Southern Italian Red
Winery/Producer Name: Cantine San Marzano
Region (political): Puglia Vintage: 2015
Denomination & Quality Level: Primitivo di Manduria/DOP/DOC
Special Designations: Riserva, Anniversario 62
Grape Variety/blend (%): 100% Primitivo
Personal Tasting Notes: Notes of leather, chocolate, dried fruit on the nose. Intense palate of earthy, dark fruit jam with dried fig and vanilla. Pronounced acid and tannin. Medium-to-long linear finish.
Winemaking/aging notes: “Tasting notes: Very intense and elegant ruby red colour; broad and complex fruity fragrance with hints of plum, cherry jam and tobacco, slightly spicy; a full-bodied wine, smooth and rich in tannins, with an finish that offers notes of cocoa, coffee and vanilla.”
Alcohol content: 14.5% Importer: San Marzano USA, Tyler, Texas
Purchase Price: (in USD if available) $29.99 Purchased From: Holmdel Buy Rite (NJ)

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​There are several terms that must be printed on the label of every bottle of wine that denote the country or specific smaller region within a country where the wine was made, and that it met certain criteria which allow the wine to carry that (often prestigious) region's name on its label. Wines from tightly controlled regions demand higher prices than wines from larger regions which frequently require fewer specific production standards. The specifics of those winemaking standards can be daunting and geeky but it may be important to you to know the terms first. 
The European Union has long ago, but updated in 2011, implemented a labelling system that can be generalized to indicate two levels of quality and production standards. Add to this, most countries also have their own designations that indicate even stricter minimum standards and the law permits those terms as well.
In the EU, top-level wines must display the term Protected Designation of Origin, or PDO, on the label.  The next (lower) quality level is labeled as Protected Geographical Indication, or PGI. Of course, those are English words and so, to suit their language, Italy uses the acronym D.O.P. in place of PDO. France has its term as does Spain, Germany, and so on. 

If this isn't confusing enough, individual countries are not required, and seldom do, use the EU terms to comply with this law. Instead, the European Union permits countries to use their own terms providing they indicate production standards at least as strict or stricter than what is mandated by the PDO and PGI terms. 

So, more frequently, this is what you'll see.
Italy: PDO wines are labeled Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG), or Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC).
PGI wines are labeled Indicazione Geographica Tipica (IGT)

France: PDO wines are Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) or Appellation d'Origine Protégée (AOP) while PGI wines are labeled as Indication Géographic Protégée (IGP), or Vin de Pays (VdP)

Spain: PDO wines are labeled as Denominación de Origen Calificada (DOCa), or Denominación de Origen (DO) while PGI wines are labeled as Vino de la Terra.

Germany: PDO wines are Qualitätswein or Prädikatswein, and PGI as Landwein.

So, there you have it. One of the least knowable things in the world. But you have to be able to recognize all of these terms if you want some idea of what you're buying. 

**Photo courtesy of Wine-Searcher.com

You know when you go to a music concert and there's an opening band before the headliner? Those are usually pretty well matched to please the fans of a certain kind of music. When they are mismatched, the show might suck. When ordering a plate of food, your wine characteristics should match the intensity of those of the food or they will be unpleasant together, even if the wine and food are quite good on their own. Salty, sweet, bitter, spicy...all have properties that match well with certain styles of wine. Another flavor, per WSET, is called umami.  Foods that are classified as having umami flavors are things like mushrooms, cured meats, hard cheeses, etc. Not quite salty, but definitely not spicy or sweet either. This word is somewhat new to me as a taste descriptor and I think it's what we used to call "savory", but I guess that was too easy. 
Foods described as savory, or umami, tend to accentuate the acidity of wines along with the drying or tannic characteristics while downplaying the sweetness and fruitiness of a wine. 
Salty foods tend to bring out the fruit and body/weight of a wine while taming bitter tannins and acid. 
Acidic foods, like tomatoes, mask bitter, drying tannins and acid while lifting sweet and fruity flavors in a wine.
Sweet foods, think dessert, make wines seem more drying, acidic and bitter while masking sweetness and fruit flavors. Sweetness in food and wine should be evenly matched most often.
Spicy/hot foods bring out the alcohol in wines. Not ideal. and foods with strong flavors, like some Indian and Asian foods, can overpower most any still (non-bubbly) wine. That's why Prosecco, Cava, Champagne, etc are often your best bet to pair with this food category. 
And finally, fatty foods, are best paired with an acidic wine that cuts through the fats and oils and cleanses the palate with every sip. 
So, this is the textbook, somewhat scientific, guideline to pairing food and wine. If it works for you, great. But if you prefer a big Cabernet Sauvignon with your banana split, then go with it. There are no penalties for enjoying what you do. 

