What I'm Excited About This Week: Easy Summertime Italian Wines
For the most part, I think our wine and spirits habits tend to change a bit as the world turns and the seasons float past us—I sure know that mine do. While I'm pretty consistently excited about a nice cold bottle of Champagne at the end of the day, that excitement admittedly perks up a little higher during the warmer months. I know that as it starts to get cooler I'm going to drink a lot more Cognac and bourbon, and a lot less gin and tequila.
During the summer and any time it's a little warmer, I'm absolutely reaching for a crisp dry white, or a lighter and fruitier red wine to really give me what I'm looking for. Beverage pairing isn't just about the food you're eating, it's also about where you are and what you're doing—you want to find a beverage that checks off the most boxes for you at that point in time. We also tend to eat foods that pair better with those lighter wines during the hotter times as well. Sure you can have a fat Zinfandel with your barbecue, but you could also have a beautiful bottle of 2023 Tenuta Santa Lucia "Baccareto" Rubicone Romagna IGT $17.99, which is all Sangiovese and absolutely lovely—really great fruit and body, but a little bit lighter in character. In this humble writer's opinion, it’s a much happier glass of red when it's hotter out. You could even give it just a little chill if you wanted. Hey, It's your wine once you buy it, nobody gets to tell you how to drink it, not even me.
This week Orazio Campoli, our Vinum Italicum Magister, introduced us to a beautiful array of very seasonally relevant wines. All of our buyers do such a great job at putting together these lineups for us week after week, often with little themes or goals in mind. This lineup had a lot of wines that have been in our Italian Wine Club, which means that for any Wine Club member, you get a discount on them. These are all reasonably priced wines, and each one that I've featured for you here overdelivers when it comes to a price/quality ratio. There's just so many wines that we carry, and we keep bringing in new products every single day, so it's easy for some of these to get lost—but they're just exceptional and deserve your attention.
2022 La Costa Vespaiolo $24.99 One of the coolest things in a tasting is getting introduced to a new variety of grape. For me, heathen that I am, Vespaiolo is a new variety and an incredibly intriguing one. It starts with a welcoming nose—apples and pears, a lot of lemon, a little touch of something creamy, a nice touch of flowers, and a little bit of wet stone. This is just absolutely delicious, super crushable, and should be on your summer white wine rotation list. The palate is lovely with great fruit, and not tart despite its healthy, fresh line of acidity. There's a little sweetness to the fruit but the wine is totally dry. It’s really that element that cements this as a quintessential pool wine. Food is optional, but always welcome—mostly what you want is a fat summer sunbeam right in your face as you drink this nice and cold from your favorite outdoor wine glass. Plus you can educate your friends about this cool new-to-you Italian white wine grape that you found all by yourself.
2021 Azienda Sacco "Aleis" Falanghina $22.99 While there's some fruit for sure, the more savory notes in the wine come out first. There's a dense minerality, and the lightest hint of something that kind of is reaching towards a Riesling-petrol note. Underneath that is pretty crisp green apple, juicy and pithy lemon, and some white flowers. The palate is round and moderately deep, fairly weighty overall, and the fruit is a little honeyed, with the finish being totally bone dry. There's a little bit of fatness to the palate, coupled with a barrel note that makes me want something with this—chicken, pork, and grilled fish all sound great—but you could also just go for it and pair it solely with a glass. Every day is your own Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book.
2023 Vignamato Versus IGT Marche $24.99 Yet another new wine grape for me, but this time I don't feel like I'm some kind of ignorant wretch for not having heard it is. This wine is made completely from Incrocio Bruni, which is a cross between Sauvignon Blanc and Verdicchio. You definitely can understand that parentage once you get your nose in the glass—there's a definite blending here. There are grassy notes and pithy citrus fruit, but there's also a weightier and rounder mouthfeel. This is yet another lovely summer wine, round and plump and juicy. The palate is crisp and has a lot of citrus, but there's white peach as well. Refreshing but not crazy acidity. Just another crushable pool wine that you can have with whatever you want—but all you need is fun in the sun and this wine, nice and cold in your glass. It's the equation for a delightful summer day. Other people optional.
2022 Mastroberardino Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio Rosso $22.99 I feel so fortunate that I got a chance to review all of these Italian wines again hours after the tasting. They benefit more from that time open than most other wines. While I remember liking this wine in morning, after a few hours it's just absolutely stunning. There's pretty quality to the nose, and even the color is lovely and just a little bit translucent in the glass. The nose has a creaminess to it, peppered with red and black fruits, dried herbs, purple flowers, and a little bit of tarry earth at the finish. The palate is light and extremely elegant, there's a lot of crunchy fruits, with cranberry, pomegranate seeds, underripe raspberry, more dried herbs, and a little bit of spice. This has great acidity and just a light grip of tannins. It’s a wine that wouldn't complain about being chilled down just a bit. I want to have this with a braised meat, or some pasta, maybe even a piece of firm but not too aged cheese. Absolutely perfect summer red.
2018 Sportoletti "Villa Fidelia" Rosso $14.99 This wine surprised me a lot more than I thought it would. I always trust our buyers, they have amazing palates and bring in some monster deals, but this one still caught me off-guard. This is a classic BDX-style blend, with really dark and intense fruit while pulling back and being just shy of full bodied. For just $15, this is a wine that really shouldn't be ignored by anyone who comes to us in part for our aforementioned monster deals. You get a lot for the price, there's a little touch of rustic barn on the nose, but right after there it gets intense quick. The fruit is dark and inky, compote of blackberries, a little stewed cherry, and a long touch of barrel spice. The palate is dark and chewy at first, but the great acidity stops it from being too much and delving too deep. More blackberry, cherry, a little bit of raspberry, dried green herbs, and then a healthy bit of chewy tar on the very finish. This is a dark and brooding wine that has a little bit of lightness its the midst of it, kind of like me after a long weekend. This is a top-notch table wine, to be had with whatever you want to have it with. I'd probably go red meat or braised meats, but I could see this working with chicken or pork with the right sauce. Fantastic value.
Most of these wines will be available for you to taste at our upcoming and very appropriately named Italy Off the Beaten Path, which will be held this Saturday, August 16th at all of our store locations. I don't just suggest, I recommend that you come in and try them out. It's going to be a really fantastic tasting with six great summer wines for just $15. Check out our Local Events Page for the Tock link and book ahead so you've already paid for the tickets and can't make an excuse not to go; you owe it to yourself to try these wines. Here’s the lineup:
La Costa - Vespaiolo $24.99
Azienda Sacco - Falanghina $22.99
Vignamato - Versus Marche $24.99
Mastroberardino - Lacryma di Christi $24.99
Roveglia - Garda Merlot $17.99
De Vescovi Ulzbach - Teroldego $24.99