Piemontegirl Tasting

Piemontegirl tasting 2 Table

As you probably already know, I’ve started to host some wine tastings! Mostly basic tastings, differentiating between 3 grapes: dolcetto, barbera and nebbiolo. I think it is a good way to learn the difference between the 3 main grapes in Piemonte.

The dolcetto from Andrea Oberto had the typical purple color of dolcetto. On the nose it had kind of a strange smell. I think there might have been something strange with this bottle, maybe some reduction, because I’ve had this wine many times before and it did not smell like that. In the mouth it was as it should be – fresh, fruity, light.

Alessandro Veglio’s barbera had a ruby red color, slightly opaque. The nose was a little closed at the beginning, but came to after a while in the glass. It was fresh, fruity and had a good amount of acidity.

Lastly, the Perbacco. Color was brownish red, typical of the nebbiolo grape. On the nose there was roses, violets and earth tones. As Vietti makes their nebbiolo quite similar to their barolo, there were tannins present, as there should be with nebbiolo.

Piemontegirl tasting 2

Vinmonopolet: Wines 255kr and under

Good selections for a reasonable price

There are quite a few wines available at Vinmonopolet, andyou can find some great wines at reasonable prices. (Although that’s not always the case). Sometimes there are so many options that it’s hard to know what to buy. And if you don’t know the wines or the wine maker it can be difficult to know exactly what you are getting.

In any event, I have listed some wines that I think highly of and that as of now are available. However, bear in mind that most of these wines have to be ordered, as in they are not usually in the stores.

Here are the wines:

Oddero Barbera d’Alba, 245kr

Burlotto Barbera d’Alba, 255kr

Alessandro Veglio Langhe Nebbiolo, 250kr

Cavallotto Langhe Nebbiolo, 255kr

Vietti Perbacco, 250kr

Signorvino

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Near the Duomo in Milano, there is a restaurant called Signorvino. It is also a wine shop, so you can either sit and have a meal or just buy a bottle (or 10) of wine. I think I will probably just buy the wine from now on. They have an ok selection of wines from Piemonte. Many different Vietti wines, some Ciglitui and Oddero, also some Ettore Germano.

The wine shop is pretty good, but I was not a big fan of the restaurant. Poor serivice, bad wine list (which is weird since they have a good selection of wines), the food was not great and the music a little loud. I thought it was weird that they were unable to tweak a dish to suit my needs. I wanted proscuttio crudo instead of the cotto and it was very hard for them to change it. I also just wanted a piece of the robiola but to get the robiola I had to order the whole cheese plate. And I had to ask for water 3 times before it arrived. I am not impressed. But I am used to the service at More e Macine or Osteria Vignaiolo. Maybe I have to get used to the service in Milano….

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I ended up with a bottle of Perbacco (not on the wine list) and Prosciutto crudo with my dish. So in the end it worked out (ish). I will be coming back to buy wine, so they have not lost a customer =)

Vietti at Nedre Foss Gård

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I am back in Norway, for good this time, but some things never change. I had the pleasure of attending the Vietti Winemaker dinner at Nedre Foss Gård in Oslo Norway, and it was absolutely fantastic. It was so good to see Elena again, and the wines of course were amazing as always.

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One the menu was the Arneis, the Perbacco, Barolo Castiglione and La Crena. The La Crena was incredible! We tasted one new and one old, and although they are both very good, I loved the 1998.

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