Vino Italiano! Wines from the North of Italy - WSET 3.8

Courtesy Wine Folly

When your wine's on your lips,
And you're having some sips,
That's Amoré....

Ah, Italia!

This week was the first of two classes on one of my favourite places to visit, Italy. The focus was on Northern Italy, home of some pretty incredible wines.

First, though, we had another blind taste test and some questions. I think I did well on the taste test which was a 2016 Domaine de la Mordoree Cote du Rhone........ but I might have been a bit too generous with my overall assessment. We also had three short answer questions and I think I nailed two of them and guessed on one....

Now, back to Italy!

Italy is in a yearly neck-in-neck battle for the most wine produced - with France, of course. There are over 2000 varietals (many which never leave Italy), and 20 wine regions.

Northern Italy has a moderate climate with short, hot summers. Altitude is very important here because, together with a fairly large diurnal range, it slows the ripening which keeps the acidity high in the wine. Northern Italian wines are famously high yielding with low densities.

Trentino-Alto Aldige was the first area we looked at and this region has a lot of Pinot Grigio. Alto Adige grows mostly Pinot Grigio but some of it can be actually quite good (if you like Pinot Grigio). Trentino has higher yield Pinot Grigio (which means it's not as good) as well as a red grape called Terlodego which has deep colour, medium to high tannins, high acidity, a medium to full body, and black fruit.

Friuli Venezia Giulia is in the eastern corner of the country, The northern vineyards have a moderate continental climate while the southern vineyards have a warm maritime climate. The big white grape is Pinot Grigio (Oh no! Not again!) which is the richest in Italy with juicy peach and tropical flavours. There's another popular white grape called Friuliano which has aromas of red apples and pear. There are some DOCs (which are the second tier of their highest wine qualification) including Friuli Grave DOC (fertile soil on a plain - white and fruity wines), Collio (means hill) DOC (whites and reds), and Collio Orientali DOC (reds - and premium reds, at that!).

We didn't try anything from either of those two regions but we did try some from the next one - Veneto.

Veneto is the largest region in Northern Italy and is home to two famous appellations, Soave and Valpolicella. This area has a warm climate with moderate rain and sites benefit from the altitude and large diurnal range. Many of these wines are grown on flat plains, especially the more inexpensive Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Merlot, Corvina, Garganega and Trebbiano.

Soave has two areas - the Soave DOC and the Soave Classico DOC. There are also some Soave DOCG wines which are the highest classification in Italy. The vineyards on the foothills have limestone, clay and volcanic soil which are cool so the wines can fully ripen slowly which increases acidity. The vineyards on the flat plains to the south, on the other hand, have sandy soils (that are warmer) which speeds up ripening creating young, fruity wines that have medium acidity. The grape used to make Soave is Garganega and makes wines tasting of pears, red apple, stone fruit, and white pepper which can develop almonds and honey as the wine ages.

The Soave we had was a 2016 Pieropan Soave Classico ($26)  made from the Garganega grape. This wine had aromas of pear, peach apricot, nectarine and apple and had tastes of lime and wet stone. It was a dry wine with high acidity, medium intensity of flavour, and a medium finish. This wine was described to us as a 'simple' wine and garnered a Good rating with a drink now advisory.

Northwest of Verona is Valpolicella where the main grape is Corvina. Again, in the foothills there are limestone, clay, and volcanic soils which contribute to higher acidity while on the flatter areas, warmer gravel and sandy soils dominate.

The Corvina grape can make a pretty simple wine, as shown by the 2017 Folonari Valpollicella ($18) that we had. It had both red fruit and black fruit aromas and sour cherries, cranberries, and plums on the palate. This dry wine had high acidity, high alcohol and a short length. It wasn't a terrible wine and actually had some nice complexity and so, it earned a Good rating - drink it now, though!

Valpolicella can make good wines - but the Italians have done some other things with the Corvina grape - and these things are wonderful!

Amarone wines are made from the Corvina grape but the grapes are picked and then left put in racks in a drying building (called the passito method) and allowed to dry out (this drying out is called appassimento). The grapes basically turn to raisins, which really concentrates their flavours. The drying out averages around 120 days and then the grapes are made into a rich, deep, wonderful wine.

