WBW #54-Wines of Piedmont

Posted on February 18, 2009 by Sonadora

WBW crept up on me again this month. It has a nasty of doing that these days…especially in short months like February.  Our host this month is David of McDuff’s Food and Wine Trail.  David set us to what seemed like an easy task at the time, drinking any wine, white, red, or otherwise from Piedmont.  However, after checking out my local wine shop and finding only a $50+ bottle of Barolo, I had to make a rush order from Jill at Domaine547, who again humored my refusal to use her website and quickly helped me choose a half case of wine (the most economical way to ship to me that I’ve found…plus, I can always use another half case of wine…right?  RIGHT?).

I always like the opportunity to taste reds from Italy as I tend to find them to be great values, so I’m happy that Domaine547 had a red from Piedmont to offer me!  I chose the 2006 Luciano Sandrone Dolcetto D’Alba.  It had a real cork closure, clocked in at 13.5% alcohol by volume, and cost me $22.99 from Domaine547.

On the nose I found chocolate covered cherries, currants, berries, anise, spice, white pepper, cherry, and plums.  The nose kept evolving as the wine aired, it definitely needed some time to open up.  In the mouth I got juicy cherries, earth, some bitter notes, raspberry, cedar, dark fruit, and chocolate.  Overall, I found the wine to be incredibly juicy.  The fruit showed as fresh and bright.  The wine had nice tannic structure and acidity.  We ate this with roast beef and it stood up well to the meat, but I also really enjoyed sipping it after dinner.  The wine is young and would definitely benefit from some vigorous decanting or some more time in the bottle.

Many thanks to David for hosting and for pointing me to Italy once again.  I really should drink more Italian wines!  And as always, a tip of the virtual hat to Lenn, the founder of WBW.  See you next month!

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Filed under: Dolcetto, Domaine 547, Italy, Lenndevours, McDuff's Food and Wine Trail, Red, Wine | 3 Comments »

Great Value Italian Red Wine

Posted on April 30, 2008 by Sonadora

The wine was a 2005 Siema Rosso Vino da Tavola by Lodali Winery from Piedmont. Sorry, I seem to have not taken a picture of this one. The wine clocked in at 12% alcohol by volume and cost me $8!!!! at The Winery in Old Town Alexandria. It’s a blend of 50% Barbera and 50% Dolcetto. I believe I took more notes on this wine than almost any other red wine I’ve had in recent memory. I’m still shocked at the layers and depth in this little $8 bottle of wine. What I should have done was go buy the rest that The Winery had because this was simply an amazing value.

The nose showed smoke, leather, a little barnyard, red berries, and red currants. It kept opening up as the night progressed and the smell was amazing. In the mouth the wine was red and earthy. I found red berries, red currants, earth, leather, a smoky characteristic, and more red fruit.

This was just an absolutely fabulous deep wine with layers of flavors. Everyone loved this one at our dinner party. I served it with homemade pizza, and in addition to everything else, the wine was wonderful with pizza! The smoky flavors were perfect for the cheese and pepperoni covering the pizza.

Filed under: Barbera, Dolcetto, Italy, Red, The Winery | 3 Comments »

Anniversary Wine!

Posted on August 23, 2007 by Sonadora

In some other year we will do the whole Champagne thing, but since I figured we had done a fair amount of Champagne lately with the new house thing and we had been saving this bottle for the occasion, a bottle of 2005 Brutocao Feliz Vineyard Dolcetto was used to toast the evening.

We were given this bottle by our excellent server at the Lion’s Den Bistro where we dined one Friday evening on our honeymoon. It was our favorite over the 4 course food and wine pairing meal and our server had indicated he would give us the remainder of the bottle to take back to our B&B. When we arrived back at the B&B we went to drink it and discovered he had kindly given us a brand new bottle and we decided to save it for our first anniversary. A little reminder of our honeymoon since we weren’t going to be able to make it back out to Sonoma for the occasion.

So with that said, the wine was free, had a real cork closure and clocked in at 13.8% alcohol by volume. We decided to eat in our dining room with all the fancy crystal and china and I served a meal of parmasean/honey dijon/breadcrumb encrusted rack of lamb with blue cheese polenta and green beans. It was a good match to the dinner, though the rack of lamb could have easily stood up to a really big wine. But I thought this was a good choice as the lamb with the crust and fresh herbs and such is really flavorful and I didn’t want a wine that was going to take away from those flavors.

Anywho, the wine. On the nose I found plums and sweet candy. I couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but I would describe it as a sweet candied aroma. In the mouth the wine was fruity and had a medium-light body. Mostly sweet plums in the mouth. Overall, a nice, lighter red wine that was easy drinking on a warm summer night. And a bottle with really great memories.

Filed under: Brutocao, California, Dolcetto, Red | 4 Comments »