We tasted last night (2/27/08) Some Verdellos & Italian Biancos:
1. Bodegas Naia D.O. Rueda (100% Verdejo; 13%) 2005: Light gold color; lovely fragrant/
appley stoney/metallic melony/pineapply quite minerally nose; tart/rich rather stoney/
metallic/minerally appley/pineapply/slight muscatty flavor; med.long some stony/metallic
tart appley/pineapply finish; clean/crisp very minerally white at a very good price.
$15.00
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2. Bodega Naia Naiades (19th Century ungrafted Verdejo; 13%) LaSeca/Rueda 2005: Med.gold
color; strong pungent/oaked/charred/burnt slight stoney/fragrant nose; tart very rich/lush
quite toasty/charred/oak slight spicy/appley flavor; very long strong/charred/burnt/oak
slight stoney/metallic/appley finish; totally bludgeoned into oblivion by the oak. Way
overpriced for a Calif Chard at $34.00
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3. Francese Sanchez-Bas Blanc de Montsalvat DOQ: Priorat (14%; 65 yr old Macabeo & Trepat
Blanc) Cartoixa de Montsalvat S.L. LaVilellaAlta 2005: Cloudy light gold color; very
perfumed/aromatic floral/peachy slightly piney/resiny slight stoney almost Roussanne/GWT-
like nose; soft very rich/lush peachy/floral/Roussanne-like bit alcoholic/hot slight
resiny flavor; very long very rich/lush peachy/floral/perfumed bit alcoholic finish;
thankfully no oak that lets the terroir shine thru; a really lovely/interesting/aromatic
white that has lots of Roussanne-like character. $50.00
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4. Valle Martello brado IGT Cococciola Collineteatine/Abruzzi (12.5%) NV: Med.gold color;
strong appley/melony slight pineapple very perfumed slight earthy nose; soft/fat slight
tangy/metallic some pineapple/appley bit watery finish; med.long soft/fat/lush slight
metallic/tangy finish; clean/interesting/well-made wine at a fair price. $19.00
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5. Damian Princia Colle Duga Collio DOC: PinotGrigio (14%) 2006: Light gold color; lovely
fragrant/perfumed/floral rather spicy nose; soft very rich/lush spicy/floral almost
AlsatianPG flavor; very long lush/rich very floral slight minerally finish; almost
ZH/Alsatian in style; one of the better PG from Italy. $30.00
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6. Damian Princia Colle Duga Collio DOC: TocaiFriulano (15%) 2006: Med.gold color; slight
metallic/earthy/minerally spicy bit SauvBlanc/cat pee nose; soft big/rich/lush slight
tangy/metallic/minerally some funky/SauvBlanc-like flavor; very long slight tangy/metallic
spicy/minerally finish; a big rich Tocai w/ a tangy character; lovely Tocai. $30.00
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7. di Lenardo Vnyds Toh! DOC: Friuli Grave TocaiFriulano (13%) 2006: Med.light gold color;
beautiful floral/muscatty/peachy/lychee very perfumed/spicy almost GWT-like slight earthy
nose; soft very floral/peachy/muscatty/lychee fairly lush flavor; very long floral/muscatty/
peachy finish; loads of floral/muscatty character but a bit simple and little minerality;
quite good Tocai for $17.00
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8. Ronco del Gelso DOC: Isonzo del Friuli RiveAlte TocaiFriulano (14%) 2006: Med.gold color;
bit earthy some floral/perfumed rather minerally/earthy nose; soft fairly rich/lush bit
earthy/minerally slight floral/perfumed bit metallic flavor; med.long floral light earthy
finish; pretty interesting Tocai but the least of this trio. $26.00
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9. Eisacktaler Valle Isarco DOC: Sudtirol/AltoAdige Kerner della Valle Isarco (14.5%) 2006:
Light gold color; lovely fragrant/perfumed rather minerally/chalky bit lemony/citrusy some
MullerThurgau/coarse-like nose; tart rather minerally/chalky slight floral/earthy flavor;
med.short some floral/fragrant slight chalky finish; pretty nice wine from a variety that
gets little respectful treatment by winemakers. $18.00
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10. Eisacktaler Valle Isarco DOC: Sudtirol/AltoAdige Veltliner della Valle Isarco (13%) 2006:
Light gold color; slightly corked/cardboardy rather earthy very subdued nose; tart slight
