Cantele Wines Dinner Party

Jeremy Parzen of the Do Bianchi blog e-mailed me recently to see if I'd be interested in trying some wines from Cantele made in the Salento bootheel of Italy. I replied in the affirmative, and a week later a quartet of bottles were sitting in my living room. A white, a rosé, two reds... My first reaction was that it was time for a dinner party.

I checked with Julia, and she was housesitting somewhere with a great kitchen. Her friend Kerrie was able to join us, and my friend Grace was also free for the first dinner together in well over a year. Everything was in place, and I slid easily into the old routine of dinner parties.

For the first course, I had to make Julia's favorite: sweet potato soup. I still get a kick out of doing the initials on top with thin Mexican sour cream. Also, I take the extra time to grind the nutmeg on top of the soup before adding the lettering. Pro tip: if you screw up a letter, just use a spoon to blend in the soup and then start over. No one will be the wiser. With this soup, I served the lone white:

2011 Cantele Chardonnay
IGT Salento
100% Chardonnay
$12, 12.5% abv.

Light and mild thanks to the all stainless steel fermentation. Light floral notes with white peach flavors on the finish. Delicate, and surprising for a warm climate Chardonnay.

Next, I served grilled shrimp with sweet peppers, garlic scapes, and cheesy grits. My grits were not quite tender enough for the table (my fault), but the shrimp were well-received. More than anything in this lineup, I was excited to try this wine. A Negroamaro rosé years ago was my first introduction to the style of dry rosé that continues to be a personal favorite.

2011 Cantele Negroamaro Rosato
IGT Salento
100% Negroamaro
$12, 13% abv.

Pretty red for a rosé, but bright and ripe and full of red berries. Great cherry and strawberry flavors follow the nose, and the wine has a clean, crisp finish. Bold and delicious, and I thought it worked out well with the shrimp and grits.

For the final dish, I braised short ribs in some of the two red wines along with onions, tomato sauce, and a few other dashes of magic. Right before serving, I pan-cooked white asparagus and Belgian endive. I love getting a little char on those and then dashing them with balsamic vinegar. The meat was properly falling off the bone, and it was definitely time for some firm red wines.

2010 Cantele Primitivo
IGT Salento
100% Primitivo
$12, 13% abv.

Some of the jammy elements of cousin Zinfandel come through in this, with black cherry flavors and a touch of spice on the nose. This wine in particular would be a great one to serve with smoked pork ribs. Even though it's fairly young, this wine is fruit forward and ready to drink now.

2009 Cantele Salice Salentino Riserva
DOC Salice Salentino
100% Negroamaro
$12, 13% abv.

Greater complexity with this one, including notes of leather and blackberries and some herbal bits. Softer than you'd expect, though I imagine that the tannins will continue to mellow over the next few years. While I enjoyed it with the short ribs, I found myself craving grilled lamb.

Grace took care of dessert with tiramisù, and we all chatted for a few hours after dinner while the dog Elli lay on the floor and loved all the attention.

Note: These wines were received as samples.

Zonin Wines from Southern Italy and Sicily

I get a lot of different offers from publicists and wineries. Most just say, "Here's this wine, would you like to try it?" Others represent many different brands, and ask me what I'd like to try. I skip past the expensive, most well-known bottles, and always request the more obscure grapes, the lesser-known regions, and those that appear to have more of an interesting story behind them. With this batch from Zonin, I got all of those, plus a neat little 4GB USB drive shaped like a Prosecco bottle.

While the thumb drives are a far more efficient method of passing along data than CDs or other media, I always zap them and then pass them along to friends of mine who work as teachers, as they always need some easy, portable media for transferring files. As much as I enjoy the gadgets, I like it more when they get to be used in a productive fashion.

Quick side note: five of these wines are 100% representations of fairly obscure grapes, so for anyone looking to add to their ampelographic studies in liquid form, they're definitely worth checking out. Also, I don't have firm prices on these, but most are within the $10-15 range. As always, I will update this post later if I find out more details.

The first trio of wines comes from the big island of Sicily.

2011 Feudo Principi di Butera Insolia
Sicilia IGT
100% Insolia
13% abv.
Exceptionally light and delicate. Just a touch of lemon and yeast. This is quite possibly the mildest and softest Sicilian wine I've ever had, and it's highly recommended.

2010 Feudo Principi di Butera Nero d'Avola
Sicilia IGT
100% Nero d'Avola
13% abv.
Nero d'Avola is one of my favorite pizza and burger wines. Always great for a casual mid-week wine. Black cherry and spice, heavy tannins, tart finish.

2008 Feudo Principi di Butera Symposio
Sicilia IGT
65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot
13.5% abv.
A well-balanced Bordeaux blend full of black cherry and leather and a touch of tomato leaf. It doesn't really taste Italian, but it's a solid blend on its own merits.

Puglia is the bootheel of Italy, and is called Apulia in English although it's very rare that you hear that. I'd suggest going by the native name, which is pronounced POO-lee-ah. These wines come from Salento, which covers the lower half of the bootheel.

2011 Masseria Altemura Fiano
Salento IGT
100% Fiano
12.5% abv.
This delightful little white wine has faint notes of melon and mild peach, low acidity and a full body. Strongly recommended for a good chicken salad sandwich that has a couple of grapes in the mix.

2010 Masseria Altemura Negroamaro
Salento IGT
100% Negroamaro
13% abv.
Really mild raspberry aroma, with a tart, ripe raspberry flavor and crispy finish. Low tannins and a pretty light body for a red wine. I've previously enjoyed this in rosé form but it was fun to try it in the full red style.

2010 Masseria Altemura Sasseo Primitivo
Salento IGT
100% Primitivo
13.5% abv.
Black cherry and leather, a touch of smoke and pie crust. While we can talk about the Crljenak Kaštelanski and Zinfandel family line, but this one stands on its own as a deep, tannic, red wine that demands a well-grilled chunk of meat. I enjoyed it with grilled steak over a salad and loved the combination.

Note: These wines were received as samples.