The last jaunt the Sweet Partner in Crime and I made to
California, we spent most of our time in the Sonoma Coast AVA. That close to
the Pacific, the climate and soil yielded wines that were quite different from
the Sonoma offerings to which we’d been accustomed. The coastal wines had, in
general, more earthiness, less pronounced fruit, and a little rough-around-the-edges
character that we really liked.
Fast forward to an offer I received to try an Italian
coastal version of what would commonly be called a Supertuscan wine. To refresh
your memory, the categorization of Supertuscan wines came about in Italy
because some winemakers in Tuscany wanted to make wines above the quality of
simple table wine, but didn’t want to follow the strict guidelines required to
label the wines as Chianti or Brunello di Montalcino.
These blends usually included Sangiovese, but they often
had other grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah – leading to a
bigger, fruitier product which found much favor Stateside. These wines are
usually labeled “IGT” (short for Indicazione Geografica Tipica), rather than
the inexpensive vin di tavola.
The bottle I received, the Le Volte dell’Ornellaia
2013 Toscana IGT, falls into that
category – but looked to be a new experience for me because the Ornellaia
estate is near the town of Bolgheri, which faces the Tyrrhenian Sea from the
hills. The soil there sounds much like the soil in parts of Oregon – part volcanic,
part marine sedimentary, and part alluvial – so I was quite interested to see
how this wine would differ from the Supertuscan blends grown further inland in
the Chianti or Orvieto regions.
This wine, a blend of 50% Merlot, 30% Sangiovese, and 20%
Cabernet, pours somewhat lighter than many of the thicker IGT blends. Cool
weather and coastal wines tend to be lighter in body than their warmer climate,
inland counterparts. No surprise there. The nose is quite pretty – violets and
some light stone fruit. The first sip, as the SPinC put it, is “straight-up
Sangiovese” – light bodied cherries and chalk. Then things…changed.
The sensation was like someone fed the wine a Super Mario
power-up mushroom halfway through the mouthful. Suddenly, I felt I had an
eyedropper of dark fruits and tannin squeezed onto the back of my tongue. Imagine
a wine with the eventual punch of a big California merlot, but without the
initial fruitbombiness.
I thought, at first, this particular note may have been
because I hadn’t decanted the wine long enough. Even a couple of hours later, I
still got the same pleasantly peculiar perception.
For dinner that night, I’d grilled up some lamb loin
chops with a side of grilled okra from our CSA share, some quinoa, and tzatziki
sauce on the side. It’s definitely a meat-loving wine. It went fantastically
with the lamb. I think it would certainly need to accompany richer fare – it would
probably be too big for many chicken or pasta dishes, unless you had a good
ragu over top.
I definitely enjoyed this wine. I thought it was an
interesting twist on the often over-fruited Supertuscans – and I’ll certainly
be looking for some other coastal Tuscan versions.
The Le Volte retails for around $30.
(Thanks to Claire at Colangelo for the offer.)
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