Last Week's Tasting Notes

Casar Alphabet Albariño ($11.99)
Rías Baixas (Galicia), Spain
From the producer:
"A predominant fruity wine, clear and very direct, it perfectly combines citric aromas with an attractive base of ripe apple and memories of aromatic herbs. Predominant on the palate a pleasant acidity that carries a fresh liveliness. It demonstrates a good structure, with a dense and creamy sensation that provides a final balance and largeness, expanding varietal sensation."

From me:
Albariño isn't on everyone's radar yet, but it should be. Spanish wines in general have grown in popularity in the U.S. over the past several years, but it seems as if the reds get more attention. The style of Albariño is light and mineral, often with a floral or citrus tone. This particular Albariño has slightly more body than usual, perhaps due to its slight age. It also has a creaminess that keeps the acidity in balance. A very pleasant and easy drinking wine, good alone, with vegetables, or seafood.

Lieti Conversari ($14.99)
Lake Garda, Italy
From the producer:
"Shows a golden yellow color, very bright, sharply clear, dominates by its visual cleanliness in spectacular fashion, presenting intact in all its forms, even on rotation of the glass. Medium-bodied, medium density of the fruit, the grape is shown with dense and compact glyceride arches.

The nose is a symphony of scents, clean and undamaged: honey, rosehip, cinnamon, nutmeg, black elderberry, are the dominant aromas of this wine. Closes with a tail slightly spicy, marron glacé and tobacco leaf, with an impact of freshness, and with a hint of sweet mineral, which rises to the nose nicely.
 
In the mouth is like a silk cloth, cool, pleasurable that grabs the mouth with sensations of ripe grapes and Tunisian mango. round There is a strong equilibrium (sweet, salty, sour, bitter), so the integrity of the fruit that shows no sensation that is extraneous to the grape either in the mouth or on the nose. Great, great harmony."

From me:
This is the kind of wine that I imagined selling when this store was merely a dream: organic, off-beat grape (Manzoni Bianco), kind of geeky, and absolutely delicious. The nose on this wine is amazing! I detect honey and flowers, and even on the finish I get a little note of beeswax. It's medium bodied, smooth, and elegant. 

Can Maurisset Priorat ($19.99)
Priorat, Spain
From the producer:
"Priorat is a valley surrounded by a large mountain range that makes it almost impossible for clouds to penetrate into the valley to give water. This has the effect that we have a warmer summer and a colder winter than in other areas of Spain.

45% Garnacha, 45% Carignan, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon
Aged 9 months in new French oak

Very intense cherry red color. Deploying in the nose a range of citrus and fresh tones, red ripe fruit, vanilla, tobacco. On the palate it has a creamy sensation, sweet, fruity and deep. 

From me:
This is a wonderful example of a Priorat wine. It is bold, but smooth, with a depth of fruitiness that is perfectly restrained by a firm tannin. The oak aging imparts a silkiness that makes this very easy to drink. I prefer this on its own, or with a nice dry-cured ham and some Manchego.

Tenuta di Collosorbo Le Due Gemme ($15.99)
Montalcino, Italy
From the producer:
"Sant’Antimo, born from Sangiovese grapes, blended with French varieties as Syrah, Cabernet Souvignon and Merlot. It’s a fresh fruity wine, with a good structure but even softness, it blends the warm international style with the typical flavours of our terroir.

Grape variety: 70% Sangiovese, 20% Syrah , 5% Merlot; 5% Cabernet-Sauvignon.

Aging: all varieties are aged for about 10 months in small French oaken barriques. After blending the wine is aged in the bottle for 4-6 months."

From me:
You may have heard of Brunello di Montalcino, one of Italy's best-known and most expensive wines. By regulation it must be 100% Sangiovese--great for Brunello makers, but what about someone who wants to make a delicious everyday wine using other kinds of grapes for blending? They get their own designation, of course! Sant'Antimo, while necessarily made in Montalcino, allows for flexibility in winemaking. Le Due Gemme is an earthy, rustic, robust blend that will have you yearning for a trip to Tuscany. You get the best of all worlds with this wine: fruit grown in a renowned area at an affordable price. 

Cantine Collesole Montefalco Sagrantino ($24.99)
Umbria, Italy
From the producer:
100% Sagrantino 

"WINE-MAKING fermentation on stainless steel tanks and maceration for 3 weeks
MATURATION in oak barriques for 12 months and in stainless steel tanks for 24 months
BOTTLES PRODUCED    
33.000
COLOR    
ruby red intense
TASTE    
perfumes of cherry, blackberry and wood with a vigorous, balanced and structured taste; it should be served with red meat and aged cheeses"

From me:
Sagrantino is a grape I only discovered in the last year when tasting this wine. It's not particularly well-known in the U.S., but it should be. It is indigenous to Italy, and it produces a very dark wine, with deep, rich fruit flavors and an underlying earthiness. There is quite a firm tannin, and by regulation this style of wine must be aged for at least 30 months, 12 of which must be in oak, so it has excellent aging potential. We will be pouring a 2010, which drinks beautifully now, but could easily cellar for 5-10 more years. As far as I'm concerned, this is Italy's best kept secret. ​