What is VITIANO?

[tcarlsen]

Robert Parker gave Falesco Vitiano a 90, but other casual drinkers, I've heard, think it's harsh and disgusting. Wine Spectator gives it something like an 82.

You decide.

[Innkeeper]

2003 Falesco, Vitiano, Rosso Umbria I.G.T. ($7.99 NH Liquor Store). Alcohol level 13%. Agree completely with Roberto on this one. Tastes not at all like an Italian Wine, but rather like the dregs of Oz. I mean this in the most pejorative sense. If you want a complete waste of eight bucks, buy this one. Ruined a meal of penne in Italian tomato sauce with sausages.

[wondersofwine]

I appreciate seeing Randy posting again. Would like to know if Roberto and/or Randy have had Ciacci Piccolomini's "Ateo," a blend of Sangiovese, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon and if so, your opinions on it. I first tasted the '97 vintage and really loved it. Have also loved the '99. Recently bought some of the 2001 but haven't opened it yet. It sells for $25-$40 (I got my bottles for the lower mark). It is described as a Rosso Toscano or Sant' Antimo DOC wine.
Cottarella has also been involved as a consultant with some French wines--I disliked the one I tried from Castillion.

[stevebody]

I came into work at Esquin one day to find the owner with a big dopey grin on his face because he had a surprise for me. We went downstairs and approached a guy in a questionable brown suit who turned out to be Ricardo Cottarella. Unlike Roberto, I'm a big fan of his wines, so it was like meeting Mick Jagger. We went around the room and the talked about each of his wines, especially about his Fobiano, which I dearly love and about which I had written a rhapsodic POS sign about my 3 a.m. trip to the beach with Judye to watch the Perseid meteor shower and drink Fobiano. We finally got to the Vitiano, which is the only one of his wines that I just don't like at all. He asked what I thought of it and I siezed up like a two-buck pocket watch. (I've always told everybody that we didn't talk about Vitiano because I'm so ashamed of becoming so wishy-washy) I told him that, honstly, I didn't like the Vitiano ( didn't say that it's a horrible, unfocused, bomvastic mess, which would have been honest) and that it was one of two wines, the other being Bonny Doon's Big House Red, that seem too big and a bit out of balance. He listened politely, smiled and said, "Thank you for all your help and your astute judgements." And was gone.

I have no idea if he was talking about the Vitiano or not but that seemed like an odd place in the conversation to drop that in. Later, my buddy who's the sales manager for Cottarella's distributor told me that, over dinner, they had opened a bottle of Vitiano and Cottarella didn't touch a drop.

I'll never know, of course, but I don't really believe that winemakers have a solemn responsibility to make every single thing they bottle slavishly dedicated to "the earth, the earth, the earth...". Vitiano is one of the three largest-selling Italian wines in the US. A lot of people like it. I just didn't recommend it, which took care of my qualms. I did, however, on a suggestion of a friend, lay a bottle down for 14 months and it was a whole different wine when I opened it.

[Innkeeper]

WOW you might check the date of Randy's post.

[winoweenie]

How in the blazes did this thread ressurect itself? From 1999 and 2000 with a few 2001s thrown in. What Goes???? WW

[Botafogo]

"Vitiano is one of the three largest-selling Italian wines in the US."

And that just means that MORE people get to drink sucky wine. It also is reported to suffer from horendous bottle variation. "Paging Signore Cotarella, your flight to Sydney is departing immediately".