INSIDER'S PICK: 2019 PARIDE IARETTI VINO ROSSO 'UVENERE' $16.99

Even though we will not be doing the public tasting portion of the Insider's Pick until further notice, we will still be offering the wine for purchase with the usual 10% discount. The wines will still be ones we highly recommend, and the tasting notes will still be our own. We will be returning to doing just the one wine on Thursdays and Fridays until further notice. We hope you are able to come by and get some wines to enjoy.

Two weeks in a row that we have a 'field blend' offered in the Insider's Pick, this time from the Gattinara region of Italy. Before World War II, this area of the northern Piedmont was just as famous for their Nebbiolo as Barolo and Barbaresco were to the south. Agriculture here was decimated in the years after the war, and much of that generation moved in to Milan and the other bigger cities to find what meager work they could get. A large portion of their vineyards were abandoned, and have only been seeing a re-establishment over the last 25 years or so thanks in large part to the emergence of more 'natural' wines. The cooler climate here lends itself to less extracted wines with more natural acidity and less intensive alcohol, and there are lots of opportunities here to find reasonably priced vineyards or growing space. Paride was fortunate enough to purchase his family's vines for himself in 1999 when his father looked to stop growing grapes for the local cooperative, and his own label-cellared in the basement of the family's generational home-has grown with the purchase of several plots in adjacent vineyards. This blend is made up of approximately equal parts of Nebbiolo, Vespolina, Bonarda, and Croatina, perfectly executing the ideals of the region's everyday wines. Palish red in the glass with tangy energetic red fruits and flowers on the nose, the palate is sneaky flavorful with dusty cherry skin and tart raspberry over the fine tannins. This isn't going to be a wine that floors a room full of people in a bling tasting, or win a bunch of awards (because he only makes a few hundred cases a year and has no excess to waste in entering anything). Pure utilitarian pleasure with lighter meats and rustic cheeses. 

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