Coupla middlin' Italian wines

Not really worth their own blog entry.

2008 Pieropan SOAVE (Veneto, Italy) had a bitterish and sour component. Nice medium gold color, but the nose was kind of pungent, with lots of pungent minerals and sour pear fruit, with an interesting caramelized sugar crystal component. Some pear, apple, and lemon fruit, but led to a short, pungent, minerally finish. Funky. 78. Kind of disappointing, as Pieropan was one of the first producers to bring Soave out of the insipid, industrial acid water that used to pass as white wine in the appellation in the 1970s.

2006 Barberani "POLAGO" (Montepulciano-Sangiovese blend) (Umbria, Italy) -- This had some character but was too rustic. Med. dark ruby garnet. Straightforward, vinous nose of winey, old cherries, smoke, and moist, funky gravel. Medium body, with basic cherryish flavors that faded quickly into an acidy, rough, drying finish. A decent peasant wine to quaff with basic spaghetti and meatballs. 80.

2006 Umani Ronchi "Casal di Serra" VERDICCHIO DEI CASTELLI DE JESI Classico Superiore (Marche, Italy)

Probably better a year ago.

Medium light gold. Accessible, soft nose of pear/banana and sweet chalk. Round and soft, with full body and loads of earthy banana and pear-skin fruit, with a peppery, minerally, low acid, slightly flabby finish. Not bad, but I favor Verdicchios that are in a fresher, crisper, more minerally-stony style. 84. Was $16 at Houston Wine Merchant.

(Sorry, 2003 shown)

A sausage-making party at Angy & Susan's in West Hartford

We had a family Italian sausage making party at Angy & Susan's house in West Hartford toward the end of my stay, and what a feast it was. And, of course, Angy brought up some really good wines from his cellar.

2006 Donna Ginevra VERDICCHIO DI CASTELLI DI JESI (Marche, Italy) -- A big, fat, bruiser of a Verdicchio. Lots of minerals and pear skins on the nose. Broad, fat, low-acid flavors fill the mouth. Weighty and minerally.

2007 Costalgo ROSSO VERONESE (Veneto, Italy) -- This was a very drinkable "international style" red from the area near where Valpolicella, Bardolino, and Soave are grown. Medium deep colored, with magenta highlights, this wine sported aromas and flavors of cigar box, ashes, and sweet, spiced cherries. Soft and round, with a sweet earthiness in the finish.

2007 DASCHE "L'Enfant Terrible" (McFadden Farms, Potter Valley ZINFANDEL) -- this organically grown and naturally made wine tasted -- to me at least -- like a dead ringer for an Australian Grenache. Without the label, I would never have picked it out as a Zinfandel. That said, it was very nice. Light ruby color, with a ripe, fruit salad (yes, fruit salad) nose. Lots of ripe, pure-tasting fruit in a medium-full bodied package.

2005 Tenuta San Leone Montesalionze BARDOLINO SUPERIORE (Veneto, Italy) -- Every time I'm at Angy and Susan's house, I ask them to bring up a bottle of this from the cellar (they had purchased a case). It remains the best Bardolino, by far, I've ever had. I reviewed this twice before, so I won't bore you with another recapitulation.

2006 Mazzocco "Kenneth Carl" Reserve Dry Creek Valley ZINFANDEL -- the culmination of the wines was this monster Zin, which they bought directly from the winery. Dense, powerful, and almost portlike in its richness. Would shine best with rich cheese at the end of a meal. A week after the meal, I can still taste it!

Wines from a steak dinner in Massachusetts

I recently returned from a trip back to New England to visit family and friends. The first night there, we had a steak cook-out and some excellent (and one very old) wines.

2005 Rijckaert POUILLY-FUISSE (White Burgundy, France) -- a fragrant, lively, chalky/minerally Chardonnay with peach pit fruit. Very nice balance and great length.

2007 Terra Vignata VERDICCHIO DI MATELICA (Marche, Italy) -- inexpensive, yet one of the best Verdicchios I ever had: crisp, zesty, with very persistent and focused minerally, lemon-lime flavors. Very refreshing!

1978 Chateau de Beaucastel CHATEAUNEUF DU PAPE (Rhone Valley, France) -- Yes, that's right, 1978. My brother Angy and I bought this for my Dad for Christmas (in 1981?). I remember we shelled out $12.99 for it, which I thought was expensive at the time. It has held up remarkably well (my Dad has a very cool wine cellar). Intensely earthy but still with a core of vinous fruit. Not as mouthfilling as many young Beaucastels I've had, but holding its own. Like an old professor emeritus who still knows his sh*t even if the tweed jacket is frayed.

2000 Domain Tempier BANDOL "Cuvee Speciale La Migoua" (Provence, France) -- Still youthful, this wine was lean but concentrated, with typically Bandol-ish tree barky earthiness and a core of deep-toned berry fruit underneath. Classic Mourvedre with great length.

2006 Fontevecchia VERDICCHIO DI CASTELLI DI JESI Classico Superiore (Marche, Italy)

A full-flavored but atypical Verdicchio.

Pale, brassy gold. Wonderful, Chablis-like nose of crushed limestone, straw-tinged earthiness, and apple/pear-skin fruit. Intensely minerally in the front end, with deep, earthy pear fruit coming through in the back of the palate. Relatively full body. A fleshy bruiser of a Verdicchio. Very nice. 88. I think -- but I don't remember -- that this was around $16 at Central Market.

2007 Inama SOAVE CLASSICO (Veneto, Italy)

This was really nice, but not as nice as the 2006, previously reviewed here.

Youthful, bright light gold color. Nose full of pungent minerals and herby fruit. Crisp, balanced, and full of flavor, but with a bitter component in the flavor profile that detracted from what was otherwise a very nice white. However, the flavors would likely be a nice foil to sweetish seafood such as shrimp or scallops. 86. Was about $13 at Whole Foods on Bellaire.

2006 Inama SOAVE CLASSICO (Veneto, Italy)

This was the best Soave I've ever had. An appellation usually associated with industrially-produced, over-cropped wines that taste like water with a bit of alcohol and acidity added, this wine had lots of character! Actually, kind of a schizophrenic character, in that the nose and flavors didn't really match up. It was really good, though.

Eye: Very light gold color.

Nose: Great, pure fruit nose of ripe peaches, apple, and quince, with a subtle earthy-stony note in the far background.

Mouth: Softly-textured and round, but with very dry, intense stony/herbal flavors, with mouthwatering minerally salinity and acidity.

Score: 89.

Cellar or drink? Drink over the next several months.

Price/store: Was $14 at Spec's.

2006 Colterenzio PINOT GRIGIO (Alto Adige, Italy)

This Pinot Grigio from one of Italy's northernmost wine-growing regions was crisp and refreshing, but not much more.

Eye: Very light gold.

Nose: This was the best part of the wine -- fairly fragrant, with scents of pear, earthy stones, and milk.

Mouth: Light and lively, but with a fairly linear, austere flavor profile of minerals, acidity, and Granny Smith apples. Medium length finish.

Score: 83.

Cellar or drink? This style of Italian whites is for early drinking. Bottoms up before 2009.

Price/store: About $13 at Spec's on Holcombe.

Vacation wines -- Day 2

2006 Ferrando Erbaluce di Caluso "La Torrazza" -- This was a very refreshing, dry white. Stylistically like a good Sancerre or Chablis, this wine had great minerality and refreshing dry fruit.

2005 Tenuta San Leone Bardolino Superiore "Montesalionze" -- This wine, which I previously raved about, is still drinking wonderfully, and has lots of life left. An amazing Veronese wine.

2004 Edmunds St. John "Rocks and Gravel" -- This was a really French-styled Rhone blend from California. The label doesn't give info about the varietal(s), but from the spicy blackberry, olive, iodine, and gravelly-earthy scents and flavors, I'm guessing that this has lots of Grenache and a bit of Mourvedre and maybe some Carignane in it. Very elegant.

2005 Guigal Cotes du Rhone -- To see just how French the previous wine actually was, we opened this one next. Though tight upon opening opening, it developed a rich, spicy cassis fruitiness, with earthy, iodine, and herbal undertones. It was really good, and, if anything, it was even more Californian in style than the previous (California) wine.

Dinner: Pollo in potacchio Marchegiana

2006 Alois Lageder PINOT BIANCO (Alto Adige, Italy)

This is Italy's version of a good Maconnais white.


Very light straw color. Light intensity nose of chalky minerals, apples, and peach pits. Precise, light-bodied flavors of pear and stones. Although light-bodied, it had an interesting pleasantly oily texture. Lots of minerals in a medium-long finish. 86. Was $12.79 at Richard's on Shepherd.

Wines from Our Vacation

Here are some truncated notes, mostly from memory, concerning wines we had on our trip to visit family in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

2005 Alois Lageder Chardonnay (Alto Adige, Italy) -- This was a VERY minerally, unoaked, refreshing and dry Chardonnay from a region in extreme northeast Italy known for its crisp whites.

2004 Plantate Lunghe ROSSO CONERO (Marche, Italy) -- This was an outstanding red from a region in Italy that nearly every store in Houston overlooks. Probably mostly or all Montepulciano grape, this wine had a complex perfume, and deep, winey-earthy flavors, with a leathery component, and was soft and concentrated.

2003 Bodegas Carrau TANNAT Reserve (Uruguay) -- This grape is used in FRance to make the usually-too-tannic-and-astringent wines from Madiran, and apparently is also used to make too-tannic-and-astringent wines from Uruguay as well.

2005 Poggio Argentiera MORELLINO DI SCANSANO "Bellamarsilia" (Tuscany, Italy) -- Medium-bodied, soft and perfumed, but not that concentrated.

2004 Casa Emma CHIANTI CLASSICO (Tuscany, Italy) -- For a non-riserva Chianti, this was fabulous. Concentrated and tight, yet with a forceful nose of candied cherry syrup and smokey, earthy notes. Very concentrated, with a soft texture despite substantial tannic backbone (the tannins were ripe and soft). Excellent length. Got this one for $16.99 at Spiritus, on Main Street in Hartford. Spiritus used to be one of my favorite wine stores when I lived in Connecticut, and I used to stop in just about every time I had a hearing or conference at the U.S. Courthouse in Hartford, as it is almost right across the street from it.

2004 Tenuta Villanova PINOT GRIGIO (Friuli, Italy)

This wine had loads of character. I'm not usually a Pinot Grigio fan, as so many of them are akin to glasses of water tainted by some faint bitterness and acidity. This one, however--which was given to us as a gift--was really good.

Bright, light, brassy-gold with a greenish tint. Intense nose of minerals, peach pits, and earthy herbs. Round, mouthfilling, minerally flavors. Bone dry, with excellent balance, and a long finish. This would be superb with Brodetto (a fish stew from the Marche region of Italy) or pasta with a red fish sauce. 88. A quick search on the Internet shows that most stores selling this price it at around $12, making it a very good value.