Freisa Fresh!

This 2011 Cantina del Pino "Langhe Freisa" is playing to my weaknesses right now...

sniffings: raspberry-caramel white chocolate topped with crushed rosemary.

the tasty bits: gently tannic and lifting--nearly effervescent--on my tongue. Is this fresh, light, blackberry liquer muddled with charred, sultry pepper bacon? With rosemary and lavender garnish?!! I'll have another, please and thank you! I ran across another interesting blogger who described it as "black cherry ice cream that gets you drunk." Note to self: make Langhe Freisa ice cream...

what it's all about: nestled in the hilly Piedmont region of Northern Italy, we find Langhe. The place is known mostly for bubbly wines made of Freisa grapes; wouldn't ya know it, our red Freisa is brilliantly tingly (aka "frizzante")! Did I mention it's totally affordable?

I hate that I discovered this wine on what is literally the last week of summer. Then again---hello perfect thanksgiving wine! And we even caught this in time for Canadian Thanksgiving (10/8/12; also featuring the general harvest foods of turkey & potatoes). Huzzah! I'm going to let this bottle chillax in the fridge for a few while you're carving the turkey!

Simple Pleasures from the Italian Country

I've always longed for the Italian life, where everyone in the family gathers for boisterous summer days spent cooking, eating, and drinking together long into the night. There's an excess of comforting food, abundant sunshine, not a care in the world. The wine is free flowing; a product of years spent cultivating the backyard vineyard, syphoned into bottle only when it's time to drink. I tasted a bit of this idealist-life in a humble and simply quaffable Montepulciano d'Abruzzo.

Abruzzo's wine is a labor of love. Their simple Italian country wines, coming from a long history of poor culture, feel most comforting and romantic sipped from a tumbler, paired with a little nonchalance and carefree whimsy. The perfect wine to not demand attention at a high energy dinner party. Eric Asimov (Chief Wine Critic, NY Times) loves his on restaurant lists wherever he can find them: "I'm always happy when I find [Montepulciano d'Abruzzo] because I know it's gonna be a solid, dependable, moderately priced wine that is content in its role as a supporting player to food." Cherries, flowers, earth, and all things gulp worthy!

Blinding Braun

It's wine-o'clock in the Rabbit Hole once again, and we've started brand-spankin-new notebooks devoted to blind tasting. I thought an Italian Pinot Grigio would be just the thing to challenge Braun for our books. Enter Erste + Neue with a classy (and classic!) Alto Adige:

Alto Adige is the northernmost wine region of Italia, and is also known as Südtirol (South Tyrol) by the neighboring Austrians. Other than the fact that they make other-worldly white wines and are super German, all you really need to know is:

Like a friggin fairytale barfed on the map... is it time to retire yet?!

Anyway, back to the blind tasting test. After pouring the wine and hiding the bottle, there was much deliberation over notes of white peach, minerals and pears, vanilla cake, white chocolate & flower blossoms, Braun was confident in his assessment that this, in fact was a Pinot Grigio from Alto Adige. Another blind tasting win!