Vietti Roero Arneis, Piedmont, Italy, 2008

This wine is a pale sunshine color. It’s got fresh floral, citrus and melon aromas & hints of almonds. The wine is dry and medium bodied with crisp acidity. Elegant and well balanced, the Vietti Arneis has great complexity, depth and a pleasant lingering finish. This wine pairs well with grilled fish, roasted chick and hot afternoons.                             — Abby

$23.00/bottle

The color is a light ruby and the wine has a bright, ethereal quality.  The nose has intense aromas of cherries and raspberries, with underlying floral notes.  There is also a streak of minerality running throughout.  In the mouth, the wine is elegant with surprising tannin and acidity, which suggests to me an ability to age nicely over the next 6-8 years.  It drinks beautifully now though, especially with a half hour of decanting.

This is a very fresh and aromatic wine with a silky mouth feel.  I like to pair it with roasted eggplant and fennel or wild mushroom ravioli topped with shaved Parmesan cheese.

Tenuta delle Terre Nere Rosso 2008, Sicily, Italy $22.50

The La Cala Vermentino is produced by Sella and Mosca, which is considered to be among Italy’s most outstanding estates.  As Sardinia’s foremost wine producer, Sella & Mosca is renowned for premium wines made exclusively from estate-grown grapes. In addition to native varieties such as Vermentino, Torbato and Cannonau, the winery has successfully pioneered the introduction of international grape varieties, notably Cabernet Sauvignon.

This Vermentino is clear and crisp but with a nice medium-full body.  It is designed to be drunk young and not meant for aging.  The nose is clean and bright with ample notes of citrus.  The lemony accents and hints of fresh herbs are lively and fresh on the palate.  A mineraly component is likely from the granite rich soil of Sardinia which makes it a perfect complement to shellfish, especially oysters.
This wine is also, simply put, an incredible value wine.  Clean, gleaming, and lovely; it’s a nice match with a variety of dishes, and only $10.75 a bottle.  This is a wine you can afford to drink, and as it is so refreshing you may find yourself doing so often!

La Cala Vermentino di Sardegna 2007, $10.75

We are not alone.  The Chianti district has grown from three isolated villages in 1716, Gaiole, Castellina and Radda.  Today it encompasses most of Tuscany.  Everyone is looking for something special in these wines:  high, bright Sangiovese taste, a firm tannic structure — no cheating with a soft, breathy mouth feel –and a little honest grit in the finish to remind us that this is, after all, an agricultural product.

Could I suggest an example?  Fattoria Selvapiana — don’t you love to say it? — Bucerchiale — now there’s a challenge — 2004 — ragazza, how did you grow up so fast?  This one is from Rufina, just east of Florence and a little out of fashion.  That helps with the price.

How does it taste?  Darker and richer than many Chiantis.  It has earned its Riserva label.  The taste comes from the briar end of the garden — blackberry preserve with a handful of herbs.  It’s a large wine — best with food — and never rough.  You will like it.

At Dedalus for $31.25

Let’s choose 2007 Bricco delle Lepri Dolcetto di Dogliani from San Romano.  The label is unabashedly rural:  Bricco is a local word for “summit” or “top of the vineyard” where the finest grapes are thought to grow.  “Lepri” means “hares.”   So, “hill of the hares” — a  deeply agrarian name which does not call to mind ideological struggle.

The wine is excellent. It is inky, with the ripeness  of purple fruit — bruised, windfall plum and blackberry.  This wine has beautiful manners:  smoothly companionable and with just enough tannic structure or “bite” to offset its native sweetness.  “Dolcetto” — the name of the grape — does not refer to sugar but to the relative ease with which the vine, “the little sweet one,” is cultivated.

The region of Dogliani grew grapes long before 1046 when Oddo of Savoy added the Piedmont to his transalpine kingdom.  Occupied by Burgundians, wild Magyars, Saracens, and eight centuries of French overlords, the Piedmontese were among the first to rise up in favor of a unified, ethnically Italian state.

