Sweeter than a kiss: some delicious dessert wines for winter

One of the great strengths of Italian wine is in the dessert section, which is a good thing since in most parts of Italy desserts are pretty boring.  The sweet vino goes a long way in correcting that rare Italian food "deficit."

Oh God no, mamma, not tiramisu again!

Purtroppo, the variety and increasingly high levels of quality you find in Italy's after-dinner wines is not well appreciated in America, for which we may blame ourselves and, especially, lazy restaurateurs.  And their sommeliers, who are manly men chasing after red skirts.  They don't have much interest in this class of wines, so they usually fail to offer interesting ones to their patrons. 

So we have become inured to flabby Moscatos, sparkling or still, or some boring vinsanto, both usually too stucchevole (sticky, cloying) to be interesting.  This represents a lost opportunity for the chef to cap off the meal most memorably, to end on a high note the diners' their experience of the restaurant.

Recently I have been lucky enough to taste outstanding dessert wines from several hitherto-unknown producers.  They hail from different parts of Italy, they use different grapes and methods to make their sweets, but they all have this in common: their wines are distinctive, superb on their own and even better with well-chosen desserts -- and all have a thread of acidity and structure that makes the wines taste light and alive (relatively), not heavy and sleep-inducing.  And they have a long finish that will take you home savoring your meal.

Wines, in short, to brighten otherwise dreary winter nights.

Odd but true.  If you're in a nice, unpretentious restaurant in Rome and ask for a glass of recioto after dinner, the waiter will look astonished and say, "Risotto!?"  Yet recioto is one of the characteristic wines of Veneto, another passito (air-dried grape) wine for which that region is famous (Amarone is the big dry version of appassimento).

I've had two fine and very different reciotos lately.  Last night we enjoyed the one produced by Stefano Accordini - in this case the Acinatico 2004 Recioto della Valpolicella Classico (12.5% alcohol). This is still a very young wine and it will be better after several years in bottle. Still, the tight-packed flavors, the brawny tannins expressed in a lip-smacking walnut taste, the intense perfume of sheer grapiness in what seems like the essence of purple grape richness, plus the saving thread of acidity -- it's good to drink now too.  It's hard not to.  (Retail cost for 300 ml bottle in USA ____?)

The other recioto was the one made by Villa Monteleone, the Palsun 2003.  This version of recioto reflected the leaner, less sumptuous house style compared with Accordini.  Less intense, less sweet, more balanced with that famous line of acidity more in evidence.  (Sam's Wine in Chicago carries some of the Villa Monteleone wines, though not this one as far as I can tell.)

I would choose between these two reciotos based on the temperature outside.  When it's really cold and you really want to warm your kishkes, get the Accordini -- it is quite Port-like. 

Otherwise, choose the Monteleone Palsun. 

These are very good, equally valid expressions of Recioto. Neither is currently sold in the US. 

Two discoveries from Montecucco (???)

I've been hearing a lot about this once utterly obscure section of southern Tuscany.  It's situated in a zone close to the Maremma but farther inland.  The climate here is less marine, more extreme, with strong "thermal incursions," as they say in Italian, which bring out the perfumes of the fruit.  From this interesting area I've just tasted two excellent dessert wines.

The first is from a new winery called Piandibugnano.  I was contacted by a piratical giant (complete with earring) named Giorgio Bucelli, an earthy, funny guy who is also a rep for various small wineries throughout Italy.  He formed the winery with two amigos, and the first fruits of their labors are pleasant indeed.  Giorgio sent me some samples, and I have to say that the standout for me was his Aleatico, called "Nanerone" and available in a 500 ml bottle.  Aleatico is a fairly rare grape, and when you find it in America the stuff in the bottle is usually very expensive and a bit disappointing.

Some pirate: Giorgio Bucelli and Drugo

This Aleatico was delicious, layered, aromatic with the herbs of the Mediterranean hills, suggestive of lavender and thyme, just sweet enough to let you know what part of the meal you're in.  Not stucchevole at all. Again with that line of bracing acidity. (No USA prices yet.)  Distinctive, unusual.

Another wonderful discovery has been a very small, biologico winery, La Schiaccionaia.  (Sk-yotch-on-eye-ah).  The name means something like Field with Flat Stones.  La Schiaccionaia is a property owned by Marcella Turziani and her son Riccardo Rolla.  While their full range of wines is good - and clean and pleasing in that biologico way - there is a partial reliance on international grapes that I find less than compelling, let alone distinctive.  However.

Marcella Turziani with Velis Passis

 

Why is Tuscany so bloody ugly?

The dessert wine that Mrs.Turziani and Mr. Rolla make is extraordinary. Named Velis Passis, it is an amber-colored liquid that manages to unite opposing qualities into a delicious, addictive harmony. 

On the web site they write (in English):

Colour: Amber, with gold reflections.
Aroma: Intense, persistent dried fruit bouquet that encompasses dried figs and apricots, dried yellow rose nuances, and pleasant notes of acacia honey.
Taste: Intense, persistent, warm and in the meantime soft with a pleasant sensation of freshness.

So much for the usual organoleptic stuff.  Let me tell you that the mouthfeel is unbelievably fine and complex, light and dark, sleek then thick with nectar -- what the hell, words do fail me here, and all I can say is that stuff is wonderful.  I've never tasted anything so loaded with honeyed flavor yet so light and fluid, like water itself, in the mouth.

                                                                         

 

Reminds me of a perfume bottle.  The stuff inside is a perfume, but one you can drink

 

 

Comments

[Sarah Newton]

There are a thousand desert wines available at our huge local megamart but the deserts themselves - really they are abysmal.

I can't get along with Italian cakes or deserts, they're all rather dull and/or loaded with whipped cream.

Not nice!

[Terry Hughes]

That whipped cream stuff mi fa schifo (grosses me out).

So there is a rationale for their making so many dessert wines.

Can the same be said of the producers' insistence, all over Italy, on making metodo classico sparklers? I think not.

[Fede - Fiordimela]

Hey Terry, dont't forget Strudel + Wine! A "vin santo del trentino" is a perfect matching...

I've been very busy after our quick meet in Merano!

I only could read mondosapore today after 10 days...

Ciao!!!!

[BaxElarllob]

Business will be either better or worse.
-- Calvin Coolidge

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://ebloggy.com/casandramcdanielsc

[mxakz wpobe]

ufjbldxo hmojl rhtqpz wbnefa thsigny mvaepdfn vhpuow