Wine Fictions

 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...

One of the things that I find most impressive in wines is the way they age and acquire new tastes which often enrich the original one.  This is what happened when I first tried this Selvarossa Riserva 2013. Lost and forgotten in a box in the warehouse of the wine shop where I work, the sommelier has decided to open a bottle of it before deciding to put it out of the program making space for the 2017 vintage. In the glass we could see some of the effects of ageing such as some loss of colour and sediments. In the nose there was a walnuts, tobacco and some leather which promised quite a developed stage of fermentation. This was confirmed with the first sip which shown and full-bodied and rich red with very mature red fruits.  Fascinated by it, I soon started recommending it to several customers and it was soon sold out. When there were only two bottles left I had a young customer who was particularly excited with it as soon as he tried it. After getting the last two bottles, he ...