Tasting Italy with Mondial Wine

This was a pale gold in the glass and had aromas of ripe, juicy pear in the glass along with some honeydew melons. On tasting this was typically high in acidity with a crispness to the taste reminding me of pears with a hint of lemon notes. The finish was remarkably long and polished for this very pleasant wine. Quality: 7.0 – Value: 9.0.

2007 Cappellaccio Aglianico Riserva, Castel del Monte DOC (100% Aglianico, £12.24/bottle).

I had first encountered Aglianico on my travels to the Amalfi Coast last year and found it a thoroughly approachable red; I hadn’t found it a grape that aged particularly well, so this wine intrigued me. In the glass it was a medium tawny, which made sense given the age of the wine. It smelt of kirsch cherries and seemed to have a touch of violets to it. On the palate it was rather refined with blackcurrants and blackberry flavours. Seemed to be holding up well, but now is probably the time to drink this wine – I don’t think it will age much longer. Quality: 6.5 – Value: 8.0.

On the nose this was a mixture of fruit (apples and pears), along with a hint of grass and white pepper. On the palate it was fresh and bright with some pleasingly fruity notes (pears and lemons). Quality: 6.0 – Value: 6.0.

2009 Santa Sofia Amarone della Valpolicella (70% Corvina, 25% Rondinella, 5% Molinara, £36/bottle).

Time to bring out the big guns! This was a BIG wine; deep, intense, inky purple in the glass. The aroma was intoxicating, very intense, bursting forth with dried and stewed fruit aromas. The taste was very smooth, well rounded and balanced, which is the mark of a good Amarone – it is a blockbuster of a wine, but it doesn’t smack you around the head as you drink it. The taste is reminiscent of PX with a stewed raisin kind of flavour profile. This was a real winner. Quality: 8.0 – Value: 6.0.

So there you have it. Five very different wines, but all great wines in their own right. If you are a lover of Italian wines, or you would like to be, then I would recommend trying out Mondial’s website and looking for yourself.

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Note: I am trialling a new scoring system whereby I rate the wines against both quality and cost. I felt that this was because previously I would give a lower-quality wine a slightly higher score because it was good value for money. My quality scoring is as follows:

10 – Unbeatable, 9 – Incredible, 8 – Outstanding, 7 – Great, 6 – Good, 5 – Fair, 4 – Acceptable, 3 – Poor, 2 – Very poor, 1 – Undrinkable.

The idea would be that two wines I drink may both score 6 in terms of quality, but if one cost £10/bottle and another £40/bottle then clearly that would affect the way that I thought about the wines!

Disclaimer: These wines were sent to me as samples; the opinions contained within this article are my own.