Wine Tasting: Exploring Italy's Hidden Gems and Classic Reds

Recently I hosted a wine tasting for a few friends centered around Italian wines. As with every wine tasting, my goal was to drop a little wine knowledge, get everyone familiar and comfortable with how to taste and evaluate wine, how to read an Italian wine label, share a bit about the region and the grapes, and ultimately, have fun drinking some great wines!

I also wanted to focus on Italian reds - but not just the usual suspects of Chiantis and Nebbiolos and Super Tuscans! My goal was to show that there’s a lot of other great Italian reds out there that don’t have to necessarily be heavy hitters!

Here’s our lineup of wines and why I chose them:

(1) Lambruscco di Sorbara, Zucchi, 2020

What’s a kickoff to a wine tasting without some bubbly! Lambrusco has had a bad rep in the United States after it was almost over-popularized in the 70s and 80s, mass produced and made in a sweet style. Today, I’m all here for the lambrusco resurgence (and you should be too)!

I’ve had plenty of the inky, Grasparossa Lambruscos with pizza, but this Lambrusco di Sorbara - the lightest and most delicate of the 4 types of Lambruscos - was *chef kiss*! The effervescence was light and ultra-fine and it had a gorgeous floral nose to it. It was a light pink-rose hue, which was giving sparkling rosé, but that was soon dispelled after tasting it. It had notes of fresh raspberries, sour cherry and strawberries and was bone dry - such an easy drinker! It was an all-around favorite, not to mention one of my new favorites!

(2) Vernatsch, Markus Prackwiser Gump, 2021

From Emilia-Romagna, we traveled even further North to one of my favorite regions - Alto Adige. If you’re unfamiliar, this is a quirky little area where Italy meets Switzerland and Austria. It blends both cultures, but also both climates of the North and South - resulting in a region prime for Pinot Grigios (the Italian kind, not the cheap American type - there’s a difference, I promise!), but also my favorite grape, Vernatsch (or as the Italians call it, Schiava). Fun fact, if you’re a Formula One fan, ex-Hass boss Gunther Steiner is from Bolzano, which is in the Alto Adige region. So you see - a German name, for an Italian man!

While I’ve had other Schiava/Vernatsch-based wines, I’d never tried the Prackwiser Gump-produced and was exquisitely surprised. Another easy red, this had notes of red cherries, plum and raspberries and a fun candied / bubblegum nose to it. It was lighter than a Pinot Noir and delicate yet still had a lot of character and definition. It was a unanimous hit all around - and I will probably be ordering a case in the near future!

(3) Ruchè di Castagnole Monferrato, Crivelli - 2022

From Alto Adige we went to Piedmont to taste one of the region’s lesser-known varietals - Ruchè. To be fair, maybe I was most enthralled by the story of the Ruchè grape, more than I actually liked the wine. Though, I do love it’s origin story. Used to make sweet wines for celebration during the Roman Empire, the modern-day Ruchè varietal as we know it was almost extinct until about 50 years ago. A priest cultivated the grape and made wine from the old vines, in turn selling the wine and using the profits to pay for his church’s restoration. This went on to inspire other growers to re-cultivate their vines and make wines from dry to sweet styles.

Marco Maria Crivelli, the producer of this bottle is one of the small group of farmers promoting Piedmont’s other grape varieties indigenous to the area. So much so, that he was actually president of the Ruchè consortium that got the area to be recognized as a DOCG in 2010.

I’m still developing my palate for aromatic reds, so take my notes with a figurative grain of salt. This Ruchè had aromas of rose petals, violets, and even some white pepper. On the palate it was light to medium in body with notes of cherry, dried blackberry and dried plum and even some sorts of savory spices. The finish was medium and had very strong earthy and herbal notes that remained on the palate. Was it the groups’ favorite? No. But I could see this pairing really well with some game, aged cheese, or even spicy Indian or Thai foods, like a curry.

(4) Valpolicella “Il Buono”, Le Albare, 2021

Onto a slightly more medium-bodied wine, we went to Valpolicella Classico. This Valpolicella Classico was everything you’d expect from a non-Ripasso Valpolicella. Bright, red fruits like strawberry, tart cherry, baked plum, with signs of oak aging evident from notes of peppercorn, chocolate and even leather. For those unfamiliar to a Valpolicella, to me it’s not unsimilar to a California Zinfandel.

Overall, as you’d expect this Vpl was a hit with the group and actually paired perfectly with our dinner that followed of spicy rigatoni with tomato vodka sauce… a pairing that really let the red notes shine.

(5) Chianti Classico Riserva, Castello della Paneretta, 2019

From one classic to another, our fifth tasting was a Chianti, because what’s an Italian red wine tasting without a Chianti?! Did you know most Chiantis have a black rooster on their labels? Roosters often were used to resolve border disputes between Siena and Florence - who were always at war. The black rooster was a symbol of Florence, while the white rooster represented Siena. Since 1924, the Chianti consortium adopted the black rooster “for the defense of the typical wine of Chianti and its historic zone of origin”, essentially differentiating wines from the Chianti Classico region from others outside the region.

This Sangiovese-based blend gave aromas of violets, dried flowers (some would say, “grandmothers closet”?), while underneath the savoriness and spiciness that developed from oak aging, the mature red fruits had trouble coming through.

(6) Barbaresco “Serraboella”, Barale, 2019

We ended our wine tasting with our most full-bodied red, a Nebbiolo. A notoriously fussy grape to grow, Nebbiolos are extremely terroir expressive, picking up more of the earth, soil and climate versus any other grape. The Serraboella vineyard is one of the area’s most famous vineyard plot and the wine is produced by one of Barolo’s oldest winemaking families. It was aged for two years in old barrels, bottled, and then aged another year.

It’s color is a bright garnet, almost pale, which is extremely deceptive for such a powerful wine. On the nose, you can smell licorice, ripe red fruits, like cherry. On the palate its full bodied with structured tannins and notes of oak aging as evident by the notes of anise, coffee and leather.

For me, this was one of my favorite wines - and I’d love to pair this with something rich and fatty. A decadent cheeseboard, or a nice hearty steak will do!

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