Juice

Love Arneis

So I have a new wine love.  She is Arneis.  Arneis is a little known grape originating in the hills of Italy's Piedmont.  In the past she was mostly used in scant amounts to blend with the noble Barolo of the region.  This practice echos that of vignerons in the Rhone who blend viognier with syrah to give it a little more finesse and aroma.  I suppose my love is fitting in that Arneis is often compared to Pinot Noir, my favorite red grape, in terms of being a notoriously difficult grape to grow.  In fact Arneis means "little rascal" in the local dialect.  Like Pinot Noir, when it's great it's ethereal.  Unlike Pinot Noir, which has to be the most "en vogue" grape, Arneis was nearly forgotten.  Only by the grace of a cluster of Barolo makers is it still around.  Over the past few years it seems to have gained some steam outside of the Piedmont.  I have seen examples from California and Australia.

I only recently was turned on to Arneis at the Golden Glass event here in San Francisco.  I tasted numerous examples highlighted by the Cornarea Roero Arnies.  Roero is the name of the region just north of Alba.  Roero Arneis DOC is normally the wine classification on the bottle.

The bottle I had last night was beguiling.  It was a 2004 from Giovanni Almondo (Giovanni is also the mayor of Monta da Alba.)  His "Sparse" vineyard is located at a fairly high altitude only about 20 miles from the Swiss Border.  I kept thinking what does it taste like?  Chardonnay?  Pinot Grigio?  Semillon?  No.  Not any of these.  It is singular.  Very light in color.  Great aromatics of pears and apples and a subtle but definite taste of almonds.  Lingering sexy finish. 

I think I shall add a bottle per week to my habit.

2003 La Viarte Pinot Grigio

This wine came from the Kermit Lynch Friuli sampler offered in the March newsletter.  La Viarte means Springtime in Friulian (isn't hat a fun word to say, Friulian) so it was an appropriate choice.  I always like the wines of spring.  Picnic wines.  Wines that can be served slightly chilled.  The before dinner drink.  The aperitif is an understated beautiful thing.

The region of Friuli sits in the northeast corner of Italy, northeast of Venice.  It borders both Austria and Slovenia.  In fact many towns have Slovenian names and the many people speak more Slovak than Italian.  This wine comes from the Colli Orientali.  The other major wine producing region in Friuli is the Collio.

Kermit's story is:

I arrived in the Friuli this summer with a bunch of winery addresses to visit, but
none of the wines tempted me. My hotel/restaurant wine list was full of unknown

labels, so I picked a Grigio from a winery called La Viarte and . . . here it is. Obviously the quality appealed to me, but I want to use this page to call attention to their prices, which pleasantly surprised me.

 

This wine is probably best when not seriously dissected.  (I guess most are)  There was an initial stony, flinty character to the wine that seemed to blow off after about 45 minutes.  Grapefruit skins, lime, a little herb, and maybe a drop of sweetness at the end.  I would have liked a little more of everything this wine had.  Turn up the volume just a half notch.  Enjoyable nonetheless.

$13.95 per bottle.