Tuesday, April 27, 2010

RetroVino Q&A on SourGrapes.ie

The latest in the "Intojuicing" series from Lar Veale's sourgrapes.ie sees a Q&A with Colly Murray of RetroVino.

Click here for details...

Monday, April 19, 2010

Sunday Tribune Article

Lar Veale of sourgrapes.ie and wine editor @ The Sunday Tribune has penciled a review of Cerretello, Aprilante and Tribiana from Pieve de Pitti in yesterday's edition of the paper...
Click on the tumbnail for enlarged version...


Friday, April 16, 2010

New 2010 Italian Wine Portfolio


I realise that we're almost halfway through the year already, but I've just gotten around to updating my online portfolio of Italian wines on www.retrovino.com. My new year starts during the Summer months as RV was set up in the Summer of 2009. The following wines arrive just in time to kick it off.

So, what's new?

A fine selection of Piemontese Barolo, Barbaresco & Barbera from Oddero, Conterno Fantino and Guidobono. A new Chianti Classico from Fattoria Campoperi. 2 Brunelli & a Rosso di Montalcino from Col D'Orcia in Tuscany. Some classic Venetian wine in the form of Valpolicella, Amarone, Soave from Cantina di Negrar. There are also wines from Silicy, Umbri, Abruzzo and Emilia Romagna.

Have a quick look here. As always, I would be delighted to hear your feedback.

I'm currently working on making the regions and producer lists load dynamically, to alleviate some of the busyness of the page. Its a bit of a eyefull at the moment. A nice bit JQuery should sort that all out!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The Sunday Tribune Wine Section by Lar Veale

Before you tuck into your brunch this Sunday, leggit down to the shops and pick up a copy of The Sunday Tribune and check out Lar Veale's article about Pieve de Pitti wines - available in Ireland via RetroVino.

A little birdie tells me that Cerretello (Chianti Superiore), Tribiana & Aprilante (both white Toscana IGT) will be featured.

If you have stumbled across this post after 25/4/10 then see sourgrapes.ie where you are sure to find the afforementioned article!

New Arrivals - Leone de Castris

Besides Primitivo, Apulia’s other major grape variety is Negroamaro. In many aspects, Negroamaro is the exact opposite of Primitivo. It ripens notoriously late, producing wines that are high in acidity and with nervy tannins but not very deeply coloured, with less sensual fruit than Primitivo. While Negroamaro can be harnessed to make some attractive unoaked, early-drinking, fruit-focused modern wines, its major interest in the past have been its ageworthy versions released after years of cask ageing, not in their primary youth but in the glory of their balsamic tertiary evolution. Aged Salice Salentino, the best appellation for this style of wine have been some of the best wines of Italy’s Meridione.

Salice Salentino, a small village in Salento rich in vineyards and olive groves, is the landscape giving life to the Leone de Castris wine tradition. New vines have been planted over the years: Chardonnay, Pinot, Sauvignon, Cabernet, Merlot, Montepulciano, going together with the traditional ones: Negroamaro, Malvasia nera, Verdeca, Bianco d'Alessano, Moscato, Aleatico, Primitivo.

The Winery’s production is very rich: red, white and rosé DOC wines (Salice Salentino, Locorotondo, Copertino, Primitivo di Manduria), interesting IGT Salento and Puglia wines, sparkling rosé and white wines; a distillate and an extra-virgin olive oil.

RetroVino will be importing two Primitivos; an IGT and a DOC from Manduria as well as my personal favourites, the Salice Salentino "Maiana", and the 50th Anniversary Salice Salentino Riserva. The Five Roses Rosata (Rosé) which was the first rosé bottled in Italy in 1943 will also be making an appearance on the Irish market. Lets hope we have the weather to relish it!