VALLE REALE Montepulciano Red & White Wines Tasting, Including The San Calisto 2005 Montepulciano D'Abruzzo , Oct. 2009

This was quite the fun, last-minute tasting late one afternoon last week ( early October, 2009 ) with a welcome and familiar face that told me she was friends with Miriam of VALDIPIATTA. This made her an even more welcome face for me as I have been in correspondence with Miriam recently and plan to visit her property the last week of October, 2009 with my daughter.



We tasted some really fine wines here : one dry white Trebbiano D'Abruzzo that I quite liked ( called Vigna Nuovo ), as well as the red counterpart also called Vigna Nuovo di Montepulciano. I liked both immensely and plan to get them into the store really soon and perhaps even include them in a tasting as I did last night with Miriam's Rosso di Montepulciano VALDIPIATTA 2006 Tuscan red.




We also tried the VALLE REALE Montepulciano D'Abruzzo which has been a big hit at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel:202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com ) now for quite some time : I'd say five years or more. Gastone Zempieri that used to work for Winebow Imports brought it back then to Mike Martin and me ( Anthony ( TONY ) Quinn and the rest is now a glorious history.




VALLE REALE is still with Winebow Imports and is now sold to us by David Pinzolo and Jody Jackman, both of who do an excellent job servicing our account. Thanks David and Jody : we appreciate all of your support now and over the years.




I liked both the Nuovo and the normale Montepulciano VALLE REALE reds. The Nuovo is softer and lighter and very easy to enjoy all by itself. In the warm weather I would clearly prefer it to the normale bottling that we usually sell.

The white VALLE REALE Trebbiano was a special treat and a surprise and I was very glad to rediscover it once again.

I don't want to be an name-dropper but I will this one time : notice George Clooney in the icture below? He's sitting with his friend at a table with a stack of VALLE REALE wine cases behind him. How fortuitous for VALLE REALE : I like this! Too bad he did not have an open bottle at his table that he was sharing with his friend? Or perhaps he did have one already and a second one was being brought to the table momentarily for him to share and continue in the good moment and the further glow of a good bottle of VALLE REALE?!?






We finished with the special bottling of the San Calisto 2005 Montepulciano D'Abruzzo. I enjoyed it very much with it's extra finesse and more nuances and clearly-defined subtleties. I could see very much enjoying it with a meal that I could linger and and expound on the joys and the sorrows and the beauties in life that are many and always abundant and everywhere one looks if one can only see them and also acknowledge them.




I really enjoyed this tasting and the four wines. It was a pleasure to revisit VALLE REALE and Italy's Montepulciano wines as well as the area of Abruzzo.

I still have not been but all in good time. That will have to wait. However, in the meantime we can sell these excellent four wines and come closer to this region of Italy through them vicariously.

Bravo and cheers and please stay-tuned for more pictures and more of the stories from this tasting as well as more of the names and details, many of which I have as yet to include. TONY