2017 Costaripa Mattia Vezzola Palmargentina Vino Dulce, Italy, Lombardy, Wine Review

This is a dessert wine made from Groppello, Marzemino, and Moscato Rosa grapes in Lombardy, Italy. It does not appear to be available in the US at the moment (sadly). 10% Alc and sold in 500ml bottles. What a treat. Deep salmon in color. The nose has oranges, simple syrup, pine and malted milk. Slightly sweet on the palate but with a great backbone of acidity. Lots of minerality along with some nice fresh strawberry notes. Slight tannins. A long finish. This is meant to be a dessert wine so food pairing can be an issue. This would be great with fresh fruit or a lighter fruit tart.Another example of a grape that i have never tried, in a wine that I haven't had being just stunning. This retails in Italy for around $20USD for a 500ml bottle.

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2017

Franciacorta: Italy’s Sparkling Wine Answer to Champagne

Italy makes a wide variety of sparkling wines that are wonderful values and great tasting wines suitable for the holidays. In the last article, we discussed the sparkling wines of Asti in the Piemonte ( Moscato d’Asti and Asti Spumante). I would like to continue to explore the sparkling wines of Italy. The first region one encounters when heading east from the Piemonte is the region of Lombardia.

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Near the Austrian border in northern Italy, from the region of Alto Adige comes an excellent red wine called Lagrein (pronounced la-GRINE) that really hits the spot on a winters night dinner table. Lagrein is also the name of the grape from which it is made. As was discussed here , the area of Alto Adige is very close to the Austrian border and has a shared history with both Italy and Austria. Hence, the German language is spoken frequently and either or both languages may appear on a wine label. You can find it made as both a red wine, often called Dunkel in German and Scuro in Italian, or a Rosè, called Kretzer in German or Rosato in Italian.

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2017 Costaripa Mattia Vezzola Palmargentina Vino Dulce, Italy, Lombardy, Wine Review

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