Just a few feet off the beaten path

Wines from Montelpulciano d' Abruzzo have a zest that's hard to ignore

Italian wines are so hot right now, including the traditional standard-bearers from Tuscany and Piedmont, and moving over to Sicily, which has recently become one of the darlings of the international wine press.  Yet there are also some traditional wines from areas with a millennia or two of wine-making history that still manage to fly just a few feet under the radar.  One such region is Montelpulciano d’Abruzzo.

Wines from this region on the cheaper side (i.e., $10.00 or under) tend to be simple, cheerful and gluggable wines.  They don’t speak of the place where they’re grown, they don’t have much in the way of complexity, and they just don’t take themselves very seriously.  However, just as people who are not all that deep can sometimes have an energy that makes them entertaining to be around, so, too, Montepulciano wines from the lower end of the spectrum can be liberating and fun.  You can check your intellect, and all of your pretensions, at the door and simply enjoy a wine that’s meant to be straightforward and easy-going. 

At its best, however, wines from this region have a bit more to offer.  When I’m in the mood for pizza or pasta, my go-to wine is almost always a Barbera from the Piedmont or a Sangiovese-based wine from Tuscany.  Yet, if you were to offer me a glass of one of the finer Montelpulciano d’Abruzzos, I would accept it quite happily.  The best examples retain that welcoming, cheerful spirit, but also offer something a bit more elevated.

This week's Wine Face-Off brings together two well-regarded wines from the Abruzzo, which is mid-way down the eastern side of Italy's boot, near the Adriatic Sea.  The test dish here was some wheat spaghetti with a roasted-garlic tomato sauce.

An Old World fruit extravaganza

 2013 Poggia Anima Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (Italy):  Dark plum.  Red licorice, sour cherries and candied red fruits on the nose, with a streak of steely minerality running through both the aroma and the palate.  By Old World standards, this is a fruit bomb – big, sweet fruit aromas and flavors.  Nice, good with food, well-made.  Maybe just a touch simple and upfront for a wine at the $13.98 price point?  ***

Earthy, rich and altogether an exemplary Montepulciano

2011 Cantina Zaccagnini Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (Italy):  Medium plum.  Dark cherry and earthy aromas.  The earthiness carries through to the palate as well.   More candied fruit elements come to the forefront with air.  Later still, the candied element blows off and is replaced by subtle scents of mushrooms and vanilla.  A bit richer, and more complex than the Poggia Anima.  More interesting with food as well.  As this opens up, the sheer fun of Montepulciano is replaced by – dare I say it? – the authority of something with a slightly more serious purpose.  This bottle comes in at the same price point as the Poggia Anima.  *** ½

Query: is the difference between these two wines due solely to the two additional years of bottle age possessed by the Zaccagnini?  From my experience in the past, Cantina Zaccagnini offers one of the top wines from this region, so I suspect that there’s something about their vineyards and winemaking that is a cut above.  On the other hand, I would be happy to revisit the 2013 Poggia Anima in a couple of years to see if I’m right…

Dry Furmint will be knocking at your door

In terms of both quality and value, Furmint packs a serious punch

Hungary is another sleeping giant in the wine world, unknown to most people for now…but this will change soon, as the giant is beginning to awaken.  Insofar as people know Hungarian wine at present, it is through Tokaji, one of the world’s superb dessert wines.  Tokaji relies on a grape known as Furmint, a significant player in the amazing array of white grapes that most drinkers never encounter.  The latest news from Hungary, however, may lead to greater recognition; in addition to outstanding dessert wines, more and more winemakers are crafting exciting dry wines from Furmint.  At the urging of some colleagues at the wine store where I work, I decided to do a little investigation into these fascinating dry table wines.  How lucky the Voyager is to work next to people who are so generous with their wisdom!

