This was another entertaining and interesting evening from Ian Hewson, of The WINEMAN on the wines from Italy. We have visited this country’s vines several times before but as they appear to have an incredible number of grape varieties it is no hardship to visit again, and he always brings good food. Ian was concentrating on modern Italian wines.
We started with a lovely light Prosecco, Durello Prosecco Colli Vicentini Vento. This was from a very small co- operative that has tried to improve the quality of the wine by paying the small land owners to tend for their hectares, rather than the quantity of grapes, thus producing less grapes but a far greater quality grape, hence better wine. This wine went down well, light and would be lovely on a summer evening.
The next wine was a Fiano/ Grecco 2009 by A Mano from Puglia, that little bit of Italy on the heel; I believe exceptionally pleasant to visit. This was a very nice wine at a very agreeable price £7.99, well recommended. The next wine was even better, from the lake Garda region a Lugana 2009 Ca dei Frati Vento, £13.99. I thought this was an exceptional wine from a very well established vineyard that apparently has hordes of Europeans queuing at the gates to purchase the wines. The next wine, a Merlot, was disappointing light not very appetising. We then went on to a Montepuciano d’Abruzzo DOCG Treamane 2008 Gran Sasso, and then its older brother a Montepuciano d’Abruzzo DOCG 2005. The first was good the second even better, due to the being left in oak barrels for longer. The next meeting is the Call My Bluff evening, see you all there.
Chris Traynor 24th May 2010