Tag Archives: Italian red wine

Al Cantara, O’scuru O’scuru 2016, Sicily, Italy

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In the UK for £28 a bottle you expect something quite special. This is made from the Nerello Mascalese grape. You get smells of red and black, hints of oak and spice. The flavours are fruity with herbaceous undertones and an earthy nuance, all of which have decent length. It’s a very nice wine, esp with food. We had it with a Quorn Bolognese and it complemented it well.

I would have expected it to be a little smoother and a bit more refined for £28 a bottle. That said, nice bottle.

Oh and cat was found of it too.

Al Cantara Oscuru Oscuru 2016, Sicily, Italy

Al Cantara Oscuru Oscuru 2016, Sicily, Italy

Masi Costasera, Amarone 2013, Italy

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There’s lots of red fruit and a hint of tobacco on the nose. There’s a hint of sweetness on the taste with flavours of old leather, dark chocolate with black plum.

This is a big wine, medium to high tannins and with decent acidity that puts in the better half of Amarone out there. At £30 a bottle its the price you pay for decent Amarone, just drink it over several nights, then the price doesn’t seem so high.

Masi Costasera Amarone 2013, Italy

Masi Costasera Amarone 2013, Italy

Cantine do Ora Amicone 2014 from Italy

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Cantine do Ora Amicone 2014 (IGT) comes from the Veneto region of Italy and is made with the Corvina grape, just like Amarone. The difference is that he grapes are dried on the vine and not picked and dried in sheds (according to the label).

There’s lots going on here, red and black fruit aromas with spice and medium tannins. This is not as well refined as an Amarone, after 5 years I had hoped it would be smoother.  It got a commended in the 2017 Decanter awards but a Silver in the International Wine Challenge, personally a solid bronze medallist in my opinion. It went very well with BBQ meat but I would struggle drinking it on its own and at £13 a bottle I think I would rather stretch to an Amarone for that smoothness.