Each Friday, David Brenner of Villasfor2 in Abruzzo selects a delicious, top-value 'Everyday Italian Wine' for you to enjoy at home - or on your Abruzzo villa vacation !

Langhe Nebbiolo. DGL Terre. 2006
Nebbiolo is the grape variety behind Barolo - perhaps the king of Italian wines. To enjoy a fine, old Barolo is one of wine's cosmic experiences both in taste - and price. But you're not going to find anything - and I mean anything - even halfway decent for much under €20, so the knotty little problem this week is how can we appreciate the Barolo experience - yet stick to our budget of under €10 a bottle ?

Answer: We buy a bottle of Nebbiolo made in the Langhe region of Piedmont in the north of Italy. That's where Barolo comes from. And with this particular example, you'll be getting an accurate reflection of Barolo's greatness - but without having to pay a sky-high Barolo price..

If you like it - and I'm pretty sure you will - it'll perhaps encourage you to splash out for the real thing on some future special occasion. If you don't, you'll be less than €6 out of pocket. Not a bad price for a lesson learned ? 

In the glass, this is quite a light garnet colour which belies the depth and richness of what you're about to taste. Take a sniff. A big waft of dark autumn fruit - mulberries and stewed damsons - with a little hint of leather too.

Take a sip. If you've tried a good Barolo before, you'll understand what I mean when I say this is the same taste experience - but just toned down a little. If a bottle of Barolo is a joy still to come for you, treat this wine as a trailer for the….not necessarily better…but so much more full-on pleasures that await you. 

This wine is as clean and fresh as an autumn morning; tannic - but not bitter; those pure mulberry and damson tones now overlaid with dark chocolate. Like a good Barolo, this is a strong wine - 13.5%; unlike a good Barolo, which'll happily sit improving for 20-odd years, this lighter-style alternative is made to drink youngish - two to five years tops in the bottle will see you enjoying this at its absolute peak.

And what to eat alongside it ? This is a rich wine for rich meat dishes, so we teamed it up with scrippelle - traditional Abruzzo pancakes made with flour, water, egg and a little olive oil - stuffed with a long-simmered ragu and fresh, locally-made mozzarella, sprinkled with a little parmesan and then given about 25 minutes in the oven at 180º. Yes thanks, it was absolutely delicious. And this bottle of Nebbiolo was the perfect partner. 

At A Glance…

• This week's featured wine: Langhe Nebbiolo
• Vintage: 2006
• Producer: DGL Terre
• Designation: DOC
• Grape: 100% Nebbiolo
• Strength: 13.5%
• Closure: Cork
• This bottle cost: €5.29

Click on the pictures in the text for larger images - and if you like Italian wine, why not check last week's 'Everyday Italian Wine' - a Prosecco made by Italian drinks colossus Cinzano - and bookmark this site for future weekly posts.

Next Week: Pinot Grigio - perhaps more than any other, Italy's best-loved white wine. We're going to be tasting a bottle from the Friuli region in Italy's north-east for you to try at home - or on your Villasfor2 Abruzzo villa vacation.

Abruzzo villa vacation, Everyday Italian Wine, Langhe Nebbiolo, scrippelle, Villasfor2

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 3:20 am and is filed under David's 'Everyday Italian Wine', Eating and Drinking, Vineyards, Getting to Abruzzo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.