Sommelier André Hueston Mack returns to Bon Appétit, this time to taste and give his expert opinion on Italian wines. With 20 Italian wine regions, Mack is sampling bottles from each to teach you everything you need to know about Italian wine.
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00:00There are 20 different Italian wine regions
00:02and over 500 different styles,
00:03which definitely can make shopping for Italian wines confusing,
00:06but it doesn't have to be.
00:07Hey, I'm Samoye Andre Houston Mack,
00:09and today I'll tell you what you need to know
00:10about Italian wines in every region and in your wine shop.
00:17Italian wines definitely have a reputation,
00:19and I would say that it's more about its diversity,
00:21different regions, different climates,
00:22and they're somewhat affordable.
00:24The information that you can learn today,
00:26you can take that to your wine store,
00:27that can help you narrow down the selection of wines
00:30that you like or want to try.
00:31I'm gonna take you on a tour of some key regions
00:34and taste some great wines
00:35that I think you should be aware of.
00:37So first up is the Piedmont region of Italy.
00:39So what makes Piedmont region great
00:40is its continental climate.
00:42That warm days, cool nights,
00:43that really helps in the growing of the grapes.
00:45If you can get high enough heat during the day
00:47so the grapes can ripen,
00:48and cool nights so they can retain some type of acidity,
00:51that puts you in the best place for growing fruit.
00:53So this is Paolo Scavino,
00:54this is the Barbera d'Alba 2022,
00:57and this is $20.
00:58If we kind of like decode or look at the label here,
01:00so you have Paolo Scavino,
01:01so you have the name of the producer,
01:03and then you have Barbera the Alps,
01:04the grape in the town of Alba.
01:06Underneath the name, you'll see the DOC.
01:09When you see DOC or DSG on the bottle,
01:11that's saying that that is a protected area
01:14that has been designated by the government.
01:15The reputation of this wine is,
01:17this is everyday drinking wine.
01:18This is what Italians drink on an everyday basis.
01:22The reason why Barbera has this great reputation
01:24of being everyday luxury is that it's widely planted.
01:27It grows pretty easily.
01:28There's not a lot of aging requirements,
01:30so this is, you know,
01:31economically, you know, a really great wine
01:34that can be produced fairly easy.
01:37This kind of smells like a plum pie.
01:38You know, anybody ever had a plum pie?
01:40I'm just making up .
01:41Let me just call it raspberry.
01:42Raspberry and plum pie.
01:46Now this is pretty easy drinking.
01:47It's not overwhelmingly complex by any means.
01:51You know, this has some acidity to it
01:52and it's not overly jammy or fruity.
01:54You accentuate acidity on the sides of your tongue.
01:56If the sides of your tongue start to tingle,
01:58that means the wine is high in acid.
02:00If you start to salivate,
02:01that means the wine is high in acid.
02:03But also think of acidity as an, as an amplifier.
02:05But this is great.
02:06This, you know, this screams food.
02:07Like it has an acid level, I think,
02:09that makes me want to salivate and eat.
02:11And I think this is a great starting point for Italian wines.
02:14I think it has a little bit more fruit than most.
02:16You know, this could be, you know,
02:18your entry or training wills into Italian wine,
02:20especially if you started drinking New World wines.
02:24So we're staying in the region of Piedmont
02:25and this is from Paolo Conterno.
02:27This is Barolo.
02:28$56.
02:29So Barolo is called the king of Italian wines.
02:32The Dundada, you know what I mean?
02:33Like if not the greatest wine, one of their greatest wines.
02:36They have like crazy age requirements.
02:38Like this bottle of wine needs to be aged at least 38 months,
02:42at least 18 months in oak, in a barrel,
02:45before that it can ever go into a bottle.
02:48And because of its limited production,
02:49these make these wines wildly expensive and rare.
02:52By aging a wine,
02:53the wine can become a lot more complex and more integrated.
02:57A freshly new bottle of wine,
02:59it tends to be more on the fruity side, on the oaky side.
03:02Over time, that wine that is astringent and oaky
03:06and high in alcohol will all start to come into balance.
03:09All right, yeah, so we're gonna hop in here.
03:11So here it's a little bit more floral.
03:13So I, you know, here I'm getting more rose petals
03:15and I smell a little bit of asphalt.
