Roero, Arneis – The name of this white grape, Arneis, literally means 'little rascal', because it is tricky to grow this variety properly. But our bottle was a perfect exemplar of the style: a characteristic dryness carried the aroma and flavor of pears. This wine would be a fine pairing for fish or chicken, or just in a glass by itself. It went surprisingly well with H—'s homemade chocolate biscotti, evoking chocolate-dipped fruit. There were many satisfied nods from the tasters.
Scarpa, RossoScarpa, 2010 – this 90/10 blend of Dolcetto and Ruchè grapes came across as inoffensive yet unappealing. Somewhat watery, it gave an aroma of school paste. The Dolcetto is sometimes called the Beaujolais of Italy, and our classification of table wine was amended to lunch wine, and then re-amended to breakfast wine. It would certainly be improved by whatever you were eating at the time, like J—'s diced vegetable salsa.
Sabinot, Barbera, 2011 – the deep purple color was immediately striking, and a swirl in the glass released an aroma of dark cherries. The taste carried the flavors of blackberry jam and unripe plums, which reminded me of Pinot Noir. I found this wine to be a flavor amplifier, bringing a 10x magnification to M—'s mini quiches. This bottle was hands-down the crowd pleaser.
Barbaresco, Nebbiolo, 2009 – it was hard to take in the next two wines, because they are heavily tannic and want to be partnered with meat and bold cheeses. Even the aroma of this Barbaresco showed more muscle: this time I picked up wallpaper paste. There was also a whiff of menthol and anise, which was a turnoff to some of the tasters.
Barolo, Nebbiolo, 2009 – this was a somewhat tamer expression of the Nebbiolo grape that became friendlier the more you swirled it in your glass. I found the edge of the tannins made a perfect right angle to the garlic in H—'s Salsa di Parmesan.
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