experiencing the traditional balsamic vinegars of this region you
must splurge one day in your life if you can't make it to
Emilia-Romanga and order one online or go to a specialty shop and buy
one. It will open your eyes to what true balsamic really is.
I had read online about Acetaia
di Giorgio so when we pulled up it was just a house, but I saw
the plaque with the name so I rang the bell and the owner, Giovanna,
answered and invited us in for a tasting. Her husband was out
hunting for porcini mushrooms. Once we got up to the top floors of
their house as we climbed the stairs the strong aromas of balsamic
was amazing. The air was saturated with these smells. I couldn't
believe that such history was sitting on the top floor of their house
in multiple rooms with barrels lining the walls in multiple rows.
There are big barrels leading down to smaller barrels, with the
smaller barrels being the oldest. They refill them from big to small
so the newest batch is always in the larger barrels when they top
them off.
Me and Giovanna
Tasting room at Acetaia di Giorgio
The husband, Giorgio, took over the business from his
mother 40 years ago. Prior to that they kept the balsamic for
personal consumption, as many others do in this region as well, but
it had been going on in this family for 120 years. The barrels they
used were originals and they continue to reuse them due to the
saturation and seasoning. The barrels they used were cherry, juniper
and mixed wood. The minimum aging they had was 15 years with the
oldest being 25-35+ years. When they had their daughter Carlotta in
1986 they started making a balsamic named after her and just bottled
it for the first time last year. This one in particular was written
about in the NY Times. I thought the bottle was empty when she
poured it as there was a 10 second delay due to the thickness and
consistency. The flavors and depth of these balsamic vinegars that
we tried were nothing I had ever experienced.
storage room
Like the DOC and DOCG of wines they
have here the DOP, Denominazione di Origine Protetta. These
balsamics are tested for color, taste and acidity. The label can
change, but not the bottle, which was designed by Ferrari. Giovanna
mentioned that there are 46 producers making about 95,000 bottles and
they themselves sell 2,500.
Red wine from Emilia-Romagna
The Emilia-Romagna region has about 20
DOC zones, with four of them Lambrusco DOC zones: Lambrusco Reggiano,
known for its Riuniti, Lambrusco Salamino, Lambrusco Sorbara and
Lambrusco Grasparossa. The wines of this area have long been known
due to lambrusco, but many may think of Riuniti, which is not a
classic representation of the Lambrusco of this region as they have
dry versions as well. Lambrusco, if you aren't familiar, is
typically knows as sweeter and bubbly wine, known as amabile.
There are other sparkling wines (frizzante or spumante) also
produced from this region from the grapes albana, trebbiano,
malvasia as well as chardonnay and pinot noir grapes, especially in
the Colli Piacentini area. So get the image of the old lambrusco
from the 60's and 70's out of your mind and try some of the others
from this region.
In addition to lambrusco, this region
also has a history producing sangiovese. Here it differs from that
of the Chianti Classico region because it's juicier, but doesn't have
the backbone of the tannin and acidity as Chianti Classico does. One
of the best areas to explore here for sangiovese is the Sangiovese di
Romagna DOC. Outside of sangiovese, other areas like those of Colli
Bolognese are producing wines with cabernet sauvignon and Colli
Piacentini that are producing a lot of bonarda and barbera.
White wine from Emilia Romagna
Whites of this region in general are
typically used as more bulk wine. The main grape widely grown is
trebbiano, but there is also albana and pagadebit. Pagadebit tends
to be a chalkier wine with a strong acidity and albana, outside of
their passito style version, isn't a wine you would rush right out to
buy. Although, the Colli Bolognese and Colli Piacenti are
experimenting and having some success with chardonnay and sauvignon
blanc because of their continental climate.
If you are visiting this region you'll
have the opportunity to try many of these wines that may not be so
accessible to us here in the states, but you should be able to seek
out some lambrusco that I mentioned above. It's worth trying to
changing the image that many have of this grape. I wish I had more
time in the Emilia-Romagna as there is so much to explore. The food
is phenomenal and I cant wait to open my bottle that I brought back
from Acetaia di Giorgio and maybe grab some fresh parmigiano-reggiano
to add some droplets to it. Yummmm!
