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10/10/2001 Archived Entry: "Wine Buy: Vermentino di Sardegna (and a reminder)"

First, a little business before pleasure.

I’d like to remind everyone that this coming Saturday, October 13th , I, along with my friend Michele Scicolone, will be appearing at the Barnes & Noble at 1 Campus Road on Staten Island (718-447-7501) at 1 p.m.. I will be discussing my three cookbooks, especially Naples at Table. Michelle will tell you some stories about her many books on Italian cooking, including her latest, Italian Holiday Cooking. We both will, of course, be available to sign any and all of our books. We hope to see many of you there.

Now, on to the pleasure…

This weeks Wine Buy is another beautifully stylish white wine from Italy. Sella & Mosca’s La Cala Vermentino di Sardegna 2000 comes to us from the Alghero region in the northwest corner Sardegna (Sardinia in English).

I must admit this grape has always been one of my favorites and this production doesn’t disappoint. To use Carol’s apt word, it is “racy.” It is a very substantial and full-bodied white, too. The nose holds tropical fruit and citrusy aromas. Carol also thought she smelled jalapeño pepper, to which my guest on Food Talk, Ed Levine, retorted, “No, I think is habañero.” I could not detect anything I would even vaguely describe as any kind of chili pepper. You now how carried away wine people can get with their descriptive language, even our down-to-earth Berman.

Luxurious tasting – rich – is a word I’d use, though. I wouldn’t guess it was an inexpensive wine. It should cost about $10.99.

Carol could see drinking this alongside a heaping plate of pasta with white clam sauce – I think that’s because it’s from Sardinia. I think it could hold its own in more elegant seafood company. I drank it that night with my chicken dinner and it did very well, too.