Sunday 30 December 2007

Cantina Zaccagnini - Montepulciano d' Abruzzo 2003

The sky is clear and there's a stiff cold November breeze. We dart from our apartment on Horatio Street to La Foccacia a small bistro in Manhattans meat packing district close to the hum of Village life. The welcome is warm and friendly and the place is full of locals. We slowly take off our layers and settle down to peruse the menu. The wine list has many wines, some familiar but plenty of new faces too.
After a 7 hour flight from Edinburgh and a tinge of jet lag hanging over me I plump for known territory. I don't think I've ever had a disappointing Montepulciano d' Abruzzo. This one is from Cantina Zaccagnini. This cantina produce a great many different wines and have some award winners in amongst them. 2003 was a hot year in Italy but successful as the montepulciano grape can stand the heat with excellent results. The Il vino dal Tracetto was as expected. The solid familiar deep red and the aroma of stewed damsons and suet pudding. It's dry, smooth east drinking wine and I wish there had been a chocolate on the dessert menu, I just love this wine type of wine with dark chocolate.......
It's not fancy or complex and as I said there were no surprises, a perfect wine for this occasion.

As I'm finding with most Italian wine producers Cantina Zaccagnini has a cool website: http://www.cantinazaccagnini.it/

There wines are inexpensive and can be bought from:
http://www.thecellardoor.it/

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