Vino from Bella Italia

It wasn’t so long ago that I admitted that, frankly, I was intimidated by Italian wines. Italian actresses have always intrigued me. Italian cars will always be my primary fantasy (it’s an age thing). I’d love Italian opera if it didn’t have any singing and Italian food.... ah, Italian food – I’m salivating over my keyboard as I conjure vivid pictures and aromas.

I often wish I’d have been born into an Italian family who owned a farm in that part of Italy shown in countless documentaries where it never rains. We would eat outside with al fresco and the rest of our neighbors, all 3,000 of them at our bounteous table. But I digress.

I am no longer intimidated by Italian wines. It was always the labels that puzzled me – words I didn’t understand – but I had some clever people explain them to me. I’m enormously grateful to one of those people: Tom Alberico, the Senior VP of Sales & Marketing of Laird & Company, is the brilliantly engaging mastermind of the many Italian wines on the shelves of some of our local wine stores.

Alberico introduced me to Moletto wines and my palate will be forever thankful. Azienda Agricola Moletto is a family-owned estate in the province of Treviso (Veneto) in northern Italy. Commendatore Mario Stival and his sons Mauro and Giovanni share administrative responsibilities and oversee all phases of the winery’s operation. The Moletto winery has teamed up with a centuries old grape grower in the Salento growing district of the Apuglia region to launch La Pisara.

The climate is hot and dry and, combined with the ideal soil, produces an intense flavor and coloring for the region's native grape varieties like Primitivo. I am told that La Pisara is an ancient word in Apuglian dialect referring to a large triangular rock that was used to mill the grain. La Pisara Primitivo (PLCB Code: 56462;  $12.99. Order as special liquor order from any store.) is produced with 100 percent Primitivo grapes, considered by many to be the Zinfandel grape of California. Typical of  beautifully structured Italian wines, the color is deep claret and the perfume evokes the Zinfandel in the nutty, leathery, fruity notes. The taste is rich, very full and macho with pleasing berry fruit flavors that are silky smooth and velvety. 

I suppose the only improvement on this wine would be my drinking it in a Ferrari with an Italian actress in the passenger seat (and my wife close by, of course).

Cheers!

 You can order La Pisara Primitivo and other great Italian wines from your local Wine & Spirits Shop: