The Perfect all-around Italian “food wine”
100% Montepulciano, aged one year in oak for depth, velvety smoothness and character. A Touch of Vanilla, cocoa, dark fruit, and blackberry.
Food matches for Montepulciano include:
Globally appreciated for their soft flavors, strong color, and gentle tannins, Montepulciano wines are typically best consumed in their youth and with food.
The deep purple juice of Montepulciano grapes is used in varying proportions to produce wines under roughly 50 of Italy’s DOC and DOCG titles. Although sometimes used on its own, it also responds well to blending with other varieties, most successfully Sangiovese.
At the turn of the new century, Montepulciano was Italy’s second most planted red wine variety, just behind Sangiovese and marginally ahead of Barbera. Its popularity is to both the approachable style of the wines it produces, and because the variety gives reliably high yields.
The most famous Montepulciano wines come from the east coast of Italy, specifically the Abruzzo region. Here, vast volumes of Montepulciano are produced on the low hills and flatlands around the Adriatic coast and marketed under the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC title.
Abruzzo’s finest examples of Montepulciano come from the region’s north, in the Colline
The grape is so-called supposedly because it was a favorite treat for flocks of sheep driven to lower pastures. Pecorino cheese is, coincidentally, a surprisingly good food match for Pecorino wine.
Food matches for Pecorino include:
A classic Pecorino-based wine is dry and minerally, straw-yellow in color, and has an elegantly floral bouquet of acacia and jasmine, sometimes spiced with a faint hint of licorice.
The variety has a long, complicated and all-too-common history. It has been cultivated in the Marche region for hundreds of years but low yields saw it replaced by more-productive grape varieties like Trebbiano.
By the mid-20th Century, Pecorino was thought extinct. In the 1980s, a local producer researching native varieties investigated a rumor of some forgotten vines in an overgrown vineyard.
Cuttings were taken and propagated and eventually grew enough grapes to make very good wine in the early 1990s. Since then, the variety’s plantings have grown exponentially, and Pecorino is grown in Marche, Abruzzo, Umbria, and Tuscany.
Pecorino offers high acidity as well as high sugar content, making it very useful in the winery. The sugar translates into reasonably high alcohol, but the acidity helps to balance this, ensuring the wines are still crisp and fresh.
It does particularly well at higher altitudes where there is a good exposure to sunlight and cooling breezes.
This sparkling white wine, made following the Charmat method, with Passerina grapes grown in Abruzzo by the Carrisi family
It is an enchanting sparkling, with a very elegant nose with floral notes and a delicate palate with soft bubbles, perfect as an aperitif but also pairs shellfish and raw fish dishes
There is a lovely story surrounding the naming of this variety, which I was told from an older winemaker in the Italian, Abruzzo region.
Passerina is a genus of birds in the cardinal family and in Italian ‘sparrow’ translates as ‘Passero’. As the tale goes the Passerina grape variety is the sparrows’ favourite tipple and therefore the name stuck.
At its best, the grape can produce a fantastic fresh style of white wine, reminiscent of Pinot Grigio but a great alternative. The grape can be used in a variety of styles. Producing crisp, clean white wines, delicate sparkling wines and occasionally passito versions. Passito, or straw wine, is made by a process of drying the grapes on straw mats in order to concentrate the flavours and sugars in the grapes by evaporating the water.
The typical flavours in the still white wines are floral and fruity. The fruit element revolves around stone fruits such as peach and nectarine, there are also citrusy notes that add freshness to the wine.
Well balanced, crisp, fresh, floral and fruit led wine.
The grape is also used on the western side of Italy particularly in Lazio. Here the wines tend to be more rich and creamy in style.
Our wine experts think this Northern Italy Pinot Grigio wine would be a match made in heaven with these dishes
Goat cheese, rocket & walnut salad
Crispy garlic and chili prawns
Grilled green-lipped mussels
The term Pinot Grigio has become strongly associated with light-bodied wines produced in great quantities, particularly in northern Italy.
The wines are most commonly described as dry white wines with relatively high acidity. These characteristics are complemented by aromas of lemon, lime, green apple, and blossoms.
This “every day” Grigio Italian style is achieved firstly by harvesting the grapes relatively early. This is done in an attempt to retain as much fresh acidity as possible. Otherwise, the variety is naturally quite low in acidity. In a hot summer, the picking date is particularly important.
Early harvests can also have a clear impact on color. As Pinot Gris/Grigio ripens it can take on a pinkish color. Wines made from riper grapes can be much more golden.
