a single vineyard with well-drained, calcareous soils, and although there are less expensive Pinot Grigios on the market, none of them have the elegance, concentration of fruit, or balance of the San Osvaldo. The 2005 is particularly good and, never mind Santa Margherita, this is one of the best Pinot Grigio you can find. For the 2005 vintage, San Osvaldo sports a beautiful new label.
A beautiful, crisp, straw-colored white that offers delicious aromas of citrus, honeysuckle and candied fruit. It is full-bodied with sensations of citrus and grapefruit throughout the palate leading to a great finish. An aperitif wine that is also delicious with light foods like fish, guacamole, hummus, pasta with clam sauce, white meats, and goat cheeses. Enjoy over the next year or two.
Aperitif, Chicken, Goat Cheese, Pork Chops/Loin, Spicy Foods, White Fish
San Osvaldo is one of the best Pinot Grigio producers of Lison Pramaggiore and is a perennial favorite of ours. The quality and style is consistent year after year. Their vineyards are located in an area perfect for making delicious, fragrant wines. The climate is fairly cool and the calcareous soils are well drained. This perfect terroir combined with San Osvaldo’s modern winery result in wines with beautiful fruit expression.
Overview Greek settlers first planted vineyards in Italy sometime around 800BC. Since then, wine has been entrenched in the Italian culture, ‘as common as water on the dinner table’. Most of the topography in Italy, about four fifths, is perfect for growing grapes, because of the hilly and mountainous features. These features helped Italy produce 20% of the worlds wine in the nineties (580 million hectoliters).
Italy greatly varies in topography, climate and culture from North to South and the styles of wine reflect these differences:
In the North, the Appennines Mountains and the lakes of Como, Garda and Maggiore work together to moderate the cool winters and hot summers and prolong the grapes’ growing season.
The Northeast is best known for the Nebbiolo grape, considered to produce the finest of Italian wines. The concentration of fruit, high tannin and acidity combine to produce a long-ageing wine with incredible depth and character.
The cool Northwest is better known for its white wines. Pinot Grigio is by far the most famous white wine in Italy, known for its crisp acidity and subtle fruit character.
Central Italy is renowned area for Chianti, a medium bodied, fruity and acidic red wine from the Sangiovese grape. The Southern area is much hotter and Mediterranean in character. Here, the wines are less tannic and lighter bodied in style, to better accompany the lighter cuisines of the area.
Recently Italy has experienced a rebirth in quality wines. Years ago the wine flowed like water and was equally flimsy and thin, but that is no longer the case. Throughout the twenty regions of Italy, more and more quality whites and reds can be found from places like Piedmont, Tuscany and Friuli. The category given out prestigious of wines in Italy is known as the DOC and DOCG. DOC stands for denominazione di origine controllata and DOCG stands for denominazione di orginie controllata e grarantita. These are guarantees of authenticity and quality that can be found on the label of the highest quality Italian wines from selected vineyards or regions.
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