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!
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. 
