2019 Tinazzi Vinum Italicum Opera No. 3 Red Wine

Happy Sunday! I got back from vacation early yesterday morning, so it's taken me a bit of time to recover, but now I feel ready to get back at it.  I've been working in the yard this afternoon and doing laundry, so now it's time for a nice Sunday dinner and a glass of wine.  Tonight I've opened a bottle of super Tuscan that I picked up at Costco a couple weeks ago, the 2019 Tinazzi Vinum Italicum Opera No. 3 Red Wine.  I am not sure of the blend, but I suppose it's Cabernet dominant since the label describes the wine as "full bodied, elegant, intense."  So, let's see what this wine has to offer.

The wine is an inky black at the center with soft ruby along the edges.  A gentle swirl of the glass reveals aromas of oak, black cherry, hints of violet and spice box, quite characteristic of a super Tuscan blend.  Take a sip and you're greeted by a rush of candied cherries and plum that transition to some earthy notes of tar and basalt midpalate.  The tannins are well structured, providing for a wonderfully long, dry finish with a reprice of acidity at the end.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 8.5, as it's an easy sipping wine at a great price of just $16 if I recall correctly.  This wine would pair well with a variety of dishes, from steak to lamb, pasta to pizza.  Tonight I am enjoying this wine with a summer barbecue with North Carolina style beef ribs, chipotle cole slaw, baked beans and corn on the cob.  Cheers!

2009 Lost Weekend STB

Ok, get your minds out of the gutter, the wine is an STB, for Super Tuscan Blend, even though it's from California.  I got three bottles of this wine last week, thanks to a thoughtful wine gift certificate from my friends Carter and Kellyn (thanks guys!).  Now I decided on this wine because of course I like Tuscan blends, but also for the story behind this wine.  Apparently, "The Lost Weekend Saloon" was a hangout of forward thinking members of the coastal mountain community of Bonny Doon, Calif. since the early 1900s, but now it's the tasting room for Beauregard Vineyards, which produces this wine.

Now I will certainly give kudos straight off for the natural cork and the painted label on the bottle, very cool indeed, but we all know it's what's inside the bottle that counts!  Well inside this one is a blend of Sangiovese (80%), Cabernet Sauvignon (16%) and Durif (aka Petite Sirah, 4%).  As I uncorked a bottle, I was greeted with the aroma of a nice Italian red wine, with strong aromas of sweet fruit, plum, cherry and blackberry.  I poured a glass, and the color is lighter, very typical of the wines of Tuscany, and after letting the wine breathe a bit in the glass, the nose revealed less sweet fruit, and more spice, leather and earthy aromas.  The taste is quite fruit forward, with hints of cherry and ripe strawberry, but the finish is somewhat unremarkable.

This wine is a medium bodied blend, so if you are looking for a big, bold California cab like wine, you'll be disappointed, but it's a nice wine for what it is, somewhat fruity with a smooth finish that is unlikely to overpower the dish that it's paired with.  In fact, tonight I am taking a different approach and having this wine with some Indian curry, as I think the fruit will really complement the spice and earthy richness of the curry.  Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 7, it's a very nice everyday blend that I probably never would have encountered without the help of an online Christmas gift, and it is encouraging all the more that we are producing such nice Sangiovese blends domestically!  So if you find yourself in Santa Cruz with an extra $20 burning a hole in your pocket, pick up a bottle and have a picnic along the coast, or if you're like the rest of us snowbound in the middle of the country, considering ordering a bottle or two off the web!

2006 Sanguineti Caruso

Ok, in celebration of our Independence Day, let's start off with some fireworks!  My wine today was our July office wine club selection and comes to us from our friends at Madwine.com, the 2006 Sanguineti Caruso.  Now we've seen the emergence over the last few years of the "Super Tuscans" those wines that come from the Tuscany region, but do not fit squarely in the DOC(G) classification system.  Well our wine today is being billed as a "Super Italian" as it takes an unorthodox approach of blending wine from grapes grown throughout Italy, and as the label touts, from the Nord, Centrale and Sud.

From an aesthetic standpoint, this wine blends some of the best grapes from the Valpolicella region (think Amarone), Tuscany (think Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino) and Sicily (Nero d'Avola).  From a technical standpoint, this is a blend of 14% Corvina (from the Veneto region in Northeast Italy), 6% Rondinella (also from Veneto and used in Valpolicella and Bardolino), 50% Sangiovese (from Tuscany in Central Italy, the main grape in Chianti and Brunello), 10% Syrah and 20% Nero d'Avola (from Sicily).

The wine itself has a remarkable nose, with hints of leather, tobacco and spice, but a very strong sense of the fruit, exhibited by plum and cassis.  The taste is fairly dry, but with a fruity spice that really explodes on the palate (hence the fireworks!), with fairly robust tannins leading to a long, but clean finish.  Quite honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect from a "Super Italian" after all could combining the great wines from each region even equal the sum of the parts?  Well I was very surprised, as this wine was very pleasant from the first sip to the last, a real taste of a nation with more than 2 millenia of experience making wine.  Overall I would rate this one a solid 8.5, expecially at the $13 price tag we were able to get it for!  So this weekend grab some Italian sausage and some fresh eggplant, zuccini, peppers, and other veggies and grill them out and enjoy them with this wine! "Tutti a tavola a mangiare!"