Summer ambrosia

Many Italian wines to accompany all dishes

Italy is certainly home to some of the greatest wines of the world. Recently, the top American wine magazine, the Wine Spectator crowned the Tuscan red Ornellaia di Ludovico Antinori with the title of best wine in the world. Yes!!! The best in the world!!! It is not the first time that Italy has won this prize, nor is it the first for the brothers Antinori who claimed the prestigious prize.
In order to claim top prize, Ornellaia beat out 10,000 competing wines, of which the jury judged 1,700 to be extraordinary. The Tuscan wine, which goes for about $130.00 a bottle in Ontario, is judged on four criteria: quality, worth in comparison to market value, availability on the market, and the "x" factor which stands for "excitation."
What a perfect way to describe Italian wines! Excitation, meaning to provoke or kindle the emotions. Not that Italians need much provoking of their emotions! Italy is a country of passionate people producing plenty of wines to excite and stimulate your body and mind.
As much as Ornellaia may be the perfect full-bodied red wine, this is summer and the season calls for some lighter more refreshing wines to accompany the lighter style of eating on a hot day.
For example, if you're thinking of fish or chicken for dinner tonight, it will serve you well to seek out a bottle of 2000 Casal di Serra, the Verdicchio from Umani Ronchi (CSPC 953398, $13.50). It's a dry white wine with some ripe fruit notes and a fantastically long finish. So impressive is this wine from the Marche that the influential Gambero Rosso Italian Wine Guide gave it their highest honour of a "three glass" rating.
The only white grape variety in Roero is Arneis which gives its name to a light, white slightly aromatic wine that's becoming a marketing sensation in Piedmont. If you can find the 2001 Roero Arneis from Cantina del Nebbiolo (CSPC 977488, $12.55), it's a fantastic match for lighter vegetable meals like the Pomodori Ripieni.
That beautiful little town in the heart of Tuscany, San Gimignano produces some of the most deliciously light summer wines. Most people don't realize that Vernaccia is a very old grape variety that is not grown anywhere else in the world but in and around the town of San Gimignano. If you can find some still left out there, the 2001 Vernaccia di San Gimignano from Casale-Falchini (CSPC 994012, $12.65) is the perfect wine with Bruschetta ai Pomodori or cold pizza in the heat of an August evening.
Only the wines produced in the area around the medieval town of Orvieto are entitled to use the coveted Classico term on the label. One small producer with only 22 hectars of vineyard is Palazzone, producing a delicious 2001 Orvieto Classico Superiore (CSPC 732628, $14.85). This medium-bodied white has a kind of lime and melon flavour that goes especially well with a traditional dish of sea bass and artichokes called Trance di Branzino ai Carciofi. The Gambero Rosso Italian Wine guide claims Palazzone as one of Umbria's best wineries.
My favourite white wine of all Italian white wines for summertime drinking (or anytime drinking for that matter!) has to be Gavi made from the Cortese grape in the northern region of Gavi that once was the Republic of Genoa. Here Tenute Neirano has produced a 2000 Gavi (CSPC 993949, $12.65) that is an outstanding example of a crisp white wine with hint of almonds on the finish. One of the most outstanding Gavi I've tasted is from Banfi, (a Piedmont-based winery of the famous Montalcino cantina) but it's rare to find.
In a lighter note the 2001 Moscato D'Asti from La Spinetta (CSPC 953703, $15.95) in Piedmont is a popular summer drinking wine at only 5.5 percent alcohol. This lesser known "spumante" from Asti is a light fragrant frothy white and is usually produced from small producers such as this one or the 2001 Moscato D'Asti from Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Gresy (CSPC 433615, $17.70). Delicious Muscat perfume in a light frizzante character makes this the perfect wine to go with a big sweet bowl of ciliegie nere on a hot Sunday afternoon.
Of course, there is a season for everything and Italian wines are no exception. These delicious wines are on the store shelves today and gone tomorrow. They're not always available because of their high demand and small production. But like all good things in season, they're all that much more appreciated when you can find them.
Italy's wine industry is widely considered to be the most delicious and complex in the world. The extensive range of grape varieties, the confusing array of wine laws and the sheer number of regions planted to vine are just some of the factors that make Italian wine so fascinating. Aren't you glad your only job is to enjoy it!!

Publication Date: 2002-08-04
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=1639