Today's Sponsor• Brix House Wine: Awesome Aussie Offer
In This Issue• Uva di Troia |
This article was published in The 30 Second Wine Advisor on Friday, Jun. 27, 2008 and can be found at http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor2/tswa20080627.php.
Uva di Troia
Today let's wrap up the work week with a taste of another offbeat but delicious grape, Uva di Troia, from Southern Italy.
Pronounced "Oo-vah dee Troy-ah," Uva di Troia is a particularly obscure grape variety from Puglia, the "boot heel" of Southern Italy, a region probably best known for Primitivo, the Italian equivalent of Zinfandel.
The name of the grape is literally translated "Grape of Troy," signaling a purported association with grapes brought over from ancient Greece. But at least one expert - the irrepressible Randall Grahm of California's Bonny Doon vineyards, which bottles an Uva di Troia under its "Il Circo" label - claims that "Troia" also means "lady of the night" in the sailors' slang of Bari, Puglia's seaport city.
Juicy and ripe yet earthy and tannic, with a distinct scent of violets, it's an attractive and interesting wine. Sadly, it's hard to find, and like so many of the older indigenous grapes of the world's wine regions, its acreage is shrinking as growers shift over to more commercially profitable varieties. You'll find my tasting notes below.
Today's Sponsor
Brix House Wine: Awesome Aussie Offer
Brix House Wine: Awesome Aussie Offer
Here at Brix House Wine we review many email specials from other wine companies. We constantly search for the best values for our customers! In the last month we received over 12 specials featuring 93-95 point Australian Shiraz and GSM from a variety of wine merchants. Most of them are $45- $70 per bottle. We offer some great 90-91 point Australian Shiraz and GSM with a better price that just can't be matched. We bought and tasted the competitors' 93-94 point wines and in a blind tasting with a certified panel, they all scored the same! Again this proves that we offer the best wines at the best prices!
Exclusive Offer Two of each with 25% off and Free shipping. Only 24 six-packs available, they will sell quickly! At this price buy several before they are gone. It's our best offer ever! Some of the world's oldest vines are in Barossa, producing highly concentrated, lush, rich, intense fruit. Softened by oak, resplendent with juicy berry fruit, dark bitter chocolate and slightly minty characteristics, Barossa Shiraz is renowned throughout the world as some of the best full-bodied wines.
Santa Lucia 2005 Vigna del Melograno Uva di Troia Castel del Monte ($14.99)
Very dark reddish-purple, clear garnet edge. Earthy and rustic aromas, a pleasant whiff of "barnyard" with some sappy, stemmy herbaceous notes play harmony, but there's plenty of juicy red-currant fruit in there, too. Tart red fruit is more dominant on the palate, with plenty of food-friendly acidity and a distinct edge of tannins. An attractive hint of something like spring lawn violets emerges in the long finish. Complex and interesting, a fine food companion. U.S. importer: Vintner Select Inc., Mason, Ohio, and other regional importers; from Marc de Grazia. (Jan. 13, 2008)
FOOD MATCH: Try it with grilled meat or poultry. Earth meets earth in a very good match with garlicky roast turkey thighs.
VALUE: More than fair at this mid-teens price.
WHEN TO DRINK: Its ultra-short natural cork suggests a wine not intended by the producer for long-term cellaring.
WEB LINK: The winery Website is available in Italian and charmingly accented English. Here's a link to a fact sheet on the Vigna del Melograno Uva di Troia:
http://www.vinisantalucia.com/english/melograno.htm
FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Seek vendors and compare prices for Santa Lucia Uva di Troia on Wine-Searcher.com:
http://www.wine-searcher.com/
find/Lucia%2bTroia/-/-/USD/A?referring_site=WLP
Talk About Wine Online
If you have questions, comments or ideas to share about today's article
or wine in general, you're always welcome to drop by our online
WineLovers Discussion Group. This link will take you to the forum home page, where you can read discussions in all the forum sections:
http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village
Everyone is free to browse. If you'd like to post a comment, question or reply, you must register, but registration is free and easy. Do take care to register using your real name, or as a minimum, your real first name and last initial. Anonymous registrations are quietly discarded.
To contact me by E-mail, write wine@wineloverspage.com. I'll respond personally to the extent that time and volume permit.
PRINT OUT TODAY'S ARTICLE
Here's a simply formatted copy of today's Wine Advisor, designed to be printed out for your scrapbook or file or downloaded to your PDA or other wireless device.
http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor2/
2008/06/uva_di_troia-print.html