Like Elegant and Subdued Wines, Give Calabria a Chance, Vino 2010 Part 1

After getting situated, double checking my scheduled event and the rest of the ropes, I went back in time all the way to the Greeks in my first session at Vino 2010, Italian Wine Week.

Think amphoras, ancient grapes, colliding continents of Africa and Europe creating the local mountains and rich soils too.

3 wine growing areas, Cosenza, Crotone and futher south Reggio Calabria.

We were guided on this trip by Attilio Scienza a walking encyclopedia of the region history, character and wines with a good dose of passion.

Even though the area can claim no less than 60 to 70 varietals, 4 dominate the field, Greco Nero, Magliocco Dolce, Arvino and Gaglioppo.

Calabria has mostly stayed with the native grapes and kept the ancient ways as an inspiration.

Attilio Scienza noted that you can still find stone blocks that were used by the Greeks to press grapes around the countryside.

A great man from Texas, Alfonso Cevola, guided us through the tasting of 11 wines.

One constant amongst them was their elegant and subdued styles.

No fruit jams here.

We started with the Calabria IGT 'Alfieri Rosso' 08 (100% Malvasia Nera), nice nose, on the light side.

Amongst the rest, 2 of them attracted me first thanks to their labels.

The Ciro Rosso 'Don Giuva' 2005-Du Cropio with Red Wax sliding down the bottle and a rustic simple paper label stamped to it.

More striking was the Calabria Rosso 'Nerone di Calabria'-2006-Crisera.

Story says that the devil tasted it.

I could see the look of this wine getting it a following with bikers and tattoo artists.

That's it for my first impressions of Vino 2010

Sante!