“Accept what life offers you and try
to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be
sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.” …. ― Paulo Coelho, Brida
Give me a lotto winner’s check book and I can give you a
magnificent red blend. Trim the winnings
down to under $19 and I can still do that with several very enjoyable white
wines. Trim off a little more and insist
I do that again but now with red wine and the options narrow into the
challenging lane. To narrow the lane even
more and add a speed bump, insist also that the wine be ageable and classically
made and then the options lead surprisingly not into a lane at your specialty
liquor store, but instead to the checkout lane at your local grocery.
People that have been around wine for decades, have learned
through experience that price is not always indicative of quality and that
bargains are fermented under the radar so to speak. The most recent issue (Jan – Feb 2016) of Wine Spectator, for example, stated (page
84) that the average price for a wine awarded 90 or more points in 2015 was
$100 in France, $82 in California and $71 in Italy. There are numerous reasons for this that I’ll
forego mentioning in this piece and save, perhaps, for another time. Let’s accept that most of us aren’t inclined
to spend even $71 on a bottle of wine to accompany our family’s prepared-at-home
meal whose ingredients cost $15. So being able to find a bottle of red wine
that is delicious, affordable and available at the same grocery store you’re
shopping at for that meal seems, to me, a real bonus.
Palazzo della Torre (IGT) is an Italian red blend of 70%
Corvina, 25% Rondinella and 5% Sangiovese. The vineyard is in the Fumane
(municipality) di Valpolicella in Verona (Northern Italy). This is the same area famous for producing
Valpolicella Superiore and the more expensive Valpolicella della Amarone wines.
Vines for Palazzo della Torre average 41 years and this wine produced by
Allegrini shares some characteristics with these expensive cousins in using
both Corvina and Rondinella grapes in the blend and, by the way, in percentages
allowed in making an Amarone.
Of course, there are differences. One being price. Palazzo della Torre dries only a small
percentage of the grapes (about 30%) before they are mixed with the base juice
(grapes not dried) and then subject to a second fermentation. (For more on the process of drying grapes (appassimento) click here.
The Corvina contributes structure and aroma. Rondinella is
naturally high in sugar, also shrivels nicely and contributes both sweetness and
body with mouth texture. Sangiovese contributes floral aromas and flavor notes
of cherry. This is a wine of depth, deep
purple in the glass, with flavor to match: fruit is creamy rich and deep with a
silky mouthfeel (malolactic fermentation) and full bodied. Flavors are of ripe blackberry, cherry-cola
with mocha on the back taste and with a hint of nutmeg. Aromas of blackberry and chocolaty plum jump. It has a medium finish that is off-dry with
some tannin on the end but with a sensation of sweetness. This dry-sweet interplay is always enjoyable;
common in wines fermented with dried grapes. Wines of this composition are
often somewhat low in acid but Palazzo della Torre can be aged ten years under
optimum conditions.
Referring to the above prices
($71) and point ratings (90 and above), this 2011 Palazzo Della Torre scored 90
points from Robert Parker, 90 points from Wine
Enthusiast and 92 points from James
Suckling. And I found it stocked at a local grocery for $16.99. Referring to the quote this post opened with, Palazzo
della Torre is a bottle that will be finished once opened, not just tasted. Pair this wine with lasagna, eggplant
parmigiana, risotto with saffron, medium cured cheeses, pork sauced with
mushroom. Try it with an Italian style charcuterie of cured sausage, Parma ham,
cheeses (gorgonzola, pecorino, Parmesan Reggiano) and walnuts.
Cin Cin!
……………………. Jim
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TECH SPECS FOR
WINE GEEKS
Alcohol: 13.85%
Total Acidity: 6.1 g/l
Residual Sugars: 5.4 g/l
pH: 3.71
Elevation of Vineyard: 787
ft Above Sea Level
Exposure: East
/ Southeast
Soil: Mostly
Clay & Chalk
Avg Age of Vines: 41
yrs
Manual harvest is during the
first week of September for grapes to be set aside for drying; end of September
for grapes to be vinified immediately. Fresh grapes are de-stemmed and pressed
in September; dried grapes in the second half of December. Fermentation is in temperature controlled
stainless steel tanks. The first fermentation is at 77-84F for 10 days; the
second at 46-72F approximately 15 days. Malolactic fermentation is in mid-April
in barriques (59 U.S. gallons). Ageing
is 15 months in second use oak barriques, blended together for two months and
then bottle aged an additional seven months before release.
I went into
the racks today to see which wine might be needed to be enjoyed now, selected
and tasted a 2008 Sineann Wines Cabernet Sauvignon from
their Baby Poux Vineyard in the Columbia Valley AVA(Oregon). Oregon is
what I often think of when I’m thinking of Pinot Noir, and – o.k. – maybe Pinot
Gris. Cabernet Sauvignon, for me, is left bank Bordeaux blends, Sonoma or Napa Valley. A good
vintage (97 points Wine Spectator), it’s unlikely you will find a 2008 on the shelves now, but
2012 (at 95 points)
and 2013 (at 91-94) should be available and worth looking into from Sineann.
Deep purple in the glass with a nose of plum, cassis and blackberry that jumps
from the glass. Flavors of plum, cola, blackberry, and cassis are well
integrated in a full bodied wine that finishes with a razor’s edge of crispness
in a wondrous contradiction of flavors that not only linger cleanly but
develop. Sage and cinnamon end notes. Aired more and tasted on the second day,
mashed blackberry dominates the nose. Flint and pencil lead develop in the
taste that still leads with blackberry. Tannins are silky and the wine is
creamy smooth. A most interesting and enjoyable Cabernet Sauvignon. Offered a
taste to someone who generally does not like structured wines and she loved it.
Thumbs up on this one! 
