Message in a Bottle – Italian wine tasting

Tim and I recently managed to find ourselves at this press tasting of Italian wines put on by Thompson International Marketing. We tasted through a range of some 16 producers. The emphasis was on red, and while Prosecco and some still white were also on offer, I focus most of my attention below on the red wines.

I only note the producers that seemed to stand out but the standard was very high overall. From Lombardy there were good wines from Cascina La Pertica and Guido Berlucchi and co. These producers were working with indigenous Italian varieties as well as with Bordeaux-style blends with the Caccia al Piano Bulgheri Superiore DOC 2006 standing out. Also good was a 2008 Merlot and Cabernet Franc blend from Villa Sandi of Veneto.

Tuscany was extremely well represented (perhaps at the expense of other regions). A Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2009 from Casanova Di Neri (€30) was just wonderful, beautifully integrated and with clean fruit. Of the two Brunello di Montalcino’s from this producer the 2005 (Tenuta Nuova 2005 - €60) was excellent but too young to appreciate and the 2004 (Cerretalto 2004 €90) was if anything too overcooked for me. The Rosso was far more drinkable. Castellare Di Castellina had two good wines, the Sangiovese, Cab Sauvignon and Merlot blend Rocca di Frassinello IGT 2007 and the 100% Sangiovese I Sodi di San Niccolo IGT 2006. These were tannic wines though so a bit difficult to approach. An unusual blend of Merlot, Syrah and Sangiovese (Liberta Toscana IGT 2009) by Fattoria I Collazzi was delicious and a great price at €4. The same producers ‘Super Tuscan’ (Collazzi Toscana IGT 2007) was intense and interesting.

It was interesting to find out more about the DOC of Bolgheri which seems to have been set up to allow producers to experiment with Cabernet Sauvignon or blends centred on non-Italian varietals and still stay in the DOC system. There were some nice wines from this area by Podere Sapaio. The Sapaio 2007 was especially interesting, with loads of fiery cedar and fruit. Bit pricey at €30 but this is Super Tuscan territory. I was very impressed with the San Fabiano Calcinaia producer, and also by Bruni, who had a great value blend in their Marteto Morellino Di Scansano DOCG 2009 at €6. Their Perlaia Vermentino Maremma Toscana IGT 2009 (€12) was also good.

So, to sum up, there were some fantastic wines on show here, with some good value options as well as high end DOCGs and Super Tuscans. The only issue really is just how available these wines will be in the UK. Many of them were smaller producers and the tasting did seem to be targeting the restaurant trade in particular. If anyone comes across any of these producers elsewhere then do let me know! In any case I would certainly suggest keeping an eye out for the ones I mention above.

Castelvero Barbera d'Asti 2007

This innocuous looking bottle is quite frankly the best wine bargain that I've experienced at Sainsbury's for ages.

Lovely cherry fruit, a bit of that Italian leather character, some grippy tannin, it's all here. For £4.65.

Buy some. Buy loads. You won't get a better deal anywhere. Ever.

Castelvero

Barbera d'Asti 2007

Piedmont, Italy

Sainsbury's

£4.65 (£6.99)

3/5

Campo Al Moro Chianti Classico 2009

Chianti Classico for less than £7? Worth a try. It's OK, but kind of falls short of what I'd expect from a Classico. Slightly plummy and baked I felt, and lacking the bright, juicy acidity that you'd get with the similarly priced Piccini offerings. Not bad for the price but if you think you're getting something fancy, think again.

Campo Al Moro

Chianti Classico 2009

DOCG Chianti Classico, Tuscany, Italy

Sainsbury's

£6.65 (£9.99)

2.5/5

Pra Morandina Valpolicella Superiore 2006

Another wine from my Virgin Wines sampler case.

This is a class above what I usually drink on a Monday night. It's rich and almost sweet, with notes of cherries, smoke and liquorice, with some herby and gravelly notes on the finish.

I almost thought it was a Ripasso because of the apparent sweetness and richness, but nothing I could find about the wine indicated so. There is a lack of information about the wine on the Virgin Wines website, and some superficial Googling didn't turn up much.

Good stuff, and should be at this price.

Pra Morandina

Valpolicella Superiore 2006

Veneto, Italy

Virgin Wines

£23.99

4/5

Le Dolci Colline Prosecco Brut NV

I was unable to attend a recent Virgin Wines press tasting, so they were kind enough to instead send me a 'highlights case' from the tasting to try out. Over the next few weeks I'll be making my way through the case, and sharing my findings here.

We had the first one last night, a Prosecco. Encouragingly, the wine is apparently made by Claudio Manera, who is the managing director of Araldica, a co-op that in my opinion makes some pretty good affordable wines.

