Winemaker Notes
Bright yellow, nearly paper white, with soft green reflections. The bouquet is fresh and fragrant with intense aromatic notes of citrus fruits, grapefruit in particular, and floral aromas, typical of the variety. On the palate it is fresh and fruity, with a great balance and a long mineral finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A clean and juicy vermentino with aromas of white apricots, fresh pears, lemons, flowers and seashells. Medium-bodied with a refreshing saline hint.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A new value submission from Campo alle Comete, the 2021 Vermentino Albablu is crisp and fragrant with white flower, almond blossom and unripe honeydew melon. This estate is owned by the folks in Campania's Feudi di San Gregorio, and boy do they know how to make a good bottle of entry-level white wine. Vermentino vines are planted in the flat part of the appellation at 50 meters above sea level where the limestone clay soils are quite loose and soft, allowing for good water absorption. Some 26,666 bottles were made. Drink this wine young and chilled.
A fantastic, aromatic white grape that grows with great success in Sardinia, Tuscany and in lesser proportions on the island of Corsica. Somm Secret—Vermentino is thought to be genetically identical to Liguria’s Pigato grape and Peidmont’s Favorita. It comprises a large proportion of the whites in southern France where it is called Rolle.
One of the most iconic Italian regions for wine, scenery and history, Tuscany is the world’s most important outpost for the Sangiovese grape. Tuscan wine ranges in style from fruity and simple to complex and age-worthy, Sangiovese makes up a significant percentage of plantings here, with the white Trebbiano Toscano coming in second.
Within Tuscany, many esteemed wines have their own respective sub-zones, including Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. The climate is Mediterranean and the topography consists mostly of picturesque rolling hills, scattered with vineyards.
Sangiovese at its simplest produces straightforward pizza-friendly Tuscan wines with bright and juicy red fruit, but at its best it shows remarkable complexity and ageability. Top-quality Sangiovese-based wines can be expressive of a range of characteristics such as sour cherry, balsamic, dried herbs, leather, fresh earth, dried flowers, anise and tobacco. Brunello, an exceptionally bold Tuscan wine, expresses well the particularities of vintage variations and is thus popular among collectors. Chianti is associated with tangy and food-friendly dry wines at various price points. A more recent phenomenon as of the 1970s is the “Super Tuscan”—a red wine made from international grape varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Syrah, with or without Sangiovese. These are common in Tuscany’s coastal regions like Bolgheri, Val di Cornia, Carmignano and the island of Elba.