Outstanding wine, outstanding value

2013 Pajzos Tokaj Furmint (Hungary):  Fairly pale greenish-gold, but with very nice clarity.  Lovely nose: some vanilla (oak here? – if so, it’s very well-judged, and fully integrated with the wine), along with green apples overlain with spices from an Italian kitchen – even some oregano.  A touch of honey underneath, with some pear notes as it opened out.  More crisp apples on the palate.  With air, the flavor spectrum moved from green apple to Golden Delicious, and the wine started to remind me just a bit of a good Grüner Veltliner – high praise indeed from the Voyager, who is a huge fan of Grüner. Steely mineral elements also came forward over the course of the evening.  Furmint may even remind some of an unoaked chardonnay, but it has a slightly leaner structure and a spicier lilt.   This is a flat-out wonderful wine – and an incredible steal at $9.98.  It would be a good value even if you paid $15.00 for this bottle.  Seek this out; if it’s not on the shelves of the best wine store in your area, see if it’s handled by a distributor in your state, and ask your retailer if s/he can order it.  ****   (NOTE: after four days under inert gas, this wine revealed even more pronounced honeyed aromas, backed by some lime, a trace of lemon and an interesting quinine scent.  At this point, one might have mistaken it for a light-bodied Riesling Spätlese.  Absolutely delicious. 

Bigger for now; may be better with a year or two of bottle age

2013 Royal Tokaji The Oddity Furmint (Hungary):  Medium yellow-gold color.  At first, one could mistake the bouquet for a good Chardonnay – hay and vanilla from evident oak.  With air, a honeyed aroma came to the fore, along with herbal scents – as with the Pajzos, there is even a hint of oregano here.  Herbal elements repeat on the palate, with green apple as well.  With air, a quinine note on the mid-palate.  Heavier in body than the Pajzos; it feels richer, but perhaps not as finely-etched?  Query: will this develop a bit more subtlety after a couple of years in the bottle?  I wouldn’t bet against it.  A good match with fried chicken, and even better with salmon/avocado sushi.  *** ½ for now, but the Voyager suspects that there is more to come.

Well, here’s another revelation in white wine as we head into the spring.  Both of these wines were quite fine; the Pajzos carries the honors for now, at least for the Voyager, who – as his readers will know – prefers wines of elegance.  However, that being said, it wouldn’t surprise me if, with time, The Oddity might develop into the finer wine.  In any case, dry wines made from Furmint will make their voice heard in the future.  There’s simply too much quality in this varietal for it to remain in the shade.   

Enticing Alternatives to Chianti Classico

Chianti went from the unwanted stepchild of Italian wine in the 1960’s – 1970’s, to one of its darlings in the 1990’s, and this was no accident.  During the 1980’s, growers in Tuscany undertook a massive scientific scheme, in which they identified the best clones of Sangiovese -- their trademark grape varietal -- and re-planted their vineyards with better clones, in better sites.  The result was part of the massive revolution in Italian winemaking during the past thirty years that has catapulted the nation’s offerings into the very front ranks of the earth’s vinous treasures. 

One of the epicenters of this revolution was Chianti Classico, the specific zone in Tuscany that has long been identified as the source of many of the region’s greatest wines.  But there are other bottles that are worth seeking outside of the Classico area.  Here are a few of the Voyager’s favorite Tuscan reds…

The Super-Tuscan Interlude

Beginning in the 1980’s and carrying through to the present day, some vintners decided that they wanted to supplement Sangiovese with so-called international (i.e., French) grape varietals, especially Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.  Some of these wines (e.g., Sassasicaia and Orenellaia) are fantastic…and fantastically expensive.  These days, critics are paying considerably less attention to these so-called “Super-Tuscan” wines, preferring to concentrate on wines made form Italy’s indigenous grapes.  Critical fashions, of course, come and go – but the idea of blending Sangiovese with French varietals is far from dead.  And not all of these wines carry a premium price-tag. 

One of my favorite go-to wines for everyday drinking is the result of a collaboration between American importer Neal Empson and prominent Tuscan winemaker Franco Bernabei.  

