Gravello 2005 - Librandi: the beauty of Calabria

Another great red from Southern Italy...this time we are in Cirò Marina - Calabria. Librandi winery since many years is keeping the quality of regional wine production very high...the winemaker of this winery is Donato Lanati, one of the best and most famous in Italy, who fights since years, for wines which can express personality and identity of their own territories...

Their best wine is called Gravello (Gaglioppo 60%, Cabernet Sauvignon 40%), whose vintage 2005 is not disappointing the expectations...dark wine...in the color (deep,dense rubin) as much as in the nose...fine recalls of mature blackberries, plums, balsamic herbs are very recognizable...tasting is characterized by silky elegant tannins and by a wonderful balance betwen roundness and mineral note in the end...

Great match with roe deer meat

Price in Italian wine stores: 24 euro.

Price abroad: around 32 euros (northern Europe)

San Sisto Riserva 2004 - Fazi Battaglia: a nice Verdicchio from Marche

Verdicchio is an indigenous variety from the region of Marche, central eastern Italy, where it finds the best territory to express its potential. We have an example of how elegant and fine a Verdicchio can be in this San Sisto Riserva 2004, produced by famous winery Fazi Battaglia with grapes coming from a single vineyard...a straw/golden yellow creates fat tears on the glass...that gives us already an idea that the wine has a quite high level of alcohol and residual sugar...in the bouquet we can distinguish refined notes which didnt completly develop yet: toasted wood, cinnamon, tobacco but also a delicate nuance of yellow flowers and tropical fruit, mixed together with an enveloping enamelled note...round and warm entrance to the mouth...then we feel acidity and a nice final sapid note...
This wine has a properly round body, too heavy to match with a delicate lobster or shrimps...I'd rather suggest a risotto with porcini mushroms...
Price in Italian wine stores: 16 euro
Price abroad: ?

Nino Manfredi sommelier

Mater Matuta 2004 - Casale del Giglio: a great red wine from Latium

Probably it's true...this wine is not the most typical red wine from this region...I mean that it does not express really the territory where it comes from. Mater Matuta is a Syrah 85% and Petit Verdot 15% and it's made thinking about a modern way of drinking wine...rounder, softer, maybe easier to understand and not so loved by Italian (or French) traditional producers...lets say that its made with an eye to the market...American and Australian way of drinking, influenced by certain type of press like Wine Spectator, started loving wines with full round body, that dont necessary need to be matched with any food and give you an easy, complete satisfaction...

After this necessary introduction we must admit that Mater Matuta reaches picks of elegance and complexity that not so many red wines produced in the zones around Rome can reach...From the deep rubin, until the muscular, elegant body, with soft, gentle tannins, passing through extraordinay fine notes of mature cherries, sweet spices, tobacco and leather...I would actually underline also a very persistant backtaste which takes us with its graphite and balsamic notes....

We already said that this wine is "enough to itself" but it would be even better to match it with some guinea fowl, cooked with laurel leaves.

Price in Italian wine stores: 25/30 euros

Price abroad: around 33 euros

Don Antonio 2005 - Morgante: a taste of Sicily

Nero d'Avola 100%.



The most typical variety of grape from Sicily is the only starring of this incredibly elegant red wine.



A deep rubin dances in the glass and invite us to taste...a first note of Mediterranean scrub is slowly leaving the place to more intense sensations of dark fruits...the bouquet is completed by elegant notes of vulcanic stone and eucalyptus.

In the mouth we find back the elegance and balance of the bouquet...the wine comes in with its round full body, but silky tannins and same mineral notes are helping to keep the backtaste clean in its neverending final...



Perfect match with roasted lamb, cooked with juniper berries.



Price in Italian wine stores: 17/20 euros



Price abroad: 43 USD (thanx laura)

Frascati Superiore Santa Teresa 2006 - Fontana Candida: a new concept of Frascati

Forget about the waterish, tasteless Frascati wine you lately tasted in your last trip to Italy. Now you can actually have a good wine from Rome's countryside.

Santa Teresa 2006 surprises us with its bright straw yellow creating tears inside the glass; an aromatic note, coming from indigenous variety Malvasia Puntinata, brings our mind to memories of green fileds, full of white flowers....other parfums make bouquet richer...yellow peach, camomile and an interesting note of sage. The wine has a warm, round entrance to the mouth...we taste all of the 13.5% of alcohol but the round body is well balanced by an adeguate acidity and, expecially, by an elegant note of sapidity which takes us all along the tasting...

I wouldnt waste the elegance and the complexity of this wine on a simple seafruit pasta...my perfect match would be on white meat...or maybe a delicious filet of lake fish...passed into flour and cooked with capers and dill.

7 Euros is the price of a bottle of Santa Teresa once it comes out from the winery...in Italian wine stores you can find it for about 10 euros...a bit more when exported abroad.

Click on the title to visit Fontana Candida Winery Website.