There are many articles about wine that I want to write, but they will have to wait for another day. The reason is that I have recently tasted some exceptional wines that offer good value.
I have been particularly impressed with red wines from Italy and southern France, and I want to bring these wines to your attention before they disappear from the retail shelves.
All of the wines are specialty items available at one of the eight specialty wine stores in the Pittsburgh area. If a wine that you are interested in purchasing is not available at the store that you frequent, please ask the store manager to locate the wine for you.
Highly Recommended and Great Value
Outstanding (90--94)
1996 Fontanafredda Ampelio Chardonnay ($7.99; PLCB Specialty 9177)
This wine comes from the Langhe wine region of Italy, in the southern part of Piedmont. The wine displays varietal appley and peach fruit with some spice in the nose. The flavors are rich with nice buttery fruit and spice. A few years of bottle aging have introduced some subtle caramelized qualities, which add a note of complexity to the finish. For one of my wine dinners, I have matched this wine with pasta and Maine lobster meat, with a tomato and lobster cream sauce.
1998 Image du Sud ($9.99; Specialty 19474)
This wine is a collaboration between two famous and talented wine makers from the Rhone Valley -- Andre Brunel and Lawrence Feraud. Mostly a blend of grenache and syrah, the wine is deep-colored and opens with magnificent aromas of black fruits and black pepper. The black fruits carry through on the palate with a dense mouthful and some roughness in the finish from the tannins, that will mellow with another year of bottle age. Serve this red wine with grilled rib eye steak.
1998 Appallonio Primitivo Terragnolo ($10.99; Specialty 23296)
The primitivo grape from Italy has been reported to be the parent of California's zinfandel. Recently, the thinking has been that both are related to the mali plavac grape from Croatia. Whatever its parentage, this primitivo wine does have zinfandel-like characteristics with bright and ripe blackberry and loganberry fruit aromas. The flavors are a taste treat of ripe fruit and spicy oak in perfect balance.
Leg of lamb without mint sauce would be my choice for this rich wine.
2000 Henri Bourgeois Pouilly Fume ($14.39; Specialty 21698)
Pouilly Fume wines from the Loire Valley of France are made from the sauvignon blanc grape. This wine is a beauty with aromas of honey and fresh cut hay. On the palate, this wine delivers a great combination of sweet citrus fruit and light herbaceous accent.
With my friends Vicki Parnell and Suzanne Priches at the Buon Giorno Cafe, we had this wine with a Caesar salad topped with grilled chicken breast and without anchovies. It proved to be a delightful lunch.
1999 Banfi Centine -- Toscana (on sale for $8.99; Specialty 23497)
I have been extremely impressed with the new style of wines from Tuscany that incorporate cabernet sauvignon and merlot with the native sangiovese grape. Banfi's Centine is such a wine with 60 percent sangiovese and 20 percent each of cabernet sauvignon and merlot, and what an exciting wine it is.
The aromas of black currant, licorice and smoke are complemented with full-bodied fruit flavors with pronounced acidity in the finish.
Serve this wine with pasta with a meat and mushroom tomato sauce.
Bruce May is a McCandless-based free-lance wine writer. Write to him c/o Tastings/Food, Post-Gazette, 34 Blvd. of the Allies, Pittsburgh, PA 15222.
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