Gambero Rosso International Tre Bicchieri 2024 (Toronto)

On May 6, we went to the Liberty Grand entertainment venue at the Exhibition place in Toronto for the annual Tre Bicchieri wine show, hosted by Gambero Rosso International. This event showcases the best of the Italian wines for the year.

The first highlight of our tasting was the Langhe Nebbiolo blend from Giovanni Rosso, a balanced wine with low acidity and tannins. 


At Enio Ottaviani we tasted il Sole Rosso, a fresh red wine whose grapes are influenced by the sea breezes.                                                                                         

Next, we arrived at the famous Barone Ricasoli (not pictured), where we started with the Chianti Classico Riserva, low on tannins that we believe would be very good slightly chilled. We then sampled their Sangiovese Blend (Castello di Brolio), refreshing and with a robust texture. We concluded with the Ceni Primo, a single-vineyard, low-tannin wine.

We then proceeded to Buglioni, a producer from the Veneto region, where we tasted the Amarone, retailing for $65, a highly sippable wine.


We then got to Tenuta de Artimino's stand. This winery covers 730 ha that used to belong to the Medici family. We first tried the Grumarello, a reserve wine using grapes from the smallest DOC of Italy, Carmignano. This wine is exceptionally balanced and it is made of 80% Sangiovese, 15% Cab Franc and 5% Cab Sauv. We followed with the Marrucaia, a slightly sweet Merlot, Sangiovese, Cab sauv blend.

Our next target was Bentu Luna, from Sardinia, where we first had the Unda, a fresh, floral white made using spontaneous fermentation. The Moratti, while under the same winery name, is grown on the mainland, in Lombardy. It is a very refreshing bubbly made from Pinot Noir grapes using the traditional method.

At Argillae, we encountered a variety of wines, starting with the Primo d'Anfora, fermented for 9 months in clay amphoras. That resulted in a light, very floral wine. The Panata from Orvieto is a light, low sugar wine. Last but not least, we sampled the Grechetto a crisp white with low acidity.


At the Barone Pizzini stand, a maker of bubblies, we started with the Animante a fine foam bubbly, very easy to drink on a summer day. We proceeded to the Rose a 2019 Pinot Noir / Chard blend with medium foam. |Finally, Bagnadore, a reserve bubbly was aged for 70! months.


Moving on, we reached the Castello di Rada, where we started with the Riserva, a full body, good tannins wine. Next was the 2021 Chianti Classico made of mostly Sangiovese, light and refreshing to the point that it is a good wine to be served chilled. At the end, the 2017 Gran Selezione is a full-bodied, single-vineyard wine.

Primosic (not pictured) from a Slovenian family in the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region had two wines that interested us. Bolla Gialla is a reserve wine fermented partly in steel, partly in oak. That gave it a clean, low tannin taste. The other wine was the 2018 Chard that won the Chard of the Year award in Italy.

Villa Sandi in Veneto is another bubbly-only producer. We began with the Prosecco, a mid-swet, refreshing, fine foam wine. We contiued to the Rose, that will be available at LCBO starting next year. We concluded with the Cartizze of which 15,000 bottles were produced out of 1.5 hectares planted. It has fine foam and lots of herbal notes.


We switched to Castello di Querceto where we started with the 2020 Riserva, a mix of Sangiovese (95%) and 5 local-only grapes: Canaiolo, Ciliegiolo, Mambolo, Malvasia Nera and Colorino that resulted in a low-acidity wine with young tannins. We then had La Corte, a 100% Sangiovese, single-vineyard wine with medium tannins, aged in 55-year old French oak. To end with, we had Il Picchio, a low-tannin, balanced wine.

At Santi, we had the 2016 Amarone Della Valpolicella, a full-bodied, low-tannin wine.


We arrived at the stand of the now famous Rocca delle Macie, where we first tasted the Gran Selezione under their Sergio Zingarelli brand. It has low acidity and new tannins. We also had the Tenuta Sant'Alfonso a fruity, young wine.

Reaching Casale Del Giglio from Lazio we had the Athium made from 100% Bellone grapes. It is a wine with a fruity aroma and lots of floral notes. We then tried the Radix a white reserve wine aged for 2 years in oak and 6 months in clay. Finally the Matidia made from Cesanese grapes is semi-sweet with low tannins.

We reached the end of our Italian wine tasting adventue at the Vite Colte stand, where we sampled their Sogni Al Campo full-bodied blend of Langhe and Nebbiolo grapes. It is for 12 months in French oak following malolactic fermentation. It will be available in Vintages in August and will retail for $24.95. 






 













Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Drink Chile 2023

Image
On November 20 we went to the venerable Windsor Arms hotel in Toronto, where a large hall was fully loaded with food and drink, awaiting the sommeliers, restaurateurs, wine brokers, press and members of the general public, there to spend an enjoyable and, in many cases, productive afternoon. For once, we decided to go by the book, that is the tasting guide and notes book, as opposed to our usual mix and match. Keeping with the organization theme, we decided to take a quick tour of the tasting tables and familiarize ourselves with the layout and find the food table. For us, who just taste some of the wines, but drink others, it is important to get a certain measure of food, especially cheese, in order to be able to last all the way. It is well known that fat is dampening the effects of alcohol, enabling one to have a larger intake.  So, we started the tasting at Arboleda wines, to us a new producer. We first tried the Brisa, a full-bodied wine with deep, mineral acidity. We proceeded to
Read more

EUREKA! The California Wine Discovery

Image
The Eureka! wine tasting took place on April 22 within the confines of the historic Carlu venue at College Park.  We started the tasting with the 2022 Grenache Blanc from the Acquiescence winery in the Lodi region of California. It is a slightly bubbly wine with nice acidity and depth. Also from the Lodi region, we sampled the Albarino from Bokisch vineyards that we found to be fruity, semi-sweet with low acidity. After this intro, we headed to the Bonterra Organic Vineyards that had built a rustic pavilion in which to showcase their wines. On the way, we made quick stop at the food stand, where we had a delicious assortment of cuts, cheeses and dried fruits to prepare us for the tastings ahead. At Bonterra, we had their Cab Sauvignon with lots of body, deep tannins and a hint of sweetness.  We moved on to Wente, a 140 year old family-owned estate winery, where we started with the Sauvignon Blanc, of which 168 cases are coming to LCBO in October. We also tasted the Pinot Noir, a single
Read more

The Oregon and Washington State Wine Expedition (Toronto) 2024

Image
This year the Toronto iteration of the Oregon and Washington State Wine Expedition was hosted on April 8 at the El Mocambo historic venue with exhibitors spread over two floors. There were both first time exhibitors and others that have become fixtures of this yearly show. Upon arrival, we were led to the second floor of the venue (the main floor of the tasting). Food this time was pass-around and kept coming regularly. Our focus this year were mainly white and rose wines, and wines one does not expect to find in the regions exhibited. So, upon arrival at the A to Z a winery, that we also sampled from last year, we started with the 2022 Oregon Rose Wine, a San Giovese Pinot Noir blend, a wine with nice acidity retailing at LCBO for $27.95. We continued with the Pinot Gris. a low acidity, smooth on the palate wine, retailing for $24.95.  We next stopped at Solena's stand, another winery that we sampled from before. Here we tried the Grande Cuvee Pinot Noir, a wine with a profund aro
Read more