Esperto Pinot Noir 2012
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Esperto strives to help people understand what wine is all about, not just the joy of drinking a good wine, but also the art of it. The joy of freshness as it fills the mouth and the beauty of having a good time and enjoying life as it is given to us. We see ourselves as artists whose canvas is the land we live on, the paint as the grapes we harvest, the wine as our artwork and finally the glass on your table as the art gallery where we can exhibit our hard work to the public.
Pinot Grigio has been part of the landscape in the Tre Venezie for over 200 years. Like so many things in Europe, it was history and war that brought Pinot Grigio from France (where it’s known as Pinot Gris) to Italy. As Napoleon marched across Italy on his way to battle with his arch-rival Austro-Hungarian Empire, his armed forces brought with them new ideas, new forms of government, new judicial systems and… new grapes. Pinot Grigio found its own in the Tre Venezie. It soon flourished and took on unique qualities that it never had in France. It is in this landscape that Pinot Grigio has become the lively, fruity and zesty wine that we now enjoy on warm summer evening dinners on the deck or as a refreshing by-the-glass favorite at restaurants the world over.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Producing every style of wine and with great success, the Veneto is one of the most multi-faceted wine regions of Italy.
Veneto's appellation called Valpolicella (meaning “valley of cellars” in Italian) is a series of north to south valleys and is the source of the region’s best red wine with the same name. Valpolicella—the wine—is juicy, spicy, tart and packed full of red cherry flavors. Corvina makes up the backbone of the blend with Rondinella, Molinara, Croatina and others playing supporting roles. Amarone, a dry red, and Recioto, a sweet wine, follow the same blending patterns but are made from grapes left to dry for a few months before pressing. The drying process results in intense, full-bodied, heady and often, quite cerebral wines.
Soave, based on the indigenous Garganega grape, is the famous white here—made ultra popular in the 1970s at a time when quantity was more important than quality. Today one can find great values on whites from Soave, making it a perfect choice as an everyday sipper! But the more recent local, increased focus on low yields and high quality winemaking in the original Soave zone, now called Soave Classico, gives the real gems of the area. A fine Soave Classico will exhibit a round palate full of flavors such as ripe pear, yellow peach, melon or orange zest and have smoky and floral aromas and a sapid, fresh, mineral-driven finish.
Much of Italy’s Pinot grigio hails from the Veneto, where the crisp and refreshing style is easy to maintain; the ultra-popular sparkling wine, Prosecco, comes from here as well.