 Hello, welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Horkey. I apologize if it's a little bit echoey out here in Budapest in an apartment that has a lot of echoes so hopefully this sounds okay. Welcome to show you notes, I got the vest on, it's starting to get a little bit chilly here in late autumn in Budapest. We're getting ready to launch our Kickstarter for our next book, Discover Hungarian Wine to Visit a Friendly Guy. But this episode's not about that. This episode is about Italian wines and more specifically Italian wines from a wine club called Roscioli. And Roscioli, you know, they reached out to us and wanted to see if we could taste some of the wines, we could talk about some of the wines on camera, maybe possibly the affiliates. I usually say no to these kind of deals when I look at what kind of wines are being offered but when I looked a little bit deeper into Roscioli's portfolio and saw the kind of wines, the small producers, a lot of organic growers, maybe biodynamic, organic. I thought, hey, I'm gonna give them a try because some of the producers I knew I get really excited about them. So, you know, when it comes to wine clubs, you kind of have to find something that fits what you wanna do. There's a lot of wine clubs out there doing maybe some kind of cheaper wines, they're kind of multi-level marketing. I've tasted some of the wines, not so impressive but this is real true artisanal stuff. So, let's get started, shall we? I'm excited to taste. We have, I'm gonna taste two wines today, I'm pretty excited to taste these wines. We have some wines that are like this grape and this producer I've never tasted before. We're going up to Alto Adage, the north of Italy, mountainous region, you know, it was part of Austria. In fact, a lot of people still speak German up there. This is Liseh Hof, this is the Julian 2017 and the cool thing about this wine, it's made from the grape Bronner. Bronner's a German crossing, a grape that's actually resistant to a lot of diseases. So, for those of you who aren't super hardcore to wines, you gotta know that a lot of the grapes that we know in Europe, there's a lot of disease pressure. So, these kind of resistant grapes might be the future of winemaking. We'll see how this actually tastes. Now, Alto Adage, a region known for a lot of crisp whites, I have disclaimer, I still have not been there. So funny, I've been to Italy nine times this year, have not been to Alto Adage yet. I love some of the wines, I think cooperatives like Turlan, Tramman are some of the greatest cooperatives in the world. This is a small producer, certified organic with a nice screw cap, hold on, let's see if we can, nice screw cap here. So, let's see what we got here. The Bronner 2017, organically grown grapes. All I know that it is grown at 500 meters above sea level. Julien, I guess, why am I speaking in French? I don't know how the German pronunciation, Julien is the son of the founder of the winery, I guess this is his type of wine. Let's give this a go, it's got some nice colors, not just a pale, it's got a little bit of a Melanie color going on. Some people say this cross when done well can be like Pinot Blanc, which does well and all to a lot of J, but let's see here. Let me give this a sniff here. Very interesting grape, I wouldn't think alpaca, well, hold on, actually there's a lot of pine. Reminds me of some kind of, some of the Greek, some of the Greek white grapes can have this pininess like malagousia, sometimes even assortico, mosafilero, lot of pine. I think pine cones, sage, grass, some yellow peach, and the nose is actually really complex. You know, sometimes you pass some of these resistant grapes to people and they'll say no, no, no, thanks. This is quite complex, let's give this a go. Not just a simple crisp white wine, you know what I actually kind of like to do, I think it's either barrel age, barrel fermented, it's got some roundness, it's got some build up from the leaves contact, but pretty good, it's complex, let me give this a go. Creaminess round on the palate, not overly acidic, you know, you get some of these people that don't like white wine because it's sour, has high acidity, this doesn't have super high acidity, but enough for wine geeks to get on, pretty medium to full bodied. Very unique and very well made. I don't say it, I'm not saying it's my favorite wine from Althau Odyssey in the world, I think the Pinot Biancos, the Pinot Blancs up there are my favorite, but you know what, this is super interesting, this is good, super well made. I'm talking 88, 89, 89, I'm thinking 89 point type wine. Got enough complexity and it's really cool to bring this type of wine to a tasting to people who have never tasted some of these resistant, great varieties before. I gotta give Roscioli a lot of credit for putting this in their portfolio. I forget to tell you, Roscioli has a couple of tiers, this is kind of their tier two portfolio, tier two shipment, so some of the higher level wines and they have like a collector level as well, this is kind of the mid tier. I did a video in