Kanonkop

Hey red wine lovers - you want a real treat?  Check out the Kanonkop Kadette Cape Red Blend from Stellenbosch, South Africa.  Whether it's a versatile dinner wine you need or just an anytime red, this is it.  The blend is a sixty percent Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot + forty percent Pinotage, the signature grape of that country.  And whoever thought of this mix nailed it big time.

Now ordinarily I would start cribbing from a half dozen wine industry websites to fill out the text of this post but after going to www.kanonkop.co.za, I got more information there than I could possibly use here.  This is the best winery website I have seen.  Please, everyone, check it out and see what is possible if a company wants to share their business with an interested audience.  In particular, the Viticulture and Winemaking headings are where you want to be for getting a toehold on what they're doing.  

My takeaway from the experience? The two headings above show an expansive understanding of the importance of vintages.  The winemakers don't just take what the vineyard gives them at harvest time and make a wine out of it.  Well, they do...but their intention is to capture the unique expression of a harvest.  That starts with the old school, tried and true hand-picking of grapes.  Then, using modern technology, evaluating for sugar content in the juice and tannin content in the skins and making sure the acids balance with the sugars and that the pips are not green.  Now, just to be sure, lets restate the intention - They want to do everything in their power to capture the unique expression of the vintage.

Classy!

Brusco dei Barbi

This is a big red Tuscan IGT wine.  IGT wines are an Italian wine classification created after DOC, DOCG and VdT were shown to be inadequate for wines better than Vino da Tavola but made using methods outside of DOC rules. 

If it's Tuscan, you can assume it's Sangiovese-based and Barbi is, but this one has a Cabernet-like grip to it that makes it appealing for red meat dishes.  The wine is a bright ruby color, has a vivid red berry nose and shows supple fresh red berry flavors on the palate couched in soft tannins.  It's a fresh and fruity, yet structured versatile red that would ideally accompany anything on the grill.  

Barbi also has a pedigree.  It comes from Giovanni Colombini of Fattoria dei Barbi in Montalcino, "where Brunello was born."  Colombini studied modern winemaking extensively in the 1960's and 70's with an emphasis on cold fermentation.  Barbi actually has a pre-fermentation chilling to kill polyphenols and anthcyanins before the twelve day cold fermentation and that shows in the indelibly fresh Barbi.  Hand harvested Sangiovese, Caniolo and Colorino are what go into the wine which goes on to see some time in oak before bottling.

The Colombini family has a seven century history of winemaking.  Their current winery was established in 1790 but the family has been in Montalcino since 1352.  They are one of five today to have a one hundred year (continuous) winemaking history there where they remain a major Brunello producer today.