Wine Night at Ca del Sole!!!

We recently had our 4th annual wine tasting/dinner at Ca del Sole restaurant. 16 people attended and everyone commented that this was our best event ever. This year's theme was wines from every region of Italy except Tuscany.

Next year we will be embracing Tuscany full bore as Jeff Hudson suggested!

First off were 2 white wines first of which was a 2006 Villa Fidelia Sportoletti Bianco from Umbria. It's a Chardonnay/Grechetto blend aged 6 months in new French oak and 1 year in the bottle. It's alcohol is 14.5% and this was a great wine to start off with.

Next up was a 2008 Mastroberardino Greco di Tufo from Campania. It was a little lighter than the Sportoletti, but still had a crisp minerality and a very enjoyable summer wine. Thank you, Shirley!

On to the reds...

1. Leone De Castris 2005 Riserva Salice Salentino with 13.5% alcohol. It's from the southern region of Puglia which is the heel of Italy and this wine is made up of 90% Negroamaro and 10% Malvasia Nera.

2. 2004 Di Majo Norante Campomarino "Con Ta Do" which is a Aglianico from Molise. It has a Robert Parker rating of 89 with 13.5% alcohol. I wanted to bring something different to the dance, but this wine was somewhat dissappointing after drinking a few wines with class and elegance.

3. 2006 Colle Maggio Montepulciano D' Abruzzo with 13.5% alcohol. I was hoping that this wine would shine as I hadn't tried it before bringing it to Ca del Sole since I bought it at Top Line, a wine store in Glendale. It turned out to be good, but just average in my opinion.

4. 2005 Incanto Vino Nobile di Montepulciano with 13.5% alcohol. I don't remember who brought this wine, but it was a nice wine if memory serves well.

5. 2001 Collepiano Arnaldo-Caprai Sagrantino di Montefalco from Umbria made up of 100% Sagrantino grapes. Dennis brought this lovely wine to the party and it was voted wine of the night! Thank you very much, Dennis!

6. 2007 Brovia Dolcetto D' Alba from Piedmont which was brought by Eric & Shaundra, I believe and this was a very nice wine. I don't have any more info on it, but Dennis did a great job overall on keeping track of the wines we consumed. Thanks again, Dennis!

7. 2008 Pelissero Piani Barbera D' Alba also from Piedmont and I think this wine was also brought by Eric and Shaundra. Another great one, thank you!

8. 2007 Tenuta di Castiglioni Frescobaldi from Tuscany. Oh well, one Tuscan wine slipped thru the cracks!

9. 2006 Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio Mastroberardino Aglianico from Campania. "The Tears Of Christ" in Italian, Linda and I brought this wine just to show off an everyday wine from Campania that we drink and enjoy at home. It's 12.5% alcohol and just a nice wine.

10. 2007 Passopisciaro Mt. Etna, Sicily with 14% alcohol. Jeff Hudson brought this wine and as advertised it was a lovely wine showing off nice mineriality from the volcanic soils of Mt Etna.

11. 2006 Outis (Nessuno) Mt. Etna, Sicilian wine consisting of 80% Nerello Mascalese, and 20% Nerello Cappuccio with 13.5% alcohol. We drank this right after the Passopisciaro and I noticed it got Jeff's attention right away! This was a really great wine that Bill & Dana brought to the show and I want to buy some of this as Bill said it was recommended at Woodland Hills Wine. Yummy!

12. 2007 Il Conte-Villa Prandone Rosso Piceno from Marche. I don't remember much about this wine, but I did google it and found some really nice tasting notes, so maybe this was served later in the evening when my palate was getting washed out or my wine buzz was kicking in!

13. 2001 Terredora Taurasi Campore Aglianico from Campania. Just a great really nice Aglianico! Jeff and Margie also brought this wine and Jeff hyped it up quite a bit before the wine dinner. It did not disappoint and it was uncorked well before it was served to give the wine plenty of time to open up. It came with 14% alcohol and I loved this heavy hitter from the south of Italy very much! Once again we got to taste some of the best Campania has to offer! Thanks J&M!

14. 2005 La Loggia Barolo from Piedmont. This was a nice wine that Riley brought and was part of the train of reds passed around the table as our waiter, Gabby, was serving us the great foods from the kitchen of Ca del Sole to go with all of our wines!

15. 2008 La Birba Barbera d' Asti from Piedmont. A red served at the end of the night that I honestly don't remember too well as well as who brought it I'm afraid.

16. 2003 Bricco de Ucell'one Barbera d' Asti Braida Di Giacomo from Piedmont. Linda and I brought this wine as our big wine of the night and was almost forgotten as it had been it our decanter all night. It was hard to judge after so many wines, but I do like this wine alot and we purchased it from Lou Luizzi from the Wine Hotel back when Lou and Marsha still owned the Wine Hotel, so it was in our cellar for a few years. Nice big fruit and this wine may have been appreciated more had we not waited until the saturation point. Still a wine the I respect alot.

We polished off the night with Limoncello and Vin Santo, and Amaro we brought back with us from our recent trip to Italy!!!

I want to thank Brian and Kristina for taking all of the pictures at the wine event as we left our camera at home. Thanks you guys for making it possible to see pics of our 4th annual wine tasting/dinner and to Mike for bringing extra wine even though Maysie couldn't join us as she was out of town!

I also wanted to say that Jeff and Margie brought their son with them for the second year in a row and he is really a nice addition to our wine group! They actually brought a 3rd wine with them to cover the attendance of Reid, but it didn't make the list as it was corked. It was a 1997 and a wine from their cellar is a good one to be sure, so at the end of the night when things were winding down, I poured a glass from that bottle. Although it was corked, it had been open for several hours, so most of the wet cardboard taste had blown off. I found myself drinking more than a glass from it as it still had the quality it was intended to have... it wasn't bad!!

Ciao for now and we thank you all again for sharing a great night together enjoying great friends, great food, and great VINO!