This is Nerello's bastard wine--70% Piedmontese and 30% Tuscan. As the label partially explains, excess Nebbiolo grapes not making the cut for either Barolo or Barbaresco (that's the Piedmont parent) were blended with Sangiovese from Tuscany. For several years, this has been one of my favorite bargains ($5.99) from Trader Joe's, and I put away a few bottles of three vintages (1999, 2000 and 2002) to see how well they would age. From this bottle of 1999, I would say they so far, so good.
The color is classic--a deep ruby at the center shading out to amber at the rim. It's not as dark or bluish as it was a couple of years ago but there are no signs of over-maturity. I smell black cherries, licorice and roses--the same as before but more subtle now and less flamboyant. It's really beginning to develop some Barolo-like complexity. The changes in flavors are more noticeable. The acidity is more pronounced and the wine is very dry. But again, the Nebbiolo flavors are becoming more subtle and complex as they lose their fruit-oriented flamboyance. The Nebbiolo portion of this wine has been aged in cask for four years, to meet the minimum requirements for Barolo and Barbaresco. It was culled not necessarily because of lower quality but because appellation laws limit the amount of Barolo and Barbaresco that can be produced each vintage. I like the future of this 1999, at least for the next year or two, and I suspect the 2000 might age even better. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any vintages of Nerello del Bastardo, at any price, recently on the shelves of Trader Joe's.
Friday, October 23, 2009
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3 comments:
I found Nerelo del Bastardo (this one spelled with the single "l") at the Trader Joe's in Falls Church, VA. in September. It's a 2006 but is not Marchesi di Montecristo...the cantina is listed as ICRF (TV) Italy and the importer is Santini out of San Lorenzo, CA. I think I paid around $8 for the bottle. I am not knowledgeable about wine, and reds are really not my favorites, but I bought it anyway because I liked the title :-) and always like to keep a variety of reds on hand. I opened it shortly after and liked it so much that the next time I found myself in Falls Church, I purchased two more bottles!
That's interesting. The producer and importer are different, and the single "l" may be a way to get past copyright protection. (Surely, that wouldn't offer much protection???) I checked it out online and found that the label and bottle look very similar. This may or may not be the 2006 vintage of the same wine. But generally I've had pretty good success with Italian wines at Trader Joe's (most of which in the past have been brought in by d'Aquino Imports). I'll look for it the next time I'm in Trader Joe's and give it a try.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Hey Fred, mystery solved...well at least some of it! I speak Italian and have a Ligurian friend that I speak with each day online by way of webcam. I explained this mystery to him of the un-named cantina. I had found out previously that ICRF is the ministry that regulates fraud in the production of food items so I asked him his opinion why this agency was listed instead of the cantina name. I gave him the ICRF 591 and he told me that it would likely be the producer code given by the ICRF for a approved cantina. I searched on line and I actually found the book of producers and the code 591 TV belongs to Casa Vinicolo Bosco Malera...and having entered the cantina site found that they do indeed produce under the label Marchesi di Montecristo...but they do not list the Nerello (or Nerelo) del Bastardo as a recent offering...however there are two other types of "del Bastardo"...a pinot grigio and a chiaro. We could not figure out the single "l" . Hope this helps. By the way ICRF stands for :L’Ispettorato Centrale Repressione Frodi del Ministero delle Politiche agricole e forestali
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