Cantalupo "Il Mimo" Rosato 2009

Rosé Nebbiolo from Piemonte Colline Novaresi: a girly man drink! Just kidding; this wine is quite substantial. Full body, saturated almost glowing crimson, beautiful legs. Watermelon and red fruit compote nose which slowly opens a distinctive note of eucalyptus. The mouth is no doubt fruity, but the fruit is well balanced by almondy bitterness, tannin and a good amount of acid. Mostly strawberry, cherry and apple. Very nice.

16$ at Blue Angel Wines, 79 points

Cascina Fontana Barolo, 2004

Relished this amazing bottle with Mr. Pensao in Brooklyn on a cold January night. The plan was to open the wine and let it breathe while we arrange some food... Well, we never got to the food part because after tasting this poppy we just couldn't stop... kinda left as speechless and euphoric:)

Finally figured out what the Barolo fuss was all about... Sadly, you will have to spend some money to get a good one, but when you do it's really worth it! This bottle was surely amongst 5 best I've had... Very thick in consistency and oily, wouldn't call it full body though... Complex and concentrated, with red fruit, sour cherry, oak and cocoa. The wine kept developing in the glass, incredibly long and noble. The nebbiolo tannin was perfectly mature and balanced, the barrel kicked in after 10 minutes... There was plenty enough malic acidity to keep the wine energetic. Awesome.

55$ in retail (De Paulo's NYC)
95 points

Mazer Valtellina Superiore DOCG 2005

Valtellina Superiore is a less known nebbiolo variety wine from the very north of Lombardy.
Grown on the foothills of the Alps nebbiolo grapes (there called Chiavennasca) produce lean, medium body reds, which don't have much to do with Barolos or Barbarescos.

I drunk this "Mazer" by Nino Negri last April in Milan. It was a curious wine, which made me very intrigued by Alpine red wines. Garnet color, definitely structure over fruit, smelled of vanilla, violets and sweet spice... Dry, but with a persistent presence of mellow fruit, sweet cherry compote... This was a very elegant, confident wine with a lot of personality, not your typical Tuscan crowd pleaser... (45 Euro in a resturant, 16 in store retail).

With the wine we had a typical Valtellina pasta Pizoccherri, which is whole buckwheat tagliatelle served with potatoes and Swiss chard (you can see the last bite of it in the picture above:), and a very delicious serving of fresh buffalo mozzarella.