Weekend Wine... Brigaldara Valpolicella Classico
January 29, 2010 at 11:30 am by Jay
Brigaldara Valpolicella Classico
Veneto, Italy
2007
$15.99 (10% this weekend)
The wine...
Some folks stock up on bread and milk when the weather threatens, but
we here at 3CUPS are laying in stores of wine, coffee, tea, chocolate,
and cheese. Brigaldara Valpolicella Classico is an ideal candidate for
cold-weather holing up in the house. In its homeland Brigaldara often
accompanies a wallop of (often delicious) starch, dairy, and meat, the
last item often arriving at table after being boiled. For local NC
dining, 3CUPS staff attest to satisfaction with pizza, gnocchi with
braised-beef ragu (not the kind in a jar), and steak au poivre. The estate...
This small winery is in San Pietro in Cariano. Stephano Cesari uses
natural, traditional methods to create some of the most sought-after
red wines in the Veneto. His family has worked at this estate since
1928. Cesari primarily farms Corvina and Corvinone, grapes that are
indigenous to the land surrounding Verona. Valpolicella can be
everything. Some of the region's red wines are, like Brigaldara,
fragrant, soft, and dominated by red berry fruit aromas. Others are
concentrated and dark, extracted, low in acidity, and marked by new oak.
The land... Valpolicella literally means "valley of many cellars" (as it sounds), and it runs north from Verona toward the Alps and Austria. You'll notice the wind, at times barely perceptible but eerily constant, blowing south down the valley. Made from Corvina (and Molinara, Rondinella, Ocellata, Corvinone, others of declining commercial importance) Valpolicella is a memorable wine, exemplifying the balancing act of juicy, lip-smacking fruit and primal earth.