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Italian Tasting
Article Posted: Thursday August 30th
Article last updated on: Thursday August 30th
We invited UK supermarkets and high street wine retailers and one specialist Italian wine merchant to submit what they considered to be their "best shots" of Italian red and white wines in the range three to ten pounds. NB all prices given below are in pounds sterling All the wines were tasted entirely blind, with no information given to the tasters other than the instructions above. The Reds Six pm on the 20th July in London was a time when my idea of heaven would have been sitting by a pool with a long cold beer or a G&T. The air-conditioning in the Italian restaurant was struggling, the reds were warming up rapidly, so our tasting team, reduced to six by the heat, assessed the flight of eighteen reds first. There was a good spread of traditional grape varieties and styles and the honours were fairly well distributed. It was a different matter with the whites, where tasters preferred the fresh young varietal fruit of the flying winemakers. With reds it seems you get what you pay for, though there was a notable exception in the disappointing performance of a Barolo from Waitrose. It was also a great pity that Geoff Merrill's 1993 Cabernet Sauvignon, Atesino Vino da Tavolo (Vino da Tavola) 1993, was badly corked. I rated it rather highly at Sainsbury's press tasting earlier in the year. The Wine and Dine e-zine Accolade
Our accolade for the highest scoring red wine of the tasting was the outstanding Amarone delle Valpolicella, Capagnola 1990 from Waitrose: -lovely sweet spicey fruit with plums and coffee; -clean dry finish after such rich flavours... At 8.99 this Amarone was the most expensive of the reds. Following closely on its heels was the the highly recommended Amarone delle Valpolicella, Sartori 1989, 6.95 from Sainsbury's, which CM felt was readier to drink now, but perhaps did not have the terrific weight of fruit shown by the 1990. I was sorry that Thresher Group did not choose to submit their Amarone from Zenato at 9.99, I've had several bottles and it's an absolute stunner. Amarone della Valpolicella is about as different from Valpolicella Plonca as Riesling is from Liebfraumilch. It is made from partly dried grapes spread on wicker mats in special drying lofts. The resulting wine is complex and powerful. Newer production methods have produced a less oxidised style. Highly Recommended
We couldn't award an accolade for the best quality and value for money, because the highest scoring red wine under a fiver failed to reach the prescribed level of marks. But Kym Milne's Primitivo del Salento Vino da Tavola - 3.99 at Thresher's, 4.49 at Victoria Wine, was good enough to be Highly Recommended. It's made from the Cantele grape from which the Zinfandel derives: nice smokey, spicey nose, good fruit and clean attack... Rather more traditional wines were kindly submitted by Danmar International, the Italian import house. Those that showed extremely well were Lago di Corbara, Vino da Tavola Umbria 1991 at 4.90, and Rosso Piceno Superiore DOC 1991 at 6.90. Both these wines attracted our Highly Recommended award. With the exception of Tesco's Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 1990, which just missed being highly recommended, the Chiantis were rather disappointing. Perhaps this is yet another example of a grand old name that's become tired and complacent? Sainsbury's have a rather interesting Chianti Rufina DOC Riserva, La Pieve 1982, yes 1982! -for only 4.99, definitely worth trying, but somehow it only just failed to pick up enough points to gain an award. On the whole the cheaper red wines were rather thin and less stable in the far from ideal tasting conditions. But then if you can't drink an Italian red wine in the heat of summer, there's got to be something a bit wrong! The whites
Twenty white wines were entered, the cheapest was 3.75, the most expensive was 6.99. There was absolutely no correlation between price and the scores of our tasters: indeed, the top seven wines were all in the cheapest range, while the three lowest scoring wines were also the three most expensive. Maybe this says more about the expectations of the team, since the high scoring whites were nearly all "modern" productions, some by visiting winemakers from guess where. Varietals and Vino da Tavola scored highly. This is because the less stringent Vino da Tavola regulations allow winemakers the freedom to use grapes that would be out of order for a DOC wine. Perhaps when tasters areassessing blind a diverse range of styles, they tend to empathise more with wines whose varietal flavours they recognise? Accolades for the whites
