Feb 18th 2011: Italy's Less Traveled Wine Roads

If I was out there deciding which tastings to attend, this would be at the top of my list.. Once you get out of the popular Italian wine zones like Tuscany and the Piemonte and travel the back roads you’re chance of tasting real, authentic, terroir based wines goes up, big time! These are the FARMERS, the wineries that you pull in to and find the owner, winemaker and all around do everything guy dismounting the tractor to meet you and take you into some “last century” tasting room in which the winery visit experience takes on a whole new meaning. As I tasted through the wines being considered for this tasting it just dawned on me that these were very special wines that taste like they’re from no other place than Italy and at a price that, at times, seemed ridiculously low for the wine being tasted. I kept thinking that these were wines that not enough people know anything about. Sure it’s easy to look for the Italian wines that get all the press like Brunello’s, Barolo’s Super Tuscan’s etc. These are the kind of wines that generally get ignored by the press and thus, are GREAT buys! There are no slick filtrations, roto fermentations and 200% new French oak going on here. These are as real as wine gets.

THE LINEUP

08 Compagnindi Ermes, Cesanese Olevano Romano/ Lazio $13
100% Cesenese

05 Ippolito, Ciro “Colli Mancuso” Riserva/ Calabria $17
100% Gaglioppo

07 Saladini Pilastri, Rosso Piceno Superiore “Vigna Monteprandone”/ Marche $18
70% Montepulciano/ 30% Sangiovese

07 Arnoldo Caprai, Montefalco Rosso/ Umbria $20
70% Sangiovese/ 15% Sagrantino/ 15% Merlot

06 Santadi, Carignano Del Sulcis Riserva “Rocca Rubia”/ Sardinia $27
100% Carignano
PREMIUM POUR ($3)

07 Lanari, Conero Fibbio Riserva/ Marche $35
100% Montepulciano

There you have it. I know I’ll be there and will be very excited to taste the flight!