minerally rather earthy/cardboardy flavor; pretty much beaten down by the TCA; danged
corks. $17.00
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11. Marco Donati Situla Bianco IGT Vigneti delle Dolomiti (12.5%) 2006: Light yellow color;
very fragrant/perfumed almost muscatty rather earthy/minerally/waxy/figgy bit Semillon-
like nose; tart minerally/earthy some floral/muscatty chalky/minerally flavor; long
floral/muscatty rather minerally/lean finish; not quite "liquer of rocks" but a very nice
minerality to it w/ lovely fruit; quite a good white at a great price. $17.00
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12. Terre di Pantelleri Cinque 5 Denti DOC: Pantelleria Bianco (Zibibbo/Moscato d'Alessandria;
12.5%) 2006: Med.gold color; very intense cheap hair oil/Vitalis/BrylCreme/rosewater
quite intense muscatty nose; tart/dry some bitter cheap hair oil/Vitalis/rosewater flavor;
very long muscatty/floral rather bitter cheap hair oil finish; the very intense smell
of cheap hair oil pretty much overwhelms everything in this wine. $25.00
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13. BonnyDoonVnyd Muscat "Il MoscatoGiallo" Ca'delSoloVnyd/MontereyCnty (12.0%; RS: 2.2%)
2005: Near colorless; rather earthy light floral/muscatty fairly simple nose; soft
slightly bitter light floral/earthy pretty sweet rather bland/dull flavor; med.short
slight earthy light floral/muscatty quite sweet finish; rather dull and dilute on the
palate; doesn't make much of a case for YellowMuscat in Calif. $20.00
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14. BonnyDoonVnyd Pigato Ca'delSoloVnyd/MontereyCnty (13.7%) 2004: White color; very light
flowery/earthy simple/dull nose; soft some earthy/minerally slight floral/fruity rather
dull/vapid flavor; short almost watery slight floral/earthy finish; more like a bottom-
end Italian mass-produced PinotGrigio; dull & vapid and no Soledad terroir at all.
$22.00
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And the usually stuff from TheBloodyPulpit:
1. Bodega Naia: I was really looking forward to this comparison to see what the old-vines
effect was in a white wine. Alas, such was not to be. The old-vines was soooo slammed
with new oak that the fruit was totally obliterated. It would have been far more
interesting if'n they used the same winemaking techniques on both wines. But the
temptation was too much to make a high-scoring/big points/modern-international style of
wine from the good stuff. What a friggin' waste.
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2. Cococciola: My first experience w/ this grape. Recommended to me by Roberto. Didn't see
anything that should lead the world to beat a path to its door. An interesting site
(http://www.zigzagando.com/Italianwhite.html) has this to say: This native vine is cultivated
mostly in the municipalities of Vacri, Ari and Rocca San Giovanni, in the province of
Chieti, and it's rarely found in other regional wine zones. It's used mostly in blends
with other grape varieties, especially Trebbiano. The bunch is big, often winged and
irregular, compact, and ripens late in the season, around the first part of October.
The wines are light straw yellow in color and have medium structure, with high acidity
that lasts for long time with a typical light grassy, persistent aroma.
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3. Tocai: I've gotten more & more to like Tocai Friuliano. Too bad they have to abandon
that name. Damn Hungarians..I'd take my sabre to them but they're much better at sabre
than I. The variety does present me w/ a problem. They smells & flavors can vary all over
the map, as these three did. So I'm not sure that I can identify the varietal typicity
of Tocai. Anf if the wine doesn't show varietal typicity, I'm not supposed to like it.
What to do..what to do??
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4. Veltliner: In the AltoAdige/Val Isarco, the Veltliner used to be Frueh Roter Veltliner,
a variety different from the Austrian Gruner Veltliner. According to Oliver McCrum,
most of this is being replanted now to Gruner Veltliner. Not sure which one this was.
Tom