Ripasso wines are made by taking a regular batch of Valpolicella wine, adding the leftover grapes (called the pomace) from making the Amarone wine, and letting the grapes soak or macerate in the wine.  Ripasso basically means 'repassed' and that's what is happening to the grapes.

Recioto wines are basically Amarone wine that has stopped fermentation early - either by running out of nutrients, the alcohol getting to high, or being affected by noble rot. Although we didn't taste one of these during today's class, I did have one when we went out to a restaurant in Vancouver called "Ask for Luigi" where I finished off an amazing dinner with a small glass of Recioto. It was amazing!

The Amarone we had was a 2013 Tommasi Amarone  ($63) - the exact wine I had given a friend recently (which he shared) as a gift for his retirement. This wine is wonderfully rich had medium plus tannins, medium plus acidity, and a great full body! There were tastes of black cherry, black currant, fig, raisins, smoke and even some chocolate. It tastes dry but actually has some residual sugar. A high alcohol wine, this is balanced, complex in taste, super intense in both flavour and aroma, and has a superbly long finish. An Outstanding wine that is great to drink but could age some more.

We also had a Ripasso which is sometimes called the poor man's Amarone as it is cheaper but you get a bit of the taste of an Amarone. This one was a 2015 Tommasi Ripasso ($37) that had aromas and tastes of black plum, black cherry, cedar, tobacco, and raisin. The Ripasso was dry with medium plus body and intensity and medium tannins, acidity and finish. A Very Good wine that is a tasty drink now and could age for a few years longer.

The final region of northern Italy that we covered was Piemonte. This region in the northwest of Italy makes high quality wines and all are at the DOC or DOCG level - there are no IGP (2nd overall tier) wines. The mountains in the north provide a rain shadow for the area which experiences a moderate continental climate with long, cold winters and stormy, foggy summers. It's really a miracle that there is such wonderful wine made here!

In the south east of the region, Gavi wine is made from the Cortese grape. This high acid grape has floral aromas and tastes of citrus, green apple and pear. We tried a 2017 Michele Chiarlo Gavi ($27). This wine was a 'simple' wine with aromas and tastes of apple, peach, apricot, lime and wet stone. There's nothing wrong with a simple wine - it's just not that complex and not that intense. It did have a balanced taste and the finish was OK. Overall, a Good wine that should be consumed now.

Nebbiolo - the dog, not the grape...

In the northwest corner of Piemonte is the home of two regions that make Nebbiolo. Not only is Nebbiolo the name of my grand-puppy, but it is also a wonderful, high acid, high tannin, full bodied grape that can really surprise you the first time you drink it as the colour is quite pale. The two regions that are famous for Nebbiolo is Barolo and Barbaresco.  Barbaresco wines are a bit fruitier and less performed as they ripen a bit earlier. Agieng is different, too, as Barolo has to be aged 3 years (5 for Reserva) and Barbaresco has to only be aged for 2 years (4 for Reserva).

We were fortunate to have a 2010 Giribaldi Barolo Nebbiolo ($115). This wine had aromas of roses, tar, red currant, smoke, cedar and black cherry and had similar flavours on the palate.There were intense aromas and flavours as well as a long finish. Overall, the Barolo was balanced and complex and earned an Outstanding rating - you could drink this now or you could age this for a few years at least.

The last two areas we looked at was Asti and Alba.

Barbera is a grape that is made in either place, although Barberas made from Asti are considered better. This high acidity wine is good with duck which is what I would have had with the 2014 Boffa Barbera D'Asti ($33). This wine had aromas and tastes of red cherry, red plum, pepper, raspberry, and liquorice. It was a fairly balanced wine with good intensity and we rated this one as Good.

The final wine was a Dolcetto from Alba. This wine is sometimes described as being bitter or having a taste of cough syrup. It usually has medium to high tannins and medium acidity. We tried a 2015 Gresy Dolcetto ($35). The Dolcetto did, in fact, have aromas and flavours of cough syrup as well as black plum, black cherry, toast, dried herbs, and an overall earthiness. Although the length was a bit short, it was balanced, complex and had very good intensity, especially on the nose. This was rated as Very Good with potential for ageing.

I really enjoy wines from Italy. I am so looking forward to next week when we taste wines from Central and Southern Italy.

Ciao!

