Offering # 2 -- Italy

Greetings!

Community Wines is off to a great start. So many of you sampled our Spanish selections and have shared your feedback. We’re glad you’ve enjoyed them! For our second offering, we are sticking with southern Europe but moving east. We are pleased to present six Italian wines from importer Oliver McCrum. This offering features three wines from Sicily (two whites and a red), a red and a rosé from Abruzzo and, finally, a red from Piedmont in northern Italy. These wines are some of the best values we have found to date, and we are pleased to share them with you.

Sicily is an island with a host of indigenous grapes, and most of them are unknown outside of their home. That is, until now! First, a red made from Nerello Mascalese, by Cantina Corbera, a co-operative winery in western Sicily. There is a lot of fruit flavor, a touch of smokiness and no sweetness in this win. It is dark and smells like the plums that grow all over Marin and Sonoma counties. It is easy to drink and a great value.

2007 Isola d'Oro Nerello Mascalese $9.00 per bottle/$97.20 per case w/ 10% discount

Our next selection is also from Cantina Corbera, a white wine produced from the Inzolia grape. This wine has some zip, and it will clean your palate. We drank it with pasta tossed with olive oil, garlic and some fresh herbs, and it was delicious. It is the color of bottled sunshine and just looking at it makes me think of summer. In fact, it makes me want to go to Sicily. Let’s go!

2008 Isola d'Oro Inzolia $9.00 per bottle/$97.20 per case w/ 10% discount

Our last Sicilian selection is a white wine made from the Cataratto grape by Feudo Montoni. This is a light white wine that is ethereal in nature. It is easy to gulp down glass after glass. Every white wine only drinker (WWOD) we have poured it for has enjoyed it. (Are you a WWOD? It's okay!) This wine has a lovely hint of citrus. It is uncomplicated and delightful alone or with food.

2007 Feudo Montoni Cataratto $10.00 per bottle/$108 per case w/ 10% discount

Next we have what is known in the wine trade as a spaghetti red. I don't really like the term because it seems to imply cheap red wine of dubious quality. This wine is anything but that. This wine from Abruzzo, a region east of Rome, is made by the Vallevò co-operative from Montepulciano grapes. As Oliver McCrum, the man who imports this wine says, "In a sense this is an importer’s highest achievement; it’s pretty easy to find good wine at $50 a bottle, but very difficult at less than $10." This is an honest full flavored bottle of wine. Whip up a pot of pasta or a pizza, pull the cork, and see what you think.

2007 Vallevò Montepulciano d'Abruzzo $9.00 per bottle/$97.20 per case w/ 10% discount

When the weather gets warm, we drink a lot of rosé at our house, and even though it hasn't been that warm yet, we've already drunk of lot of our next selection. The wine is dark for a rosé, somewhat cranberry in color, and it smells like summer. It also produced by the Vallevò co-operative and made from Montepulciano grapes. In Italy (attention language geeks!), rosé is often labeled Cerasuolo.

2008 Vallevò Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Cerasuolo $9.00 per bottle/$97.20 per case w/ 10% discount

La Casaccia produces our last selection from Piedmont, in northern Italy. It is made from the Barbera grape. This is an excellent example of a balanced wine. What does that mean? It means that the fruit and the acid in the wine are in harmony. This is the type of wine that northern Italians drink with their daily fare, which is usually made from something that goes moo or oink. We usually drink it with French lentils or a mushroom based dish. (Don’t tell the northern Italians.) It goes well with hearty dishes.

2007 La Casaccia Barbera del Monferrato $16/bottle/$172.80 per case w/ 10% discount

If you would like to purchase one of each of the above selections, the total, with tax, is $67.58.

If you would like to purchase a mixed case (two of each of the above selections) the total, with tax, is $121.64, which is a smidgen more than $10.00 per bottle.