(Bob Gregg, 10:19 pm) (Posted to: Wine)
2007-09-27: Negroamaro
Tonight we opened a bottle of Rosa Del Golfo “Scaliere” 2004. This wine is classified as a Salento Rosso, which is an Italian IGT designation. Sometimes the IGT wines can be better than DOC or DOCG wines, just like sometimes a Vin de Pays wine can be a smash. Going outside of the “big” appellation systems can give a great wine maker the freedom to do something special. Sometimes those wines can even be great bargains. No guarantees though.
Anyway, this wine is 100% Negroamaro, a grape I knew I had had before (Salice Salentino, for instance) but wanted to revisit. In this case, we were serving it with a fantastic New York strip steak my wife made (pan seared in our cast iron skillet on high heat, two minutes a side, then about 10 minutes in our toaster oven/broiler equals medium-rare heaven!) plus a green peppercorn cream sauce. I was hoping for a chewier wine - instead, this wound up being on the light side - nice cherry nose and taste, but thin, without much follow-through. In the end, it didn’t quite stand up to the steak or the sauce. Not bad, but not a home run either.
What I paid: $11
What I would pay next time: $8
There just wasn’t enough there to make this more than a light wine. Next time I’m craving Negroamaro, I’ll go back for a Salice Salentino, of which there are even some tasty ones at Trader Joe’s for under $10…