Need info on Italian wine

[JBM]

I,m stationed in Sicily in the Navy and I have some leave coming up and I would like to surprise my wife with a couple bottles of wine. I dont care for dry wines and I was wondering if anyone could recommend a sweet red Italian wine that would make for a special reunion. Thanks

[Jason]

What is it with you guys and the sweet reds this week? Check out the other answers in this section for some ideas, albeit not all Italian.

[Thomas]

Not exactly red (it's brown), the best sweet wine I know of in Sicily is Marsala.

[Randy Caparoso]

Well, there are sweet red Italians. In Valpolicella, they now call them Recioto della Valpolicella (as opposed to the dry/bitter Amarone della Valpolicella. Made from selected "ears" (top part of grape bunches) dried 3-4 weeks in a barn before crushing and fermenting. Residual sugar can be quite high -- over 6% -- and of course, the handcrafting process makes for very expensive, albeit lusciously thick and sweet, results.

There's an '88 Recioto currently on the market (the vintage is corrrect -- they aged it a long time for the wine to come into balanced) made by Dal Forno Romano, an extraordinary producer. Half bottles should retail about $35-$40. It's definitely a dessert wine, though. I'd recommend bittersweet chocolate petits fours or decadent (flourless) chocolate cake with, say, a raspberry coulis or coffee-laced anglaise. If you're going through all this trouble to track down such a wine, you might as well hire a violinist and load the room up with long stem roses and votive candles. Whether or not your marriage has been bittersweet, this should do the trick.

[Randy Caparoso]

Whoops. It's more like 5 to 6 months that Recioto grapes are "dried" to their extreme concentration.

[Botafogo]

>>There's an '88 Recioto currently on the market (the vintage is corrrect -- theyaged it a long time for the wine to come into balanced) made by Dal FornO Romano, an extraordinary producer. Half bottles should retail about $35-$40.<<

Randy, if you can get that for $40 per half bottle where you live, send me ten CASES FED
EX right now! It retailed here for $80 and we sold out in about two weeks, Roberto

[Randy Caparoso]

Botafogo, you caught me on this and shot me right out of the water. It is indeed still available on Hawaii -- just a few 6 packs left -- but is definitely retailing here closer to $80. That's the trouble with me throwing numbers off the top of my head.