Wine & Dine: April "A Taste of Italy" Wine & Dine

As promised in a December blog post, we shared a few of our delicious Italian wines from Gianelli Vineyards, where we tasted in Jamestown, CA over the Christmas holiday. We supplemented with a few other Italian varietals I picked up at Trader Joe's because, let's face it, after a few tastes, you can't really tell if you're tasting a "good" wine anymore.

We hosted the wine tasting a little differently this time (inspired by a recent party at Annie and Aaron's) and tasted the whites while sitting and mingling in the living room, munching on appetizers. After that, we had everyone find a seat around the U-shaped hodgepodge of dinner tables and mixed linen collections (we had to accommodate 19 people!!) We sampled the reds while slowly eating our way through a 4-course Italian feast - Caesar Salads, an amazing Pasta Fagioli soup, Chicken Cacciatore, and Tiramisu, to name a few of the dishes.

(If you're not familiar with some of the Italian grapes, follow the links to learn more from wine-searcher.com)

We began the evening with 4 of the wines from Gianelli. We started with the 2009 Vermentino, which is likened to a Viognier - I found it to be dry, buttery, and citrus. The 2009 Fiano followed which was slightly sweeter with subtle notes of honeysuckle.

After a palate cleanser of the house Pinot Grigio (I mean cheap, Trader Joe's Pinot Grigio) we moved to reds. We sampled the 2009 "Nino" - my personal favorite! - which is a blend of Grenache, Primitivo, and Petit Sirah. The "Nino" is slightly sweet for a red wine and tastes of candied fruits. The last of the Gianelli wines was the 2009 Aglianico - my second favorite and rated 89 points by Wine Spectator.

For those Trader Joe's enthusiasts, we filled in our Italian selection with some pretty tasty wines (all imported from Italy!) In case you'd like to pick up a bottle for yourself, here's what we got: