WTN: All Over Italy

Notes from an Italian evening.

2004 Inama Vigneti di Foscarino Soave Classico Sup. – nice rich lemony nose with a hint of vanilla, quite full bodied, tasty and long. Soave on steroids.

2000 Mastroberardino Aglianaco ‘Radici’ (Taurasi) – this reserve wine showed medium colour and body and slightly high acidity at end, and it went well with food. A bit rustic but very pleasant.

1995 Dal Forno Valpolicella – only fitting to have a Valpolicella like this after a Soave like that – both over achievers. Good deep colour, ripe sweet nose (a tad warm at 14.5%), medium body, a ton of acidity, still with some tannin and good flavour concentration. No rush at all on this one. As always, a shame about the pricing on these wines!

2001 D'Amilano Barolo – quite light in colour, and lean, tannic and acidic but without being mean about it. Didn’t appeal to me and I didn’t think it would improve.

2002 Aiello Furat – this Sicilian wine is a blend of Nero d’Avola, syrah, merlot and cab, but the Nero d’Avola is what comes across in the nose, but in a dark sweet New World sort of way – I didn’t see this as at all traditional like the Feudo Maccari and Morgante wines one might be used to from this area. It drank well, mind you.

1990 Terrabianca Campaccio Riserva – I tried a 1993 earlier in the week – pretty good, but I decided to bring the big gun as the 1990 has always been a wonderful wine. This super Tuscan is mostly sangio with a dollop (20%) of cabernet, and there was a nice toasty nose of berries and cedar, an appearance that had them guessing up to a decade later. In the mouth it was delightful, maturing, with a dusting of soft tannin and blackberry cassis flavours, good balance without obtrusive acidity and excellent length. Just wish I’d bought more of this over achiever.

2004 Campagnia de Ermes Cesanese do Olevano Romano – I can hear the “What?” already. This is an oddball varietal from near Rome (Lazio) that showed on this occasion as a dead ringer for a Northern Rhone. It had the spice, bright cherry aromas, and white pepper in the sweet nose, elegant on palate, finishing dry and well balanced. If you get the chance to taste this varietal don’t pass it by. Wish I had a bottle to toss into the next N. Rhone blind tasting that comes my way!

2005 Altare Dolcetto – we are no strangers to the new age big whacking Dolcetti being made today, although the pricing leaves me cold ($39 for this one). A dusty nose of berries and cocoa, it came across very much like a cab/merlot blended wine. Certainly a nice example and it has a few years left, though it won’t get any better than it is now.

1999 Antinori Tenuta Marchesi Chianti – these wines are a step up from the basic Chianti – they see small oak, and it usually shows in the nose. I thought this one was a particularly pleasing example, slightly musty but decent nose with some oak, showing a hint of maturity now, and good fruit with a smooth finish. Drinks very well now and will hold.

1998 Sette Ponti Crognolo – I must admit to never having been a big fan of this wine (I prefer the Oreno), but it had a ripe nose, good weight, still quite a bit of tannin and decent length. Pleasant.

2005 Braida Brachetto d’Acqui – a fun way to end. A slight spritz, the colour of a side of lox, somewhat soapy nose, somewhat sweet, only 5.5% alcohol, this Muscat was a pleasant alternative to the usual Moscato d’Asti.

[Jenise]

2004 Inama Vigneti di Foscarino Soave Classico - Very good for the reasons you say. Quite a bit different from, and a huge improvement over, the 01 I brought to an earlier offline featuring the wines of Piedmont and the Veneto.

2000 Mastroberardino Aglianaco ‘Radici’ (Taurasi) – I really liked this. Didn't find the fruitcake spice and date notes I usually associate with Aglianico and instead got hit by a whack of chocolate, but the others will come with another five years of age and this wine will gracefully go there. Not that more is needed, the wine showed quite well.

1995 Dal Forno Valpolicella – Rasoul was too good to us. This was gorgeous, and it makes me wonder at Rasoul's description of it as a very controversial wine. This wine was outstanding and other than the cost (somewhere in the $200-300 range), what's there to disagree with?

2001 D'Amilano Barolo – I saved my glass of this to watch over the rest of the evening, and it opened a bit more but not a lot. Very typical nebbiolo nose but with more with the weight and femininity of a Barbaresco than Barolo. Should improve over the next 2-3 years.

2002 Aiello Furat, Sicily – Bob's wine, and our first bottle of this wine though I have a few more in the cellar. I've had too few Nero d'avolas to say I thought this typical of the grape, rather, this wine had dense black appearance and strong, sweet, porty nose of a Paso Robles syrah. It's great fortune is that it didn't have the heavy palate of a Paso Robles syrah, just nicely concentrated fruit on a reasonable, 13.5% alcohol frame with enough acidity to keep it bright on the tongue. I don't think I'd try to age it, but our remaining bottles should drink well over the next two years.

1990 Terrabianca Campaccio Riserva – Oh, thank you for bringing this. The '90, both the Riserva and the Barriques bottling, were the first Italian wines that really, really turned my head, Too, we were kind of new to wine then, and the wines that pushed us over certain spending threshholds are kind of a personal hall of fame--the Riserva at $40 was certainly one. And though yes it didn't push all the buttons of full maturity, like the 1990 La Mission Haut Brion Bob and I enjoyed a few weeks ago this wine had that intangible something that says Great Wine from Great Vintage, and I went right to 1990. Fantastic wine.

2004 Campagnia de Ermes Cesanese do Olevano Romano – My wine, and one of those irresistable oddballs that the boys at Garagiste come up with from time to time. This one went into decanter on arrival at the restaurant because of it's youth, and I think we were all quite amazed that it was this young. It showed like a 99 Cornas, with violets and spice and all that white pepper on a cherry frame. Not just different and very, very rare (only 50-70 cases of this wine get made), but lovely and very worth drinking in it's own right.

2005 Altare Dolcetto – Having a generally low opinion of Dolcetto, I had no idea Dolcetto could be this big or complex. I was certain it had some cab in it, and the nose showed a lot of the mocha and sweet dust character of merlot. Nice surprise.

1999 Antinori Tenuta Marchesi Chianti – What you said.

1998 Sette Ponti Crognolo – This wine was a fair dupe of the Antinori that preceded it, so when Anne shot down mine and Tony's first guess of Chianti we had no place left to go. It showed nicely, but I'd guess it's at peak.

2005 Braida Brachetto d’Acqui – my first Brachetto--what a fun little thing. Soapy nose with fruit that tasted like a blend of apple and strawberry juices.

Braida's Brachetto is a staple in my cellar. Always a summertime delight. The strawberry flavor is typical of the varietal, and it is often paired with strawberries.