What is vino Nobile di Montepulciano?

This blog experience is getting more enjoyable as time goes on. I started writing it to keep track of the food and wine pairings that I have tried for my own reference. Mainly, so when I do a dish months later, I can go back and look at what wine I had with it. It was also a fun place to vent my frustrations with the LCBO and wine buying in the province of Ontario.

Recently, I have been getting something new on the blog – user feedback. This is great; Natalie Maclean left a comment a few weeks ago –

http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2008/05/natalie-maclean-visits-blog.html

And now Jonathan Foley stopped by and had this to say –

Hey Mark -
Love your blog. It's always great hearing the opinion of others (especially for wines I haven't tried!) Any experience pairing vino Nobile di Montepulciano? I just picked up a case of the 2003 Salcheto Vino Nobile di Montepulciano from the LCBO (685180) and I want to try the first one soon to gauge it. Thanks!

My first thought was ‘Cool, someone out there stopping by and leaving a comment’. My second thought was ‘Doh, Italian wine’. This last year I have been exploring French wines to broaden my horizons and break out of my California comfort zone. So Italian wines are an area that I've not had a lot of experience with but it is always fun to try new wines…

I’ll be brutally honest and say that after reading your post my first question was – “what exactly is ‘vino Nobile di Montepulciano’?” So the first place I hit was the LCBO and got the full information on the wine -

SALCHETO VINO NOBILE DI MONTEPULCIANO 2003

VINTAGES 685180
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 28.95
Wine, Red Wine,
13.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : XD
Made in: Tuscany, Italy
By: Salcheto
Release Date: May 24, 2008

Tasting Note - The estate's 2003 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (100% Prugnolo Gentile) is generous and opulent on the palate where it offers plenty of spiced red fruit, licorice and smoke notes along with a generous, engaging personality. It shows terrific balance as well as finessed tannins for the vintage and should drink well now and over the next decade. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2018. Score - 90. (Antonio Galloni, www.erobertparker.com, June 2007)

Sounds great, nice write up by Robert Parker’s website, a 90 rating and an affordable price tag of under $30 but I still have no clue to what this wine is.

The one thing that did catch my eye was “100% Prugnolo Gentile” - yes we have a clue, Watson! Next step was a Google search on “Prugnolo Gentile” which lead me to –

http://winegeeks.com/grapes/311

And found this on the Winegeeks website –

Prugnolo Gentile

One of many synonyms of Sangiovese, this one being the local name used in the town of Montepulciano. The great wines of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano can be some of the better examples of Sangiovese in the world and can take well to extensive bottle aging.

At this point the lights go on, bells go off and a glimmer of hope in this pairing quest begins – Sangiovese! Now I know what the wine is, pairing becomes much simpler now. I always think of Sangiovese as the Merlot of the Italian wine world, as I find it is a very diverse wine in what you can pair it with - pastas, stews, grilled meats to name a few.

Next step was to hit Natalie Maclean’s website - http://www.nataliemaclean.com/index.asp to use her food and wine pairing utility and there were a ton of items to pair it with.

I checked the LCBO stock levels and was delighted to find my local LCBO in Ancaster had 30+ bottles in stock. I e-mailed my lovely wife and asked her to pick-up three bottles of it (she works in the same plaza as the LCBO) as I’m always up for trying a new wine. My kitchen is under renovations currently but Mick is hosting this week, so I will give him a call and see if he is interested in trying the wine this weekend.

Mick does a great Pasta Puttanesca (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puttanesca) and hopefully I can badger him into making it this weekend as I think it would be a great pairing for this wine. If so, there will be a blog entry on this pairing early next week.

Cheers!

Mark