Hands up! A wine class disaster ends up being sweet - WSET 3.3

My third  WSET 3 class was a bit of a disaster - at least at the beginning.

One of the things I look forward to is having a poké rice bowl before class at Pokerito. I left at 4:30, thinking I would get to BCIT in 45 minutes and, because there would be no line up that early, would have a good 30 to 40 minutes to enjoy my tasty dinner.

Unfortunately, it didn't work that way.

By the time I got to BCIT, it was after 5:30. I rushed to Pokerito and there was a line up of about six people. I finally got my bowl and then rushed back to BCIT and started gobbling down my meal. Then, Sarah, from last week, sat down across from me in the outer area and I couldn't be rude so I picked at my dinner while we chatted.

When I went into the room for the study session, things went pretty well until it was time to answer the study question. Unfortunately, I have already lost my name card so the instructor looked my way and called on 'Doug' to answer. I corrected her and then answered - problem is, the guy sitting across from me is actually named Doug and that's who she meant to call on!

Ugh!

This week's focus was on making wine - red, white, rosé and sweet. Although this is an area that I am familiar with, especially since I made wine in my basement for a few years, there are still many things such as winemaking options and the ways that specific varietals are treated that I really have to study. One thing that irked me - I took copious notes on the specific varietals and our instructor didn't go over it that much, although she alluded to the information during the tastings.

My notes that I made from the readings were pretty thorough and I used them to follow along during class. There's a lot of content, especially this past week, but I am hoping that the countries and regions, which are the focus for the next ten weeks or so, will be a bit easier to remember and give some context for what we have learned so far.

Onto this week's tastings....

The idea behind the tastings this week was to  try and figure out the choices made in the vineyard and by the winemaker. It was really difficult! Luckily, this isn't a focus on the tasting exam but it was good to try and be aware of the choices.

The first two wines were white wines.

Courtesy Cuvée Corner Blog

The 2015 Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc from Casablanca, Chile ($18) was a grassy almost clear wine. It had some citrus aromas and tastes such as grapefruit and lemon, was light bodied, and had high acidity. It was made without any oxygen (anaerobically) to preserve the fruitiness of the wine, has no oak, and was fermented at around 16 or 17°C. Ready to drink now, this wine was not terribly balanced, had a fairly short finish, had acceptable intensity, and was not a complex wine. This we rated as acceptable.

In contrast, the 2016 Mer Soleil Chardonnay from the Santa Lucia Highlands ($39) was much better. There were some interesting flavours and aromas including peach, nectarine, apricot, and vanilla. It was a wine that was fermented aerobically (with some oxygen). was oaked, had a bit of age on it, and was fermented at a higher temperature. It was a balanced wine with a long finish and great intensity but was not overly complex. This was rated as very good.

The next two wines were red wines.

The first was a Georges DuBoeuf Beaujolais made from Gamay ($16). I was a bit stumped on what this even was - some of my group thought pinot noir but I thought it was something else - but not merlot, cab sauv, or cab franc.  I remember drinking this for a while back before I really knew all that much about wine but near the end of my own wine making experience. It was a wine with black and red fruits as well as a candy or bubble gum taste. The main winemaking option was carbonic fermentation where the bunches of grape ferment in CO2 in a closed vat. This gives fruitiness, more colour and less tannins. Ready to drink, this wine was acceptable.

The second of this set was a 2011 Brovia Villero Barolo Nebbiolo ($124). I tasted a lot of red fruit on it which made me think it was a Pinot Noir but our instructor noted high tannins, mushrooms, violets, liquorice, and roses. This wine had gone through pre and probably post fermentation maceration (where the grape skins stay in the juice), cap management (where the grape must is punched down on a regular basis), oak, and light extraction of flavours. After Elena, our pourer, mentioned that it was an unexpected grape and gave the hint, "it's a wine that's old when it's young," I knew it was Nebbiolo! This wine was good to drink now but could spend lots more time in the cellar. This was an outstanding wine!

The next two wines were the same grape but treated (wildly) different. The grape was Zinfandel.

