Saturday, August 23, 2008

#106 Cortese

How can you resist a wine which has the owner's dog on the label? This is a Gavi from the north of Italy. Since tonight's dinner is salmon on the grill a Cortese di Gavi is called for.

This straw colored wine has surprising sweetness while having such bracing acidity. The nose is reminds me of a sauvignon blanc but it has a lot more fruit. Maybe apple? Melon? Lychee? (I will stop making up stuff there).

At $15 or so its a decent value that I might just buy again.... I mean look at those puppy dog eyes!

Friday, August 22, 2008

#105 Corvina!

Feeling a bit too tired to blog but not too tired to open up a bottle of wine (which is quite good) I will leave the review to Mr. Parker's operation....

Vintage 2004
Wine Advocate - Issue #173 / October 2007
- 90 points - Exploring the Best of Northern Italy

"Allegrini's Palazzo della Torre (70% Corvina, 25% Rondinella, 5% Sangiovese) has long been one of my favorite ripasso-style wines and the 2004 is another winner. It reveals a plump, juicy personality loaded with perfumed, jammy fruit, roasted coffee beans and new leather. Although it is absolutely irresistible today, a few additional months of bottle age should help soften the wine further. It is a gorgeous effort at this level and a terrific value. Allegrini employs a unique variation of the ripasso technique for its Palazzo della Torre. The traditional method calls for the wine to undergo a second fermentation on the skins that are leftover from the vinification of the Amarone. The estate believes that this method leads to oxidized wines. Instead Allegrini dries a portion of the grapes (around 30%) and ferments them separately in the same style as an Amarone, then adds that wine to the larger portion of the wine, which is fermented in the conventional manner. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2010."