Leading the white brigade from way out in front, with consistently high scores from everyone was the Sauvignon Blanc Friuli DOC Grave 1994 at 3.99 from Waitrose. Our tasters all commented on the intense goosebery nose and the fresh appealing fruit. Given the value for money this wine represents, we had no hesitation in awarding it the Wine and Dine e-zine Top Accolade for outstanding value and quality. This Sauvignon Blanc was made for the Bidoli family by Gaetano Carron, French by birth and elevage, she spends most of her time in Chile working for Concha y Toro. A group of chardonnays scored highly, and a second accolade was awarded to the Chardonnay Atesino Vino da Tavola 1994 at 4.99 from Sainsbury's: lovely balance - excellent fruit flavour and length- typical modern style... This is one of an exciting range of wines specially commissioned for Sainsbury's from the Australian winemaker Geoff Merrill, whose Chardonnay delle Tre Venezie at 3.75 -also from Sainsbury's- is Highly Recommended: -complexity of fruit and fresh acid. Highly recommended whites
Also Highly Recommended was the Chardonnay del Salento Vino da Tavola 1994 at 3.99 from Tesco, made by Kym Milne: nice full fruit character - Clean and fresh - crisp nose and interestingly creamy palate... Highly recommended from Threshers is their Cortese del Piemonte Alasia Vino da Tavola 1994, at 4.99 - interesting nose, nettles? - modern, could be from anywhere - lovely easy summer drinking -fresh soft fruit... Whites from Traditional Italian Varietals
Arguably the more typical Italian wines divided the team more sharply. Both TLC and CM gave their second highest scores to Tesco's 3.79 Verdicchio del Castelli di Jesi. AH thought Arneis delle Langho, Castello di Nieve, 6.99 from Thresher's, had attractive Italianate character with good balance, but others found it confected and with an odd finish. CM also liked the unusual Vigna di Gabri vinified by Donnafugata from mainly Ansonica (otherwise known as Insolia) grapes at 6.90. This wine attracted quite favourable comments, but then the tasters bottled out and gave it a safe score. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Summary of the results Wine and Dine e-zine Accolade and top scoring wine: * Sauvignon Blanc Friuli DOC Grave 1994
stg3.99 from Waitrose (White) Wine and Dine e-zine Accolades * Chardonnay Atesino Vino da Tavola 1994
stg4.99 from Sainsbury's (White) * Amarone della Valpolcella, Campagnola 1990
stg8.99 Waitrose (Red)
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wine and Dine e-zine Highly Recommended Italian Reds: * Amarone della Valpolicella, Sartori 1989
stg6.95 from Sainsbury's * Lago di Corbara Vino da Tavola Umbria 1991
stg4.90 from Danmar International Ltd * Rosso Piceno Superiore DOC 1991
6.90 from Danmar International Ltd * Primitivo del Salento Vino da Tavolo
stg3.99 from Thresher's or stg 4.19 at Victoria Wine ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wine and Dine e-zine Highly Recommended Italian Whites: * Chardonnay del Salento Vino da Tavola 1994
stg3.99 from Tesco * Cortese del Piemonte Alasia Vino da Tavola 1994
stg4.99 from Thresher's * Chardonnay delle tre Venezie, Vino da Tavola
stg3.75 from Sainsbury's ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wine and Dine e-zine Recommended Italian Reds: * Chianti Classico Riserva DOC 1990
stg5.49 from Tesco * Avignonesi Vino da Tavolo de Toscano, 1989 Grifi
stg7.55 from Waitrose * Rosso Conero 1991, San Lorenzo
stg5.59 from Thresher's ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wine and Dine e-zine Recommended Italian Whites: * Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi 1993, Umani Ronchi
stg3.79 from Tesco * Pinot Grigio delle tre Venezie 1994, Vino da Tavola
stg3.79 from Thresher's * Vigna di Gabri, Donnafugata
stg6.90 from Danmar International Ltd ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thresher Group includes Wine Rack and Bottoms Up.
Danmar International Ltd, Tel: 01784 477812 Fax: 01784 477813 - Wines supplied mainly to the restaurant trade and also to Selfridges. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The tasters:
Tony le Ray-Cook and Clifford Mould are joint editors of Wine and Dine e-zine
Andrew Henderson has been in the wine trade all his life, notably with Torres.
Trudy Welsh is a wine lecturer, tour leader and consultant.
Stephen Cook is a journalist who has also worked in the wine trade.
Lee Sherwood is an enthusiastic wine collector and drinker. Our thanks to Ristorante La Terrazza, 90 Ewell Road, Surbiton, tel: 0181 339 9486
who kindly put up with us, before staging the most sumptuous dinner for the tasters and also members of the Kingston and Surbiton Wine Circle. We had a magnificent antipasto, a whole meal in itself, followed by some of the best calves' liver I've ever had, and lots of other goodies. A good time was had by all -the next day was difficult and I fell off my horse rather heavily, never mind, all in a good cause!
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