The first was a 2017 Gallo Family White Zinfandel ($9). This medium sweet Rosé was invented by Bob Trinchero in California and was the result of a mistake! I listened to this podcast recently on Grape Nation and actually enjoyed finding out the story behind this super sweet wine. That said, it is not my favourite wine. This acceptable wine is medium sweet with low alcohol, light body, candy red fruit and vanilla. In the winery. it was directly pressed with a short maceration and had the fermentation stopped so that not all of the sugar turned to alcohol, creating a sweet wine.

The second Zinfandel was a 2014 Ridge East Bench Zinfandel from Dry Creek, Sonoma ($63). This definitely had some oak on it as there were tastes of raspberry, cloves, liquorice, blackberry and spice. This high alcohol wine was dry, had good acid, and medium tannins - it was intense, complex and had a long length. We rated this wine as very good.  

Our final two wines were sweet wines. People often think that sweet wines (like the above White Zin) are for beginning drinkers and, if you can't feel the enamel coming off your teeth, it isn't a dry enough wine. I have since discovered, however, that there are sweet wines that are complex and wonderful and are wines for connoisseurs!

The first one, which I guessed correctly, was an ice wine. It was a 2015 Arrowleaf Vidal Ice Wine ($56 for a half bottle). This had some complex flavours including peach, nectarine, honey, fig, raisin and vanilla. Its sweetness was kept in check by its high acidity.The winemaking process included no oak, pure flavour and some pear drop flavours which would indicate lower temperature fermentation. I'm not a huge fan of ice wine but this one was pretty darn good.

The final wine was a lusciously sweet recioto - a 2014 Ben Ryé Donnafugata Passito di Pantelleria from Italy ($54 for half a bottle). With Recioto wines, the grapes are picked, then laid out in the sun and they become raisins, concentrating their sugars. This is called Passito style. When it is fermented, the fermentation is stopped early (unlike Amarone, another Passito style) so it is very sweet - but also highly acidic. This wine, made from Muscat, is definitely oxidized in the winemaking process (the colour was actually amber) and had considerable oak. The flavours including orange peel zest, raisin, fig, and marmalade. It was very tasty! This is my first Recioto but will definitely not be my last! Bonus - it supposedly pairs really well with chocolate!

Oh, oh, oh! Sweet Wine O' Mine!

Last weekend, on Sunday, the whole family was home for dinner - and that doesn't happen all too often with one kid in Vancouver and one in Kelowna. It was a great excuse to pick up some nice rib eye steaks, lots of mushrooms, a few cobs of fresh corn while the season is waning, and some wine to make the meal just a little bit special.

After pouring over the collection of wine that I had in the 'ready to drink now' rack, I decided to try the Barolo I had purchased at Costco in the US a month ago.

Barolo is an Italian wine with a bit of a reputation. It is a grape that I have heard referred to as the Cabernet Sauvignon of Italy - rich, structured and up to a thick, rare steak. It is also famous for tasting of 'tar and roses' (not Guns and Roses) and I was intrigued by the idea of trying this wine. I had only tried a Nebbiolo grape once, and that was during my first class of my WSET course.

The wine I had bought was a 2011 Fontana Fredda Serralunga D'Alba Barolo which cost around $30 US at Costco but is listed in Vivino at $50. I did find a 2012 on the BC Liquor web site for $45. The wine is from Alba in the Piedmont area of Italy and is made from Nebbiolo grapes.

I didn't know what to expect - although, maybe I did. I think I expected this wine to be a lot like a Cabernet Sauvignon. But it was not!

My first hint that this was not what I had thought was right away when I decanted the wine. The colour was not dark and deep but, instead, was more ruby and light - very much like a Pinot Noir or a Grenache. This continued to be noticeable after I had poured the wine into glasses and examined the colour in the wine glass.

On the nose, there was cherry, black currant, and, yes, roses! It was quite odd to smell roses in a wine! The aroma had a medium intensity.

Finally, on the palate, I tasted the same red and black fruits with the addition of raspberries and black plums  as well as some leather. And then, there it was, tar! That tar combined with the darker fruit gave this wine quite a bit of a punch - something that I didn't taste at first but by the third sip, I was impressed with the impact of the wine.

The Barolo looks like it's kind of thin and has a rose scent to it so I really was fooled into thinking that it was going to be a disappointment. After tasting it, I started to  adjust my opinion. When I had a chuck of steak with the Barolo, I realized that this was a great pairing. The tannins weren't all that strong but the flavours in the wine really complemented the flavours in the steak.

