Four to six times a year I am lucky to have the best and most knowledgeable Italian wine palette visit me at the store and we taste wines together. Jeannie Rogers is the former co-owner of Il Capriccio in Waltham, Ma. and now co-owner of the tiny but spectacular wine import firm Adonna Imports. She represents her friends in Italy that just happen to make some of the most amazing wines in the world. The smallest of these great producers is Rovi. He is so tiny, he doesn't have a garage so he uses his neighbors garage to make his hand-picked wines. I am very lucky to get at least one 6 pack of his wines. Sometimes I get more, but not always. His wines are not cheap, $45-60 a bottle. His wines need to age a year or two minimum to show off their greatness. Right now I have two wines from him. The local red grape Marzemino, sort of a cross between a Rhone and a Burgundy, but no description can do it justice I would serve with a ham dinner. The other is a Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. This wine needs to cellar two more years, but already you can taste amazing complexities of flavors that scream to be served with lamb or game meat. You can taste the wildness of the forest in the wine.
If you cannot leave these wines in your cellar for at least a year, don't buy them. If you have the patience, you will be rewarded.
Showing posts with label cellarable. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cellarable. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Blue Moon
The blue moon occurs when there are 2 full moons in one calendar month. The rarest is when it happens in February. I don't know how often it happens, my guess is once in two and a half years for any month. Hopefully, not once in 10 years. But then Mother Nature can be fickle.
In 1996 a red wine made from the Bonarda grape in north central Italy was made. Zaffo was its name-o. Mother Nature conspired with the winemaker in 2006 to make Zaffo once again. We waited impatiently for 10 years, and what do we get?
A wine that needs to age for 10 years to show its greatness.
Zaffo is the name of the big black horse on the label. He was a working horse, used to pull the plow in this classic vineyard.
If you even think about tasting this wine now you will be dissappointed. If you know how to taste through massive but ripe tannins you will recognize how great this wine will be. If you are not familiar with massive but ripe tannins, you will hate the wine. Either of you will love the wine in 5 years, but if you can store it properly and wait the full ten years, you will learn the true meaning of life, well not life, but why some wines need to age.
In 1996 a red wine made from the Bonarda grape in north central Italy was made. Zaffo was its name-o. Mother Nature conspired with the winemaker in 2006 to make Zaffo once again. We waited impatiently for 10 years, and what do we get?
A wine that needs to age for 10 years to show its greatness.
Zaffo is the name of the big black horse on the label. He was a working horse, used to pull the plow in this classic vineyard.
If you even think about tasting this wine now you will be dissappointed. If you know how to taste through massive but ripe tannins you will recognize how great this wine will be. If you are not familiar with massive but ripe tannins, you will hate the wine. Either of you will love the wine in 5 years, but if you can store it properly and wait the full ten years, you will learn the true meaning of life, well not life, but why some wines need to age.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
April 21
A common request in the store is for a wine that is not too expensive now but will be fabulous in a couple of years or more. Not too expensive is a relative term in the wine trade, but rarely can I find a wine under $20 a bottle that will dramatically improve with a few years of time. $30 a bottle is a good place to start and picking a region or grape variety not well known gives the best bang for the buck.
The Domaine le Sang des Cailloux Cuvee Floureto 2007 at $29.99 a bottle is HUGE bang for the buck. When I tasted it, I tried to buy ten cases, but they would only let me have 4, an unusual number. This is a Rhone Valley wine from the town of Vacqueras. Most Vacqueras are $10-20 a bottle, but this is not most Vacqueras. If rob the cradle and taste it now, you will love-hate it, or hate-love it. When the bottle is first opened, it tastes like a California fruit bomb with gobs of lush ripe fruit flavors. Sometime later, between a half hour to a full hour, the wine closes all the fruit down and you are left with tannic, barnyard and peppery flavors. Over time these two separate sensations will meld into one terrific wine. My guess right now is to wait until 2015 for a wine extravaganza. I would serve it on a cold winter's night with a leg of lamb or roast of beef.
Venison would be awesome too.
The Domaine le Sang des Cailloux Cuvee Floureto 2007 at $29.99 a bottle is HUGE bang for the buck. When I tasted it, I tried to buy ten cases, but they would only let me have 4, an unusual number. This is a Rhone Valley wine from the town of Vacqueras. Most Vacqueras are $10-20 a bottle, but this is not most Vacqueras. If rob the cradle and taste it now, you will love-hate it, or hate-love it. When the bottle is first opened, it tastes like a California fruit bomb with gobs of lush ripe fruit flavors. Sometime later, between a half hour to a full hour, the wine closes all the fruit down and you are left with tannic, barnyard and peppery flavors. Over time these two separate sensations will meld into one terrific wine. My guess right now is to wait until 2015 for a wine extravaganza. I would serve it on a cold winter's night with a leg of lamb or roast of beef.
Venison would be awesome too.
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