Can their wine have lagged behind?  Surely those plotters and revolutionaries of 1821 would have found little to sustain them in imported drink.  In these Piedmont wines, we seek an echo of the Risorgimento, the awakening of Italian aspirations, in a simple glass of wine.  It is a fragile thread which leads back into history, but the connection is real and the wine still comes from the same vineyard — the hill of the hares.

At Dedalus for $18.50  .

Tuta 8/24/09

Since the Roman empire, Lugana has been made from the Trebbiano grape.  As Rome collapsed in the 6th century, the new order of barbarians developed a taste for the local wines.  Deodatus, king of the Goths, is reported to have ordered great quantities of Lugana wine for his feasts and followers.  One can imagine rough casks of Lugana wine, probably far sweeter than today, carted slowly south over Roman roads to  the halls of the invaders.

This is a wine simply made for fish.  The restraint of the wine –and its origins by the great lake of the Veneto — ask for flounder or sole, served simply with capers.  Or oysters.  Or anything from the sea.

Lugana would embarrass many of us in a blind tasting.  You could mistake it for a chardonnay — an ingenue Chablis, perhaps.  At a fraction of the price, one could put up with the humiliation.  You will find this beautiful wine at Dedalus for $14.50.

Tuta  7/15/09

Dedalus carries this handsome bottle for $22.50

Tuta 3/23/09

We’re tasting Italian wines, and not a one of them comes wrapped in a straw basket. We decided to stay away from the big attention hogs, and instead we focused a bit more on the cool little appellations and edgy bottlings popping up all over the country.

Stop by the Friday, between 5 and 9, to taste a bunch of eye-opening, distinct wines designed to bring happiness to your next party, dinner, or moment alone.

SOLD OUT!  Call or email the shop to be put on our waiting list.

Piedmont is home to what may just be the most interesting wines on earth. Fashioned from Nebbiolo, the wines of Barolo and Barbaresco are stylish, mouthwatering wines, each different from the next. With distinct terroir comes distinct wines – and Piedmont has loads of both. Join us for this class; we’re betting that you’ll find your new favorite wine!

This is the second class in a two class mini-series of Italy.  Our winter / spring set of wine classes is being held at Three Tomatoes Restaurant on Church Street in Burlington.

Sunday, April 19th

3:00 – 4:30 PM

$35/Person

Let’s look at three of the Piedmont reds: Barolo, Barbaresco, and Barbera d’Alba. Barolo and Barbaresco are stately wines which can reach a great age. When they are good, they smell like wet fir trees and taste like the forest floor. Barolo is the more sonorous and formidable; Barbaresco is ready to drink sooner and can be less austere. Their names identify regions where the wines are made. Both come from the Nebbiolo grape – the “little foggy one” named for the mist which lies over the vineyards at night and in the early mornings. Never turn these wines down if someone offers you a glass.

Barbera d’Alba is different. To begin, Barbera is the name of a type of grape, not a place name. Barbera is grown all over Italy. The vines maintain a high level of acid in the fruit even when grown in heat. Barbera is typically crisp, light, and happy. The wine is ready to drink a year or two after harvest. d’Alba identifies a region close to the small town of Alba in the heart of the Piedmont.

2006 Stefano Farina Barbera d’Alba is a wine which you will want to bring into your house to drink every day. It is a handsome dark garnet color. The nose is delicate with a bare mention of fruit. The first taste shows the balance and restraint of the wine which is one of its most pleasing qualities. The wine remains lightly acid and fresh without sourness. There is a taste of fruit and sun, but it remains hidden until the end when it slips forward to balance the cranberry qualities of the acid. This is a dry wine made to drink with traditional food – say, polenta and sausage or risotto with a gamey fragment of truffle.

Dedalus has this beautiful little wine for you for $13.75.

Tuta 2/3/09