 What would you like to drink right now? Tuscany and Piedmont. Two classic Italian wine regions that I absolutely love. Find out why you should be drinking from these regions. We're gonna talk about it in this video. Hello, hello, hello, welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Horkey. Welcome back to the show where we help you drink adventurously so you can expand your palate and expand your mind. I have two of wines from my favorite Italian wine regions here today. And we're gonna talk about why, what makes Tuscany great, what makes Piedmont great, and then we're gonna taste some wines. I'm gonna treat myself a little bit today. We picked some wines that are similar price points from the same vintage, legendary 2016 vintage. These wines retail in Europe around 30 euros. If you're maybe in the U.S. or abroad overseas, they're about in the 40 U.S. dollar range. So similar wines are similar price points. I'm expecting them to bring a lot of quality to the table. You know, Tuscany holds a special place in my heart because it's the region where I really, I felt like I just cut my teeth on wine. I remember I was, you know, when I was just starting to get into wine, I was just tasting mostly supermarket wines. Wines were not very good. But I took a backpacking trip to Europe when I was in graduate school. And I remember being in Luca in the walled city in Tuscany and ordering a leader of House Red. It was probably San Giovese. I didn't know anything back then. And I remember just smelling it for like 10 minutes. My friends looked at me like weird. I just didn't know that wine could have so many intoxicating flavors and aromas. So Tuscany is in the heart of Italy, in central Italy. You know, the grape that it's associated with is San Giovese. Although there's Marlowe, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Grenache Sera, there's a lot of other grapes and some of the local grapes, Chiliajolo, Colorino. A lot of unique grapes can be found in the area. But when it comes to Tuscany for me, the name of the game is San Giovese. And one of my favorite regions within Tuscany is right here, Chianti Classico. A lot of you know Chianti, which is a bigger area. But Chianti Classico sits in the heart of the region. So you have Tuscany, Chianti, Chianti Classico. These wines are mostly San Giovese. And don't think of it as a super hot region. Chianti Classico is actually quite high. Most of the vineyards between 400, 600 meters. So we're talking in feet like 1200 to close to 2000 feet. It's really high, really cool. It's almost quasi-alpine. You know, when I went there for the first time, I really had respect for the brilliant acidity and vibrancy I could find in these wines. This region for me brings some of the best value for money, fine, age-worthy wines in Italy. And that's why I love them so much. Piedmont holds another special place in my heart. Piedmont is supposed to be the mecca for foodies, for wine lovers. You know, Piedmont's probably the place where I first cut my teeth on fine red wine. I'll tell you why. I was using an app called Vivino. For those of you who don't know, Vivino is an application you can use to find user-generated reviews of wines, so anybody can rate the wines. I remember using it for the first time, scanning a wine, and it was going through trying to find the wine in the database. And one of the phrases underneath says, hold on a second, take your time, be patient. It's like waiting for Barolo. And at the time, I had no idea what Barolo was. What the heck are they talking about? After doing some research, I just went to a shop, picked up an aged Barolo, and I remember, wow, I was so intoxicated by the tar, the leather, the rose-pedal type of Rome is coming from that glass. So Barolo, Barbarisco are two of the most famous Appalachians within Piedmont, made from the grape Nebiolo, but there's a lot of interesting red grapes found in the region. Barbera, Dolcetto, Grignolino, Raquetto, Ruque. There's a lot of interesting stuff to be found there, so don't just be hung up on Nebiolo. But when it comes to Piedmont, some of the most classic, aged-worthy wines are Barolo and Barbarisco made from Nebiolo, which we have here today. Now it's time to bring in the real critic. Now we got the real critic here. Here's the toughest palette I know. You ready to take some wines? Let's go for it. First we have the Brancaya Chianti Classical Reserva. 2016, a great vintage in a Tuscan world-class vintage. This is mostly sensio-vesi with Merlot Brancaya. As a producer, tends to make the wines a little bit more broader, a little bit more modern. That's why they add quite a bit of Merlot. Let's give this a go. You look excited already. I like the oak. I met it in the basswood. It's like cedar-y, really sweet-smelling. So for those of you, hot tip, for those of you, if you're looking at these kinds of wines, both Barolo and Chianti Classical, if you see Reserva in the title, that means these wines are gonna be aged a little bit longer, especially in oak. So what do you get on this? It's absolutely something that I really love because Chianti and San Giovese, you would expect something with higher acid, with more sour cherry and brightness. But on the nose, when you put in some oak, it has this really sweet cedar-y nose. I absolutely love. Oh, my gosh. The texture is really, really good. Wow. This is big, structured, sour cherry, red plum, cedar, tobacco for days. It's a bit of this sandy texture, but it's not too astringent. You kind of can feel the