David’s ‘Everyday Italian Wine’ – 10
Each Saturday, David Brenner of Villasfor2 in Abruzzo selects a delicious, top-value 'Everyday Italian Wine' for you to try at home – or enjot in your Abruzzo villa !
Langhe Arneis. 2005. Fontanafredda
I was in two minds whether to include Arneis in this weekly round-up. It comes from the neighbouring areas of Roero and Langhe, in the heart of the Alba wine-growing region to the south of Turin in the Piedmont region of northern Italy – the home of Barolo and a dozen more great wines.
You'll easily find both Roero Arneis and Langhe Arneis and of the two, Roero's generally reckoned to be better. But the bottle I tried a year or so back had the taste, bouquet, colour and character of a glass of water, so you'll appreciate why I approached the Langhe Arneis with a little less than my normal boyish enthusiasm.
How wrong can you be ? This version from the mammoth Fontanafredda wine empire is fantastic – by some distance the classiest, most elegant white wine I've featured on this weekly wine blog.
Draw the cork and pour yourself a generous glass. The colour is a lovely pale straw yellow, with little hints of green. Now breathe in and enjoy the scent of a big bowl of juicy, ripe pears. A little sip. You'll get apricots and nectarines; clean, pure fruit with just a little underlying acidity to cut through the richness. And there's a long finish to be enjoyed as well, dryer than you might expect too.
There's wine for food and wine to be enjoyed just on its own – and while this Langhe Arneis will be perfectly fine with a light lunch on a hot summer's day, it's much more suited to be enjoyed on its own, as a perfect accompaniment to good company and good conversation. Or perhaps as a little holiday indulgence just for the two of you during a relaxing afternoon by the pool at your Abruzzo villa ?
At A Glance…
- This week's featured wine: Langhe Arneis
- Vintage: 2005
- Producer: Fontanafredda
- Designation: DOC
- Grape: 100% Arneis
- Strength: 12%
- Closure: Cork
- This bottle cost: €6.35
Fontanafredda
Being owned by a a giant Italian banking conglomerate, with an estate acquired from the illegitimate son of King Vittorio Emanuele II aren't the usual prerequisites for producing great wine, but once again, here's proof that in the wine industry, big isn't always bad.
The jewels in the Fontanafredda crown are its great, single-vineyard, Barolo and DOCG Barbaresco, with a head-turning supporting cast of all Piedmont's other big wines. As with the rest of Italy's wineries, the backbone of production is grapes from hundreds of local growers, supplemented by Fontanafredda's own estates.
The Arneis is simply produced. Unoaked and left to rest on its lees for 4-5 months to gain a little more body before bottling. Legally, Arneis can contain up to 15% of other Alba white grape varieties. Fontanafredda's Langhe Arneis is 100% Arneis.
Read more about Fontanafredda's stellar – and more modest – wine production on its own excellent site – and if you like Italian wine, why not check out last week's 'Everyday Italian Wine' – and bookmark this site for future reference.
(Click on pictures in text for larger images)
Next week: proof that you can get a proper Chianti Classico from the heart of Tuscany at under €5 a bottle – a wine for you to enjoy at home and in your Abruzzo villa !
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