Italian Wine Intro & Bottle 1

After spending four months in Italy I am little biased. Italian wines are the best. That being said, Italian wine does provides some great examples of wine production, quality, and straight up drinkability. Italian wines all seems to have their own story: some family from some castle in Tuscany has been making wine following the family tradition for generation upon generation. I think this makes drinking wine from Italy more fun. At the very least, Italian wine will make you more talkative.

Wine makers like using super fancy descriptions for their wines (complex, youthful, intense, vinous, gentle approach). Reason? Wine is hard to describe. So limit yourself to a few general descriptive words: amazing, good, delicious, OK, terrible, gross, toilet bowl water. If YOU like a wine then it is good, if you HATE a wine then it is bad. Easy enough, right? Everyone has his or her reasons. Mine are cost, ease of opening, and taste. Done and done.

Italy has four classes of wine, all of which indicate a wine's geographical origin: DOCG, DOC, IGT, VDT.

DOCG: Wine must pass a blind taste test for quality & purity

DOC: Wine still has to be good, but take the blindfold off

IGT: Wine must be from a general region in Italy

VDT: Wine is made somewhere in Italy, produced for local consumption. (Table wine)

Think of these four classes as City, State, Region, and National. Simple enough. The purpose of these designations is to encourage Italian wine producers to put down the girl and focus on quality wine making. This achieves brand recognition within Italy and Internationally – you always know what you’re getting. Tonight we begin with an IGT wine and it's...amazing.  

Name: Centine  

Wine Maker: Castello Banfi

Location: Tuscany, Italy, sorta near where that cruise ship sank

Cost: $13 from Mt. Carmel Wine on 187^th just off Arthur (I’m sure you’ve been there…) 

There are 3 grape varieties in this wine: Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. I started with this bottle precisely because it has different grape varieties. This is a concept you'll have to get used to. Most wines are made from a blend of different grapes. And white wine isn't always made with white grapes. Madness. 

Paul's rating: 8/10

One of my roommates poured a glass, drank it in one sip, and left for class. My guess is that he liked this wine too. I'll introduce you to him later. In the meantime let's talk wine judging for a bit. Ever see people at a restaurant smell a bottle's cork? Always do this. It makes you look fancy and will tell you if the wine has gone sour before you take a sip and spit it out on your date. Next thing people do: swirl the wine around in their glass. This looks educated and gives the wine some oxygen which improves the taste of the wine. Lastly: look for the wine's tears. 

See those vertical streaks running down the glass? Those are tears. Most people think that more tears = better wine. Wrong. Streaks just mean that the wine has alcohol in it. Always a good thing to check, least you be drinking wine with no alcohol. Lame. 

Overall, I'd highly recommend this wine. Affordable (13 bucks), has a little bite to it, and easy to drink. Best of all, you can tell people it's from Tuscany.