Easter
growing up as a kid was always an exciting time to get up in the
morning and hunt down all the eggs the “easter bunny” hid for
you, but now as an adult I'm always wondering what we're eating and
drinking. Gosh how times change, but these are very important
decisions in life, right? Until I have little ones of my own one day
this will continue to be the main focus. Today I wanted to focus on
Easter, Pasqua in Italian, as this is one of the biggest holidays
celebrated in Italy. Italians celebrate throughout the Easter
weekend and also Monday, which is a holiday known as la Pasquetta,
where many folks from the town gather to enjoy each others company,
play games, listen to concerts, etc.. Easter is celebrated
differently throughout every region and city, but most have
processions through town where statues are carried or displayed in
the city center.
Colomba Easter bread
Food
traditions vary throughout the country, but there are some food
staples that can be found in every region. Colomba Pasquale is a
dove shaped bread that contains candied fruit and is covered in
almonds and sugar. One of the most common treats that are shared are
hollow chocolate eggs with surprises contained inside. For the main
course lamb is the most preferred. Growing up in an Italian
household we always had a couple Italian specialties that my mom and
grandmothers made. One was pastiera, which is a cake made mostly of
ricotta and wheat. The other food my mom made that I loved to just
sit there in pop in my mouth were struffoli. These are little balls
of dough that are fried covered in honey and my mom always put little
confetti balls on top. These are more typical of the Naples (Napoli)
region, where my dad's side of the family is from.
Struffoli
Italian Chocolate Easter Eggs
Wine pairings with your Easter meal Many
Italians love to celebrate drinking the local wines of their region,
but being from the United States and not having the true pride in
being from a particular homeland, unless you hold true to the roots
of your ancestors, we can select from a wide variety throughout the
country. If you're celebrating Easter the true Italian way with
lamb, due to the richness you will want something that can complement
the meal. You could more high end like a Barolo or Barbaresco, but if you'd rather spend less and still
enjoy a quality wine go for something different like a Sagrantino,
Taurasi or Gattinara.
Don't go to your usual wines. Think outside
the box. It's a holiday so try something different. I'm sure you're
drinking more than one bottle so if you don't like it others
probably will so it won't go to waste. I don't think you'll be let
down. Let me know the traditions in your family and what you enjoy.
Buona Pasqua! Happy Easter!
Earlier this week I covered wines from
Alto
Adige and now I'm going to talk briefly about some of the
highlights of the Trentino wine region.
As discussed in the previous blog,Trentino has always had a large amount of cooperatives with
MezzaCorona and Cavit being two of the more well known establishments
that you can easily find here in the states, but independent wineries
have been showing up on the scene changing the image.
With Alto Adige having German as the
primary language despite it's location in Italy, Trentino mostly
speaks Italian. You won't see as many german grape influences as in
Alto Adige. Trentino produces mainly nosiola, pinot grigio and
chardonnay for whites and reds that include teroldego, lagrein,
marzemino, schiava, merlot and cabernet sauvignon. The grapes grown
in Alto Adige are on hillsides, with some steep slopes, where
Trentino grapes are produced mostly on lowlands. This region of
Italy is also known for sparkling wines from the Trento DOC and one of the most notable
producers is Ferrari.
Now you have some baseline information
on the Trentino-Alto Adige to get you started and as I taste wines
from this region and continue to explore all regions of Italy further
we will break down further some of the grapes and producers. In the
meantime, if you explore any yourself let me know what you tried and
what are your favorites if you are already familiar with this region.
It's getting to be that time of year where the weather is warming up and days out in the sun and I don't know about you, but I typically drink mostly whites once warm weather hits, including rose', which I will cover soon in another blog.
Today I'm going to focus on one of the regions that makes up the so called “Tre Venezie”, which include the Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and what I'm focusing on today, which is the Trentino-Alto Adige. Trentino-Alto Adige is located in the northeastern part of Italy. Trentino is in the southern part of this region with Alto Adige in the north bordering Austria. In this area you encounter multiple influences from the surrounding countries in regards to the language, food and winemaking.
In this region there are influences from the Adige river, the second longest in Italy, that runs through the middle, the Dolomite mountain ranges and in the south near Trentino is Lake Garda. I'm going to break up these two regions this week and the grapes from them. There are a lot of similarities, but I think it's important to give each its own attention. We have plenty of time on this journey to cover everything.
