Wine Fictions

To travel often offers you the opportunity to try wines and grapes that otherwise you would never come across. Having recently been in Abruzzo, Italy, I was eager to try grapes besides Montepulciano, Trebbiano or Passerina that you can easily find in Hamburg.  As soon as I got inside the incredibly charming Casa del Caffè in Ortona, my eyes were drawn to the wines of Cantina Tollo and specially to this Maiolica that I want to share with you.  As you can guess, I have never heard of this grape before and, therefore, my curiosity has taken over my buying option and I left the shop with a bottle in my hand (as well as really nice mix of coffees done by the owner who, by the way, has recommended me to have the wine slightly chilled).  When home I quickly put it in the fridge and prepared some nibbles to go along with it. Having read something about it in the meantime, my curiosity grew even bigger. Maiolica was almost extinct and it is now the object of several recovery pro...

 Following my former post , I have decided to taste a 99 Luca Maroni points home.  Based on five of the most iconic autochthonous grapes from southern Italy, this is a wine with grapes from both Abruzzo and Puglia regions, which automatically classifies it as a VDT or table wine. This does not mean, in any way, that it is a low quality wine.  Much the other way round. This is the result of a careful work from two different oenologues in order to try to create a wine which can reflect the spirit and identity of  these grapes. For all those who have been in touch with Italian wines, you may have come already across Montepulciano, Primitivo, Sangiovese, Negroamaro or Malvasia Nera. This is quite a deep and full bodied wine with strong nutmeg and cloves taste, light tobacco and ripe berries which makes it quite an ideal partner for the colder days which have just invaded the north of Germany.  The wooden notes are quite predominant and it is, somehow, not a big surp...