The variety of Italian wines

Here we go! Second monthly of participating in the Monthly Wine Writing Challenge #20 run by Jeff at the Drunken Cyclist.  This month's theme, variety, was selected from last month's winner, Frank Stero. Being an Italian wine blogger there is plenty of variety to talk about when it comes to Italian grapes. You would think with a person like me who doesn't make decisions easily, why would I write about one of the top winemaking countries in the wine world that has so much variety? Even a better reason for blogging. There's always something to write about it, but it obviously goes way deeper than that. Variety is one of the reasons why I developed a huge love for the wines of Italy. Italy has hundreds of native indigenous varietals, plus international grapes as well.

Every where you turn in Italy are vineyards

Overwhelmed by variety?

Of course to the average consumer wine can be completely overwhelming when it comes to navigating yourself through a wine shop, nevermind navigating through the Italian wine section. At least with California, for example, folks whom want a chardonnay can walk over to the bottle, see chardonnay listed on the label and grab it. What they don't realize they are missing are the bottles of white burgundy from France, some of the best chardonnay in the world, all because chardonnay is not written on the label and is just implied by it's geographical indication. Labels are part of the reason why variety can be deceiving or tricky. Italy is definitely one of those culprits that might tell you it's a Rosso from the Valle d'Aosta region of Italy, but what does that mean? What grapes are in it? The label may state it's a Barolo from Cannubi, but what grapes make up a barolo wine? Nebbiolo of course, but maybe not that obvious to the average consumer. My parents used to be oblivious to that for example, but I've got them trained up quick!

The many grape varieties of Italy

Of course everyone knows many of the main varietals in Italy like pinot grigio, prosecco (even more so now-a-days), sangiovese (although sometimes it seems people don't reazlie chianti is made of this grape) and maybe even the nero d'avola grape. What about varietals like susumaniello, verdicchio, pigato, pelaverga,arneis, catarrato or garganega? You may have had many of these wines already if you've experimented with Italian wines and don't even know it.

Made of Merlot and Cabernet

Made of corvina, rondinella and molinara grapes

What is the best way to learn about all these different wines?

Don't panic! Embrace the wide variety of grapes offered to you and you may be surprised that you come across a grape that you've never heard of that you love. I'm a big fan of wine tastings. I do them as much as possible myself when I have the opportunity. It's the perfect way to sample as little as 3-10 wines and as many as 50+ wines at one event. If you don't like it dump or spit and move on to the next one. These events are geared to get people to try variety and to find what you like. One of the best things about wine is that it's all subjective. As long as you're not rude about it to a wine vendor or even worse a winemaker himself then it's impossible to feel about your feelings and personal preferences. As they always say drink what you like!

I'm always here to offer any Italian advice so don't hesitate to drop me a mail, leave a comment or subscribe to my newsletter and learn about the variety that Italy has to offer.

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What makes Carignano special in Sardinia with Agricola Punica

Unfortunately I haven't written about Sardinian wine too much on my blog. I love to talk about the native grapes that many of us are unfamiliar with that don't get the coverage they deserve, but I don't often get the chance to taste some of the grapes that I'd love to write more about. 

The Kobrand Tour d'Italia

Last month I had the opportunity to attend the Kobrand “Tour d'Italia” event tasting their icons of Italian wine. Kobrand is an importer and marketer or wines from all around the world and this event highlighted some of their Italian wine portfolio. It was an east coast road show where winemakers and representatives of the wineries shared their stories and wines with those in the trade.

Intro to Agricola Punica

Agricola Punica, established in 2002, is located on the island of Sardinia,also known as Sardegna. The winery is a joint venture between majority owner Sebastiano Rosa and one of the largest wine cooperatives of Sardinia, Cantina di Santadi. It's also partially owned by wine consultant Giacomo Tachis, Tenuta San Guido and the President of Santadi, Antonello Pilloni.

Sourced from Agricola Punica 

Located in southwestern Sardinia, Agricola Punica focuses on two native grapes of the island, the red grape Carignano and the white grape Vermentino.  You can sample their Carignano in their wines Barrua and Montessu, and their Vermentino is used in their wine Samas. Agricola Punica also uses other grapes for blending. The climate has mild winters and hot summers with the hot winds of Africa, known as the scirocco winds, blowing in off the sea.