the past, I'll link it up on some of their tier one wines. I think this is very good, Julian, good job. One thing that bothers me a little bit, keep it from going up, the alcohol starts to climb a little bit on the back of the throat, but in general I think this is super good. This is something that's a wine geek wine, you wanna bring to different types of events, it's a talking point. So let's move on here. Let's get on to a grape that I just love. If you watch the show, if you watched it in the past, you know I love San Giovese, love it, love it, love it. Love everything from the simple San Gioveses, from Emilia Romagna that you're gonna get, from Marque, everything all the way up to the super serious stuff, the super Tuscan type stuff, the Brunello di Montocinos, the Chianti Classicos, that's what we're gonna get into today. We have, excuse me. Let me see if my Italian. Poggi Arrellino, Poggi Arrellino, this is the Brunello di Montocino, 2013. I know very little about this producer, this is written in Italian, but it looks like it says Arvino's made from a special grape, San Giovese, aged in traditional Boti, big casks. It has got natural sediments, so it's not fine, that filter, they want you to drink it at 18, 20 degrees, okay. Let's, so let's see how this is. You know, Brunello di Montocino, Sharim loves it, sometimes I love it, sometimes it's just really uninspiring for me, kind of too oaky, and just tastes just kind of like anything. I like it when it's finessed. San Giovese can be quite finessed, a little bit more earthy, tangy mineral. We're gonna see how this is, this is an old couple, I think the winemaker's like 85 years old or something like that. Let's see how this is. First of all, I'm getting very excited because it's not pitch black, I can see right through it. This is true San Giovese color. San Giovese actually doesn't have a ton of color inherently. They have to blend it with, with, you know, some of those in Chianti Classico, with the caniolo, colorino, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, even Sera to give it some more color. This is very light in color. Viscous getting me super excited to taste it. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Classic, classic Central Italian San Giovese. I'm getting super excited. Cedar, tobacco, cigar box type notes, but still that sour cherry, sour cherry is what I want. I'm getting a little bit too excited about this. Let's see. Eh. Touch of mocha earth. This is smelling really good. Let's give this a go. Kudos to Rassoli on this. This is exactly the type of Central Italian San Giovese that I want to drink. Very finessed. Got some tannic bite, but not overly aggressive. The tannins there, you definitely want to eat some meat with this. High acidity, juicy, delicate, even a little bit of perfume. This is the type, these are the types of wines that really need more burgundy people want to drink. Not the super Tuscan, not the NapaCad people, more burgundy. This is a beautiful wine. Hold on. Surprisingly clean, super well done, juicy acidity. I love, this is exactly the type of San Giovese I want to drink. I'm 91 plus on this wine. I think it's fantastic. I could even, you know, maybe I'm going to spend some more time with it. Maybe, I mean, I'm just scoring off of a whim here. Man, I feel a little bit better when I'm drinking a little bit more. I might even go to 92. This is a beautiful wine. Good stuff, really. Good stuff. Guys, I'm going to put, oh, the third one that we're not going to drink here, and this is so cool. And their second tier, they sent a Bermelo Del Monte Chino, a crazy wine, and a Barolo. You know that I love Barolo from the great Nebriolo. This is from the winery Sobrero. This is the Barolo 2014 Chiba Tannazio. When I got to taste this today, I've been to this producer twice, sorry, once before, small producer, small family in the village of Castiglione Folletto. 2014 wasn't a great year in Barolo, but the good producers had put out good stuff. I like this producer. When we taste it later, I expect it to be very good. So, excuse me. Little bit of gas. Good job, Roscioli. Guys, I'm going to put a discount code up on the screen. You can get 10% off your first box of wines. You get a box of six wines from Roscioli. We do get a small commission, so take that for what it's worth. Both videos, I'm really impressed. They were really, really ballsy with some of the selections. The last episode gave me a Prosecco that was unfiltered, un-fined. Also gave me a rare grape called Tintori, which is super geeky. The Prosecco got better and better and better as I drank it. In this pack, Rinaldo Monteschino, Barolo, and a hybrid, it's starting on a hybrid, a crossing grape. So, check these guys out. These are definitely, if you're a wine geek and Italian wine lover, the type of wines you want to check out. So guys, if you like this video, check them out. I'll put the link in the description box. And please subscribe to our YouTube channel, Exotic Wine Travel. Give us a thumbs up. And keep drinking adventurously. I will see you at the next episode.