Epicuro Salice Salentino Riserva, 2004

An article in Australian Gourmet Traveller focuses on Aussie winemakers travelling to Italy and "rediscovering the role of grape skins." This Salice Salentino--a $5.99 bargain from Trader Joe's--is an excellent example of a wine built around skin tannins; it's big and full-bodied like an Australian Shiraz but without the toothpicks.

The color is deep, bluish, almost opaque, and the wine gushes with aromas of floral- and herb-tinged black fruits. Basil, rosemary, dark cherries, and you can literally smell and taste the macerated grape skins. Very Italian, very rustic and very enjoyable. This Salice Salentino has the flamboyance of a high-alcohol wine, but it clocks in at only 13%. All fruit and all good; skins rather than oak. And ripe to the point of decadence. This wine is a perfect match for Ribollita--an incredible Tuscan soup made of "re-boiled" vegetables--onion, celery, carrots, Tuscan kale and white beans. All vegetable and all good.