The wine is quite light, and doesn't have the overwhelming pear characteristics that some Prosecco has. It also has some slight bitterness on the finish, perhaps something that accompanying food might help with.

At £7.99 it's a reasonable buy, but I can't help but think there are better alternatives out there.

Le Dolci Colline

Prosecco Brut NV

Veneto, Italy

Virgin Wines

£7.99

2.5/5

Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Primitivo del Salento

This is one of the wines on available with Sainsbury's '2 can dine for £10' offer, the others being white and rosé Pinot Grigio. Primitivo is the Italian name for Zinfandel.

It's very much a warm-weather red. It's produced in Puglia in south east Italy, which is the 'heel' in the boot.

What I meant by a warm-weather red is that it has a lot of grapey, raisiny flavours. Certainly gluggable, but not my cup of tea.

Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Primivito del Salento

Puglia, Italy

Sainsbury's

2.5/5

LIDL Montepulciano D'Abruzzo 2008

Friends of ours brought this wine over last weekend for our Hallowe'en party.

Yesterday was one of our wine club evenings, and the theme was Riesling (blog post coming soon), so I was avoiding red wine. Miriam opened this wine for dinner, and I helped her finish it after the tasting.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It seemed really fresh and lively, with a good streak of acidity throughout it and really drinkable. Perhaps my mouth was a bit sensitive to acid after tasting 6 classy but young and acidic Rieslings, but this went down really well. I really should taste it again before rating it, but first impressions do count for a lot.

I'm not sure what the price is, but most likely under £5.

LIDL

Montepulciano D'Abruzzo

Abruzzo, Italy

3/5

Piccini Super Tuscan 2008

Yesterday I had to dash over to Liverpool Street to run an errand, and while I was there I stopped in at the Tesco on Bishopsgate where I used to buy wine when my office was located there. I've missed it, as it sometimes has interesting offers.

This wine, a Super Tuscan from Piccini, was on offer. We always buy Piccini's Chianti as it's cheap (when on offer usually for around £5) and a good 'everyday' food wine, so naturally I thought this one would be worth a go.

Without getting into too much detail, Super Tuscans are wines made in Tuscany that don't conform to the region's blending laws. Hence they are labelled IGT and usually contain 'international' grape varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

Ultimately, I thought this wine was poor. Style and flavour-wise it more resembled the Chianti than a Bordeaux blend (it is apparently a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese), and a pretty boring one at that. It was thin and lacked fruit and bite. We had a bottle of the Piccini Chianti afterwards and everyone agreed it was actually better than the Super Tuscan. Disappointing.

Piccini

Super Tuscan 2008

Tuscany, Italy

Tesco

£6 (£8.99)

2/5

Melini Borghi d'Elsa Chianti 2009

I've seen this wine a million times in supermarkets, and never tried it. It seems like a supermarket stalwart - kind of just always there. Unspectacular looking, and normally just a pound or two too much to take a gamble on.

It is on offer in Waitrose, but it took about 5 minutes of me waffling, staring at it and the other Italian wines around it, for me to make the decision to buy it. I'm not sure why - it just looks boring. However that is no way to judge a wine.

So I bought it, after all it was only £5.32 (from £7.99). It tasted young, and had a characteristic 'cheap' taste which I've learned to equate with young wines, not necessarily cheap ones. There were flashes of 'Oh - this is OK actually', only for them to disappear with the next sip. Should have gone for the Barbera - it was on offer as well. Maybe a year or three in the cellar for it to mellow out?

Melini

Borghu d'Elsa Chianti 2009

Chianti DOCG, Tuscany, Italy

Waitrose

£5.32 (£7.99)

2/5

Vinchio Vaglio 'I Tre Vescovi' Barbera d'Asti Superiore 2007

Like the Brachetto, this is part of Waitrose's Mediterranean showcase, on for I think the next month.

I like Barbera. It produces good, reliable, everyday red (and also more expensive wines - see this month's Decanter magazine for details). It's usually fruity and has good acidity, and you don't need to spend a lot of money on it. I guess it's similar to bargain Chianti in that way.

This is on for £5.99, and is a good candidate for a case purchase. It has bright, cherry fruit and good aromatics. It's very short on the finish though, to the point where it seems a bit odd. Complex it isn't, but that's not really the point of these wines.

I may have to buy another bottle or two for further evaluation...

I just realized I've had something similar here.

