Price: $14.99
Sale Price: $11.97
This is a stunning wine that should not be missed. For less than $12 you can experience the aromatic complexity of a bottle aged wine that we rarely encounter, and never at this price. The great French oenologist Émile Peynaud, in his masterful book on tasting wine Le Goût du Vin (The Taste of Wine), distinguishes between the “aroma” of wine and its “bouquet”. For Peynaud the term aroma vs bouquet is not a difference without a distinction. A wine’s aroma comes from two sources, the grapes themselves and the transformative process of winemaking where fermentation unleashes aromatic compounds in the grapes, yeasts and from the oak barrels when they are used. Most of the time the wine in our glasses contains these primary fruit and secondary fermentation aromas and these can be compelling, complex, and remarkable. There is, however, a next level of aromatic complexity that only occurs after time in the bottle and Peynaud restricts the term bouquet for wines that have experienced significant aging in the bottle. A wines bouquet can contain “tertiary” ethereal aromas such as (and all of these are in this wine) forest floor, bay leaf, balsamic, mushrooms, and tar. Now add to these in this wine, the still redolent dark cherry, damson plum and dried fruits that are echoes of its youthful charms and you have what I would call a complete wine. All this from very humble origins in Puglia (the heel of Italy’s boot) and from a well-organized co-operative. Predominantly Negro Amaro with a small percentage of Malvasia Nera. The maceration is 7 - 8 days at 28°C followed by gentle pressing, fermentation, and aging in stainless steel. This Riserva wine is made only in the best vintages and released at the winemaker's discretion after several years of bottle aging. This wines pairs with so many dishes – anything from pizza, grilled vegetables, roast lamb, short ribs with barbecue and on and on.