About Sabastiano Rosa

One of the stakeholders in the company, Sebastiano Rosa, was running behind on his flight so I met his son at the tasting. Sabastiano has a long history in the wine world participating in the 1991 harvest of Chateau Lafite Rothschild as a cellar assistant. He was also General Manager at Tenuta di Argiano in Montalcino from 1992-2002 where he worked with winemaker and consulting enologist Giacomo Tachis. He led winemaking for Le Difese and Guidalberto from 2002-2012 at Tenuta San Guido, the famous winery known for producing Sassicaia. Today he is now the Director of Marketing and Sales for Agricola Punica.

The Wine

My favorite wine of the three I sampled (Montessu, Barrua and Samas) was the 2005 Agricola Punica Montessu Isola dei Nuraghi IGT.  Mostly composed of 60% Carignano with the rest split evenly between Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. It's matured up to 10 months in French oak and blended in cement for 30 days and filtered before bottling for 3 months. A balanced, full-bodied wine with silky rich ripe fruit and jam with a nice finish.

 

 

What is the significance of the name Isola dei Nuraghi of the IGT?
This is the largest encompassing DOC of Sardinia encompassing the whole island and smaller islands.  The Nuraghi are stone structures found throughout the island that were used as defense during what they call the Nuragic Age, which took place after the Bronze Age.  You can still view and visit these nuraghi today and they have even become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Sourced  by Agricola Punica winery 

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Umbrian delight: Strozzapreti with 2011 Perticaia Montefalco Rosso

In light of the Italian food, wine and travel group (#ItalianFWT) that I hosted last week on Umbria and my article on Immersion into Sagrantino, I wanted to share a food and wine pairing with one of the bottles I found to be quite a value with great quality.

In my preview on the region of Umbria I discussed the food of the region consisting of pork and various beans, but I made a discovery in one of my favorite authentic Italian recipe books, Italy The BeautifulCookbook, a typical Umbrian dish known as strozzapreti. Strozzapreti are dumplings with meat sauce, but it's really a thicker style spaghetti with yeast. I'd love to say I had the time to prepare homemade pasta, but I cheated and actually used bucatini as a replacement. It states that this pasta is also known in the Campanian region as strangolapreti meaning priest strangler. Quite the interesting name for a pasta dish don't you think?

Pasta of strozzapreti by Fugzu

Ingredients of Strozzapreti:

Extra virgin olive oil

Small onion diced

1-2 stalks of celery diced

2-3 cloves of garlic

3-4 carrots diced

1lb of ground beef

1 bay leaf

28oz can of peeled tomatoes

Thyme, salt and pepper

Shaved parmesan

Preparations of Strozzapreti

Heat extra virgin olive oil in pan and once ready add diced onions and garlic.

Once onions and garlic are translucent add diced celery and carrots along with spices. Cook for about 10 minutes.

Add ground beef and cook until brown.

Add peeled tomatoes and bay leaf and simmer for about an hour.

About 10 minutes before begin to boil your water with added salt in preparation for the pasta.

Once pasta and beef are fully cooked combine in pan.

Add shaved parmesan as topping to your dish and I drizzled mine with some white truffle oil.

Buon appetito!

A couple weeks ago I was able to sample some wonderful wines made with the sagrantino grape in Umbria provided by the Consorzio of Montefalco and Colangelo & Partners. One of the wines that was a fantastic value retailing at only $25 was the 2011 Perticaia Montefalco Rosso. If you've never experienced the sagrantino grape due to it's pricing at $40+ with the 100% sagrantino produced Montefalco Sagrantino, the Montefalco Rosso is a more affordable way to get a sampling of the grape. Although the Rosso Montefalco is not purely sagrantino as it's a blend of primarily sangiovese and sagrantino.

Perticaia by Umbria Lovers

Alessandro Perticaia, winemaker at Perticaia, spoke on the panel discussion a week ago about his 2011 Perticaia Montefalco Rosso. The grapes for the 2011 harvest were matured well and didn't face any stress. Perticaia isn't in favor of using wood so this wine is completely aged in stainless steel. I could totally appreciate the non-use of wood as it demonstrated a purer expression of the fruit and with the power and structure behind the sagrantino grape it had plenty of body and complexities.

Tasting of 2011 Montefalco Rosso

The 2011 Montefalco Rosso is a blend of 70% sagrantino, 15% sagrantino and 15% colorino. The colorino helps smooth out the acidity of the sangiovese grape. Crystal clear ruby red in color it showed ripe red fruit and cherries on the nose. It's a medium-bodied, dry wine with moderately crisp acidity and firm tannins with a persistent finish.

If you're a lover of sangiovese it would be fun to try this wine with the addition of sagrantino and the unique addition of colorino. I would happily grab another bottle of this wine again and recommend if you're never had an Umbrian wine this may be one you want to start with.

Compliments of Perticaia - The Colors of Perticaia

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