Quick Taste: Altanuta

By Rob Bralow, Wine Post Editor

I profess not to be a lover or Pinot Grigio. Too often I find it watery, or strained with tropical, or simply flawed. Therefore, when I find a Pinot Grigio I like, I find it to be almost a miracle.

Altanuta Pinot Grigio is good wine. From Valdadige, Italy this Pinot Grigio is the real deal. This is a delicious wine that I can see myself enjoying during a meal or just sitting around on an afternoon. There is a grassy, lime and creamy smell to the wine, with lots of minerality. The creamy smoothness comes out on the palate and is joined by soft pears and peaches.

I received this wine as a sample from Total Beverage Solution.

In Praise of the Saint of Margherita

Perhaps not as interesting as my recent topics, but I felt as if I needed to get back to the recreational part of blogging, rather than the academic.

There is no question that I am a fan of the occasional margarita. In fact, for most of college I remember going into the local Chili’s for one or two or three Presidentes. I may or may not have remembered leaving the Chili’s…

With such pleasant memories of college fresh in my mind, I was more than happy to taste a few bottles of Santa Margherita. Yes, the spelling is slightly different, but if you drink enough of them you’ll never notice.

Santa Margherita, founded in 1935, currently makes 32 wines according to their website. Which means it is somewhat unlikely that this is a small company. In addition, Santa Margherita sponsors environmental initiatives in Italy as well as AIDS research in Canada. Hopefully this company will also begin doing some sponsorship in the U.S.

I tasted their Brut Prosecco NV from Valdobbiadene as well as the Chianti Classico 2006, which does not seem to be listed on their website. The Prosecco had medium sized bubbles with peaches and kiwi coming through on the nose. The taste was of white fleshed fruits, but nothing really discernable. The Chianti Classico was smooth, with some rich stewed red berry theme running through it.

Neither was amazing, but then again, I would not have passed up a second glass.





















But, why is the bottle image that is on their website, different than the label which is actually on the bottle?

Let's talk Pinot Grigio

I do not really know much about Pinot Grigio. I have always considered the wine to be a harmless and uninteresting, something that someone looking for a harmless sip of wine with dinner or just sitting outside in the sun. My experience has been that if a person well advanced in years is not drinking white zinfandel it is a good bet that they are drinking Pinot Grigio.

I cannot point to statistics, I cannot say that I have surveyed this possibility among a sample population, but I think it is true. My personal opinion of the wine is negative. Sorry for having an opinion.

Not really sorry though.

Then I was sent a bottle of Tenuta Ca'Bolani Pinot Grigio 2007 from Friuli. Friuli is in the north eastern corner of Italy. Ca'Bolani seems to be the largest estate in Friuli and is owned by the Zonin Family Vineyards. Pinot Grigio makes up roughly 1/6 of the Ca'Bolani land under vine. The rest is a wide variety, including, Pinot Blanco, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Riesling, Tocai, Prosecco, and more.


I tasted the wine with a variety of other white wines (I was having a samples tasting day of wines such as Torrontes, Albarino, and Sauvignon Blanc) and found that I really enjoyed the wine. There was some nice peach with a little hint of cream on the nose and very zesty, tangerine and lemon zest on the tasting. It was a sipping wine, not a wine so intensely citric as a Sauvignon Blanc that it would need food. I am not saying that the wine would not go well with food, but it does not need it.

Worth a try. I found it online listed for $20 at its highest, and $7 at its cheapest, which means one of those retailers is ripping people off like CRAZY.

Wine Blogging Wednesday – Piedmont

I am so far behind in this one. For the last WBW (Wines of Breakfast) I was so good, I had reached out to the PR world and asked for input (and got LOTS). I thought about the meal I would prepare, I thought about the wines.

For this one, hosted by David McDuff, owner of McDuff’s Food & Wine Trail is all about Piedmont. I know a little about the region in Italy, and a little about the wines from Alba. I just need to get my butt in gear and find something.

So, Wine Blogging Wednesday is coming up on February 18th. We’ll see what I pull out by then.

Sometimes a wine is just a wine

During the tasting I had of some sparkling wines I was able to taste a Lambrusco. Lambrusco is the name of both a red wine grape and an Italian wine made principally from the grape. The grapes and the wine originate from four zones in Emilia-Romagna and one in Lombardy, principally around the central provinces of Modena, Parma, Reggio nell'Emilia, and Mantua. The grape has a long winemaking history with archaeological evidence indicating that the Etruscans cultivated the vine. In Roman times, the Lambrusco was highly valued for its productivity and high yields with Cato the Elder stating that produce of two thirds of an acre could make enough wine to fill 300 amphoras.

