Age Wins Every Time

The Grape Adventures Wine Club kicked off its 2010 season with our first meeting on Saturday, March 6th at Betty and Amy's home. The theme? Italian Trebbiano and Barbera wines.

Starting off, we enjoyed a Santa Margherita Prosecco which, we all agreed, was a "perfect welcome wine." Purchased in New York city, and so not readily available in the Philadelphia/NJ area, this prosecco was described by our guests as "delightful," "good, full, rounded flavor" and even the non-champagne drinker (Yash) liked it.

Our second wine was a Citra Trebbiano, brought by Tony and Timm. The "first 1.5 liter" bottle we've seen at wine club, this white was a "thin, floral smelling, light tasting white." Tony suggested it might be a good sangria.

With our Winter Fruit Salad with lemon poppy seed dressing, we enjoyed our next white, Pio Cesare, Cortese di Gavi, 2007. Wine club members described this "lemony, crisp, light, and yummy." We all found it more favorable than the Citra Trebbiano.

Heading into dinner, we started with a Bruno Porro Piemonte Barbera 2007. As we passed the spicy chicken cacciatore over pasta, and the crispy garlic bread, we tasted this first Barbera. Comments included ""musty," "old world smell," and "a little rough at the end." This had a beautiful garnet color and was good with our food. It had 14.5% alcohol and was purchased at our beloved state store for $17.99. (total score of 18.5)

The second barbera was a 2006 Ca' DiPian Barbera D'Asti. This wine, at 14% alcohol, got a total score of 30. We found this a wine with "an earthy smell" with a "full, rich soft flavor" (Yash). Corinne described this wine as "smoky."

The third wine, a 2006 Socre' Langhe Nebbiolo that was purchased at the state store for $22. This was more like an old world wine, thinner, lighter and very tannic. (alcohol at 13%) We scored this wine as a 24.5.

Continuing into the dinner, we started in on the Montepulciano Cantina Zaccagnani, which got a 90 from Wine Spectator. This affordable wine ($12) became affectionately known as "the wine with the stick." (the bottle had a cute straw stick wrapped around it). Laura described this as "spicy and cinnamon." John found it "earthy" but "not in a bad way."

Amy prepared a scrumptious apple pie that her mom sent for inclusion in the dinner. But, the Hostess with the Mostess made some to-die-for home-made cinnamon ice cream (yes, with real cream, eggs, vanilla bean and sugar!) Dessert was wonderful!

Our final wine was a 1997 Corvione Amarone della Valpolicella Classico. Betty brought this wine, but can't remember when or where she bought it because it was so long ago (and she's drank so many bottles since then!). Laura described this as having a "wonderful, raisin-y quality," and Tony said it was "delicious." John said it "tasted like anisette." Others commented that the wine was "mellow and well balanced." (At 13 years old, who's well balanced?) This wine scored a 35.5 for the night, the highest score, proving once again that Age Wins Every Time.

Stay tuned for next wine club!