Spring Red

Very interesting wine last evening, a 2008 Grignolino D'Asti from Giacosa Fratelli in the Piemonte area of Italy.

The first thing one noticed about this wine was the color, or rather the lack of it as witnessed by the picture above.  It's more of a dark rose' than anything else.  Definitely no coloration was added to this wine to appeal to those who like broodingly dark wines. 

The nose was a strange mixture of not quite ripe strawberries and rhubarb and little bit of earthy funk.  The taste was much the same, but this wine was blessed with a lot of grape tannin and a tremendous acidity.  That gave the wine an austere mouth feel that I found very appealing.  The wine tasted fresh and new, and in this case that was a very good thing.  The finish was dominated by the grape tannin and was longer than I expected.

There was a thick rib eye steak from the grill and russet potatoes cubes fried in duck fat for dinner and the acidity in this wine cut through the fat in each of those foods and the tannin in the wine cleared the palate for more.

At $15 a bottle and 12.5% alcohol there will be a couple more of these purchased for spring and summer.  This wine fits nicely for when a rose' is too light and a red is too heavy.