A Taste of Italy: Rosso Piceno

February 15th was another week of firsts for Virtual Vino. Our wine tasting spread across five states instead of our normal three.  Robin was visiting her parents in Pennsylvania and Melissa was in Virginia visiting her boyfriend.  So now our state count in one Skype session is up to five: Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.  Also, for the first time, we had someone listen into the tasting on speaker phone. Robin had got stuck in really bad traffic, so she was behind schedule and was unable to make the normal tasting time. So while her son did the driving, Robin watched the Pennsylvania countryside speed by and listened to the rest of us taste the week's wine selection; what a trooper!  The last "first" was that we were able to use premium Skype (courtesy of Robin) and video chat with everyone.  Melissa used Robin's account in order to get the tasting going (because the premium account must host the call) which led to quite the game of Skype musical chairs when Robin finally arrived at her parents house.

One more note before the actual tasting. Brit was unable to get the same wine that the rest of us had, so he tasted an Italian Perolla, which is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Sangiovese.

Now, to the tasting. We tasted a Rosso Piceno made by Saladini Pilastri from the Piedmont region of Italy.  It is made of an organic blend of grapes including Montepulciano and Sangiovese (don't worry, we can't pronounce them either; just say it with confidence and people who don't know Italian will think you're saying it right).  The vintage was varied; Robin and Melissa had a 2010, Sherry and Erin had a 2011. 

Appearance - light legs (wine "legs" are the streaks of wine that slowly stream down the glass after you swirl), very dark purple-red color, the wine was so dark that it looked dense;

Nose - Very fruity (plum, dark cherry), oaky, a little bit of almond

Taste - dark cherry and blackberry, medium bodied, peppery-aftertaste on the back of the tongue, oak, off-dry, a little bite in the middle of the tongue. "Mouthfeel" - Egyptian cotton (identification courtesy of Brit)

Overall Rating - out of 5 stars
Erin: 2 (too dry)
Sherry: 3+ (somewhere between 3 and 4)
Melissa: 4 stars (at least as good as the Malbec from 2 weeks ago)
Brit: 3 (Remember, he had a different wine and is using the "Brit Scale" which will be posted soon)
Robin: 2 Pairings - Due to the Italianness of the wine, the Swartzwelders had spaghetti and meatballs just prior to the tasting and had dark chocolate after the initial tasting of the Rosso. We thought that the chocolate enhanced the berry taste of the wine.