Archive for the ‘Chianti’ Category
Varietal: Chianti
Region: Italy
Cost: $9
Ruby red in color with aromas of spice, cherry, and hazelnut. Flavors of fruit and berry in a medium-bodied wine. Pairs well with pasta, pizza, and most traditional Italian dishes.
Recommendations: I picked up this bottle last night after a long day of work. I’d had other Ruffino wines before and enjoyed them and was just in the mood for Chianti and thought this would be a safe bet. I should have grabbed another one. While the color and the aromas of the wine were nice – ruby red and cherry – I felt the wine was lighter than I was expecting in the mouth. The flavors were all there, berry, some cherry, and a noticeable tannic finish, but while Ruffino claims it’s medium-bodied, I felt it leaned more towards the lighter side.
While this bottle hasn’t turned me off of Ruffino wines, I definitely won’t be getting this one again, especially as there are other Chiantis out there for about the same price that have delivered for me in the past. Kinda disappointing.
So September is the grape harvest in Chianti, and in time for that I was sent this lovely email detailing a great path to follow from Florence to Sienna to really take advantage of all of the festivals going on in the Tuscan region. While I won’t be able to fly out there and take experience this myself, I thought I would share it with my readers and if any of you do take the trip, I’d love to hear about it.
Here’s the email that was sent to me:
The Chianti area has been one of the most important wine producing regions in Italy for over two centuries. It was the family of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Lopold I that began cultivating grapes during the 18th and 19th centuries in the region that would become modern Chianti.
The Chiantigiana (SR 222) is one of the most scenic and charming motoring routes in Italy, running directly south from Florence to Sienna cutting through the heart of the Chianti Classico wine zone. The road sweeps around rolling Tuscan hills and past thousands of hectares of vineyards, all producing outstanding Chianti Classico DOCG (the highest classification of Chianti).
The best time of year to visit Tuscany (Toscana) is at harvest time in September, or just before harvest to see the vines bowing heavily with ripening Sangiovese grapes. During September most towns in Chianti celebrate the Sangiovese harvest with wine festivals such as the Vino al Vino held on the third week in September (17-19) in the small town of Panzano in Chianti, where many local wines can be sampled by the glass.
For a truly inspiring tour along Chiantigiana road, make time to visit some of the ancient towns of Chianti and surrounding vineyards. Most vineyards are open to the public, but it’s worth checking before you visit. Read the rest of this entry »
Varietal: Sangiovese
Region: Italy – Chianti
Cost: $6
Earthy notes with subtle flavors of crushed red fruit and a nice tartness with a good tannic finish. Pairs well with pasta, pizza, chicken, and beef.
Recommendations: I have a great wife. I really do. This past weekend, while we were up visiting our families, I was spending some time with mine, and she with hers. While out with her family, they stopped into the local Wegmans and she picked me up a bottle of wine – the 2008 Le Altane Chianti. I told you I had a great wife.
After a dinner out on Monday (for our 2nd wedding anniversary), we came home and opened up the bottle she had bought as we relaxed and let our dinner settle. A deep red in the glass that was nothing so much as brown (not in a bad way), the wine was subtle. A subtle earthiness with subtle flavors of red fruit, with a subtle tartness and subtle tannins on the finish. Subtle. Read the rest of this entry »
Varietal: Chianti
Region: Italy
Cost: $8
Medium dark color with notes of cherry on the nose with berry on the palate. Soft tannins pair well with pastas and meats.
Recommendations: Given as how Chianti is my first love of red wine, I was excited to open up this bottle, and finally got the opportunity this past weekend. Paired with a meal of Giada’s Lasagna Rolls (which my wife adds sausage to and I recommend anybody making this meal do as well), the cherry, berry, and slight earthiness of the wine came out great.
Unlike several Chiantis I’ve had in the past, this one was really easy on the tannins which made it really enjoyable even after the meal was finished. While this certainly isn’t a life-altering Chianti, at $8 it’s easily one of the best values I’ve come across in quite a while, and definitely worth giving a try if you’re looking for a good red table wine to keep around the house.
Special thanks to Wine & Beer Westpark for supplying the wine for this review.
Varietal: Chianti/Sangiovese
Region: Italy
Cost: $29
Ruby red in color with aromas of red berries. Smooth on the palate with a medium body, and great tannins on the end. Flavors of cherry and a bit of spice.
Recommendations: My wife, parents, and some extended family went to lunch in San Francisco at Tony’s Pizzeria Napoletana, and it soon fell to me to select wine for our meal. Wanting something a bit more dry to pair with the brick oven pizza, I quickly moved to the Sangiovese section of the wine menu.
I was a bit hesitant about selecting a wine from a TV show, but given that it’s an estate wine from Tuscany, I was hopeful that it would deliver. It did.
At $29 in the restaurant (about $15 in stores), it’s a great value for a chianti, especially one that will pair so well with pasta or pizza. Nice ruby coloring with aromas of red berries and flavors of cherry and spice with a great tannic finish make this a great wine to keep on hand.
If you’ve seen this and have been hesitant about picking it up because of the Iron Chef affiliation, go ahead and grab it. It’s worth it.
Varietal: Chianti
Region: Italy
Cost: $10
Ruby coloring with a smooth taste of fruit and just a hint of tannins at the end. Pair with pasta, pizza, roasted meat.
Recommendations: The wife and I picked this up while having dinner at Verde the other night as they were out of the Sauvignon Blanc we wanted, and this would pair well. I should preface this by saying, for anybody that hasn’t read this blog before, that I am a fan of Chianti. It’s probably the first wine that I really fell in love with and was certainly my introduction into red wines.
Now, all that being said, the Toscolo Chianti was not, by my standard, a Chianti. That’s not to say that it wasn’t made with the Sangiovese grape, but if the bottle hadn’t said Chianti on it, I would have thought it was something else. I honestly thought it had been labeled wrong and was actually a Tempranillo.
I’m not saying it wasn’t good with our meal of paninis and chips, but it just wasn’t what I was expecting. That being said, at $10, it’s not a complete waste – I wouldn’t pay more for it though. If you’re curious I’d say try it, but otherwise you can find a better Chianti for about the same price.
