Today on Movies & Booze we are featuring wines from Italy, where I have just got back from judging in a wine competition. The Concours mondial de Bruxelles is an international wine competition, taking place every year in a different European country, and this time around our destination was Jesolo.
For 2015’s 21st Concours mondial more than 300 wine journalists and wine makers from 40 different countries and five continents travelled to Jesolo to taste and assess 8,000 wines. Jesolo is very close to Venice and nearby wine regions include Prosecco, Soave and Valpolicella.
Today we are going to look at two very different Italian wines styles, one from the north of Italy and another from the south. First, we travel south, to the country’s ‘heel’ and a region called Puglia were we feature a wine from the Salice peninsula. Then north, to Apennine Italy, for a bottle known as the ‘King of wines’ – the very powerful Barolo from Piedmont.
2011 Leone de Castris Riserva Salice Salentino (€19.99)
Stockists: The Vinty Rathgar; Jus de Vine Portmarnock; Sweeny’s Glasnevin, Whelehan Wines, Loughlinstown; Martin’s Fairview; Baggot Street Wines and Redmonds of Ranelagh.
Hollands of Bray; World Wide Wines Waterford; O’Donovan’s Cork, Desmonds Limerick; and McCambridges & Mortons in Galway & many other independent off licences, nationwide.
The 2009 vintage of this wine was awarded Wine of the Year in 2013/14 by the National Off Licence Association as part of their ‘Gold Star Awards’. This wine style has been pretty popular on the Irish market for at least twenty years. It is made from two grape varieties (Negroamaro 90 percent and Black Malvasia of Lecce makes up the remaining 10). These grapes are indigenous to the region.
Negroamaro is a black grape, with thick skin capable of producing big powerful wines with lots of alcohol and rich black fruit flavours. This is a wine with a lot of OOMPH!!! One of the characteristics of Italian red wines is the acidity; this means that the wine is made to go with food with a bit of fat or cream in it. A good steak with lots of marbling and fat will be a perfect match with this wine, equally anything cooked in a cream sauce will work because the acidity in the wine cuts through the richness.
The vines themselves are 40 years old which means they are producing good concentrated fruit. The winery is well known internationally, founded in 1665 by the Spanish Duke Oronzo, Earl of Lemos, in the Italian region of Puglia. Leone de Castris has been exporting wine since the beginning of the 19th century, and the producer’s entire range of wines has won awards and received prestigious recognition from all over the world.
In January 2015 this wine was awarded 91 points by Wine Enthusiast which is a very high rating and reflects the excellent quality. A must try!
2010 Pio Cesare DOCG Barolo (€60.00)
Stockists: Donnybrook Fair; The Corkscrew, Chatham Street; Deveney’s Dundrum; Redmond’s of Ranelagh; , Jus de Vin, Portmarnock and the Vintry, Rathgar.
Pio Cesare has been producing wines for more than 100 years and four generations of the family have built the portfolio to what it is today. The tradition began in 1881, when Pio Cesare started gathering grapes in his vineyards and purchasing those of some selected and reliable farmers in the hills of Barolo and Barbaresco districts. Today the company produce wines from many of the top DOC’s and DOCG’s in Italy and has an extensive portfolio.
Pio Boffa, the current owner of the Pio Cesare, was in Dublin this week to showcase the complete range of wines produced uder his stewardship. His flagship wine is this one, the great and majestic Barolo.
This vintage is very well respected and received 92 points from Wine Spectator, 93 from Wines & Spirit and 94 from Wine Enthusiast who considered this blend to be a classic.
So what do you expect from Barolo? It is made from a grape called Nebbiolo, producing wines that are very perfumed and have lots – and I mean LOTS – of tannin. The key to Nebbiolo is that it takes a long time to mature which means that you have wait for quite a while until it is ready to drink. Young Barolo can be very tannic and full bodied, but once this classic wine style has some age on it you are treated to a mature, leathery, meaty wine style with lots of spice and acidity and amazing complexity.
This is definitely a wine for the enthusiast to enjoy, with a great cachet among wine lovers and is considered to be one of the greatest classic wine styles... ever!!!
These grapes were sourced from family owned vineyards in the region from some of the best vineyard sites, fermented in stainless steel tanks and then aged in French oak barrels for three years. While still young, this gives you an idea of what the wine style has to offer. Definitely a wine to enjoy with food, preferably meat!
Wine Events: Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food & Wine 15th – 17thMay, 2015 at Ballymaloe House, Shanagarry, Co Cork.
If you are interested in learning more about wine then get yourself down to Cork next weekend to hear some of the top wine Irish wine journalists, including Tomas Clancy of Movies & Booze in action. The Kerrygold Ballymaloe LitFest welcomes Irish wine and drinks writers Mary Dowey, John Wilson, Tomás Clancy, Tom Doorley, Raymond Blake and Leslie Williams, who will be speaking individually on topics dear to their heart.
With many wine-specific events including Value and Wine with John Wilson, A Rhone Romance with Mary Dowey and The Literature Of Burgundy with Raymond Blake, there are also drinks-focused panel discussions including Emerging Wine Regions with Leslie Williams, and Does Terroir Really Exist and How Can You Tell?
For more information please call the Litfest office on 021 4645777, email info@litfest.ie or check out the websitewww.litfest.ie
For details of wine events go to the wine diary www.jeansmullen.com