tannins also on the front palette, but it's not too harsh. It's just kind of young and sitting on the front palette. This is not super modern or polished wine. It really kind of has some traditional, gives me a traditional type of feel, don't you think? Yeah, you can say that. For me, I'm already at this off-the-retaste. For me, automatically when I taste this with the structure, the finish, the age-ability of this wine, this wine is already, to me, like a 92-93-ish point type of wine. Oh, you're actually agreeing. I agree. It has a lot of charm. You're finding that you drink and you remember. It's mouth-fueling as well. It's mouth-coating, not in the sense that it's heavy, but the flavors attack you in the entire palette. I really appreciate the tannins in this wine, which is not typical because I don't know. When tannins sit in the front palette and middle palette, it's usually not a great thing, but in this case, it doesn't disrupt the structure. It's just really light on the front palette and it really fuels the mouth. It's not too... Maybe when you say it's more traditional, I agree as well because it's got a little bit of this oxidative quality that matches so well with the tannins. Oh, everything I like. Okay. Let's move on, shall we? Moro Sebasti. This is the Tres Surdi Barolo, also from 2016. Another legendary vintage in Pia Monte. This is a blend of three vineyards. Most of the fruit comes from La Mora, a village that's more associated with more softer Barolos. Easy drinking. Lighter colour. Yeah. What do you think here? Very nice. As usual, his wines have such great purity. It's so funny because often when we taste Barolo, at least for me, the fruit doesn't jump out immediately at me. I mean, of course you smell fruit, you smell cherry and all that, but you won't be like, oh, such a fruity wine. But for his wines, I often find this really beautiful rightness immediately on the nose. This is more floral, kind of more petite. This is a little bit more manly. It's really interesting because earlier when you said this is more of a traditional type of wine, I couldn't fully agree I was sitting on the neutral side, but when you compare this to exactly, this is definitely much more of this polished, cleaner, elegant style, whereas this has a little bit of this really cute, not cute, but attractive rough edges to it. For me, more mushroom, more tipa hazelnut, tight notes, perfume, rose petal, cranberry, sour cherries, thinking let's give this a go. For me, this has more of an oxidative style. A little bit of this walnut natinas. Wow, the acidity. Two very different wines. Two very different wines. What do you think here? It's funny, you know, I find that this, when it comes to tannins, most of us would agree that the Biolo tannin is pretty prominent and you really feel it over here. But this is probably a little bit more astringent. But I find that the Chianti classical has firmer tannins. For me, this is more, I think we should have done it in the opposite order. This is a little bit bigger and I think this one is a little bit more finessed besides the tannins. I agree. I do agree. But I do think the tannins here in the Biolo is a little bit stronger, whereas, yeah right, the Chianti classical has more body and... This is a wine everybody's kind of kind of like right away. It's fruity, more voluptuous. This has a little bit more nuances. I'm kind of in the same range. I think that maybe the Biolo might age a little bit better, maybe 92 plus-ish. I have to re-taste both. They're both in the 90s. They're both really, really good wines. I think that's the thing, right? At least for me and I can... Like the other day we were tasting the same thing here like a San Giovese and also a Barolo. And it was... It's often difficult, right? When you pair certain wines with Barolo, it doesn't always stand out immediately. But at the end of the tasting, right, very frequently people including myself tend to lean towards the Barolo because of this elegance. That's what you prefer. Honestly, now I would like from Kaya a little better. But I do think there's a potential that I usually would turn back to Barolo at the end. I would say that this is for people who actually appreciate the oaky quality. It's not really full-fledged toastiness, you know. But this has this really nice, sweet, vanilla, savouriness on the nose. And this is definitely for me. And this one is definitely much more for people who like a little bit more elegant style of wine because you really smell the florality on the nose, right? So that's what I would go for. So both these both these wines and these regions didn't disappoint today. Oh, yeah, always. I mean, these are two pedigreed regions. Like I said, they don't disappoint. It's just all a matter of preference for me. This is a little bit bigger, broader, easier. This has more nuances, more for kind of like burgundy, peen and the water type of drink. What would you like to drink right now? Can I choose both? So guys, check it out. There's both beautiful wines, classic regions. You know, it looked like everything worked out well. So if you like this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, Azotic Wine Travel. And we will see you at the next episode. Hello. Thanks for watching. Hey, you made it to the end. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Click the bell so you know when new videos are out. If you like content like this, check out our Patreon page where you get some behind the scenes exclusive content. Thanks for watching. Cheers.