Wine Review: Menti Giovanni Paiele 2012

This is the second wine out of three that I'll be reviewing this week from Menti Giovani. All of them are made entirely from the Garganega grape, which you might be familiar with as it's the main grape in the wine called Soave. The other two I'm reviewing from Menti are Roncaie sui Lieviti 2013 and Riva Arsiglia 2012.

Menti Giovanni is located in Gambellara (within Veneto, Italy) and as a winery has been around since the late 1800's. It was founded by Giovanni Menti. His grandson is also named Giovanni and he runs the place now with his son. The two of them do everything themselves from the vine to the wine, and nobody touches it but them. They do it all organically and biodynamically. He also decided that the rules he had to abide by to have his wine qualify for the Gambellara DOC went against what he wanted to do, so he opts to make his wine unprotected by appellation of origin.

Again, the Paiele is 100% Garganega. It's been a popular wine in Europe for years and it's widely available in wine shops there. I'm not sure how to pronounce Paiele but I think it's Pay-eh-lah. That's probably wrong. Of course being a Boston Bruins fan all I can think of is Daniel Paille, pronounced Pie-yay.

The vineyard that makes this wine is 30 years old, within the Gambellara Classic region, and on volcanic hillside. Only natural yeasts are used for fermentation in stainless steel tanks. It sits there until February, and then it's filtered only once before being bottled.

The color is a slightly dark straw yellow. I get some rosemary on the nose, as well as oranges, spring flowers and black licorice. The palate is all lime and orange and it's very tart and crisp. It finishes with orange peel and agave.

Despite those descriptors there's really not a lot going on. It's pretty straight forward but it's got character and it's not gonna bore you. Translation: you're not gonna get sick of it after or during your first glass. It's a good, solid Italian white that, for what it is, is a pretty damn good buy.

"I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS"

This is also, importantly, a food wine. The tartness and acidity may not be everybody's thing just drinking it all by itself. But those are also what makes a good wine that everybody loves when paired with certain food.

If you had this with any of the traditional seafood dishes we have here on Cape Cod they would come together in perfect harmony.

You absolutely have got to serve this wine around 45 to 50 degrees fahrenheit. Chill it too much and it tastes oxidized and out of sync. Give it that slight chill to just below "room temperature" (which is actually 55°F, not the 70°F that rooms tend to be now) and it's golden.

Please remember that. I didn't like it at first and it won me over as it warmed up.

QUALITY VS PRICE RATING

Price: $11

Rating: 4/5 = Recommended. (what does that mean?)

The bottle used was supplied free of charge for the purpose of this unpaid review. To have your wine reviewed follow this link.