Vintage after vintage, this wine delivers outstanding value

2010 Monte Antico Toscano (Tuscany, ITALY):  Medium garnet, some maturity on the rim.  Sour cherries, vanilla, plum and leather on the nose, which is nicely forthcoming.  Sour cherry notes again on the palate, with beefy tastes as well.  Great value, and an excellent match with any southern Italian cuisine.  Very well-made, and an outstanding value that usually retails at $10.00 - 12.00  ***1/2

There’s life in Chianti outside of Classico

There are seven different sub-zones in Chianti, and in Chianti Rufina, there are wines to rival the very best of what the Classico zone has to offer.  Here’s an excellent example that, at the store where I work, retails at $12.98 – and is a steal at the price…

The fragrance here is reminiscent of Bordeaux

2011 Renzo Masi Chianti Rufina Riserva (Tuscany, Italy):  A rather surprisingly dark ruby.  The things I love about Chianti Rufina are all here.  Spicy blackcurrant aromas that remind me a bit of a good Margaux, with an additional element of real earthiness, and even a trace of mint.  That earthy note repeats itself on the palate – you can really taste the soil here.  Despite all this minerality, there’s also an elegance and sophistication to this wine, along with a structure that I find lacking in all but the best Chianti Classicos.  This is a producer whose work I’ve admired for many years, and I’m happy to report that they are still on form in the 2011 vintage.  ***1/2 -- ****

The IGT Revolution

Some Italian winemakers don’t want to be hedged in by the specific requirements of Italian wine laws, and thus make their wines under the generic IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) designation.  Some of these wines are cheap, some are quite expensive, but some come in at a price that occupies the middle ground.  Here’s one that consistently gets critical plaudits and is worth investigating…

Does the wine make the meal, or does the meal make the wine?

2011 Brancaia Tre Toscana IGT (Tuscany, IT): Pale-medium ruby.  Orange rind, sour cherry and stewed tomatoes initially; later, scents of graphite and smoke emerge.  Delicate on the palate, with subtle cherry, vanilla and herbal flavors.  What’s missing here?  There’s a lack of richness, a thin quality, that leaves me wanting more.  I paired it with chicken, which seemed to be an inopportune match.  **1/2 at first; will put this under Private Preserve gas for a couple of days and see what happens. 

And what did happen?

Second note on Brancaia Tre: with a plate of pasta in a lovely red sauce, the wine was transformed.  No longer thin and reedy, it now had the perfect weight.  The fruit in the wine was much brighter, and the harmony between the beverage and the meal was sublime.  Glad I saved some for a second experiment.  I learned many years ago to pair wine with food from its own locality – here’s another confirmation.  Bumped up to *** ½   (The Brancaia Tre should comes in at around $22.00 here in Boulder.)

Mini-Brunellos come out of the shadows

Lastly, here’s a wine that comes from Montalcino. This town is the home of Brunello di Montalcino, one of Tuscany’s most prestigious growing areas.  Brunello is rich, sophisticated, and usually quite expensive.  A less costly alternative is Rosso di Montalcino, which has historically been regarded as the little brother of Brunello.  For years, the wines designated as Rosso di Montalcino were haphazard, and buyers were well-advised to exercise caution.  Now, however, this is a category that is gaining increasing attention from both the producers and the wine press.  Here’s a wine that will give you an excellent introduction to the glory that is Montalcino…

This wine speaks to you in clear terms, and tells you to enjoy...

2012 Il Poggione Rosso di Montalcino (Tuscany, Italy):  Pale-to-medium garnet.  Some maturity on the rim.  The nose is loaded with interest: sour cherries, vanilla from old oak (a bit reminiscent of a Rioja), some woodsy aromas and a pleasant hint of the barnyard.  More cherries and dark tea on the palate.  With air, a slightly smoky, flinty, minerally component started to emerge, along with sweeter cherries.  Later still, a suggestion of mushrooms.  This is lovely; it’s so open and inviting that there’s a pronounced wow factor here.  Tried this with both spaghetti in a tomato garlic sauce and a margherita pizza, and it was equally at home with both.  A very good sample of what Montalcino can do; even though it’s fairly light in color, it has great acidity for food, and, despite coming in at 14.5% alcohol, it has excellent balance.  This really is a “baby Brunello.”  ****  (This is another wine in the $22.00 range here in Colorado.)