Top Italian Wine Picks from Our Veteran Italy Expert
I’m a little melancholy writing this newsletter because it will be my penultimate. This is my 28th year at K&L and the company has given me and extraordinary opportunity to share my passion for Italian wines with you. I’ve met so many of you over the years and shared so many interesting conversations and wines, but age catches up with everyone, and I am going blissfully into retirement. I am not going to be sitting in a Barcalounger watching reruns of I Love Lucy. I have lots of plans that still involve wine, but it’s time to catch up on all the other things I’ve been putting off.
This month’s newsletter, amazingly enough, coincided with the arrival of our Direct Import container. Wines that all have a special place in my heart, some of these friendships I’ve curated over the last 25 years while importing their wines. Italy, for me, is a treasure trove, constantly brimming with new wines, varieties, and styles that, even after a lifetime of trying to learn everything new, come to the surface every week. It is a testament to the incredible land, climate, and the people who nurture the vines and care for the wines. There’s less of an idea of “making” wine rather than growing it. I have been blessed to have been able to visit, learn, and taste an enormous example of everything this country has to offer. The flavor spectrum is kaleidoscopic, it only takes a bit of initiative to step off of the Cabernet-Chardonnay bandwagon and try something that might change your life—like these wines have mine. I hope you can make that leap!
2020 La Massa "La Massa" Toscana $24.99 96WE I had the opportunity to visit this estate last September, and I can tell you that Panzano in the autumn is truly a special place. Gianpaolo Motta, the proprietor and winemaker, makes a supple, aromatic wine with loads of complexity. It’s a blend of 50% Sangiovese, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the last 20% a mixture of Merlot, Alicante, and Petit Verdot. Highly rated by the critics, this is a wine you will want to buy a case or more!
2022 Le Battistelle "Battistelle" Soave Classico $17.99 When I first visited this property a decade ago, I was truly stunned—even an ardent Italian wine lover like myself overlooked Soave! And, truthfully, you can, but not Soave Classico! The difference is night and day—Soave Classico rests on an extinct volcano and the wines are dynamic. Battistelle in Italian means to bat the stars, which this estate can nearly do because they are at the very top elevation of the appellation. Unoaked, lower alcohol, and tremendously complex wines—you need to try them.
2022 Fratelli Barale Langhe Nebbiolo $22.99 Our entire staff badgers me to buy more of this wine! The Barale Nebbiolo is one of our most popular Direct Imports. It paints a more elegant portrait of Nebbiolo—the sometimes brooding, tannic grape of Barolo and Barbaresco in this wine is an elegant, fragrant, medium-bodied beauty that still shows classic aromatics without the powerful tannins. A drink-every-night Nebbiolo from one of Barolo’s oldest producers. Get some before the staff buys it all!
- Greg St. Clair, K&L Italian Wine Buyer