Friday night, Mik and I head down to Pier 23 for the annual Amici del Vino "Taste of Italy" wine fair (and food expo). In addition to representation from a number of agencies who sell Italian wines in Nova Scotia already, plus two of the private wine stores, there were nine wineries that appear to have been sponsored by the Italian government to travel the world and try to create markets for their wines. Those wines were available for sale by the case, but only through the highly efficient NSLC Special Orders program. Hmmmmm.... I'll pass.
But it was from those wineries where the most interesting wines were found, for the most part, I thought.
It was an evening of more Barbera based wines than Nova Scotia has ever seen in one room at one time. And there were some dandies. Plus a number of Moscato based wines (Muscat) and even a couple of rare grapes, Nosiola and Brachetto.
My favourites, in no particular order:
Scambia wines siriaulivieriscambia@libero.it (someone should rep this winery). They showed three wines, and all three were excellent, interesting, and very well made. The Orvieto was complex, and intriguing (from the DOC Gualdo di Meana and priced under $20). The Rosso Orviento from DOC Runico was perhaps my favourite lower priced wine of the evening, and their biggie, a Sangiovese from the DOC of Brunaio was wonderful stuff, but at $80 and from the 1997 vintage, it should be.
From Marenco wines (www.marencovini.com) the Moscato Secco Muma T.W. was great stuff, and I really wanted one bottle to compare with our own Nova Scotia dry Muscats. Their Barbera D'Asti was also impressive, huge dark and complex - not what one thinks of with this grape.
Pisoni wines (www.pisoni.net) showed the very interesting Nosiola IGT from Trentino, a rarely seen grape in North America making a clean white wine that reminded me of Chenin Blanc.
Sgarzi Luigi (www.cantinesgarzi.it) showed a bunch of wines from the south, and from Emilia Romagna. I liked the Nero D'Avola-Syrah blend from Luigi Leonardo in Sicily. ($14!!)
Villa di Maser (www.villadimaser.it) showed the best wine of the show, their Montello Il Maserino DOC 2001. This was a $100 wine, but it showed wonderfully.
And finally, I would be remiss in not praising the Tre Donna Barbera D'Alba, 2001, from Vin•Art. Yes, it is $37 but it is quite the substantial wine.
And the chocolate grappa? Gag gag gag gag gag, spit.
Did I mention the food? It was great. I spent most of my time drinking and gabbing. Here is the gossip. Alanna is back from Italy with her Italian husband to follow by mail. Simone and Terry are opening an Italian restaurant in Lunenburg. And Susan, the wine goddess, will be really pissed that she missed this one.
Later time spent at Seven and then the Armview (what was I thinking, I was not nearly drunk enough for that?) proved very boring and unproductive, other than watching gorgeous young women get very drunk and fall down. Why is it that the music has to be so loud you can't hear a blonde hit the floor anymore? These young people just don't know how to party.
Oh, and somewhere there, I lost Mik. Let me know if you find him.
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