Category: Italy

2017 Renzo Masi Il Bastardo Vino Rosso Italiano

Vino da taglio was, or maybe still is, a naughty way for higher alcohol wine from mainly Puglia and Sicily to find its way into under powered Tuscan and other northern producers’ wine. Bravo for this good Chianti Rufina producer playing with the idea and then cheekily calling it The Bastard. Seems it’s good Rufina Sangiovese “cut” with some warming Sicilian Shiraz. Whilst the thought of bastardising the purity of good Sangio is at first horrible, this turns out to be a delicious drink for not a lot of cash. Starts a bit reduced as the screwcap cracks but then opens cleanly with Sangiovese cherries and walnuts warmed by spice and darker berries. Still has that lovely pull of Chianti acid and fine tannin grabbing at some chocolate richness. If you were looking for an easy but genuine intro to Ital wine, stop here and get acquainted. Best thing is the pure Chianti accent can still be heard above the Mezzogiorno’s warm chatter.

13% alcohol. Screwcap on an Italian, bravo. $10 bargain from a Langton’s auction.

89 pizza friendly points.

2017 Ca’ La Bionda Valpolicella Classico

Fine, clean and fresh. Sparkling cherry fruit, a little muddy freshly dug soil and something mineral. As if Corvina had been on holiday to the Côtes de Beaune, such is the svelte even fruit and grace of structure. Absolutely no bombast but just a quietly moderate purity. Creeps up gently but doesn’t let go without another sip. Can you actually taste limestone or granite in wine? Does transparent organic farming help? Idealistically, you’d like to think so. Long way from industrial Valpol.

12.50% alcohol. Cork. About $30 plus a bit, sorry forgot to pay attention.

92 extremely fine points.

2016 Matteo Correggia Roero

Usually a good buy for a crisp, red fruited, juicy light weight version of Piemontese Nebbiolo, this vintage has been to the gym across the river in Barolo. Bit rustic to open, not in a tangy B word way but earthy and sulphur derived perhaps. Over a few days, it cleaned up and did a convincing imitation of a Langhe Neb or a baby Barolo..esco. Red cherries, fresh bitumen and a chocolate earthiness. A bit of licorice root too. In the mouth is where things really start to muscle up. Firm acidity and those black tea tannins pull hard. Without food it’s forbidding, a slice of good pizza and that structure clears the path for the fruit to bloom. Wine from Italy, always for the table, always. That tannin’s so good for you

14% alcohol. Screwcap, luxe too. $33, bargain.

92 points.

2017 Piero Benevelli Langhe Rosso numero 3

If memory serves, tenuous but just possible, then this is the twins from Mondo Imports own dalliance with blending? 70% Barbera and 30% Nebbiolo combine seamlessly to make an extraordinarily delicious mouthful. Exquisitely balanced poise of floral perfume, brightest red fruit and cool Langhe mineral. Maybe the warmer year has pushed the Neb to be more friendly to the Barbera? Absolutely spotless and impossible to avoid another sip. Some wine demands unraveling and thought, some just need joyful drinking. This surely is the latter but as it’s Piemonte just a bit of the former? Bravissimo, D’Anna ragazzi, best one yet.

14% alcohol. Cork. $35 and a bargain.

93 points but plus for sheer lip smacking glee.

2010 Passopisciaro Sicilia IGT

From the edge of the Etna volcano where they clamber up and down tending their Nerello Mascalese vines. No enological slickness to this indeed. A medicinal tang from the less than scrupulously clean wood and a bit of lift but unusually tolerable. In fact they’re just the sort of blemish that make a French film star interestingly full of character rather than the blandness of a Hollywood performer. It’s probably the sheer strength of cherry rich and ethereally mineral fruit that that makes this normally grumpy fault zealot want another mouthful. What the Japanese call Wabi Sabi, imperfection being essential to beauty? Age seems to have melded fruit and structure but kept that beautifully dry tug to refresh. The wonky bits are really just seasoning. Hints of blood orange juice too. So good with a oily pasta, of course. Surprised to find this so delicious. The teetering balance of a lot of great fruit and a tiny bit of naughty.

14% alcohol. Cork. $50 approximately?

93 non technical points.

2016 Bruno Rocca Barbera d’Alba

Modernist, sweetly fruited and with a bit of lift to tickle the fancy. Very ripe, clean and crunchy cherries and plums but with just enough Langhe earthy stones and rocks to cut across. Slick and svelte but its roots still firmly in the Piemontese soil. Perhaps a bit more savouriness and austerity would be good. Nonetheless delicioso. The Bordeaux shaped bottle indicates the move away from rustic traditions perhaps? Bowl of tomato sauced pasta? Essential.

14.50% alcohol. Cork. $42.

91 points.

2017 G D Vajra Langhe Nebbiolo

Another Vajra and another sublime mouthful of Piemonte. Opens with slightly rusty, earthy scents that warm to fine, just ripe cherries with perfumed pot pourri on the edges. Became riper and richer over four days with Nebbiolo’s typical resistance to oxygen exposure. Seems ripe and generous by Vajra’s usual standards of grace and demeanour, perhaps a sign of a warm and riper vintage? Certainly delicious now and still plenty of that pleasing Piemontese stone and rock to cut the generous red cherries and sweet almond paste. Their 2016 Baroli are going to do some serious damage to the wine budget I fear.

14% alcohol. Cork. $45.

93 points.

2016 Bruno Rocca Trifolé Dolcetto d’Alba

Opens with sparklingly clean aromas of bright red sour cherry, wet concrete, sweet earth and just made raspberry compote. Glossy flavours track the same strada with road tar savour providing background to the pure sweet fruit. Very polished wine making kept from cloying by just a tickle of lift. Old tee shirt under an Armani suit. Good density but light on its feet with mouth watering acidity. Quotidian wine for those lucky Piemontese. A bit more special and exotic for us at the end of the long import journey clobbered by the less than equal WET.

13.50% alcohol. Cork. $35.

92 points.

2017 Alois Ladeger Porer Pinot Grigio

From high up in the mountains of the Alto Adige where Pinot Gridge makes something worthy of time in the fridge. Beguiling bronze pink shimmer to match the delicate rose petal, lychee and red apple skin fruit. So fine boned, delicious acidity never allows the perfumes to cloy. Touch brassy from some skin contact but only intermittent as the fine drive of a pure mountain stream tunes it in and out of reception. Fascinating and repeat tastes bring something new and subtle into focus. Grape skin texture and beautiful acid are as much a part of the experience as fruit flavour. Poise.

12.50% alcohol. Cork. $40.

93 delicate points.

2007 La Spinetta Langhe Nebbiolo

Opened a bit dull and browning but in the tradition of ageing Neb the colour freshened to a deeper red and the fruit gained weight. Some oddly distracting spice and herby liqueur smells also bobbed up, perhaps from this maker’s love of small oak barrels? Despite the static the fruit is dense and fresh with typical cherry and tar floating on settled acidity and considerable tannin. Just a bit too drying maybe? Leads to speculation about how much Nebbiolo really needs oak tannin as it just seems to jar against that lovely ripe skin extraction. The fruit wins in the end but does it need the make up?

14% alcohol. Cork. $25 from Murphy’s clearance back in 2012. Worth the risk.

91 points.