Our Italian Food, Wine & Travel
group this month is featuring Italian summer red and white wines.
I'd say most folks gravitate towards whites, but I want to share with
you some Italian red wines that you can enjoy even in the hot, summer
days.
Of course we'd all love to be sitting
in a piazza, watching the locals take their evening passagiata while
sipping many of Italy's fine wines, but for those of us that can only
dream of it right now can still be left with some suggestions to pick
up a bottle, close one's eyes and only dream.
Italy has a never ending list when it
comes to native varietals to select from, but here are just some of
my suggestions on some Italian reds to enjoy this summer. One of the
key points to remember when drinking these suggested red wines below
is to make sure they have a slight chill to them.
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| My recent trip to Peschiera del Garda. Let's all dream of sipping with this view! |
Lambrusco
Home to Emilia-Romagna in north
central Italy, this wine is well beyond what many remember as the
inexpensive, sweet wine clouding many images in folks minds.
Lambrusco comes in many different styles and is best known as being
dry, slightly frizzante full of red fruits. You can read more about
the different styles of Lambruso
on a previous blog. Start your meal with it alongside some salumi or
enjoy it on it's own.
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| Copyright of Consorzio Tutela DelLambrusco di Modena |
Schiava
Located in the region of Trentino-Alto
Adige in northeastern Italy, but more specifically in the Alto Adige.
It's also known as vernatsch. This wine is delicate and light
bodied as well as light in color. It's full or aromatics and fruity,
red berries with slight spice.
Dolcetto
Another grape from northern Italy
found in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Known as “little
sweet one”, this is purple hued in color with juicy red fruits of
cherry and raspberries with some spice and low in tannin. It is
typically light in body, but there are definitely more modern style
dolcetto out there that are heartier reds as well.
Frappato
This wine can be found in eastern
Sicily. It's used mostly in the Cersasuolo di Vittoria wines, the
only DOCG of Italy, where it's blended with nero d'avola. Enjoying
this wine on it's own though will leave you satisfied in the summer
months as it is light-bodied, aromatic, full of strawberries and
bright acidity.
Don't forget about any of the
wonderful rose' wines of Italy, known as roasto. Depending on your
palate and preference the rose' wines of the south, due to the
climate, typically tend to have more body and riper fruits where
those of the north are more delicate, lighter and crisp. Either way
you can't wrong so choose depending on your mood or what you're
pairing it with. On my recent trip to Italy last month I tried a new
rosato release from the Pasqua Winery 11 Minutes. It's a
blend of corvina primarily with syrah, carmenere and trebbiano di
lugana. It received it's name from it's 11 minutes of skin contact
with the juice. Light salmon in color, it's a very soft, delicate
and elegant rose' with nice acid and notes of strawberry. A perfect
wine for beginning our evening recently in Piazza Dante in Verona.
Join my fellow wine bloggers as they share more Italian wines for you to indulge in this summer. Also, join us live on Twitter this Saturday July 1st at 11am EST at #ItalianFWT. See you then!
- Gwendolyn of Wine Predator shared Our New Favorite Summer Italian Wine: Lambrusco!
- Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla posted Quick Summer Dinner: Salumi, Formaggi, e Amarone
- Jill at L'Occasion wrote about Fresh Wines from Umbria and Lazio
- Lauren at Swirling Dervish uncorked Verdicchio and Vermentino - Italian White Wines Perfect for Summer
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