DGS Singapore Italian Wines
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| From DGS |
It was a good strong event, with over twenty people in attendance, and 11 bottles of wine, as well as a whole array of food. 🙂 Looking forward to the next DGS event, at Andy’s!
1. Ruffino Orvieto Classico 2007 (S$30)
Eh, this turned out to be the best amongst all the whites… I didn’t taste the honey notes in the finish, but I did sort of taste some pineapple when I paired it with a slice of fried fish cake. Everyone else was convinced I was making things up in my head as usual though. Hehe.
Orvieto is named after one of the Umbrian cities in Italy, which used to be an important medieval hill city during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. It is a lightly sweet wine, often concentrated by some noble rot. It’s a blend of various different grapes, with a main base of Trebbiano Toascano.
I first came across this grape by accident in an Italian pizza place in Chicago, in May 2008, and was very taken with the burst of flavors in the mouth near the finish.
2. Fronde Moscato d’Asti Fontanafredda 2007 (S$30)
We actually started off the event with this bottle. It was a little too sweet for my – well, quite a few of our liking, but perhaps it wasn’t cold enough like Andy suggested…
Tanya specifically requested some Moscato d’Asti in her RSVP, and I’d already thought to pick up a couple bottles when I headed to the wine store. I was surprised though, that the first two wine places I went to didn’t carry it at all, and I only managed to pick up a lone bottle today. I still remember my first taste of this – in a sunny piazza in Turino, the capital city of Piedmont, the region where the Moscato d’Asti hails from (Asti being the name of the town where the Moscato is made). That was the single bottle that I carted back to Chicago with me, and which I subsequently shared with friends back there. It’s a hugely popular wine at parties, being fizzy, sweet, and light in alcohol; a perfect starter wine for beginning wine lovers too.
3. Villa Girardi Soave Classico 20055 (S$40)
I first tasted Soave in Venice, Italy, the region where the wine can be found. But I mostly forgot about this wine, until last December, when Peiyun came to visit. I brought her to the Italian restaurant below my apartment, and complemented our tasty pasta dishes with a bottle of Soave. She raved about it so much that we opened up another bottle later on in her stay. 🙂
Eh, I was quite disappointed with this actually – found the wine a little too harsh, and hot, even though it was only 12%. Where was that gentleness that the wine promised???
4. Leonardo da Vinci Chianti 2005 (S$35)
Andy’s a little, well actually, very, biased against non-French wines, and wines with cutesy labels on them. So he predictably turned up his nose at this one. Hehe, to be honest, I was a little inclined to agree with him. Good wines tend to take themselves a tad more seriously. However, once it had a chance to air out a bit more, the wine softened a little more. I’d be tempted to buy this one as a day-to-day wine, for its price. 🙂
5. Poggio alle Sughere Morellino di Scansano 2005 (S$40)
It seemed, in this tasting, that the quality was proportional to the price. Most people liked this one a lot better than the previous one, for they found it heavier, and more fuller bodied. A couple though, begged to differ, for they didn’t quite like the pungent aroma of the wine.
Found in Tuscany, this wine is a blend of Sangiovese (90%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (10%).
6. Villa Girardi Bure Alto Ripasso Valpolicella Classico Superiore 2001 (S$53)
I liked this one. It was a lot smoother than the previous wines, though it still didn’t taste as full bodied as I liked. Is it a sign that I like the fruitier wines??!
Also from the Veneto region of Italy, the name Valpolicella is derived from Greek and Latin and means “the valley of many cellars.” What an awesome name. 😉
7. La Matta Barbera d’Alba Giommi Gagliardo 2004 (S$56)
Aaah, Barbera, this was a good wine.
On that same trip to Turino, I fell in love with wine. The lover, a bottle of Barbera d’Alba we had over dinner – of fish, if I recall correctly. I was so infatuated that my glass of water sat completely untouched throughout the meal. Of course, since then, that’s been mostly the case, but that bottle convinced me to make a pilgrimage to Alba (which I did, and the truffle festival blew me away, but that’s another story).
8. Serre Barolo Giamni Gagliardo 2003 (S$93)
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I’m not sure if I would pay $93 to drink it on its own. To be sure, this was a better wine than the rest – softer and smoother, but it wasn’t that memorable. Nonetheless, it was a good wine to cap the evening with.
Hands down, Piedmont is my favorite wine region in Italy, and it’s not difficult to see why from this wine list. Barolo is also found in the Piedmont area, but it’s a rare treat because it’s so much more expensive. Made of the Niebbolo, this is a wine that is not meant to be drank young. Also, Janice’s wine request for the evening. 🙂
*Source: Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine
All in all, I think a good selection of wine, although I was a little disappointed we couldn’t explore the Sicilian region a little more. It would have also been fun if I could find a bottle of kerner, and amarone to round off the evening… Any one knows of a bigger wine retailer in the city?al
Dead Grapes Society 