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Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Sing Cantaloro, Sing!




~ Cantina Avignonesi ~

Long a stalwart producer of fine wines in the medieval hill town of Montepulciano,  Avignonesi crafts excellent wines at varying price points.  Styles vary slightly from wine to wine,  but the quality is never compromised.  Today's article is on their newest wine, the 2010 Cantaloro.
 
 
Cantaloro is sourced from estate owned vineyards located on south west facing slopes between Montepulciano and Cortona.  By Avignonesi's own admission, this is a wine crafted for early consumption with simple, lighter foods. They might be underselling it a bit, as the wine stood up well to a weeknight meal of grilled london broil with a pesto herb oil.  
 
In the glass, the wine is deep violet colored with lighter reflections at the rim.  The nose is expressive and sings of the international varietals in this blend. There's cherry, menthol, and herb aromas backed by a slight vanilla spice note. On the palate the wine is round and lush with primary fruit flavors of red berries and a menthol driven spice note.  Straightforward and simple, but not boring.  This medium bodied red would be great for simple pizza, pasta with red sauce or first course salume and antipasti.  Well done.  86 points, about $16.   My only complaint here is not of quality, but in a wine of this stature, I expect the price to be closer to $12 than $16. 


~ Cantaloro is an unspecified blend of Sangiovese, Cabernet and Merlot ~
Cin Cin!

3 comments:

  1. Many thanks for your kind words on the Cantaloro. I work at Avignonesi in the commercial team. We wish we could sell it ex-works much cheaper, but unfortunately production costs in Western- Europe are high (especially when the production is made exclusively with estate fruit and is not the result of traded wines or grapes). Furthermore Cantaloro sells so well that the whole vintage production is gone in less than 12 months. In my opinion it indicates that the consumers are happy with its price.

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  2. Hi,

    Thanks for reading and responding. What you say makes perfect sense and I know that each level of business here in the US adds it's markup to the price of the wine. I'm certain that the price ex-estate is not unrealistic. And prices vary widely here in the US.

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  3. By the way, if you feel like interviewing Virginie Saverys, the owner of the estate, I think I can organise that. Just let me know.

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