So I ventured to my favorite wine store, Solo Vino, to challenge the staff with an Italian wine from a region I was not familiar with to feature. After a few bottles were suggested, I settled on Tenuta Delle Terre Nere, Rosso 2006 ($17). It’s made from old-vine Nerello grown on the slopes of Mt. Etna in Sicily.

As soon as the first taste was swirled and sniffed, I knew I was in trouble as the pronounced aromas were difficult to describe in 14 words. How could I describe what was going on with this wine in just seven words? I jotted down my normal review of 25 words or so, then attempted to cut the prose down to a skeletal seven. Nothing seemed to make sense so I settled on the following:

Cherries, earth, raspberries on a dusty highway

14% ABV
Natural cork closure
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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This got me wondering if a more straightforward wine would be easier to encapsulate in the meager amount of words allotted. So I picked up the widely available A Mano, Primitivo 2005 ($10) from Puglia. Longtime listeners of my podcast will remember this wine from a couple of years back and I reconsidered another bottle sometime later. But I had not picked up this wine for quite a while so I thought it would be easy to review in just a few words. A twist of the screw-cap closure and taste later, I jotted down the following:

Raspberries, cranberries, tar and spices on horseback

13.5% ABV
Stelvin closure
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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Although the A Mano was more fruit driven than the Tenuta Delle Terre Nere, there was still quite a bit going on here. I liked each wine roughly about the same with a slight nod to the Tenuta Delle Terre Nere, Rosso (89 vs. 88 on the 100-point scale). But this experience got me thinking more about wine reviews in general and how I approach them in particular. In the back of my mind, I kept hearing Ryan’s call for wine writing on the internet to be different than the established print model. And for the first time, I confronted a vastly different review structure to work with.

No, I’m not going to review wines here with seven words but I expect my reviews to be less about the actual aromas and flavors of the wine but how they evoke something related to the world around me. Some context about how I came to try the wine in question and how it connects with my life at the time of the tasting. So, ironically, this will lead to more descriptive and less clinical reviews here.

Cheers to Andrew for such a thought provoking and, yes, fun theme. I’m looking forward to getting back into my comfort zone next month with a seasonal theme (at least here in the snowy Twin Cities) from Joel at Vivi’s Wine Journal.

Campagna Gello, “Il Valore”, Primitivo, IGT Puglia 2005 ($4) - Dark purple in color with aromas of dark fruit, earth and violets. Tart cranberry, black cherry and black pepper flavors finishing with medium tannins. Not bad for $4 but I liked the 2004 better as it seemed to have more weight on the palate. Would be a good pizza or pasta wine, however.

13% ABV
Synthetic closure (difficult to remove)
Score: 78

A Trader Joe’s market recently opened here in the Twin Cities. I’ve been a longtime customer for my days living in California, but my purchases over the past 20 years has been infrequent. For readers not familiar with the chain, they are a gourmet market that takes a different approach to stocking their shelves. In place of high-end brands, they carry high quality foods that they private label to keep costs low and pass this along to customers. Their frozen orange chicken is amazing and in expensive, but I digress.

When I first got into wine in the early 1980’s Trader Joe’s was a regular haunt for their private label wines, many very good values from top producers who sold these wines off in bulk for quick cash-flow. Trader Joe’s would label them and sell these for $1.99 or $2.99 a bottle. Occasionally they would also have a close out on a name brand wine that would quickly sell-out. The Trader Joe’s wine selection of today is dominated by the Charles Shaw brand of “Two-buck Chuck” fame. While some of these wines are good values (actually anything drinkable for $2-3 a bottle is a good value these days) the other exclusive brands usually offer better value for just a buck or two more.

One of these is “Il Valore” which is a brand for Italian wines that I have blogged and podcasted here before. They have 3 or 4 wines and the one that first caught my attention was their Primitivo that I will review now. I first heard about this wine from another blog and had high hopes this would provide for an interesting tasting. I’ve had several Primitivo in the past, but none of them were as good as most California Zinfandel despite the DNA linkage with Zinfandel and parent Crljenak Kastelanski. I think of Zinfandel and Primitivo as twins separated at birth with each adapting to their terroir and producing similar, but different wines. This wine does not change my opinion on this matter but is a pretty smokin’ value.

The wine is garnet in color with aromas of earthy blackberry and violets. The flavors are of dark fruit, earth and black pepper with dusty tannins and nice acidity for food. I can’t point to a better California Zinfandel at $5 a bottle with this much varietal character, but I really haven’t tried many lately. Don’t expect Zinfandel forward fruit and enjoy this wine for it’s earthy goodness and low for Zin (or Primitivo) alcohol.

13% ABV
Synthetic cork closure (easily removed)
Score: 8/10

Wines Tasted:

- Amano, Primitivo, Puglia, Italy 2002 ($12)
- Feudo Monaci, Primitivo, Puglia, Italy 2003 ($9)
- Canaletto Primitivo Puglia Italy 2001 ($9)

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