WBW #42: An Italian Red in Just Seven Words

The 42nd installment of Wine Blogging Wednesday is hosted by Andrew Barrow of Spitton. His challenge for us is to describe an Italian red wine in JUST SEVEN WORDS.

Well, I have to admit this exercise is really fun but also very difficult, especially for folks like myself whose first language is not even English. Fortunately, Super Bowl XLII bailed me out in helping me to find the appropriate description for the Sicilian red I tasted. (It is a coincidence that this is also the 42nd installment of WBW)

The wine : 2005 Planeta Cerasuolo di Vittoria

The description : The Patriots' Collapse in Super Bowl XLII

I have to apologize here that my phrase will not make any sense to folks who are not familiar with American football or NFL. So, I provide a a little background on Super Bowl XLII and why I choose this phrase to describe the 2005 Cerasuolo di Vittoria:

The New England Patriots and the New York Giants played on Feb 3rd, 2008 for the 42nd championship game of National Football League (NFL). The game is called Super Bowl XLII. The Patriots had touted an explosive offense and a strong defense throughout the entire football season. They had won every single game coming to the Super Bowl with an 18-0 record. However, during the game of Super Bowl, their offensive performance did not exhibit the expected explosiveness. Instead, it was actually quite light weight and one dimensional throughout. Their defense also fell flat and fizzled in strength. Ultimately, the Patriots collapased and lost to the Giants by a score of 14-17 thereby falling short in finish; abruptly ending a dream of 'the perfect season'.

If my short summary of Super Bowl XLII is confusing, NFL.COM provides a much better coverage on this event.

Now to the wine, Cerasuolo di Vittoria is produced by the Planeta family in Sicily. They have a very nice website in English. This wine is composed of two indigenous varieties: 60% Nero d’Avola and 40% Frappato. All the grapes of this wine are harvested from the Dorilli vineyard.

This wine has ABV of 13.5% and I paid $19 for it. (Sadly, with the weak US/Euro exchange rate, the 2006 vintage is selling for $22 - $25).

Tasting notes:

Nose: Explosive aroma of raspberry.
[ Analogy: the initial showing of the Patriots’ explosive appearance ]

Color: Clear ruby.

Palate: Fairly one dimensional with flavor of mostly strawberry and raspberry. Very fruit forward with notes of pepper. Good acidity but not particularly mouth coating.
[ Analogy: appearance of the Patriots’ one dimensional performance during the game ]

Body: Light to medium
[ Analogy: Patriots showing up as a light weight team ]

Finish: Mostly red fruits. Clean but short finish.
[ Analogy: abrupt finish to the Patriot’s season, falling short of expectation ]

Comments:
Planeta Cerasuolo di Vittoria reminds me of a mid-level Beaujolais. It is actually a good food wine to pair with for light fares such as roasted chicken or roast beef sandwich. However, for $20+, the QPR value on this wine is just barely ok.

WBW #41: Friuli-Venezia Giulia White Wines

Wine Blogging Wednesday, started by by Lenn Thompson of Lenndevours is hosted by Jack and Joanne of forkandbottle. For the theme of this installment, they have chosen white wines from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia DOC of Italy. The Friuli-Venezia Giulia region is located at the northeast corner of Italy, bordered by Austria in the north, Slovenia in the east and the Adriatic Sea in the south. Although this region outputs only about 2% of Italy's total wine production, its quality is very high and is often compared to the offerings of Piedmont and Tuscany.

Frankly, I know very little about Italian wines. Accepting the WBW challange really forces me to go outside of my comfort zone and learn about new varietals and producers. After conducting some research, I settled on choosing Tocai Friulano for this WBW. Why Tocai Friulano? You may ask. It is becauseTocai Friulano is the most widely planted grape in the Friuli DOC and no other grape is blended into Tocai Friulano wines.

Jack and Joanne are correct about the difficulty in finding good Friuli wines in most wine retailers. Among the wine shops I frequent, there is plenty of Pinot Grigio but rarely anything else from Friuli. However, I did find Tocai Friulano from a few producers at Garnet Wines ranging from $14 to $18. In spite of warnings from Jack regarding the 'excitement factor' of Friuli wines costing less than $18, I decided to pick 2 relatively lower-priced wines from the Colli Orientali del Friuli appellation with the same retail price to conduct an A/B test:

2005 Sirch Tocai Friulano Colli Orientali del Friuli
Price: $13.5, ABV: 13%, Closure: Cork

Sirch has a website but there it is only in Italian. The US importer is Summa Vitis Inc.

