Italian Wines Make A Slow Wine Event

At last year’s Slow Wine event, we were expecting more about the movement. This year,knowing full well that the event is about introducing Americans to the best of Italian wines, we came ready to get our taste buds dazzled. And, indeed, they were.

The fun of attending tasting events is discovering and tasting wines that you probably won’t get a chance to under normal circumstances. Not every wine shop is going to carry the Montepulciano Rosé from Torre Dei Beati, in Abruzzo, Italy. Or Cà ed Balos’ amazing dolcettos out of the Piedmont region (more on those later, we promise). There’s also the joy of tasting something you’d never be able to afford otherwise.

Almost extinct Italian wines

Then there are the truly rare goodies, such as the three wines brought by enologist Stefano Coppola, from Tenute Ferrocinto, in the Calabria region.The white was made from a grape called Montonico, and the two reds from Magliocco grapes. Both grapes are almost extinct, partly because they take a lot more work to get good fruit than other varieties. In fact, only a few very tiny producers make the wine. But Signor Coppola’s company is trying to bring the varieties back. The vineyards are in a national park in Italy, with the intent that they will keep everything as it was

The kicker? The wines aren’t available in the United States because the company hasn’t found a distributor yet. Well, we hope they found one at the event. Because wine from historical varieties that are dying out? It’s pretty awesome.

Unfortunately, we can’t cover all the wonderful goodies we found at the tasting – and we didn’t even get to all of the 50-odd producers who were there. Just remember there’s a lot more to Italian wines than chianti, prosecco and pinot grigio. And if you get a chance to go to a tasting event, dress in dark clothes, be ready to spit and have fun checking out all of the different wines. You never know when you’re going to come across something rare or even a new fave.