03:19This wine is super tannic.
03:21The whole inside of my mouth is dry.
03:23My gums are dry.
03:24And that's due to the nature of the wine.
03:26Generally, you know, Nebbiolo is a very tannic grape.
03:29So you're getting a lot of that.
03:30If there's fruit, I would say more like dried cranberry,
03:33maybe with a hint of strawberry.
03:35That's pretty beautiful.
03:36There's nothing really like that in the wine world.
03:38Something very special about Barolo.
03:40And you can see why it's the king of Italian wines.
03:43So still in Piedmont,
03:45here we have the La Spinetta Moscato da Asti,
03:47and this is $22.
03:49Moscato is a grape.
03:51The Asti is the region.
03:53Moscato da Asti is frizzante.
03:55Frizzante means sparkling.
03:57And when people ask me about sweet wine,
03:58this is the first place that I direct them to.
04:00Why do we say a wine is dry or off dry?
04:03There's a pendulum that works between sweetness
04:05and alcohol level.
04:06If you allow wine to ferment completely dry,
04:09the wine will have no sugar,
04:10and it will be what we call a dry wine.
04:13If you ferment some of the wine and stop the fermentation
04:15at any particular point before it's dry,
04:18then you'll have a level of sweetness in it.
04:20We'll go ahead and give this an open here.
04:23Just, I mean, just peaches, very floral.
04:26Almost kind of has like a Muscat gummy.
04:32Peaches, apricots, plum on the palate.
04:35There's some sweetness to the wine,
04:36but it's not cloyingly sweet or syrpy.
04:39It finishes elegantly.
04:41There's some acidity to it.
04:42And then it has these like nice little bubbles,
04:45the frizzante that kind of dances on your tongue.
04:48So we would serve this with dessert.
04:49You want the wine to be less sweet than the dessert.
04:52If the wine is sweeter than the dessert,
04:54then you really don't really get to taste the dessert.
04:56You just normally taste the wine.
04:58And so this frames the dessert that you're having.
05:00So any type of like fruit tart with a glaze
05:02or anything like on that, this was always my go-to.
05:04So we're moving on to our next region.
05:05This is from Trentino, Alto Adige.
05:08So this is in the Northern part of Italy,
05:10a cooler climate, cold region.
05:12Italy has a diversity of climates.
05:14In the Northern part of Italy, you can ski there.
05:16So this is from Jay Halsdatter,
05:18and this is Pinot Grigio, and this is $22.
05:22I mean, you think about from this particular region,
05:24from the Alto Adige, Pinot Grigio,
05:25and these kind of really set the standards
05:27of what Pinot Grigio is.
05:28It is cooler climate, Pinot Grigio with high acid,
05:31that has some nuance to it.
05:34I get kind of like white flowers, straw.
05:37I don't want to say that it smells sweet to me,
05:39but it does smell like a little bit of powdered sugar.
05:42I don't think that it's sweet.
05:43It's going to be sweet or anything like that,
05:44but I do get a little bit of that smell.
05:46I think I'm just traumatized.
05:47You know, I used to make the cotton candy at Chuck E. Cheese,
05:50when I was 17.
05:52It's got some acid to it,
05:53but it's not ripping hard acid and no middle palate.
05:57Like this wine has weight to it.
05:59Weight is how a wine sits on your palate, right?
06:02How it coats your tongue.
06:03So think about, you know,
06:04we always use the example of milk, right?
06:06So if we use 2% milk, how that tastes in your mouth,
06:09throw that around your mouth,
06:10and then you pour heavy cream into your mouth, right?
06:14Alcohol can translate into weight
06:15and be perceived as weight on the palate.
06:17If you like Pinot Grigio,
06:18I think you should try other Pinot Grigios
06:21from different regions.
06:22Americans who like U.S. Pinot Grigio would like this
06:25because I think it's some comparison in the weight.
06:27It has a very similar style in that way.
06:31So now we're moving on to Tuscany.
06:32So we think about, it's very picturesque,
06:34lots of rolling hills,
06:35just a really kind of beautiful, sprawling landscape there.
06:38So this is Chianti.
06:39This is from Tenuta La Caccinelli,
06:42and this is Chianti Colesanese.
06:44And this is $24.
06:46You know, a little bit of history here.
