Wait, Roncawhat? What the hell is this? It's, like, Italian or something! Crap, I need to hire a translator. "Too many bottles of this wine we can't pronounce" as Frank Ocean says. Honestly I was very happy when my package from Giovani Menti came in the mail. Not a lick of English on the front labels. Genuine. Right from the old country.
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, nobody touches it but them. They do it all organically and biodynamically. He also decided to tell the rules to take a hike and stopped making appellation of origin protected wines, which would be Gambellara DOC, so he could make the wines that he wanted to make. "I do what I want."
This is sparkling wine made entirely from Garganega, the grape variety best known for being the main grape in Soave. And this is the first wine out of three that I'll be reviewing from Giovani Menti... and all of them are 100% Garganega. The others are the Paiele 2012 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, nobody touches it but them. They do it all organically and biodynamically. He also decided to tell the rules to take a hike and stopped making appellation of origin protected wines, which would be Gambellara DOC, so he could make the wines that he wanted to make. "I do what I want."
This is sparkling wine made entirely from Garganega, the grape variety best known for being the main grape in Soave. And this is the first wine out of three that I'll be reviewing from Giovani Menti... and all of them are 100% Garganega. The others are the Paiele 2012 and Riva Arsiglia 2012.
The bottle cap makes it pretty obvious that this is going to be frizzante. Meaning it's lightly sparkling and doesn't have the pressure that warrants the classic sparkling wine cork. It's super hazy and looks more like Gatorade than wine. Second fermentation was done by the addition of Albina juice (from Garganega grapes) as a way to introduce yeast again without adding commercial yeast. All the yeasts used in this wine, including the initial fermentation, are naturally occurring. They're also hanging out on the bottom of the bottle.
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| DID YOU SAY LEMON CAKES??? |
There's really no other way to describe this wine other than lemon cakes. It smells and tastes just like lemon cakes. Sansa Stark would be all over this stuff.
It's flavorful, tart and bready. It's straight-forward and shows no complexity at all. It's just very yummy and fun, drinks more like a Lemoncello cocktail, and it's perfect for the hot summer days we're experiencing right now. A bottle of this will go down a bit too easily while dangling from a hammock.
My only contention is the price. It does go down easy. It's really not going to take you long to make it disappear, especially when you're sharing. But it'll cost you $20 and that's kind of an issue for me. For what it is I really feel like $14 is more along the lines of what you should be paying for it, honestly.
So because of that and because of the way I do things around here, as much as I loved kicking it back, I gotta give it a 3/5 for Satifying. Totally delicious, though.
QUALITY VS PRICE RATING
Price: $20
Rating: 3/5 = Satisfying. (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.
The bottle used was supplied free of charge for the purpose of this unpaid review. To have your wine reviewed follow this link.
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