Friday Sips

Better than "Take Your Kid To Work Day", this week we're all about "Bring Your Friends To Friday Sips Day"
Wine, Prizes, Comradeship. What is better?
Here's how it works:

1.) Those who are already on our e-mail distribution list: He or she who arrives with the most friends will win a magnum of Champagne. These will need to be good wine drinking folks, not some "new wine aficionado friends" that you may have rustled up under the Burnside Bridge
2.) For the newbies who will come: Those who sign up for our e-mail distribution list will go into a drawing for a magnum of Feather Cabernet Sauvignon
3.) The Actual Tasting: 3 killer Italian red wines listed just below from Vignalta, a real under-the-radar maestro who makes wines from the Colli Euganei area outside of Venice

It's always fun to receive a visit from Vignalta owner Lucio Gomero because his products (wine, olive oil salt) are all so damn good! A few weeks back Lucio was in town and after tasting these three reds, we decided that we have to "Friday Feature" them!! Founded in 1980, Lucio created Vignalta based on his passion for the red wines from the Right Bank of Bordeaux (Pomerol & St-Emilion).

Il Veneto's Colli Euganei region is in close proximity to Venice. The hills and soil structures allow for exquisite wines made from Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon & Cabernet Franc to excel all while maintaining their Italian roots. Insanely yummy for 10 bucks and revealing plush blue fruit and nice tea-leaf and tobacco character riding shotgun. Voluptuous and sneaky expansive texture that is very clean, brisk, fruit-forward and with an engaging, lingering follow-through.

Let's set one thing straight about Vignalta's red wines, these are not glossed-up, overoaked, overpriced Super Tuscan wannabes. Unlike Tuscany, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot were introduced to Northern Italy in the late 19th century and the wines here speak beautifully of their terroir versus having to suffer in shimmering new French barrels. This wine does see oak aging but the new oak is kept to a minimum.

The 2007 serves up enticing scents of blueberry, roasted coffee, energetic ironstone and plum. Pure spices arrive from the earth and the wine possesses a coating texture that is dry, tangy and exactly what Colli Euganei is all about. A perfect excuse to cook duck! Drink now and over the next 3-4 years.

Gemola is one of Italy's most profound red wines that we're pretty sure that you've never heard of. Over the years, Lucio has won an abundance of accolades with this cuvee and deservedly so, this wine is special stuff and a steal for 30 bucks. Behaving like a top-level St-Emilion yet with the recurring theme of being VERY Italian it's an intense ruby red that is best described as elegantly persuasive.

Fine spice, raspberry and Italian plum shine against a backdrop of licorice, peat and cocoa powder. The palate is exquisitely balanced, concentrated, spreading out, having hearty, yet sophisticated dry connotations of berries and briar giving way to smoky, earthy balsamic aspects that linger beautifully on the long and structured finish. At age 6 this is starting to sing and will easily drink and develop well for another decade.