VINIFICATION
Produced with a blend of Montepulciano grapes for 70% and Sangiovese for the remaining 30%. The vineyards are near Ascoli Piceno, in the municipality of Castano. They date back to 1994 and are found on calcareous clay soils exposed to the south west raised with the guyot method. 300 plants per hectare with a yield of 100 quintals/hectare.
The vinification takes place with maceration on the skins for eight days in traditional winemakers using the delestage technique. Aging takes place in medium toasted French barriques, 1/3 new, 1/3 second passage and 1/3 third passage.
Aging of 12 months in barrique and further three months in bottle before being put on sale. Il Cardinale is a relatively recent company, born in 2006 as a crowning achievement of a ten-year passion of the Quitadamo family born already in the seventies in which the family was already dedicated to the production and marketing of grapes through a shop owned in Lombardy.
Finally, since 2006, the production and marketing of the wine produced from their vineyards has begun. Today, it is a certified organic company that places respect for the environment as a sine qua non condition. It boasts an ideal cellar meeting point between tradition and innovation equipped with the most modern technologies.
The Cantine il Crinale have 50 hectares cultivated with the typical vines of the Marche, Passerina, Pecorino and Trebbiano for the whites, Sangiovese and Montepulciano for the reds. In 2008 in Venice they were awarded the Leon d’Oro for entrepreneurship.
The association of the name of the wine with the word “black” is recurrent, nor have we tasted others of “black” wines, of which we invite you to read or reread the reviews, such as Cavicchioli’s Lambrusco Fiero Nero, Greco Nero from Cantine Lavorata or the fun Pilu Niuru Classic Salento Igp Taurosso.
Black, dark, unknown, like the value of a wine chosen randomly on the shelf. In this case, as for all our reviews, we reveal the value: an excellent intrinsic value, but above all an excellent quality/price ratio for what turns out to be an excellent expression of this wine from the Marche region.
TASTING
In the glass, Rosso Piceno Superiore Doc Re Nero presents a deep ruby red color, limpid and not very transparent, “black” in a certain sense. Of dense fluidity, on the olfactory examination it is intense and complex with hints of dried flowers, ripe fruit and jam, spices and vanilla notes.
Perfumes that all return to the palate where a wine of character is confirmed. Full-bodied, warm, with its 13.5% alcohol by volume. Round, dry, with good taste freshness, it is slightly sapid. The tannins are not scratchy, they are moderate although noticeable.
Elegant, clean, dry. The finish of persistence with licorice aroma. It is not a trivial wine, on the contrary. If you like barricaded wines, try it, if you love Rosso Piceno this is right for you. The combination with Rosso Piceno food also depends on the degree of maturation of the wine.
A greater maturation, with consequent greater softness and balance makes it suitable for more tasty and structured dishes to create harmony between the richness of taste of the food and the wine itself.
Excellent the combination with dishes based on truffles or flavored with wild fennel, with meat sauces, grilled meats, beef, pork and sheep, with game, boiled and stewed meats. But Rosso Piceno Superiore Doc Re Nero is also perfect with aged cheeses such as pecorino and parmesan.
Try it with gorgonzola, maybe with walnuts or with the famous mixed fried Ascoli. It should be served at 18 degrees in large glasses, open at least thirty minutes before tasting it in order to fully enjoy the organoleptic characteristics.
grape varietals: 70% Montepulciano, 20% cabernet sauvignon, 10% merlot
vineyard location: march, Italy
bottle aging: 6 months
Alcohol content: 14,5%
color: ruby red color of medium intensity.
aroma: the scent of ripe black cherry, with hints of chocolate and hints of vanilla and licorice.
palate: intense body, balanced tannin structure that remains intact for a long time.
food pairing notes pasta dishes, roasts and cheeses.
serving temperature: 18/°C / 64.4°F
The ruby red color of medium intensity. the scent of ripe black cherry, with hints of chocolate and hints of vanilla and licorice. intense body, balanced tannin structure that remains intact for a long time.
An ideal white wine for seafood dishes. This is made by the Carrisi family estate and is bottled unoaked in order to emphasize the freshness of the Trebbiano grape which shows great acidity and a mineral structure alongside fresh fruit character.
High yielding white wine grape variety, originated in the South-Eastern Italian Adriatic Sea. Beautiful, Romantic, and expressive. The nose shows ripe citrus and white flowers and the palette is full and crisp.
A well-balanced wine for immediate drinking served chilled an aperitif or to accompany fish, shellfish and white meats. Great Choice to Pair with the Mediterranean and Asian Cuisine.
