|
A
Beginners Guide to Italy's QPR Wines
By John Fodera
Ciao
tutti,
In
the wake of my last Italian post, I’ve had some calls and emails
wondering if I could list some “Intro to Italy” wines for tasters
new to the region to explore.
So
where to turn if you are new to Italy? Well, luckily for you,
the region is experiencing some of its finest vintages in the
last 5 years. There has been a string of good vintages recently
(beginning with ’95) that was largely unprecedented until now.
This will help in your quest for excellent QPR wines with which
to begin your Italian journey.
Tuscany
–
There
are lots of options for eager wine lovers in this appellation
and you don’t need to chase all the high end designer Super Tuscans
to find great wine.
The
1997 vintage on the market now is higher priced than it’s 1996
counterpart, however, it should not be ignored. Many of the so
called “baby Super Tuscans” have been quite nice. Generally these
wines cost less than $10 and are mostly blends of Sangiovese with
some other grape; usually Cabernet or Merlot. Some “baby Super
Tuscans” to look out for :
Castello
Banfi Centine
Castello Banfi Col di Sasso
Antinori Santa Cristina
Ruffino Fonte al Sole
Carpineto Dogajolo
Monte Antico Rosso
Furthermore,
many of the wines have already “hit” the 1998 vintage and of the
ones I’ve tasted, proves that Tuscany once again has a great vintage
on it’s hands.
There
are many traditional wines from Tuscany that bear mentioning here
as well. New progress and developments are occurring in the Maremma
region of Tuscany. This area, along the Tuscan coast, was the
topic of much conversation at this past April’s VinItaly showcase.
The region has truly emerged and the wines are improving. The
local clone of Sangiovese, called Morellino, displays very nice
varietal and terroir character and is used to make a wine called
Morellino di Scansano. There are two producers in the region that
win the quality battle hands down : Moris Farms and Fattoria Le
Pupille. I recently had the 1997 Moris Farms and was stunned at
the terroir signature and richness of fruit in this $11 wine.
One
cannot forget the wines of Chianti either. I touched on many of
the excellent producers in this area in my post last week, so
I won’t repeat it here. However, many of those wines are now approaching
$19 to $25 a bottle for the best Chianti Classico’s. Excellent
wine can still be had from this appellation in the $10 to $15
range and here are some that bear mentioning:
Cecchi
Chianti Classico
Villa Cafaggio Chianti Classico
Selvapiana Rufina
Ruffino Chianti Classico Riserva (Tan parchment label)
Antinori Badia a Passignano Chianti Classico
Straccali Chianti
Then
of course you have the 1997 Rosso di Montalcino’s which are just
now beginning to show up almost everywhere. Any good producer
of Brunello di Montalcino should produce a good Rosso, but prices
can vary on these wines and as expected, they have gone up. Still,
many are available for less than $20, some for less than $15.
Check out my post on Brunello for a list of the noteworthy producers.
Piedmont
–
This
region is more difficult than Tuscany to learn and appreciate.
This region boast two of the best wines to come from Italy in
Barolo and Barbaresco, but these wines are very expensive. $30
is almost a given. There is very little excellent to great B&B
made that one could find for under $30. So what to do?
Your
main alternative is really Barbera where you basically have two
options : Barbera d’Alba and Barbera d’Asti. There are others,
but they are obscure and rarely distributed widely. Barbera is
a naturally highly acidic grape. It takes patience to understand,
or a very ripe vintage to counter balance the acids.
Barbera
used to be a much better value. Almost any producer’s wine was
obtainable for less than $20 but that is no longer the case. Still,
there are many producers that make good examples that are reasonably
priced. Look for:
Giacomo
Conterno
Vietti
Clerico
Moccagatta
Giacosa
The
above should be obtainable for less than $20 and even Aldo Conterno
is very good if you want to spend a bit more money.
Other
than Barbera there’s Dolcetto d’Alba too, although in my opinion,
few can match the QPR and complexity of the better Tuscan wines
and Barbera’s mentioned above. I don’t usually find myself grabbing
this wine. However, I recently had one standout : The 1998 Clerico
Dolcetto d’Alba. This was a serious wine and needs cellaring.
Probably a good 2 or 3 years and speaks to the excellence of the
1998 vintage.
Other
Wine Regions –
This
is a hard area to limit the remainder of Italy, but if I did not
approach it this way, I could be typing for days. The possibilities
are virtually endless as well as the wine styles. I have tried
the following wines several times and found them to be good QPR’s
and representative of their region. Bear in mind, I may or may
not like the style of the wines listed, but they are well made
and as I said, representative.
D’Angelo
Aglianico del Vulture
D’Angelo Vigna Caselle
Mastroberardino Taurasi
Duca di Salaparuta Corvo Rosso
Taurino Salice Salentino
Antonelli Rosso di Montefalco
Caprai Rosso di Montefalco
Finding
QPR wines in Italy in this day and age is not impossible, it just
isn’t easy. One must know where to look and understand what he
is reading / confronting. Hopefully armed with this post, I will
have allayed some of your fears.
Salute!
G
Copyright
© John Fodera, December, 1999
|
