Browse Tag

vermentino

Myrna Loi

[nùo]Loi “Nùo” 2013 Vermentino di Sardegna (Sardinia) — Skin contact, with all the leveling, asymptotic effects that portends. It’s still more refreshing than Dettori (isn’t everything? well, except Cornelissen), but it’s very heavy, and I’m not seeing the vermentino here. All that aside, I like it, in its lead-on-the-tongue sort of way. (11/16)

Ajaccio number on the wall

Comte Abbatucci 2011 Ajaccio “Faustine” (Corsica) – 100% vermentino. Sticky citrus of the yellow/green/pink variety, with somewhat swampy herbs. I like it OK, but it’s a bit more tactile than I prefer. (8/12)

Richard Crena

Punta Crena 2008 Riviera Ligure di Ponente Vigneto Isasco Vermentino (Liguria) – Delicious. Simultaneously arboreal and saline, with a sizzle of structure helixed with minerality. This is a wine that’s both fun and an intellectual pleasure. (8/11)

Romangia the stone

Dettori 2007 Romangia Bianco Badde Nigolosu (Sardinia) – 100% vermentino. Looks, tastes, and feels like an orange wine, though the maceration isn’t all that long (ten days). It’s perhaps that it’s unfiltered and un-everything-else that leads to an orange sort of palate impression, though there is evident tannin. The luxuriant yet not overly polished texture is the wine’s primary highlight (among rather a sea thereof). Dried white flowers, some fresher buds, grasses, herbs, dried citrus, leaves, minerality to spare, and gravity without weight, density without concentration. Brilliant wine. Absolutely brilliant. (11/10)

Benjamin Isasco

Crena 2008 Riviera Ligure di Ponente Vermentino Vigneto Isasco (Liguria) – People who insist Italian whites are worthless are…well, they’re idiots, but they’re apparently also idiots who’ve never tasted a vermentino. Even in its paler, more industrial expressions, there’s plenty going on. When given a little more attention and terroir, I fail to understand how anyone could not, at least, appreciate the goings-on. Here, there’s grayish-tan soil, a lot of sun (but with shadows lurking in corners and crannies), a light oxidativeness that adds rather than detracts, and plenty of complexity and interest to hold attention. Not a great vermentino, but certainly a good one. (9/10)

Uncle Quinis

Sardi Giustiniani 2008 Colline Lucchesi Vermentino “Quinis” (Tuscany) – Starts tentatively, then grows in interest as vermentinos so often do. Water-marked aquatic leafery, subtle shadings of sunlight, an ascending finish. Good. (7/10)

I keep on searching

Edmunds St. John 2007 “Heart of Gold” (El Dorado County) – 54% grenache blanc, 46% vermentino. It should amaze me that wines with this sort of acidic presence can be made in California, given the endless evidence to the contrary, but then I remember who’s behind it. Crisp greenness, lemon, mixed citrus and orchard fruit rinds, with a dry minerality that hums along in the background; a rocky feedback that never achieves prominence until very, very late in what is almost a shockingly persistent finish. Really striking, and extremely drinkable. (5/08)

Hey, Arakèna!

Cantina del Vermentino 2004 Vermentino di Gallura “Arakèna” (Sardinia) – Soft peach, nectarine, and apricot. Some papaya. There’s vanilla and a soft, fluffy finish of good length. (2/07)

Rouges Gallura

Cantina del Vermentino 2005 Vermentino di Gallura “Funtanaliras” (Sardinia) – Almond, pink grapefruit, and green notes. Clean on the finish, with a salty accent. (2/07)