2007 La Terra Fina Montepulciano d''Abruzzo

[hotwine]

Talked into buying this at a new local wine shop; paired last night with pork chops in cream & mushroom sauce, with a big piping-hot bowl of homemade minestrone. The food was wonderful but the wine was weak, insipid, like a left-leaning politician; 12% alc/vol and EIGHTEEN $%^&$$^! DOLLARS! Wine-searcher says this thing normally goes for $6-$7! I won't be back to that rip-off jernt.

[This message has been edited by hotwine (edited 12-24-2009).]

[Drew]

What a shame, Gil, it's one thang if the wine's overprice...another if a Montepulciano d''Abruzzo is bad. They're usually very consistant in quality across the board, I've found. How bout posting the recipe for the minestrone? The food sounded wonderful!

Drew

[Innkeeper]

Should'd got a Masciarelli.

[hotwine]

Drew, she used a recipe from the Jan-Feb 2010 edition of Cook's Illustrated that covers two pages of fine print in the magazine (pp 10-11) and took about four hours to pull off. It was definitely worth the trouble, but not something that could be whipped up quickly.

The magazine's Website has the recipe blurred out so it's unreadable without a subscription to the Website, so they'd probably take offense if I posted it here.

[hotwine]

Drew - I no longer have your email address. Would you re-post it here? Thanks.

[Kcwhippet]

Beat me to it, IK. Masciarelli has several versions of the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. The base version retails here for $8.99. It's my go to red wine for cooking (I use their Trebianno for my white cooking wine). The next step up is the Marina Cvetic (named after Gianni Masciarelli's wife) that goes for $22.99, and it easily drinks at about $28 to $32. The absolute best wine he made, and probably the best Montepulciano d'Abruzzo made by anyone, is his Villa Gemma. It is absolutely effen awesome, and it retails about $75, but most definitely is worth at least that much. It is a real shame that such an inspired winemaker and passionate champion of the Montepulciano grape died so early at 53 from a cerebral hemmorage last year.

To all of you, you have to try the Villa Gemma just once to experience the ultimate expression of Montepulciano.

[This message has been edited by Kcwhippet (edited 12-24-2009).]

[This message has been edited by Kcwhippet (edited 12-24-2009).]

[Drew]

Here ya go.

xldrive@aol.com

[hotwine]

Thanks Drew. Will use in the next couple of days.