Alto Adige was part of Austria until 1919 and World War I when they handed it over to Italy, but the German and Austrian influences remained. Here the grapes resemble those of Germany since German is the primary language of this area and the names on the bottles are sometimes written in both Italian and German to make things more confusing. Just when you were trying to figure out what the Italian ones mean right? For example, Alto Adige is also written and known as Suditrol in German.
There are a very high percentage of cooperatives in both Trentino and Alto Adige. Most cooperatives in Italy have been driven by the government, but in the Alto Adige they were already producing wines when they were established so it's more driven by the producers of the region.
Whites that are produced from Alto Adige include pinot grigio, pinot bianco, chardonnay, sylvaner, muller-thurgau, riesling and gewurtzraminer. This region also has many apple orchards so some of the wines like pinot bianco will display apple characteristics in the wine. Reds in this region are abundant though and you will find your international varieties like merlot, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc, but worth seeking out that you will be able to find in the states are some indigenous varieties like lagrein, teroldego and schiava, also known as vernatsch.
There are 8 DOC zones in Alto Adige to look for that include (both in Italian and German):
•Santa Maddalener or St. Magdalener
•Alto Adige or Sudtiroler
•Lago di Caldaro or Kalterer
•Valle Isarco or Eisacktaler
•Meranese di Collina or Meraner
•Valle Venosta or Vinschgau
•Colli di Bolzano or Bozner Leiten
•Terlano or Terlaner
If you want a vacation that is perfectly tranquil and where you will be surrounded with beauty you must visit this region. While you dream about monstrous Alps hanging over many of the vineyards, grab a bottle and a glass to help put you there in the meantime. As always I love to hear of your explorations so please share.
Sicily is an island off the southern
part of Italy and it can be a world unto itself as I have friends
that don't claim to be italians, they are sicilian. Still to do this
day I don't understand that justification, but to each his own.
Sicily is the hottest and driest region in Italy and mostly has a
mediterranean climate, with a varying climate around the famous Mt.
Etna volcano. Part of the Appenine Mountains also run through part
of the island.
Sicily has always been famous for their
Marsala wine and its history has been known for producing bulk wines
and focusing on quantity over quality. A lot of this was created
around the 50's when the landowners distributed parts of their land
to the peasants that worked on the land. The peasants began growing
grapes on the land and as much as they could so that they could sell
it off to cooperatives. It was more about producing as much as
possible and making money than focusing on quality. Eventually many
of these cooperatives failed due to the withdrawal of funds from the
government that were subsidizing these businesses. Eventually more
private wineries were established that were intrigued in increasing
the quality of the grapes produced from there.
Sicilian Vineyard
Despite the high quantity of wines in
Sicily, only a small percentage in the single digits is allowed the
DOC status. The acreage in Sicily is dominated by whites, in
particular the grape, Catarratto, which is indigenous to Sicily and
can be found as the primary grape in Alcamo and it's also blended
into Marsala. Other whites of Sicily include grecanico, inzolia,
which is also known as ansonica, and in more recent years chardonnay.
The whites here are known to be better blended than serving as a
single varietal.
Despite the lower amount of reds that
come out of Sicily there are a couple reds known to the area
including nerello mascalese and one of the more well known reds is
nero d'avola, which is best compared to syrah. Nero d'avola has a
deep, rich color and typically has expressions of dark fruits. I
have seem some good values for this wine and think it's worth
exploring if you start off drinking anything in Sicily.
International varieties such as cabernet sauvignon, merlot and syrah
are also planted here.
This may be one of the biggest wine
producing regions, but it has a long way to go from its roots and
where it came from. Checking out some of the more well known
producers of the area and maybe starting off by seeking out nero
d'avola, which I recommend, is a good place to get a start by
exploring the wines of Sicily.
This wine is made up of 80% sangiovese,
15% merlot and 5% syrah. To remind all, sangiovese is the primary
grape that makes up chianti so it had a lot of the typical
characteristics of sangiovese, including nice ripe cherry and red
fruit, but it had a great balance between the acidity and tannin in
the wine and good body. This wine was drinking well now. 
