Winemaker Notes
A ruby-red wine with a light shade of purple. Generous in fruit flavor and spicy notes, its vaguely sweet taste stimulates your imagination. It shows remarkable intrigue in its complexity and never fails to enchant with its supple, finely textured palate.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A silky red, with sweet, ripe flavors of sun-dried black cherry and date, underscored by rich hints of wood smoke and mineral. This is well-knit, featuring sinewy tannins and accents of garrigue and graphite. Drink now through 2025.
Italian Red Wine
While picturesque hillsides, endless coastlines and a favorable climate serve to unify the grape-growing culture of this country. The apparent never-ending world of indigenous grape varieties gives Italy an unexampled charm and allure for its red wines. From the steep inclines of the Alps to the sprawling, warm, coastal plains of the south, red grape varieties thrive throughout.
The kings of Italy, wines like Barolo and Barbaresco (made of Nebbiolo), and Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino (made of Sangiovese), as well as Amarone (mostly Corvina), play center stage for the most lauded, collected and cellar-worthy reds. Less popular but entirely deserving of as much praise are the wines made from Aglianico, Sagrantino and Nerello Mascalese.
For those accustomed to drinking New World reds, the south is the place to start. Grapes like Negroamaro or Primitvo from Puglia and Nero d’Avola from Sicily make soft, ammicable, full-bodied, fruit-dominant wines. Curious palates should be on the lookout for Cannonau (Grenache), Lagrein, Teroldego, Ruché, Freisa, Cesanese, Schiopettino, Rossese and Gaglioppo to name a few.