La Dolce Vita – An evening of Italian Wine Tasting Evening

Join us on what will hopefully be a sunny July evening for a tasting of some of the best Italian wines available in Ireland. We will have over 20 stunning Italian wines open from Alto Adige in the North all the way to Salento in the heel of Italy. Customer favourites like Pinot Grigio, Prosecco and Valpolicella, to exciting wines such as Traminer Aromatico, Vernatsch, and regions and styles making a comeback like Soave and Orvieto.

Tickets are €5 per person but are redeemable as a €5 off voucher on the night against purchases. Tickets can be booked here on Eventbrite.

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Soave – a superb Summer sipper!

Soave (“swah-vay”) is a small Italian village near Verona and Venice which is famous for its white wines made mainly from Gargenega grapes. It is full of citrus fruit flavours, like melon and it has a touch of almond. As great as Soave is, and it is great as a Summer sipper it is much maligned by years of cheap bulk crap served in Italian restaurants in Ireland!

Courtesy of http://www.winefolly.com

Coffele‘s delightful Castel Cerino Soave Classico exuberantely draws in the taster, keeping its excellent harmony and elegance. With the passing of each year, its youthful quality changes and becomes more mineral in the flavour and complex in the taste. Exclusively from their  organic hillside vineyards in Castel Cerino, in the heart of the historic Soave Classico zone, which range between 490-1470 feet above sea level.

The wine is a brilliant, straw yellow, with hints of green when young. The aromas are subtle and fresh, suggesting white flowers, from hawthorn to cherry blossoms, underpinned by fresh apple, white plum, sage, and minerals. On the palate, the wine is dry, with structure and good balance. The long finish has attractive almond notes. Makes an ideal aperitif. Also perfect with fish and shellfish. Goes very well with delicate pasta dishes, especially risotto with peas or asparagus. €17.95

 

 

Boys & Girls it’s Refosco not Bosco

Refosco is a grape found in Northern Italy, it is grown principally in the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region in northeast Italy and the nearby Venezia and Treviso provinces of the Veneto region. The grape has been well-known since antiquity and is believed to be indigenous to northeast Italy. Various ancient Roman writers and personalities sang the praises of Refosco wines.

Historically, most Refosco wines were consumed locally and very few found their way into the international markets. However, Refosco wines have benefitted from the upsurge of interest in recent years in wines from the Friuli region in general. More Refosco wines are exported today than ever before and some Refosco wines have found their way to retail shops all over Europe and the USA. But, Refosco wines receive little notice and are not heavily marketed, like other Italian wines such as Chinati and more recently Prosecco. It’s safe to say that they are not on the radar screens of most  wine consumers.

Well hopefully that will all change this week as we have Nicola and Lino from Antonutti one of our favourite Italian wineries in the shop Wednesday tasting a selection of their wines including a wonderful Refosco. This deeply colored wine is medium to  full-bodied with discernible tannins yet polished and supple with black fruit flavours.  It has a long finish with notes of plums and currants. The Refosco’s good acidity, makes it a good partner to a wide variety of foods, especially grilled meats and other hearty meat entrees.