06:47A lot of this, you know, goes back to,
06:49I believe World War II.
06:50GI spent a lot of time in Italy enjoying the cuisine
06:53and the wine, a lot of that was transferred back.
06:56So you started to see a lot of
06:57checkered tablecloth restaurants introduce Chianti.
07:00And this wine is 100% Sangiovese.
07:03So Sangiovese, very astringent, botanic, great.
07:06We always think about spaghetti westerns,
07:08and then I think about it being dusty,
07:10but it really leads with that kind of quality and less fruit.
07:13And we talked about the governing body.
07:15In Italy, it's called the DOC.
07:16But then also there's another level,
07:18somewhat of upgraded DOCG,
07:20another level of distinction
07:22when we're talking about Italian wines.
07:26Raspberries, a little bit of blackberry,
07:28a little bit of like leather.
07:32And there's that dusty thing that I talk about,
07:33but it finishes kind of rough,
07:35and not in a bad way,
07:36and in a very much Chianti way to me,
07:38where it's a different type of beast in that way.
07:40It's got a little oomph to it.
07:41It's got some body to it and some structure to it
07:43that normally you wouldn't see in a traditional Chianti.
07:46But it does have that framework
07:47and very much Chianti across the board.
07:50All right, so moving on to Brunello di Monticino,
07:53located in the region of Tuscany.
07:55This is Caci Piccolomini.
07:56This is Brunello di Monticino.
07:58And this comes in at $60.
08:00And this is considered one of Italy's rarest wines.
08:03It is the first wine to achieve DOCG status.
08:07The grape, they call it Brunello,
08:08but actually, to be honest with you,
08:10it's a variation of Sangiovese.
08:12It's bigger and it has a thicker skin,
08:14and because it takes longer to ripen,
08:15it's gonna impart a lot more tannic,
08:17because it's got more skin to grape ratio.
08:19And because of that skin,
08:20it makes one of the biggest
08:22and brooding style Italian wines.
08:24I remember I was always taught,
08:26you know, Brunello di Monticino was,
08:28you know, Italian steak wine.
08:30So it's basically Chianti on steroids.
08:34This is one of my favorite wines.
08:35It smells somewhat savory.
08:37It reminds me a lot of iodine.
08:38Like it kind of has like that iodine savory rosemary.
08:45There's dried leather.
08:47It's just a hint of cinnamon.
08:48There is a little bit of cedar
08:50and a little bit of currant and blackberry.
08:52And that's so good.
08:54One of my favorite wines to drink.
08:55It almost feels like graduating.
08:56It's just on another level.
08:57All right, so we're still in Tuscany
09:00and this is called Tuscany IGT.
09:03This is La Diffuse, and this is $50.
09:06Tuscany IGT is a category
09:09that's made up of what we like to call Super Tuscans.
09:12They are probably some of the most
09:13sought-off their Italian wines,
09:15commanding crazy expensive prices.
09:17Super Tuscans generally are indigenous grapes
09:22from the region, so think about Sangiovese,
09:24and they're blended with more European noble grapes.
09:28So thinking about Cabernet or Merlot.
09:30The DOC and the DOCG,
09:31they have these really kind of tight guidelines
09:33on what these wines can be called.
09:36IGT has less requirements.
09:37It's less strict.
09:38You think it would just be bottom feeders.
09:40It's kind of quite opposite.
09:41Super Tuscans are what kind of brought the prominence.
09:45A lot of these wines, Super Tuscans,
09:47came in some of the highest prices in the world.
09:50So yeah, this is lots of like red currant, black currant.
09:54There is like a leather kind of element to it,
09:57just thinking about wood.
09:58So fruit is confirmed on the palate,
10:00but there's a level of acidity to it
10:02that you normally wouldn't get in Cabernet, right?
10:04And that's due to the Sangiovese.
10:06And so it's kind of a mix of these two worlds
10:08that's always been fun and prevalent.
10:10A lot of these wines are definitely made
10:12on the more modern side and less traditional,
10:15which a lot of these people were innovative
10:16in kind of pushing the envelope forward.
10:19All right, so now we're moving on to Emilio Romano.
10:21I always talk about if it grows together, it goes together.
10:24This is kind of the belly of Italy
10:26where you think about some of its most famous foods,
10:28prosciutto di palma, mortadella.