So, I took the WSET 1 course and exam with my buddy Melissa Bellini at the advice of friend, Robin Kelley O'Connor of www.RKOVine.com fame (and much more). We both got 100% of the answers correct. I thought a Level 1 wine class of any kind would be below my pay grade but the fact is there's plenty  to take away from a wine basics course. I'm now, on lockdown, enrolled in WSET 2 and while I find it informative and somewhat more challenging, the course in many ways is not for me. I do enjoy what they call their SAT, the Systematic Approach to Tasting, as it instructs the student to establish and normalize a set of routine guidelines that allow wines to be rated and classified by character and against each other.  
Some of these rating or descriptive criteria are as follows:
Appearance
Intensity: pale-medium-deep
Colour (their British)
White wine: lemon-gold-amber
Rosé: pink/pink-orange/orange
Red: purple-ruby-garnet-tawny

Nose
Intensity: light-medium-pronounced
Aroma characteristics: eg, primary-secondary-tertiary

Palate
Sweetness: dry/off-dry/medium/sweet
Acidity: low-medium-high
Tannin: low-medium-high
Alcohol: low-medium-high
Body: low-medium-full
Flavour intensity: low-medium-pronounced
Finish: short-medium-long

Conclusions
Quality: poor-acceptable-good-very good-outstanding
 
As you can see, it's well done and pretty standardized. Then along with these basic descriptors comes a long list of aromas and flavors to match to the wine like lemon, grapefruit, black cherry, leather, and all that. 
Next in the study arsenal is a workbook of 25 "chapters" each dealing with a specific grape or two (or in the case of Italian grapes, 3 or 4), each chapter being only a couple pages of the book. There is a heavy slant in educating the student in French wines and wine regions and also Australia, South Africa, and South America. 
While doing this, I'm also studying for two Italian wine certifications and my focus will return to those once I've completed my WSET 2 exam the first week of June. 
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Italy has historically thought to have been the home of nearly 1,500 types of grapes (aka grape varieties or varietals), but science has over recent years proven that many of these grapes were the same and just known by different names in various parts of the country. The fact is, there are about 800 grape varieties in Italy and, of them, about 200 that are used to produce commercially viable wines.
 The single most grown grape in Italy is Sangiovese. With this variety several wines are made which include Chianti, Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and several lesser-known wines. Sangiovese is mostly grown in Tuscany, or Toscana in Italian, but it does also appear in half of Italy's 20 regions and is blended into many Italian wines. Take it slowly and you'll find your way through to the wines that stick with you. It's ok if the rest fall away from your memory. I don't know anyone who knows all there is to know about Italian wines, and not even the most accomplished professionals could claim that they do. 

Wine is confusing. Good wine is sometimes only a little different than not-so-good wine...to some people. To a novice or a person that has not had a great deal of experience with tasting wines systematically or in search of certain elements and characterstics,  not knowing what to look for may mean that many wines are indistinguishable from each other.  I once had someone tell me they liked to put ice in their red wine and but were afraid to do it in public because they are well aware you're not "supposed" to do that. Now there is lots of advice out there telling people to enjoy wine however they can; put ice or soda in it, etc. But I'm of the opinion that if you're altering the qualities of the wine you're drinking to that degree then you simply haven't found the wines you like yet. I started with the big heavy, mass produced stuff. Most people have. But then as I got to try more and more wines I began to notice there was a certain quality that got my attention and appealed to me and when that quality wasn't there, I found myself not enjoying the wine nearly as much. Now, this was about 30 years ago and my preferences and tastes have changed several times since then. At 51, I don't enjoy the big overbearing Cabernet Sauvignons and Shiraz wines the way I used to. I went through a light wine phase too where it was all Pinot Noir and Dolcetto for a while there. And then there was a long run of whites and rosés. Now I'm all about the wines of the north-west of Italy. It's a process. And it's fun. 
How about you? Is there something you enjoy about certain wines that others don't seem to have? It can be a certain bite, or a fizz, or the way the wine makes your mouth water, or even dry out. Do you enjoy the physical weight of full-bodied wines, or the refreshing lightness of simpler wines? Does a certain bouquet, or fragrance, appeal to you more than another? Italian wines run a full spectrum of all weights, levels of tannins and acidity, price points, and suitability to every meal and every season. Let's narrow our focus with this blog and concentrate on Italian wine grapes and styles what makes them special. Have fun and contact me whenever you'd like.