Wine of the Week: Frescobaldi Remole 2019 (white)
Tuscany or Piedmont? Sangiovese or Nebbiolo? These two great wine regions (with their dominant red grape varieties) compete for attention as Italy’s finest and most pedigreed wine growing regions. The only correct answer to the question is, of course “both”! After all, why choose when there is so much pleasure to be had drinking wines from both regions. In Tuscany, many great estates and families produce excellent wines. Among these is the Frescobaldi family, a prominent merchant and banking family, that began investing in wine in 1308! (Compare this to the oldest winery in the United States, Brotherhood Winery, 1839 or Israel, Teperberg Winery, 1870. A great estate in Bordeaux, Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, just celebrated its 300th birthday (a relative youngster compared to the Frescobaldi family who are celebrating more than 700 years of history!). The Frescobaldi family owns eight wine estates, one, Gorgona, located on the penal island, and which helps those confined there (although prisoners are free on the island, amazingly) to learn new skills and prepare themselves to reenter society. They also produce an exceptional olive oil from their Laudemio facility – expensive and worth it!
All of this brings me to the wine of this week : Frescobaldi Remole 2019 (Toscana, white wine). This delightful white wine is blended from Vermentino (called Rolle in France) and Trebbiano (a staple of Italian white wines). Vermentino is a relatively rare grape variety. It produces lovely wines that have the aroma of fresh, clean laundry and lavender. Hermes should produce a Vermentino “eau de toilette”! The wine is named for the family’s Remole castello (really a small village).
The wine is fresh and engaging with aromas and flavors that bring to mind lemons, rosemary, fresh green grapes and, as already noted, lavender. The wine is as bracing and refreshing as an outdoor shower on a hot afternoon at the beach. Delicious and a perfect match for fresh sea bass with a garlic-parsley sauce or at the start of the meal with a meze platter of baba-ganoush, falafel, hummus, tabbouleh, halloumi cheese, stuffed grape leaves and sauteed peppers and onions. Drink this wine from a young vintage (2019 now) and cold! The wine is available in most markets for around or under 70 NIS, 12 USD and 11 GPB.
In good health, salud, bonne santé, לחיים!
