There’s a lot of wines in Kermit’s portfolio that I really dig – on a consistent level. This isn’t one of them, though every few years I pick up an assortment of them to see if anything has changed; It does not appear to have. I had held this since release, and was hoping for a better showing. Not the greatest way to start a tasting note, I get it.

Obviously this is not an “Italian wine”, but it made its way on to an Italian blog because Italy’s people and its gifts are found outside of Italy, too.

In any event, the wine opened as a dusty straw yellow, it was not so bright and seemed clear. Initial aromas were more soil driven than fruit driven – something I usually enjoy – but this started there and ended there some ninety minutes after opening. I remember the early days of this wine journey when I’d see VV and think ‘wow, that mjust be able to age really well’. It wasn’t too long after I’d reasoned that way that I learned there is no correlation unless it’s to unpredicatability.

In the instant case, this wine had the body of a Vermentino, the flavors were mostly that of Vermentino but constantly had to be teased out by continuous swirling in the glass. You get it, a less than stellar performance. I can say it did, ever so marginally, improve by the end of the bottle, but even then it was hovering the mediocre, a place it never really never managed to escape.

Was it ok with food? Yeah, ok, but that’s it. I don’t like to poo-poo wines for the sake of it, I take it seriously because I know how much effort it took to raise/get it from farm to table, but this VV was either having a blah day, or the wine is already past its freshest moments, or it’s just mediocre from day one. I’ll choose to believe it wasn’t the best showing and have made a note to visit their stand at Prowein in a few months and re consider this cuvee. 13,0% abv. NR, drink now.

In a few weeks I’ll leave this place (Colorado) that’s been my home of thirty years. I’ll be leaving for a new place, one that’s fascinated me from the first moment and all of the moments.

The picture for this post that’s found on the home was taken on a stormy weekend day in Santa Margherita Ligure; fond memories that place.

pageThanks for reading.