Mixed Case from Portugal, Italy and Chile

Mixed Case from Portugal, Italy and Chile
Sold by: AW Direct, LLC
$89.99 $216.00 58% off List Price
2015 Ensolarado White Wine, Terras do Dão, Portugal
2015 Kon Tiki Pinot Noir, Valle Central, Chile
2015 Piccolino Di Puglia Sangiovese, Italy

Kon Tiki?
I read this in grade school!
Great book, like Clark’s.
Didn’t realize it was really a book on wine.

[GRAPE]

Hi all! I was lucky enough to be chosen to be a grape debater for today’s offering.

Unfortunately, I just moved across the country so the wine was shipped to the wrong location (my fault entirely). Fortunately, the wine is supposed to be delivered on April 5th.

I’m pretty certain I was sent the Piccolino Di Puglia Sangiovese, so I’ll crack the bottle and post some tasting notes within a few hours of getting it.

I can’t wait to try it and let me know if you have any questions!

Edit: The wine arrived!

I’ll be editing this as I continue to drink it.

Color: Ruby (I think, I’m colorblind), thinner than a zin or cab.

Nose: Cherry and plum, it smells like a young wine.

Palate:
No decanting: Tannins and acidic with cherry and heavy raspberry at the front with a bitter finish. My wife took a sip and the first thing she said was, “it’s bitter”. Either my tongue is adapting, or this wine is becoming less bitter as I sip it.

After one hour: The bitterness has faded some, but so has the fruit.

After two hours: This has started to
balance out nicely. Tannins, jam, and tobacco are all balanced well with only a faint hint of the bitterness that used to overwhelm it. Pretty good!

Verdict: I’m a fan of big French red wines, so this one isn’t so much my bag. I’d consider it above average for a sangiovese after the prescribed decanting period and could see it pairing well with a meat sauce or pizza.

I won’t be buying it, but that’s more my wallet can’t take it between moving cross country and having bought every recent Wellington deal. If you’re a fan of fruity sangiovese wines, you’ll like this one.

http://wine.woot.com/areas/wine.woot/images/grape-debater.png

It’s an appropriate name, Kon Tiki…while not the first Pinot Noir I’ve had and not the first Chilean wine I’ve had, it is indeed the first Chilean Pinot Noir that I’ve had. And so like Tiki was the first created man in Maori mythology…this was a first for me as well. (REFERENCE: Tiki - Wikipedia)

ANYWAY….

Truth be told, I’m a big red kinda guy. Love Petit Sirah, Cab and other super tannic reds, but for a Pinot Noir I thought this was pretty good.

Fortunately, I received this in time to have a few other winos err…wine connoisseurs drink this with me over the past weekend. Ultimately, it was a pretty easy wine to review, we all basically fell into the same thinking right away. I viewed this as a positive and indicative of a wine that is likeable by many.

While we debated the difference between garnet and ruby for a bit, we all independently settled on this being a very nice ruby color, and crystal clear. Very pretty to look at.

We found the wine to be highly aromatic and inviting, with plenty of Cherry and Strawberry to lead the way. I also got some rhubarb pie and the others kinda looked at me with a tilted head when I told them that, but it stuck with me so I’m sticking to that comparison!

Onto the flavor…we all found it to be bountiful with a cherry pie leading the way, with some plum, pepper, and vanilla/oak coming in to wrap it up. The finish lingered nicely and didn’t get all weird like some wines can. Instead the finish was long and pleasant and allowed you to savor the wine.

We leveraged some scoring sheets and the average ended up being an 88, and as such a pretty good wine. This aligns with my initial impression as well.

Cheers!

fwiw these all appear to be bulk juice imported to USA and bottled in California.

[GRAPE]

As a Grape Debater, I received an advance bottle of the Ensolarado.

This wine is made from about an even mix of three Portuguese grapes. Bical is highly acidic and is often used to produce sparking wine. Malvasia is most commonly used to make Madeira. Encruzado is typically used as a blending grape.

Because I was out of town when this wine arrived I asked our nine-person wine tasting panel at work to try it and send comments. These tasters have attended a half dozen or so blind comparative events that I’ve staged, so they have some experience with evaluating wines. About half of them tend to prefer wines on the sweeter side, putting this one at a disadvantage, but several of them like high-acid, complex wines.

It doesn’t seem they encountered any complexity here. The most common complaint was that there was little aroma and the wine seemed watered down. Some said it would be a satisfactory summer picnic wine.

Here are their comments:

“A very light white wine”
Flavorless
Watery
Empty in the middle
Starts with fruity taste, Pear or Apricot, then finishes sour
Crisp snappy finish
Nothing on the nose
Absolutely no nose
Summery wine - not a lot going on
Very neutral wine
No finish

The other two wines in the assortment might be of more interest.

So, anyone or everyone, are these wines bottled in the U.S., or in their respective countries? (And, Woot, please have this question commonly answered for most if not all wines on Woot, thank you.)

The juice is from Portugal. The wine is “cellared and bottled” in Santa Rosa, California.

Zoom in on the labels to see the bottling info.

Thank you.

Thanks, I didn’t realize one could zoom in on the labels. Cool!

But bummer that most of the wines here are bottled in the States, as that means that they’re shipped here, probably in plastic, and are therefore full of plastic taste and cancer-causing neurotoxins. I ONLY buy foreign wines bottled in their respective countries. They are far too unhealthy otherwise.

Woot, please get more if not most wines from foreign countries that are bottled where they originate. Thanks again.

Bought the Piccolino back in May of '16 and found it pleasant and easy drinking. Especially at that price. In for one just for that, and hoping for a similar nice surprise on the others.

Agreed, piccolino was tasty, simple and cheap.

Thanks for the mention; in for one. Looks like a fun sample.