As many of you know, we are planning a trip to Italy in the fall.  So in addition to getting plane tickets and hotel reservations, I am also trying to learn a bit of Italian, as well as try to start learning about Italian wines.  I know there are a lot of Italian wines I like.  But I would like to advance from just calling the Wine Club, and asking for help.  It seemed that they could always help me get an assortment of “summer reds” …  red wines that are a little lighter, and OK to drink when its 105F (and the wine at cellar temperature). 

And not surprising, I have started my wine education already (I have borrowed some language CD’s .. but still have not ripped them to get on the iPod).  To start, I went to BevMore (recently opened, on Ray, across from AJ’s) and picked at random several Italian wines.  As we start to drink them, I will check out where they are from, work to translate the Italian labels, figure out what grapes were used, and figure out which ones I like best.

Tonight, we opened a 2003 Zenato Valpolicella, Ripassa, which cost $23.  It was really good, a 1.5 on the Deb Scale.  It was really dark (Roy’s description – heavily extracted), but not really tannic.  The nose was also interesting, definitely earthy, but not barnyard like Bordeaux.  Explanation of the Deb Scale:  the ratio of what would you pay for the wine vs. what you actually paid.  There is also the absolute Deb scale, which is the answer to the question: how much would you pay for the wine?  Seems much more logical than the 100-point scales used by Parker, Wine Spectator, etc, where you never see a wine below 85, which means these are really 15 point scales).

Valpolicella is a region near Verona, in the north part of Italy (not too far from Venice…hhmmm,  this is the first stop on our trip).  It is also the name of a wine.  The grapes are Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara.   So, what is  Ripassa Valpolicella? The straight Valpolicella, produced in the usual red wine fashion, is passed "back over" the lees of the Amarone after their fermentation is complete. The grapes for Amarone (this is a yummy but  pricy Italian wine that I do remember) are dried for up to four months or longer and are then vinified, so this starts to explain the dark color and feeling of a heavy extraction.   All of this leads to a second fermentation and the creation of Ripassa Valpolicella whose color, depth and flavors are greater than those of the original Valpolicella. It is also ready to drink much sooner than the Amarone.
 
The Zenato winery is located on the southern shore of Lake Garda.