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“Food and wine according to Carlo Macchi, Luciano Pignataro and Franco Ziliani.Every Monday, the three Vino Igp blogs (I Giovani Promettenti) offer their readers a post written in turn by the journalists Carlo Macchi, Luciano Pignataro and Franco Ziliani”. (...) Good white wines, especially when working on valuable grapes such as Rhine Riesling and Manzoni Crossroads, but what makes the difference, what characterises the local production, in rosé, with the famous Chiaretti, and in red, is the area's identity grape par excellence, the Groppello, a grape that, as we read in the detailed historical excursus present on the Internet site of the active Garda Classico Consortium chaired by Sante Bonomo, is closely linked to this territory, even if there are tales of distant Etruscan origins yet to be proven. (...) To try to entice you to discover the “soft tannicity” of Groppello, that frank, at times pleasantly rough, but authentic character, I have chosen the wine of a winery truly located in the hinterland, in that of Bedizzole, a village located “on the last moraine hills formed in a distant era by the glaciers that shaped the Garda area”. A company where one of the liveliest and most passionate WOMEN OF WINE that I know of, Cristina Inganni, committed to continuing her husband's work Dario Dattoli, restaurateur and great connoisseur of Bacchus who died prematurely in 1998, who wanted to create this small business in the early 1990s. Small company the Cantrina, Now run by Cristina together with another super-enthusiast, Diego Lavo: just under 6 hectares of land, on two plots, about twenty thousand bottles produced, but a tenacious work that has involved, with many trials and experiments, even reckless ones, something like 33 thousand vine stocks, initially “favouring international varieties and now rediscovering, in part, some local vines”. An estate where trying new ways is standard practice, as the owner likes to remind us when she observes that “the wines transmit the character of the territory of origin and of the people who make them; from these elements, thanks also to my past experiences linked to an artistic training, I wanted to give our wines an absolutely creative and consequently unique imprint”. From Cantrina I have already reported, recently, here, the Benaco Bresciano Riné, based on Rhine Riesling, Chardonnay and Incrocio Manzoni, but with a bit of salivation in my mouth, thinking that before Christmas I really must treat myself to a spit like Bacchus demands, I would like to recommend today to your attention, not agreeing at all with my friend (and fellow Inter fan) Francesco Falcone, who in his note in the already mentioned article in Enogea defines it, perhaps after a superficial assessment, as ’unfocused and unpretentious“, the Garda Groppello 2009. This wine is made from Groppello grapes harvested around the third ten days of September last year, using a simple winemaking technique that envisages cold pre-fermentation maceration for a week, followed by fermentation at low temperature for about eight days and ageing for six months in stainless steel barrels. This is a wine with interesting analytical data that speak of thirteen degrees alcohol, a Ph of 3.70, a dry extract of 29.00 g/l and a dry character, with residual sugars at 3 grams per litre. Do not expect from this Garda Classico Doc Groppello 2009 the wine able to surprise and excite the guides - even if Slowine reviews the wine positively - the ambitious and important wine, but yes the wine able to be drunk with great pleasure, to harmoniously accompany food, spit of course, but also lake fish, fresh salami, first courses and grilled meats, or sausage with potatoes. Light in colour (a beautiful, multi-reflected, ringing ruby), but of great fragrance and immediacy in the wine, with a bouquet characterised by cherry fruit, but also with tones of blackberry and raspberry, well pulpy and crisp, enhanced by nuances of aromatic herbs, liquorice, black pepper, a slightly mineral hint, and a beautiful floral component in evidence that recalls violets. Identical juiciness and roundness, vibrant, of the fruit on the palate, and a declared, transparent drinkability, underpinned by a convincing flesiness and a firm tannic content that gives character and backbone to the wine together with a fresh, savoury, well-calibrated acidity. A straightforward wine (price around 8 euros in the cellar), the kind of wine that when served at the table and matched with the right dishes never leaves the bottle half-full on the table. And excuse me if this is not enough... Cantrina Farm Via Colombera 7 Bedizzole BS tel. and fax 030 6871052 e-mail info@cantrina.it website https://www.cantrina.it/ This article is simultaneously published in www.lucianopignataro.it www.winesurf.it www.vinoalvino.org   Read all article