Italian Roses

Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

I love rose wines. I think that isn’t a surprise if you have been reading my posts at all… So I was pleased when I attended the Bottlenotes tasting, Around the World in 80 Sips. There were lots of opportunities to taste roses.

Interestingly there was a table just full of the little beauties. And they were from Italy.

The first was the 2008 Tesori Lagrein from the Alto Adige region. I thought it was lovely wine crisp with the taste of cherries and almond. The color was less pink and more pale ruby. Unfortunately the table was so crowded that I didn’t get a picture. I looked up the varietal which I was unfamiliar with and found that it is a traditional grape for the Alto Adige and the southern part of the Tyrol (think Geppetto from Pinocchio).

The next was the 2008 Borgo di Colloredo Montepulciano. This wine is named for Gironia which is the location of a battle between the Romans and Sannites who were the native people of the region where it was produced, Biferno Molise. This wine is a blend of Montepulciano and Aglianico (which was originally introduced from Greece). The wine was crisp with the taste of strawberries on the nose and tongue.

Finally, we tasted the nonvintage Azienda Agricola La Tordera Rosato Spumante “Cuvee di Gabry”. The color was a pale salmon and tasted of raspberries and pink grapefruit with a sweet finish. The wine is made of 70% Merlot and 30% Incrocio Manzoni which is a blend of black moscato and Raboso Piave.

After all that pink wine you would think that I would be ready to try something different… but it is summer and I do like the color pink! So you never know.

This entry was posted on July 8, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under Bottlenotes, Gretchen Neuman, Wine Tastings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.