The most highly-rated of its wines are the frothy, frizzante (slightly sparkling) red wines that are designed to be drunk young from one of the five Lambrusco denominazione di origine controllata (DOC) regions: Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro, Lambrusco di Sorbara, Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce, Lambrusco Reggiano, and Lambrusco Mantovano. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Lambrusco was the biggest selling import wine in the United States. During that time the wine was also produced in a white and rosé style made by limiting the skin contact with the must. Today, Lambrusco is still one of the most consumed wines in the US, although there is plenty more Merlot and Cabernet than any other wine.

The Lambrusco I tasted was the Cleto Chiari Pruno Nero Lambrusco NV, from the DOC of Grasparossa di Castelvetro. It was slightly sparkling, not the full bubble that one would expect in regular sparkling wines. It was actually closed with a regular cork and foil, with no cage to hold it.

The smell turned me off. It had lots of sticky sweet liquorish, with little else. When I tasted it my face made such a reaction that it stopped other people as they were lifting the glass to their lips. It was extremely astringent. There was a thin prune juice flavor, kind of like a proem that had too little sugar in it.

Not a great experience, but hopefully I’ll try another Lambrusco soon to show me that good wines can be made from this grape.

Wines tasted on November 5th, 2008

1) Catena Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, 13.5% ALC, Mendoza, Argentina
2) Norton Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon 2006, 13.8% ALC, Napa Valley, California, USA
3) Chateau Lastours 2005, 12.5% ALC., (30% Syrah, 30% Baucol, 20% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon), AOC Gaillac, Bordeaux, France
4) Greenpoint Shiraz 2005, 14% ALC, Victoria, Australia
5) Andezon “A” 2006, 14% ALC, AOC Cotes-du-Rhone, France
6) Qupé Syrah 2006, 13.5% ALC, Central Coast, California, USA
7) Cantele Primitivo 2005, 13.5% ALC, IGT Salento, Puglia, Italy
8) Seghesio Zinfandel 2006, 15.4% ALC, Sonoma County, California, USA

A bunch of wines for this tasting and not many good ones. Instead of reviewing all of them I'll just give my two cents on the ones I liked.

5) This wine was meaty, a little smoky and called for food. It probably had a little bit of Granache with the Syrah, leading to some rich spicy flavors. Very earthy but surprised me with the ripe new world style fruit on the taste.

7) What a price for this wine. A great example of a wine that most people will enjoy. It had sweet fig aromas and was jammy on the taste.

Wines tasted on October 15th, 2008

Pinot Grigio (Gris)

1) Villa Dugo Pinot Grigio 2007, 13% ALC., DOC Friuli Isonzo, Italy

2) Erste & Neue Kellerei Pinot Grigio 2007, 13% ALC., DOC Alto Adige – South Tyrol, Italy

3) Ponzi Vineyards Pinot Gris 2007, 13.3% ALC., Willamette, Oregon, USA

Sauvignon Blanc

4) Sileni Cellar Selections Sauvignon Blanc 2007, 12.5% ALC., Marlborough, New Zealand

5) Clos Roche Blanche Sauvignon Blanc 2007, 12.5 ALC., AOC Tourain, Loire, France

6) De Martino Parcela 5 Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2007, 13.5% ALC., Casablanca, Chile

My Review:

1) I thought this wine was a bit boring. It had a little bit of vanilla and smokiness to it. Makes me think there was a bit of oak. Something I would suggest as a large party wine, not too expensive and bland enough to be inoffensive to everyone.

2)Much more interesting wine, with a bit of a floral note in the nose. The taste was still rather spicy, fruity with a little it of orange citrus.

3)A very different wine than the first two, more of a passion fruit and orange rind nose. The taste was a little sweet and creamy to me, although there was still plenty of acidity.

4)Like a freshly opened can of string beans. Lots of asparagus here, although the taste had a little bit of tropical fruit.

5)Really interesting. Like putting my nose into a bag of werthers originals. This wine was really aromatic with vanilla and butterscotch everywhere. The taste had some nice grapefruit to it, but the werthers were definitely overpowering.

6)Asparagus bomb! So much boiled string beans. I had to run out of the room.

7)We opened another bottle to see if we could find a classic Sauvignon Blanc. We did in the De Martino Organic Sauvignon Blanc 2007, 13.3% ALC, Maipo Valley, Chile. Thank goodness. There was the grapefruit I was looking for. This wine was spicy, zesty and very fresh.