This is a very crisp wine. I tasted citrus and grapefruit with a cutting minerality. A classic off dry . Hmm, now I recently learned about "off dry", so I'll share... an off dry wine is one where in the fermentation, the most of the sugar is used up. There is no sweetness (or very little sweetness). And that is what this wine is, a crisp, fruity, clean wine. I just made a mistake in what I drank it with (and the temperature I poured it at - I over chilled it). This wine is screaming for a seafood to match with it, I cooked chicken wings -OOPS (hence the two or three stars - it by rights should be three stars, but I docked it one because it just didn't work with my menu....)
Speaking of mistakes... This wine should be had slightly chilled. I over chilled it, and made it more cutting. After it warmed up for 30 mins or so, it was a fruitier, fuller wine - less like tart grapefruit and more like just under ripe pear.
I decided that I should honor that sexy male past-time of Sunday Football, so, my cooking event is Chicken Wings... many many chicken wings (hey, I can bring something to the party other than my lack of knowledge or interest in football). Since I have no beer in the house, I decided to make a lunch of my cooking and open a bottle of wine. I bought this wine thinking that I'd like to have it on hand for take out Thai. I chose it for lunch because I thought it would go well with the spicy sweetness of the chicken wings and the freshness of the spinach salad. OOPS. Spinach Salad dressed with a red wine vinegar (that I made myself!)- not good with this wine... too many conflicting acids. Lesson learned.Menu:
Spinach & Mushroom Salad with a warm bacon dressing
Roasted Chicken Wings with Frank's Hot Sauce and Honey
And in a case of you gotta love the world wide web, here is more than anyone needs to know about this wine.
DOC Orvietto Classico: Umbria, Italy
Abboccato: [ah-boh-KAH-toh] Italian for "lightly sweet," indicating that a wine contains a small amount of residual sugar. Abboccato is used to describe a wide range of wines from semisweet to medium-dry.
Casa Vinicola Barbi: Claudio and Marina Barbi run the Barbi(founded in 1932) and Decugnano wineries with different but complementary roles, forming a lively, dynamic team. For them wine is ongoing research, experimentation, cooperation with nature and with technique, achieving truly surprising results. Qualified experts constantly assess the phases of vinification and refinement in French oak barrels, known as barriques, or in steel containers, depending on the type of wine being produced. The end result is a wide range of top quality Umbrian wines - Orvieto Classico DOC, Sangiovese Umbria IGT, and Lago di Corbara DOC. Accredited specialist press has awarded important recognition, including, among others, the Gambero Rosso Quality/Price Oscar, the Gambero Rosso Three Glasses, and the Seal of Approval from the London Int. Wine Challenge.
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