Guest Post: An Italian Wine Primer, Part 1

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and
colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For
this post we welcome Kevin Keith, who does an excellent job of introducing himself. Thanks Kevin!
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Hi y’all!  My
name is Kevin Keith, and I am currently the wine buyer for Liquor Direct Wine
& Spirits, with two locations in Northern Kentucky, as well as local wine
blogger for Under The Grape
Tree.  Michelle asked me to
help keep her blog going with a little post, so I tried to come up with
something that would fit with her readers, as well as not repeat anything she
or Kevin (her husband) has touched on in the past.

What I came up with is a little something that I am very
passionate about, and have had many questions on in my stores over the years,
and that is Italian wine.  I tell
people who ask about Italian wine, that this subject is the hardest to teach
people on due to the overwhelming amount of information there is about the
subject.  You see, while other
countries in the world dedicated specific areas of their lands to viticulture
(growing grapes), in Italy, there are vineyards everywhere, in each of the 20
regions (provinces actually), with each region as diverse as the others.

Vineyards Near Barola, Image Credit

Italy has long been in the top three in wine production,
becoming #1 in 2005 with a total of over 8.5 million metric tons that year
(over 2 million metric tons more than France!).  Italy can be divided up into 4 main sections:

1.     1. Northwestern
Italy

2.     2. Northeastern
Italy

3.     3. Central
Italy

4.     4. Southern
Italy

The Northwestern portion of Italy consists of 6 regions
spanning from the greater portion of the arc of the Alps and Apennines, which
slope toward the Po River:  Valle
d’Aosta, Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany.  Topography, soil, climate and grape
varieties vary from one region to the next, and much of this area is considered
very prosperous, with the cities of Florence, Milan, Turin and Genoa all
inhabiting this area.  A total of
27% of Italy’s wines are produced here.

The Northeastern portion of Italy is also called the Tre Venezie, or “Three Venices”.  The three regions are Veneto –
the largest producer of DOC wines, Trentino-Alto Adige – which has the
highest percentage of DOC wines comparatively to total output, and
Friuli-Venezia Giulia.  Together,
these 3 regions producer a total of 17% of Italy’s wines.

Read the rest of this entry »

Guest Post: A “Meritage” for Zinfandel lovers: Coro Mendocino

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For this post we welcome David Lazarus, another local wine blogger and soon-to-be wine shop owner. Thanks David!
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The mission of the Consortium Mendocino is to increase the awareness and value of Mendocino wine and winegrape products through the production of “Coro Mendocino”, a controlled, ultra premium blended wine that reflects the quality and commitment of the Mendocino County wine industry.

Coro Mendocino in it’s simplest is a Zinfandel blend made exclusively from fruit from Mendocino and their first vintage was 2001. However there is much more to it than that. This is a dynamic style of wine which is awarded Coro status by a jury of Mendocino growers/ producers. The current vintage (06) features wines from ten wineries, while last years had eleven.

Photo from Michelle's Parducci Wine Brunch

I have tried four of the wines that have been in the Cincinnati market for the last several years and they are very good, while each unique. The Coro Consortium allows for up to nine other varietal (commonly found in Mendocino) to be blended into the finished product. The percentage of any one varietal, however cannot exceed that of Zinfandel, which must fall between 40% and 70%. These restriction are just the begining of the protocol, which is quiet specific and can be found on the web site for Coro Mendocino.

All of these wines are priced the same (the 2005’s were $37 each) and feature labels that show the winery name and information, as well as the specifics on the blend. The blends vary greatly from winery to winery and even from year to year in some cases. This is a wonderful showcase of Mendocino fruit and I consider it to have better quality control, as all wines that eventually feature the Coro badge have been peer review twice in the barrel and twice after bottling. A wine maker cannot just pay for the privilege of using the title as is the case with meritage wines.

It is rare in this part of the country to see more than a couple of these wines in stores because of twisted distribution laws. I have been able to find complete sets of Coros from SIP Mendocino in California at www.sipmendocino.com  or 707-744-4375. I am a fan of anything different when it comes to wine and that puts Coros right up my alley. They are fun for the adventurous, but will surely please even the novice wine drinker with their varied complexity.