Vinchio-Vaglio Serra

Barbera d'Asti Superiore 2007

Piedmont, Italy

£5.99 (£7.99)

3/5

Araldica Brachetto d'Acqui 2007

This a new one for me. It sounded interesting enough - an indigenous grape variety (Brachetto) to Piedmont, Italy, one of my favourite wine regions. Pink, slightly sparkling, sweet, and made by a producer I respect.

Unfortunately I didn't really like it. It's what you'd call cloying. Or sickly sweet. I like sweet and off-dry wines, but they are balanced with acidity. This isn't - it's just sweet like a soft-drink. It had good fruit flavours, but not enough to convince me it's any better than bad Lambrusco.

Araldica

Brachetto d'Aqui 2007

Piedmont, Italy

Waitrose

£5.99 (£7.99)

2/5

Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Chianti Classico 2007

The entire Sainsbury's Taste the Difference wine range is on offer for 1/3 off until April 13th. I think this range is quite good value, and a further 33% off makes it a steal.

Chianti Classico for £4.90? Ridiculous. I wouldn't say it's the best Chianti I've ever had, but it's definitely good. If it wasn't for the fact that we just finished 2 1/2 cases of Piccini Chianti I would load up on this. I fancy a change though, maybe some Barbera...

Sainsbury's

Taste the Difference Chianti Classico 2007

Chianti Classico DOCG, Tuscany, Italy

Sainsbury's

£4.90 (£7.36)

3/5

Tesco Finest Chianti Classico Riserva 2005

Because we drink a lot of Italian reds as 'everyday wine', I'm always trying new ones. I saw this award-winning wine on the Tesco website as I was ordering something else so I decided to give it a try.

This is a 'riserva' which means it has to be aged at least 27 months before release. This particular one was aged 2 years in oak, followed by 'further refinement in the bottle'.

It has a muted nose of cherries (typical), and it tastes like dusty sour cherries with a bit of tannin mixed in, which is exactly what you want. We found it better than this, which is what else I bought at the same time (the 2006 vintage - it was half-price).

Food accompaniment is a must, as with pretty much all Chianti I've ever tried.

It's apparently made by this co-op.

Tesco

Tesco Finest Chianti Classico Riserva 2005

Tuscany, Italy

£6.99

3/5

Villa Calcinaia Chianti Classico 2006

Trying this wine recently has sparked my interest in Chianti Classico. Quite often I buy 'normal' Chianti as a good value, food friendly table wine, but there is supposedly a big leap in quality between that and Chianti Classico. It's been years since I've had Chianti Classico (with the exception of the one mentioned above), so I figured it's about time I explore a little bit.

I am a member of the Wine Society, and while I was browsing the wines the other day preparing an order I noticed that they had this offering from producer Conti Capponi. This wine was recommended by Jancis Robinson in an excellent recent article on her website. What further endorsement does one need?

So how was the wine? It is a good, solid wine with a touch more perfume and grippy tannin than say good-quality supermarket, non-Classico Piccini wines. It's not a bargain at £11.25, but it's a fair price for a good Chianti Classico.

I just noticed that it has sold out at the Wine Society, but has been replaced by the Riserva version (for £16). This would have spent a bit more time in barrel - probably worth a try.

Conti Capponi

Villa Calcinaia Chianti Classico DOCG 2006

Tuscany, Italy

The Wine Society

£11.25

3.5/5

Ricossa Barolo 2004

I picked this up in another Tesco 50% off deal (£10 down from £20) a few months back. The exceptional vintage and the price made this an attractive buy.

This is my 3rd and final bottle of this wine. The other 2 were drunk in circumstances not conducive to blogging really - they were either not the only bottle of the night or we had a large group of guests over. In these situations I tend to forget about taking notes and just enjoy the atmosphere instead of worrying about what I am going to write.

The back label recommends decanting for at least 3 hours. When I first poured the wine into my decanter, it had quite a strong sulphur smell, which gave way after a few minutes to tar and sour cherries. The wine I suppose is elegant - Nebbiolo from Piedmont reminds me sometimes of red Burgundy - light in colour, medium in body with penetrating cherry aromatics. I think this particular one falls a bit short though. It took a couple of hours to open up, which is fine, but the palate is short on character and length.

If I had paid the full price of £20 I would be very disappointed. For a tenner though it's not bad, a step up from everyday wine, but not much more than that. A 3 on quality, but not good value.

MGM Mondo del Vino

Ricossa Barolo DOCG 2004

Piedmont, Italy

Tesco

£10 (£20)

3/5

Piccini Poggio Teo Chianti Classico 2004

This was a bit of a risky purchase. I ordered 6 bottles without having tried it, going solely on the wine's reputation and price: half price from Tesco Wine Club (£9 from £18), and a Decanter gold medal. Sounds like a deal.