10:30A lot of those things you can think about
10:32from this particular area.
10:33This is Beccorosso from Fiorini.
10:36And this is Lambrusco.
10:38Lambrusco is sparkling wine from this particular region,
10:42which is interesting because most of it is red sparkling wine.
10:46They're made the same way that sparkling white wines are made.
10:50But basically you're making a still wine first
10:52and then you introduce the yeast
10:54and that sparks the secondary fermentation.
10:56So the still wine that you're making here
10:58is just red instead of white.
11:00So there's different things on the label
11:01that you can look for.
11:02Secco is the biggest thing if you're looking for dry
11:05and Dolce for it being sweet.
11:07So you want to look for those two things on the label
11:08if there's nobody around to ask in the store.
11:10All right, so we're gonna keep our thumb on,
11:12put a little twine down six half turns,
11:15get you good to go, kind of in the same way
11:16that like you would loosen a tie.
11:18You put your finger in the rung,
11:19but still keeping your thumb on there.
11:21Then you want to switch.
11:22Oh my God, this is coming out really by itself.
11:24There it is.
11:25Sniper.
11:26So look at that, that's really red and it's really fizzy.
11:28And so to me, these wines were always just like fun,
11:30just from this color.
11:31That's a rare thing, you normally don't see that.
11:33But that whole process right there just gets me so excited.
11:36And so this is like a,
11:38it has like a bubble gum smell, but savory.
11:40It smells like thyme.
11:42So, but it's herbaceous bubble gum.
11:44It's kind of what it smells like to me.
11:46So this is like anything most people have ever had before.
11:50So it has all the components that are there
11:52with a red wine, but it's sparkling.
11:53So it like, it just feels alive.
11:55So like, this is like a fun thing,
11:56like burger night, pizza night,
11:58lots of different things on the table.
11:59To me, this fits in a very more casual setting.
12:02This is just a really fun way to be able to drink wine.
12:05And you know, you feel cool if you're not cool already.
12:08So moving on to the next region, Veneto.
12:11So this is a small region in the Northeast part of Italy,
12:14but it actually produces more wine
12:16than a lot of some of the other regions
12:18that you think about when you think about Italy.
12:20So this is Valdo Viadini and this is Prosecco Superiori.
12:24And this is $16.
12:25This is why Italian wines can be confusing.
12:28Prosecco is not a grape and Prosecco is not a region.
12:32Prosecco is a protected name.
12:34And based upon that protected name,
12:36there's rules and regulations that you need to follow
12:38in order to make Prosecco.
12:40Prosecco grape is called glera.
12:42You have to use at least 85% glera
12:44in this particular bottling.
12:46It just means that you're getting
12:47a higher quality of Prosecco.
12:49You see the mousse, you see the bubbles,
12:51see the carbonation in here in the stems lightly.
12:56So peach, a little bit of nectarine.
12:59That feels a little bit more refined,
13:01but also understanding that it's Prosecco
13:03and it's not supposed to be champagne.
13:05If you can't beat what you get for 16 bucks
13:07versus, you know, $50 more for something else,
13:10it's just a total different piece.
13:11It serves a purpose in the sense
13:13that it's sparkling, it's festive, it's fun.
13:15It's a good way to get the party started.
13:16This whole category to me comes in
13:18as somewhat of an everyday luxury
13:20where everybody gets to play.
13:21I just come from the era where Prosecco,
13:23we used it with orange juice
13:24to make mimosas and that kind of stuff.
13:26Obviously it's changed and grown in popularity
13:28over the last, you know, 25 years.
13:30And I can see why.
13:33All right, we are taking off with a Brutso.
13:35So that's the new region that we're in.
13:36This producer is Joschi and this is $15.
13:40So this particular wine is known for its value, right?
13:43These are really great, inexpensive wines that over-deliver.
13:47You know, they say Andre, you know,
13:48we love wines from Europe, especially Italy.
13:50Like the wines taste so much better
13:52and they're so much cheaper.
13:53They're definitely talking about this particular region here.
13:56There's no inherent land costs
13:58when you're thinking about old world wines, especially Italy.
14:00You know, the land has been owned by these families
14:02for over 400 years.
14:04There's no mortgage.
