‘Four Tenors’ – Four Wines From Italy
Ah, Italy!
I’ve visited Italy a few times – when I was backpacking (in the 1980s), with our kids during a teacher exchange in 2000, and with my wife in 2014 (where this photo of Pompeii is from).
Italy has so much going for it – culture, history, food, and, of course, wine!
Italy is the world’s largest producer of wine and it has the most varietals of grapes at more than 500, of which 350 are approved for making wine. Italy is also one of the few countries where ‘reserve’ (or ‘riserva’) actually means something – aged for a specific amount of time, depending on the type of wine and method of fermenting. Unfortunately, at the BC Liquor store, they just can’t carry all of those varietals – but I did manage to taste a few different ones over the past month and I thought I would share what I thought of the four Italian ‘tenors’ that I tasted.
The first was a 2016 Custom Superiore Bianco Monte Del Fra Cà Del Magro (on sale at BC Liquor for $20). This white wine is a blend of Garganega (used to make wines from Soave), Trebbiano Toscano, Cortese (used in wines from Gavi), and Incrocio Manzoni (a crossing between Riesling and Pinot Blanc). These grapes are grown in the Verona region which is in the north of Italy and are more than 30 years old. Happily, it features a monk character on the bottle (he’s also on another wine by Monte Del Far but, in that one, he is holding an umbrella)!
Here are the tasting notes for this wine:
Appearance – Clear, medium, lemon.
Nose – Medium plus intensity, clean, aromas of pineapple, banana, peach, apricot, pear, caramel, vanilla, butter, cheese, honey, toast, hay, and passionfruit.
Palate – Dry, medium acidity, medium alcohol, medium body, medium plus flavour intensity, medium finish with tastes of pineapple, lemon, peach, better, honey, apricot, cheese, and pear.
Evaluation – There was a lot going on with this wine. The flavours and aromas were very complex but did not impact the overall freshness and fruitiness of this wine. It was balanced, intense, complex and had good length. I could see this going very well with seafood, chicken, pasta, a nice charcuterie board, and a Sunday afternoon spent with friends. Overall, this wine was Very Good.
