Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Happy Quattro de Mayo! You know what that means? That’s right! It’s time for the Carpe Vinum Quattro-de-Mayo Super Special Newsletter of the Week and Tasting Notes for the Tasting of the Day Which Is Tomorrow! (CVQdMSSNWTNTDWIT for short). Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo and in celebration we’re pouring all wines from Italy’s Tuscany! You don’t see the connection? Well, it seems so obvious to me I’m not going to explain it. However, if there are ever enough Mexican wines around to feature a full flight of them for Cinco de Mayo, I’d certainly do it. But until then: Italy’s Tuscany!

Tuscany is possibly Italy’s most well-known wine region. It’s located on the West Central coast of the peninsula and is home to Pisa, the city made famous for shoddy craftsmanship, so much so that a badly-built tower has been made an international landmark. Of course, this is completely ignoring the fact that although it’s leaning, after nearly a millennia it is still STANDING, whereas with all of our technology we can’t pave our roads to last more than 5 years. . .but I digress.

What makes Tuscany one of the most well-known wine regions of Italy is most likely the Chianti district. And this is unfortunate. The best part of the vast majority of Chianti wines is when they come in the cool bottles wrapped with reeds and raffia. These bottles look nice on the table, work well as candle-holders, and themselves can be nicely flammable if you ever need to start a fire in a pinch, or feel like lighting a small effigy against crappy Chianti. The fact that lousy Chianti is the most well-known Italian wine in the US could be a direct result of so many Americans visiting a crooked tower. (“So. . .they like shoddy craftsmanship, eh?”)

But Chianti aside, it took a lot of Italian wine for me to get over my fear of yet-another gut-wrenching and dry-as-all-get-out red wines from the region to find the “Oh-wait. . .they’re-not-all-like-that-and-this-is-pretty-darn-good” wines. And here’s a whole bunch of ‘em. One white wine, a Vernaccia, since the weather just begs for it, as well as a half-dozen reds including – GASP! – a Chianti?!? Yep. Tried and true, this Chianti will knock your socks off. But please. . put them back on right away. We’re not IN Italy, y’know!

So Friday, May 5th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

The Taste of Tuscany!!
Marchetti dei Castello di Jesi 2004 Le Rote, Vernaccia di San Gimignano
Erik Banti 2003 Carato, Morelino di Scansano
Gualdo del Re 2003 Elisio, Val de Cornia
Solo Maremma 2004 Micante, Calpalbio
Ambrosini Lorella 2003 Tabaro Rosso, Suvereto

Wines of Not-So-Shoddy Craftsmanship!!
Valdipiatta 2001 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
Castellare 2003 Chianti Classico

Next Friday tasting is the Tempranillo!