14:05Generally speaking, if you're thinking of New World,
14:07you're thinking like say Napa, you know,
14:08it's a million dollars an acre.
14:10All those costs are passed on to the consumer.
14:13These wines deliver value.
14:15So, I mean, I think right off the bat, cinnamon, vanilla.
14:18There's cranberry.
14:21That's a banger.
14:23I think this has the right amount of acidity.
14:25It has the right amount of fruit.
14:26And as you can see, like my mouth is salivating here.
14:28Like it begs for food.
14:29I want to eat.
14:30This is great.
14:31You know, I'm in this business.
14:32I've been in this business.
14:33I made my career with it.
14:34But like, I struggle to say Montepulciano.
14:37And I think for a lot of people who aren't confident in saying it,
14:40they steer away from it.
14:41We feel a little bit embarrassed.
14:42I always feel like you just turn it back on to the other person.
14:45Now, how do you say that?
14:46Like, how would you say this?
14:48You should not not want to try it because you can't pronounce it.
14:53Next up is we're traveling down to Sicily.
14:55This region is Etna Rosso.
14:57And this is Terra Nera.
14:59Etna is something that you might have heard of.
15:01Mount Etna is one of the largest active volcanoes in the world.
15:05And this is where these vineyards are planted.
15:07So it's all grown on volcanic soil.
15:09It really kind of imparts this minerality flavors into these wines.
15:14A lot of attributes that wine take on are from, you know, minerals and things that are imparted in the soil.
15:20The roots to a grapevine run deep.
15:22And the deeper that they go, they impart more flavors from the soil that you might get.
15:26You know, you would have thought the color was a little darker.
15:29Looks very beautiful to me.
15:31Very rich aroma is kind of jumping out of the glass.
15:34They feel very hearty, smells peppery, more refined, like more like white pepper.
15:39There's some fruit in the background, ripe fruit, but not sweet.
15:43More currants and cherries.
15:45This is beautiful.
15:45You get a metallic and minerality.
15:47But that's what I get like from like, you know, being a kid and having a penny in your mouth.
15:51These wines are so unique.
15:52And tasting this one today, really realized that, you know,
15:55I should probably drink a lot more of these wines.
15:57So we're moving on.
16:00Next region is Campania.
16:01So they paint the picture for you.
16:03This is Naples, right?
16:04Very picturesque.
16:05This is Amalfi Coast.
16:06And this is definitely the Mediterranean climate.
16:09This wine is Colli de Lapio.
16:11And this is Fiano di Avellino.
16:13One of my favorite white wines on the planet.
16:15So Fiano is the grape.
16:17Fiano is a very ancient, ancient grape that I think originally originated in Greece.
16:21So when you think about like togas, gold leaves around people's head,
16:25that's how far back that we're talking about going.
16:28So Mount Vesuvius, another volcanic area.
16:31The minerality runs from the start to the finish.
16:33Just makes for a beautiful expression of white wine.
16:36Very perfumed, floral, very distinctive.
16:41White flowers.
16:42This is like kind of ripe fruit, but almost on the tart side.
16:46This pear.
16:47There's a little bit of citrus.
16:49There's a stoniness to it.
16:51Maybe flinty.
16:52There's kind of a gravel-ness to it.
16:54Like it's the only way is like, if you ever licked a rock.
16:57Like, I don't know.
16:58I always feel special drinking this wine.
16:59And this was one of the wines that like,
17:01I always loved to serve certain dishes at Per Se.
17:05I get excited about this wine.
17:07And hopefully that I'm excited enough that you want to go out and try it.
17:09One of the great values in white wine.
17:11I'm excited.
17:12I'm hyped.
17:12This is the reason why I got into wine.
17:14To deep dive and to explore a country is awesome.
17:17It can only broaden our horizons.
17:19The reason why I do it all is it's just one person goes out and tries it.
17:24You are looking at Julian's pronunciation guide where we look at how to pronounce better,
17:31some of the most...
17:32This is so much longer than a pronunciation.
17:35...curious word, but how do you say what you're looking for today?
17:39On your remote, we are looking at how to pronounce this word in Italian meaning guide.
17:45We're looking at how to say more confusing Italian vocabulary.
17:49So in Italy it's say it as Guido.
17:52Guido.
17:54Sanguido.
17:55Okay.