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I find most Italian whites on the neutral side of dull. Regular readers will know the deep loathing and lethargy I feel towards almost all Pinot Grigio and I’ve only ever had one Soave that was exciting – from John Gordon in Cheltenham. So, I thought I’d give Italian whites one more chance and specifically asked to be sent “interesting” wines. Do you know, the wines were astonishingly interesting and ignited a small, flirtatious fire within me. In the sea of Chardonnay and Sauvignon, I’m always looking for something new and different. Expect to see more Italian whites in this space. All wines tasted were 2006 vintage, strangely.
Our favourite wine was Terredora, Greco di Tufo, which is £10.99/8.79 from Oddbins on multibuy. Greco Bianco is the grape and Tufo the town. It smelt very promisingly of white greenhouse flowers – quite creamy, like a gardenia. This carried through into the taste. It was rich, opulent and astonishing. It’s one of the best whites I’ve tasted for a long time. Gran Sesso, Pecorino is £7.99 from Majestic, which lost marks for being low on aroma, initially. Once it had warmed up it smelt floral and quite Germanic. Pecorino is the grape, not cheese-flavoured wine. It was attractively dry, oaky and structured but broad enough to be pleasant. The finish was dry with almond flavour.
Now, there was a small dispute about Falanghina dei Feudi di San Gregorio, which is £9.99 from Tesco. Falanghina is an ancient Italian grape and the initial smell was absolutely disgusting. Just like a damp dishcloth that should have been washed days before but was left to rot in a puddle of something nasty. Lorraine shuddered and fell out with it. She couldn’t be brought round and gave it a very cross zero. However, the rest of us persevered and swirled and sniffed, swirled and sniffed. As RSI threatened, the stink lifted to give a beautiful smell like the fragrant skins of ripe plums, as if they were in a greenhouse – similar to hyacinth. It also tasted of yellow plums – ripe and warm, hanging from a tree. Lorraine wouldn’t forgive it and in a way that is fair because if you bought this and weren’t quite as obsessive as the rest of my panel, you would probably think it was very nasty and chuck it away. If you’d taken the average score of the other members, it would have come second, but it didn’t.
Asda’s Extra Special Pinot Grigio which is £5.01 smelt lightly of greengages and was quite pithy at the same time as being sweet like sweeties. When tasted blind I scribbled that it was “prob cheap”. Inycon Estate Chardonnay/Greciano is £4, also from Asda and it really didn’t fit the bill but wasn’t unpleasant. It smelt of bottled lemon juice and lemon balm and tasted dry, acidic and plain. Their Soave, which is only £3.48, was as far from the brief as you could get without being red wine. The smell became slightly smoky after a while and the taste was quite savoury, but interesting it was not.