Region: Bardolino, Italy
Composition: 65% Corvina, 25% Rondinella, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon
Background: I love Italian wines, and when I drink them, I always think of fabric (and mostly velvets at that). I love the Italian wines that no one else seems to love, or at least the ones that don't get the attention the Barolos and the Amarones get (not that I would chase those out of my glass). I love the regular old (well, Classico, at least) Valpolicellas and the Bardolinos.
Bardolino is a wine growing region in northeast Italy (about 15 miles west of Verona), squished in between the eastern shore of Lake Garda and the western edge of the Valpolicella region. In the center of the region, right on the shores of the lake, is the actual town of Bardolino, and in that town, you can find Cantine Lenotti.
Lenotti's clay-soil vineyard "La Pra" is right near Lake Garda, and thrives in the microclimate created by the lake. All thee grape varieties in this wine come from that vineyard, and once harvested, most of the grapes are pressed immediately, while 30 percent of them are left out to dry for almost anywhere from two to four months in order to concentrate the flavors and increase sweetness (this process is called appassimento, and many Italian wines go through it, both red and white-- when the resulting wine is left sweet, it is called Recioto, and when fermented to dryness, it is called Amarone). Once dried, the grapes are lightly pressed and the juice is added to the rest of the harvest. In the case of the Le Olle here, the wine-to-be then goes through a weeklong fermentation and is finally aged partially in oak casks, partially in stainless steel.
Recently, some medieval wine jugs were found in this particular vineyard, and were excavated to be put into a museum. So the wine was dubbed "Le Olle", which means "wine jug" in Italian.
Notes: This wine is an intense purple-red in the glass, and looks young. The nose is full of stone and rocks, with some reticent fruit and some nutty warmth. There is a slight hint of raisin; a sort of dried plummy note, which makes sense given the passito production. The flavor echoes the nose, with a hint of black fruit surrounded by savory spice (think thyme and oregano) and more stone, all combined with some nice acid. The finish is the finish Italian wines have that I love... soft, velvety chalkiness with a nice dose of astringent bitterness, like bitter almond.
I am taking a class on wine components right now and the other day we were discussing how different cultures generally like different flavors in wine, and these flavors echo the flavors in the traditional food of the culture. Examples would be the pine resin Greeks favor in retsina, and the sweet fruitiness that the Americans prefer in their wines (Americans love sugar). Italians like many bitter foods (think rapini, arugula, and chinotto), and their wine echoes that. I love that slight bitterness in the finish, especially when it is paired with the velvety tannin. The wine paired wonderfully with my lazy dinner (it was a long day at work) of pasta with tomatoes, red bell pepper, and chard.
I have to wonder what the Cabernet Sauvignon is doing here (it's not the norm; normally the Corvina/Rondinella is blended with something like Molinara or Negara), but it works for me, so I am not questioning it too much.
Cost: $17
Overall: B
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