I ordered this at I Coppi in the East Village last night, and man was it tasty! It had the cherry of good sangiovese and went down easy. Not as challenging as a Brunello, not as bracing as some pure sangiovese (this has 10% canaiolo nero and 5% mammolino), but with that silkiness I think of as typical of Montepulciano wines, and it was a great match for a terrific papardella with lamb ragu. At $55 on the list, and $20-30 retail, a good value. I was thinking I’d go buy some.
But I feel vaguely guilty for liking such a facile, obvious wine that gets 18 months of one-year-old barrique. Was I seduced by fancy winemaking? Should I have regrets? Is my credibility as an italo-enophile shot?
Not at all! I must say I am a bit biased having worked with them, however, Avignonesi is a rock star producer. I hope you have a chance to get your hands on their Vin Santo Occhio di Pernice someday, or if you don’t like stickies, they make a merlot called Desiderio that makes me melt it’s so lovely
I first tasted Avignonesi Vin Santo at the tre bicchieri tasting in New York. I had gone to the Puck Building with my wife. Five minutes later I said “I am STILL tasting that wine.” We went back and had more. A couple of years later I did get to taste the Occhio di Pernice, which is just sinfully good. We bought a 375 of the (regular) Vin Santo in Rome, in 2000, for about $50.
This picture shows the grape drying area (vinsantorium) and I have a feeling this is what heaven looks like.
“Vinsantorium,” I’ve never heard that term, but it does make it sound very Greco-Roman! I’ve always heard it called a “vinsantaia” in Italian, so maybe vinsantorium is as reasonable an Anglicization as we’ll get.
