RSVP Tasting: Italy on $20 a day

Wine Salmagina Verdiccio Classico Superiore 2004
From Italy
Price $18.84 (Spinnakers, BC)
Alcohol Content 14%
Verdiccio is a white grape capable of red-grape seriousness, and this example tastes like it’s been designed to age---the emphatic fruit seems to have seen some oak, and a tannic finish asks for another year or two in the bottle. Still a work in progress; one taster compared the nose favorably to “wet wool flannel”---possibly a flashback to a combination that figured prominently in his youth.


Wine Tommasi Valpolicella 2006
From Italy
Price $18.99 (BC Liquor Stores)
Alcohol Content 12%
Whoopie! Busy nose is a mixture of butterscotch, caramel and nutrasweet that screams winemaker intervention, although the tasting’s eminence grise swears that Tommasi’s winemaker is above such things. But it’s agreed that the fun, candied-fruit intensity of this wine will easily stand up to any wine-killing food you’d care to throw at it---bring on the garlic-and-tomato sauce. Borderline overkill, but everybody likes it.

Wine Sangiovese di Majo Norante 2004
From Italy
Price $14.99 (BC Liquor Stores)
Alcohol Content 12.5%
Good Sangiovese fruit (although less of a punch-in-the-nose than the Valpolicella above) is nicely balanced with the tannins; you get all of the grape here in a very pleasant package. Our host sums it up: “this tasted like Italy”. He understates: put this alongside a higher-priced Chianti and see how many eyebrows you can raise.

Wine Bolla Soave 2005
From Italy
Price $14.99 (BC Liquor Stores)
Alcohol Content 12%
The nose on this Soave had the metaphors dropping from tasters’s lips like so many cans of tomatoes from the shelf: “smells like Sax Point at low tide”; “wet canvas in a greenhouse”; “benevolent socks”. The nose proved the most interesting part---palate was unassuming but not refreshing, with a dusky finish. Consensus seemed to be that this was the wine to drink with crummy food---you’ve got nothing to lose, and there’s nothing to interfere with the taste of the french-fries.

Wine Plozner Tocai Friulano 2003
From Italy
Price $15.99 (Kensington Wines, Alta.)
Alcohol Content 12.5%
Mineral nose leads to a palate of an Alsace-like balancing act between sweet fruit and rocks. Sophisticated: One eager young taster wondered aloud “is this the first Italian white I actually like?” First-rate.

Wine A Mano Primativo Puglia
From Italy
Price $16.51 (Spinnakers BC)
Alcohol Content 14%
Almost Pinot-like cherry nose. Uncomplicated, but not, well, primitive. The big alcohol is not a factor; this is not a Primativo parading its genetic brotherhood with Zinfandel. A subtle, dusky fruit-sweetness predominates, with a good dollop of acidity keeping the finish in balance and the tannins under the radar. Made by a North-American winemaker, and has a clean, new-world style. Nice combination.