Can I Change My Answer?

In my blog post for Wine Blogging Wednesday I reviewed the 2005 Cusumano Nero d'Avola. I must have gotten a bad bottle, because all I could taste from that bottle was raisins. Over the weekend, I picked up a new bottle from a different store and tried it again.

The second bottle was much better. The overwhelming raisin flavor was gone! The wine did approach a raisin flavor the longer it sat in my glass and warmed, but it never got as strong as the first bottle and it never had a burnt flavor, either. The second bottle was a 2006 as opposed to a 2005. The original bottle had a plastic cork which was not tainted. The new bottle had a cool glass cork which I had read about last year, but never seen before. This new stopper works great and I'm tempted to save the bottle and cork to use it again.

I drank the Cusumano Nero d'Avola with home made spaghetti and meatballs. My wife makes a sauce from scratch using cloves, bay leaves and garlic. We usually drink a Merlot to compliment the tomatoe sauce. The Nero d'Avola was more bitter than a Merlot, but I liked the pairing. I'm glad I tried a second bottle to give both the grape and Cusumano a fair chance. If I ever encounter that "cooked raisin" flavor in a wine again, I'll know it's not the intended flavor and return the bottle. Another lesson learned!

I bought the bottle at a brand new store that opened recently in the Sacramento area: Total Wine. This store is even bigger than the BevMo stores I mostly frequent for my wine purchases. I really liked the layout of the store and the even larger selection of wines. The Italy and French sections are much bigger than the BevMo sections. I was able to find wines at the Total Wine store that I had read about but not been able to find before.

The staff seems more informed about wine, too. I saw many more workers on the floor and even though there were varying levels of expertise, they all seemed knowledgable about wine. I was able to talk for ten minutes about Scilian wines with the staff member who helped me pick up my second bottle of Cusuamano. I look forward to many visits to this new store. I hope they continue to keep their prices as low as their grand opening week.

Wine Blogging Wednesday: 7 Words

This special Wine Blogging Wednesday has given us the difficutlt task of discribing a Italian red wine in seven words or less. For this exercise in linguisitc minimalism, I chose the 2005
Cusumano Nero d'Avola. I wanted to try this wine because of Dr Deb's recent challenge to try a
taste of Sicily in February. Plus, this wine adds a new grape to my count: #46.

Nero d'Alvola is considered a native of Sicily by some. People have tried planting Nero in other parts of Italy, but with little success. The grape is "thin-skinned and susceptible to rot, as well as a late-ripener." The long, hot, dry growing season of Sicily is ideal for this black skinned grape that requires twenty days longer to mature than other red grapes.

Many wineries in Sicily are blending the grape with Syrah, Merlot or Cabinet Sauvignon to produce some interesting wines, but the grape has been used on it's own to produce a wine that Sicily is known for. Some people compare the taste of Nero to Syrah because it's "rich with black fruits with firm tannins." Unfortunately, I didn't get that impression.

I don't know if the bottle I got was bad, or if it is just the normal flavor of a Nero, but here is my seven word description:

Two scoops of raisins in every swallow.