I’ve got a pretty good deal when it comes to tasting Italian wines. A very close friend, Gwyneth Hogarth, is the bar manager at Prima, a sublime local Italian ristorante. My wife and I go in there, and the Italian wine flows. It’s why I, a Californian of Irish, German, and Portuguese descent, have spilled so much ink on the grape juice of Italia.

I especially dig Italian takes on chardonny. The “I Sistri” is from Tuscany, but this, the “Educato,” is from Piemonte.

But back to the ristorante…

In the dim lustre of a fine Italian eatery like Prima, there are few things I like better than great red Italian wine. Barolo. Brunello di Montalcino. Chianti Classico. Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. There’s something about the classic red wine flavors, the robusto, the machismo, of the big reds of Piemonte and Tuscany that go so well with not just the food, but the downright sexiness of a great ristorante.

But, whenever I head out to this particular spot, Gwyn always insists I try a white wine or two. Or three. Or four. She’s good like that.

So here I am, staring at a bottle of “Langhe Chardonnay,” whatever that is. I mean, obviously, it’s chardonnay. But Langhe Chardonnay? As it turns out, Langhe Chardonnay is a DOC designation in the region of Cuneo, part of Piemonte. And, as it turns out…

First off, what kind of chardonnay drinker are you? (Assuming, of course, that you are one to begin with.) Normally, I like my chardonnays unoaked. Chablis style. I’m not a fan of over-extracted secondary ML Cali monsters. In general.

Now, perhaps, I have to rethink any kind of blanket opinions I have about chard. The Educato goes through malolactic fermentation, and spends seven months in new French oak.

Seven months. In new French oak.

And it’s stunning.

Light, glistening gold in the glass. Subtle aromas on the nose, subtle subtle subtle. Butterscotch, butteriness. A touch of caramel. All of it subtle and unassuming. (I promise, I will not use the word subtle again. Maybe ever.) Elegant, light on the nose.

The Educato is full bodied, and a touch sweet. Not dessert wine, of course, but the slightest bit off-dry. Understated hints of nutmeg and honey, and a few other spicy notes open up presents on Christmas morning all up in your mouth.

The nose shows off the butter/butterscotch I expect from ML, and the palate has more of the spiciness imparted by the oak. But this works, this is good shit.

I can no longer claim my favorite chardonnays are all unoaked, Chablis-style. Not any more.

2009 Elio Grass "Educato" Langhe Chardonnay

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I recently posted a collection of wine labels from my recent Mostly Italian Experience at Prima Ristorante on my personal blog, stevepaulo.com. One of the comments I got on Twitter when the post went up was about this wine. With good reason.

The 2005 Renato Corino Barolo is a fantastic wine. Period.

I almost feel like I should end the review here, but it would do this wine no justice at all. First, a caveat: the wine runs anywhere from $30-$45 per bottle retail, and this is a bit pricier than a lot of the wine I review. At under $35, however, I would still say this 100% Nebbiolo wine is a massively good QPR buy.

In the glass, the wine is a nice dark opaque red, that turns enticingly pink at the edges. There is a big, big nose on this wine: rose petals and hanging vines of violets mix liberally with cherry jam. Really gorgeous, and really big and bold. The floral aromatics are something else in this wine.

The wine is full bodied, with a wonderfully-velvety mouthfeel. There is good tannin and balance here, lots of structure. The major fruit notes are a ripe cherry, and a cool and clean red apple skin. Let me explain the last one: some appleness, but simultaneously bitter and sweet and sour, all kind of mixing together. It’s something special, and when I used that term to describe the wine, my wife didn’t believe me and wanted to try it herself.

Now she believes me. So will you if you come across this Barolo. Good, good, good stuff.

Verdict: 96/100

2005 Renato Corino Barolo

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Back on the wine train.

Not long ago, I had my first-ever Barbera, and I quite liked it. But it wasn’t from Italy, it was from my local and beloved Livermore Valley. While I liked it very much, I wanted to try more Barbera, and more Italian wine actually from Italy.

Enter my good friend Gwyneth Hogarth over at what is easily the East Bay’s best source of Italian wines, Prima Ristorante (the attached Prima Vini wine shop is ridiculous). During a marathon session of Italian wine tasting, she offered up this 2007 Prunotto.

The wine is a rich ruby in the glass, a really great red shade. On the nose is this overarching “raspberry bush” sense. Ripe red raspberries mingle with a slight wood note and some greenery. But there’s something else there too, a note of fennel that kind of spices the whole thing up.

The Prunotto is a medium-bodied wine with good, balanced acid and tannins. Not a ton of the fruit passes through the nose onto the palate, but there is a more clear sense of the wood. Unlike the oak most of us are more than familiar with in wine, this is a lighter wood, a cedar note. And the fennel is still there, and even more wonderful.

All in all, this is a pretty excellent wine in my opinion. It offers up some things that I just haven’t found in California-made Italian varietal wines. And at around $15 per bottle, it’s well worth it.

Verdict: B+

2007 Prunotta Barbera d'Asti Fiulot

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