The wine is a Chianti Classico from the Castelnuovo Berardenga region of Tuscany. The grapes come from Piccini's Valiano estate, which also produces other higher-end Chiantis and Super-Tuscans.

This is a fabulous wine. Powerful nose of smoke and cherries, and a wonderfully rich, deep palate of cherry, chocolate, smoke and gravel. The finish is super-long, the richness lingers on and on. Good structure held up by welcome tannins. Very good. A different class than Piccini's other supermarket offerings. A gamble that paid off - I'm stocking up.

Piccini

Poggio Teo

Chianti Classico DOCG, Tuscany, Italy

Tesco

£9 (£18)

4/5

Familae Piccini Chianti Riserva 2006

This is essentially the same wine this, except this is a different vintage and it's gone up in price. I've been wondering if I should bother blogging about different vintages of what is essentially a supermarket wine. Italy isn't exactly California though, and vintage does make a difference. However, this blog is more about identifying good value wines than comparing vintage tasting notes, so this won't be standard practice.

I've made an exception here because there are a couple of things I'd like to add. The 2006 here won a couple of awards, namely an IWSC silver medal and a DWWA bronze. I've also noticed that Piccini bottles at least 2 different wines under the "Chianti Riserva" label -one is 100% Sangiovese, and the other (this particular one) has a little bit of Ciliegiolo in the blend, which according the Wikipedia article I've linked to is a minor component of Chianti blends.

Great value at half price.

Piccini
Familae Piccini Chianti Riserva 2006
Tuscany, Italy
£5.49 (£10.99)
Sainsbury's
3/5

Italia Pinot Grigio 2008

If you're a wine geek (I prefer that term to "wine snob"), then you are probably somewhat careful around this grape variety. It's known for producing lakes of boring, cheap, dry white wine.

Before I got into this wine thing, I was guilty of drinking it as well. If you go into a pub and know nothing about wine, the last thing you want is a warm, oaky Chardonnay or an overly sweet white Zinfandel or German white (to be honest, I've never noticed a sweet German white being served in a London pub before - did they used to do this?). So inevitably, you just say "I'll have a dry white wine", and that became synonymous with Italian Pinot Grigio. Sure, it can be dull, but it does what it says on the tin. It's reliable.

So, we got this wine from Waitrose as part of the "£10 dinner for two" deal. I have times where I wish I had more wine like this lying around, especially in the summer. Yes, it's generic, but these things come in handy.

As for the wine itself, it's OK. It tastes like pears. It's crisp. Nothing wrong with it. It lacks the silky texture and body that some of its Pinot Gris counterparts have, but that's not what it's all about. Don't be embarrassed about Pinot Grigio - it's popular for a reason.

It's produced by a co-op - "Co-op Agricola per Adria Vini". There you go.

Italia

Pinot Grigio 2008

Venezie IGT, Italy

Waitrose

~£5

3/5

Borgo SanLeo Nerello Mascalese Prosecco Rosé NV

This wine is the type of thing I'd serve to guests as an aperitif. However it sat in my fridge for ages because there never seemed a good time to open it due to the weather being rubbish and the general lack of dinner guests. That all changed last weekend though - guests aplenty and some warm sunny weather.

This sparkler was getting a bit of hype over the summer, and deservedly so. It's a blend of the white Prosecco grape and the red Nerello Masaclese, and the result is this non-vintage sparkling rosé. It's intensely pear-scented and gluggably moreish. No, it's not Champagne but it beats boring Cava and for just over £5 a bottle (currenly 33% off) there is no better deal around at the moment.

Forgive me, I've thrown out the bottle and can't remember what I paid (think around £7), so I'm not sure of the exact region it's made in, and the price quoted below the current offer price on WaitroseWineDirect.

Borgo SanLeo

Nerello Mascalese Prosecco Rosé NV

Italy

Waitrose

£5.05 (33% off)

3/5

Tenuta Luisa Friulano del Fruili 2007

This wine is from the Fruili-Venezia Giulia region of North-East Italy, and made with the Friulano or Sauvignon Vert grape.

The wine is medium to full-bodied, with a slight oily texture, and it's noticeably high in alcohol too (14%). Despite that, it seems balanced and it made a good food wine with our salmon and vegetables.

This was a slightly more expensive purchase for me for a mid-week wine. I was in the mood for something a bit different. I did feel that I got a bit extra for the money, it's a step up from the average £6 Italian white.

Tenuta Luisa

Friulano del Fruili 2007

Isonzo del Fruili DOC, Fruili-Venezia Giulia, Italy

Waitrose

£9.59 (20% off)

3.5/5