Overall, I would say that it was balanced, had a medium finish, was OK in intensity, had a complex taste and was expressive for a Barolo - as I said, the Nebbiolo grape, which Barolo is made from, is famous for its 'tar and roses' taste and I clearly tasted it. This wine would be rated as Very Good.

Finally, would I buy it again?

I would definitely drink it again, especially if given a bottle, but dropping $50 at the liquor store would be a little more difficult. Maybe next time I'm in Costco in the US, I'll pick one up - or maybe I need to travel to Piedmont area in Northwest Italy and go to Alba and then buy some!

Wine Tips From the Master - WSET Class 1 - Part 2

After a brief break (checking to make sure I hadn't spit Riesling down my shirt), the owner of Fine Vintage, James Cluer, Master of Wine, spoke to our group. He is an interesting speaker and I would be happy to have him as a teacher in a future course.

He talked about a few things but what stuck with me were his tips - and here they are:

• concentrate - really concentrate - on the first smell you have of the wine
• "two sips and you're out" - by the time you get to the third sip, your palate has become used to the wine and you will start to miss flavours
• move the wine up and down your mouth, and rub your tongue across the roof of your mouth to check for tannins

Then we started tasting some reds......

The first was purply and pale (I thought it was deep but realized that if you can see the page underneath on a piece of paper, it's pale). It was light in intensity and had lots of red fruits in it. It was high in acidity and had a short to medium finish. I also tasted tannins - but that was an error. The problem is that when you have had white wine and it is still on the palate, even a mild red wine will taste of tannins. "First red wine of the day, you will taste tannins."

This wine was a Bouchard Aîné and Fils  Beaujoulais from France which is made from the Gamay Noir grape. it was a 2015 that goes for $14. 

The wine we compared it to was actually garnet (sort of an orangey red colour) and was pale ( I was wrong again). Although the nose tasted of red fruit, once I tasted it, black fruits like cherry and baked prunes seemed to show up. It was high in tannins (blew the Beaujolais away) and high in acidity and was really full bodied. It had a long finish and was a very good wine. 

This was a Comm G.B. Burlotto Barolo - made from the Nebbiolo grape from Italy and was a 2011 - and came in at $86. 

Comparing the two, the Barolo was wonderful but would be more difficult to pair - it would need to go with a steak or some game. The Beaujolais, on the other hand, would pair with many things including some fish, chicken, pork, pasta and pizza! 

The next two wines were the same type of wine but differed rather slightly in quality!

The first was a clear, rather simple wine with some nice red fruit taste but with a rather short finish. This was a Chartron La Fleur Bordeaux from the Right Bank - so, it was merlot based. There was nothing wrong with it, it was just a bit simple - and so was the price, $14. Sorry, but I couldn't find a link for this winery.

Then we had a bottle of liquid gold. It was a Chateau Bonalgue Pomerol from 2010, also from the Right Bank of Bordeaux. This was a wine with colour so deep that it was difficult to tell what colour it actually was. It, too, was a merlot blend, It had a pronounced nose and tasted of black fruit, tobacco, and high tannins. It was far more complex than the other Bordeaux and had a great long finish.  This wine was one that I would love to drink regularly - unfortunately, I don't think I can afford the $115 a bottle price!

Our final wine of the night was a Sauternes - and it was a wine like I had never had before! This is because it had "nobel rot"! Noble rot or Botrytis is a fungus that causes grapes to partially dry out like raisins which lets them be very sweet. It was a clear wine with a pronounced nose (mushrooms, nectarine), sweet taste, and high acidity (I'm realizing that every wine that is sweet also has high acidity to keep it in balance).  It was suggested that this would be a great wine to have with something spicy. 

The wine was a 2003 Sauternes from La Chapelle LaFaurie-Peyrague and, although not quite my cup of tea (or cup of wine) I did appreciate the age and nice flavours the wine had. This was $33 for a half sized bottle.

Overall, my first class was great - I learned some new things about wine tasting and wine pairings but the real excitement for me was the 9 wine tastings. That is apparently something that only Fine Vintage does - extended numbers of wine tastings each class. The other thing they do is extend all of the classes from two hours to three hours - and I think that is a brilliant idea. Can't wait until next week!