Tasting Notes:

Color: Pale golden

Nose: Delicate aroma of flowers, peach and some other fruit I cannot identify. Slight hint of honey.

Palate: Quite lean and fresh with lively acidity. Flavors mostly of ruby grapefruit with a touch of peach. A mineral edge is also noted.

Body: Light to medium.

Finish: Long and clean. Quite peppery.

2006 Bastianich Tocai Friulano Colli Orientali del Friuli

Price: $13.5, ABV: 13%, Closure: Screwcap

Azienda Agricola Bastianich is owned by Lidia Bastianich (the famous Italian-American restaurateur) and her son Joseph. The wine is imported by Dark Star Imports (Tel: 646-312-8921)

Tasting Notes:
Color: Light golden. (Darker than the Sirch noted above)

Nose: Vibrant nose. Smoke, ripe peach and dry herbs. However, as wine warms, there is a strong aroma of rubber (like the smell from a fresh box of rubber bands)

Palate: Lively acidity with a mineral edge. Flavors mostly of pears with a touch of herbs. Notes of almond.

Body: Medium. (Fuller than the Sirch noted above)

Finish: Long (a tad shorter than the Sirch), clean but slightly bitter. Peppery (lighter than Sirch). Notes of pear and lime zest.

Comments:

The Sirch is lighter and more delicate than the Bastianich. Both wines are very balanced. We paired them with broiled salmon stuffed with crab meat and both wines works really well. The Sirch is a perfect spring/summer wine and the Bastianich can be a summer/fall wine due to its fuller body.

Both of these wines are tasted over a 3 day period (using Vaccvin and refrigeration). The best showing is on the 2nd day but there is no noticeable loss of aroma and flavor even at the 3rd day.

Tocai Friulano is an interesting varietal. Its nose reminds me of Sauvignon Blanc and flavor of Chardonnay. Although it does not have great complexity and probably is not even the best wine produced from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, it is definitely a fantastic food (seafood, sushi) and a cocktail wine (prosciutto as h'or derves?) at an affordable price. Whether you like or not is a matter of personal preference.

Thanks to Jack and Joanne for suggesting this wine theme.

2006 Banfi Rosa Regale Brachetto D'Acqui D.O.C.G.

Recently I had an opportunity to taste this unique Italian sparkling wine made from 100% Brachetto, a rare grape variety indigenous to southern Italy. Wine made from Brachetto is generally medium in body, lightly sparkling and can be slightly sweet to semi-sweet. These wines are usually fruity and floral with aromas that may include black raspberry, black cherry, notes of tar, clove and flowers such as violets or orchids.

By now, you may ask why these sparkling reds are so special? Let me tell you: the uniqueness about these wines is their alcohol content, which generally ranges from 5.5% to 7%. – A real wine with ABV of a beer!

Brachetto wines can very versatile. It can be drunk as aperitif (with mild cheese or salami) on a hot summer afternnon, as dinner wine (with turkey, mashed potato and stuffing), and as desert (matched with dark chocolate). Besides being yummy, is low alcohol content is especially appealing to those people with low or no alcohol tolerance.

Rosa Regale is produced by Vigne Regali from Strevi, Piedmont. It is owned by the U.S. importer Banfi Vintners. All the grapes are harvested from the La Rosa single vineyard within the Acqui D.O.C.
By the way, D.O.C.G. (Vino a Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita), a system similar to the A.O.C. in France means very little to us consumers except that the wine with such labeling must meet a certain yield level and some evaluation standards of a tasting committee prior to bottling. [Please correct me if I am wrong here.]

ABV: 7%, Price: $18

Tasting notes:

Color: Dark ruby and slightly opaque.

Nose: Intense aroma of red berries and rose petals.

Palate: Fairly grapy. Flavor is of raspberry, cranberry with maybe strawberry. Fairly crisp, tannins is there is not obstructive. Semi sweet and not much complexity.

Body: Medium, light fizzy (as bubbly than a normal prosecco)

Finish: Slightly bitter with flavor of red berries, fairly short.