Oct 15th 2010: Reds from Italy's Less Traveled Wine Roads

The idea to do another “Italy’s less traveled wine roads” tasting came about last month. It was a Wednesday, wine rep tasting day, and one of my reps poured me a taste of the 04 Taurasi from  D’ Antiche Terre. I had been tasting for hours looking for values for the stacks as well as wines for future Friday tastings. I tasted some good, bad and pretty good wines until this baby showed up. Man, I was floored! The nose jumped out of the glass and smelled oh so Italian. Just gorgeous. Then I took a sip. My first thought was “I need to do a “Italy’s less traveled” tasting soon so I can pour this wine. I can’t remember that happening to that degree before. So I scheduled one for October and here we are. This Taurasi is the most exciting new wine I’ve tasted in six months! It has it all. If you like European wines you will fall under its spell, like I did. And then while hunting for the other wines for the tasting I couldn’t believe how many delicious wines were to be found. This has turned out to be a marvelous tasting with wines from all over Italy. I am extremely excited about this one. Unless you’re in intensive care you should be here!

THE LINEUP

09 La Quercia, Montepulciano D’Abruzzi/ Abruzzo   $10
100% Montepulciano

06 Velenosi, Rosso Piceno Superiore “Brecciarolo”/ Marche   $15
70% Montepulciano/ 30% Sangiovese

06 Barba, Vignafranca/ Abruzzo    $15
100% Montepulciano

09 Gulfi, Cerasuolo di Vittoria/ Sicily   $20
50% Nero D’Avola/ 50% Frapatto

07 Lo Triolet, Gamay/ Valle D’ Aosta    $30

PREMIUM POUR ($4)

04 D’Antiche Terre, Aglianico Taurasi/ Campania     $40

Sandy