Oh wait, now I remember why: Really awesome Italian wines tend to cost a tad more than US $20. Ah, the plight of the poor wino.

Anyhoo, each week they have four separate wine flights for tasting. They usually break down as follows: One all-white flight, one all red flight, one bubbly flight (or something else off the beaten path like rose, etc.), and one that I like to call the FASCINATING flight. Obviously the Fascinating Flight tends to be the most pricey, but on a weeknight back in early August I decided to splurge (my wife would usually get the white), and boy did I choose the right week to splurge.

The flight I had was called “Gaglioppo Through the Years,” and it was a vertical tasting of Ippolito “Ripe del Falco” Ciro Rosso Classico Superiore Riserva vintages 1996, 1995 and 1993. Now, for someone as “into” wine as myself, I would prefer to say that this was not the oldest wine I’ve had in my six years of interest.

But it was. And it was awesome.

Now, I know this is a site for under-$20 wines, but we have occasionally (ok, once) written about wines that did not meet our price threshold simply because they were worth sharing with our readers. I’m not expecting everyone to run out and spend over $50 on a bottle of Ippolito “Ripe del Falco” (which is around what these three cost), but at least you will know about what is out there and some might learn about a grape and a wine they have never heard of before. It’s something new. So let’s share that.

First, a little history on the wine itself:

The Ippolito “Ripe del Falco” is made from the Gaglioppo grape in Calabria, Italy. That’s the toe of the boot. Gaglioppo is one of the oldest grapes on the planet and was previously thought to be of Greek origin, but it was later discovered to be a native Italian varietal. A 2008 study showed that Gaglioppo DNA was closely related to Sangiovese, a grape I’m sure most of you have heard of since it is used to make Chianti as well as around ten other wines. The study concluded that Gaglioppo is a hybrid between Sangiovese and an as-yet-unidentified varietal. Gaglioppo is used to make 90% of the wine that comes from Calabria. Most Calabrian wines are made and then sent off to Northern Italy to be used in blending. The wine they keep tends to be of high alcohol content.

The Ippolito winery is actually the oldest cantina in the Zona Calabria. It was begun in 1845 and still makes the exact same kinds of wines as it did over 100 years ago. Some vintages soar, while others simply maintain. The one constant is the care and quality put into the wines, not to mention the superior cellaring strength (that means they age very well and for a very long time).

Now, onto the wines:

Ippolito “Ripe del Falco” Ciro Rosso Classico Superiore Riserva 1996

The potency of this vintage hits you right off. Since I had no other vintage to compare it to, at the time I felt it was by far the strongest in terms of nose and alcohol. In hindsight however, it just tasted younger than the others. A blast of oily cherry hits you right off, followed by a musty metallic note. The color of the wine is still solid, but closer to the edge you can see that it thins out slightly. Younger wines tend to have a rim of water when you tilt them in the light, but my experience with young means 5-6 years. Nothing like this. The wine was structured oddly, with different flavors of leathery fruit bouncing back and forth. Leathery cherry, dates and caramel. The alcohol provides the final kick to the face. This was not what you would call a “bright” wine, but rather studied, serious and very very terse.

$37.99 at LinerandElsen.com, though you have to order by phone.

Ippolito “Ripe del Falco” Ciro Rosso Classico Superiore Riserva 1995

While similar to the 06 vintage, this one did not have the attack of the first. The nose was much more subdued, with fruit taking a backseat and giving way to the less edible qualities on the nose. Leather, ash and a bit of resin. The flavor profile on this is as solid as a rock. No dancing around here. Prunes, rich black cherry and the full mouth feel of a fruit bomb Syrah, but with less juiciness. The style of the Gaglioppo is here with a vengeance as the tannins kick in to batter your tongue before letting the velvet softness of the fruit play on. Delicious soil flavors come along with a finish that can only be described as “mushroomy”.

$33.00 at Vinopolis Wine Shop.

Ippolito “Ripe del Falco” Ciro Rosso Classico Superiore Riserva 1993

This was the most unbelievable of the bunch. The discrepancy between this vintage and one from just two years later is remarkable. The color is rust with flecks of black, like a pan sauce after broiling a steak. Copper pennies and motor oil hit your nose, followed by old leather. Not the supple, cared for, oily kind. I’m talking left-out-in-the-desert-heat-to-blister-and-flake leather flavors. With good reason, too as Calabria is one of the hottest areas of Italy. When it comes to the fruit of the 93, think dried. Plums, prunes, dates, apricots (yes), cherries, and black olives. You know those super-cured black olives you can buy in bulk in some stores? The kind that are so wrinkled and concentrated that they look dreadful, but whose flavor you can never get out of your mind? That’s this wine. This thing even tastes wrinkled. The alcohol has aged off somewhat, making you able to taste a spectacular finish that leaves your tannic-dry tongue smacking for more. Too bad it’s like $50 a bottle.

Haven’t been able to find this one online.

Obviously you could enjoy any of these with food, except perhaps the 93, but I’m not going to presume to know what specific dishes might be best. I’ll just say rich red meats with sauces. If you decide to pick up any of these, save them for a special occasion, and make sure you drink them with something you cooked yourself for someone special. Don’t take them to a restaurant.

All of these wines are available (unless they’ve run out) at 55° Wine:

3111 Glendale Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90039

(323) 662-5556

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Many winemakers these days have to be smart enough to market themselves in as many ways as possible. Magazines, word of mouth, local publications, online ads and, of course, social media. Based on all the damn icons and ways to “share” the posts on this site, you can somewhat tell that social media is very important these days when it comes to getting your brand out there in front of as many eyeballs as possible. In many ways, social media is one of the most effective and cheapest ways possible to advertise your product. Hell, I even started a company that handles that.

Hope Family Wines has their social media game down. Pat. I know this because I reviewed their Liberty School Cabernet Sauvignon a while back, someone on Twitter noticed it and re-tweeted, which started the tiny snowball. @HopeFamilyWines contacted me and asked if they could send me some of their wines for review (a little service we offer here on Wine Welfare). After thinking about it for a few days, I mean really pondering it, I decided that yes, yes indeed I could accept their offer to send me free wine. It was a very difficult decision to come to. One that required a lot of soul searching and digging through my wine fridge to find that supplies were low.

Seriously, though, it was that simple. So, since I’m a sucker for delicious, value wines, you’re going to be seeing some reviews of wines from the diverse portfolio of Hope Family Wines, including Treana, Liberty School, Candor and Austin Hope wines.

Here’s a bit of history on Hope Family Wines:

The Hope family has been farming in Paso Robles for more than 30 years. When they arrived in this barely discovered region, they planted apples and grapes. Little did they know that the rolling, oak-studded terrain of Paso Robles would one day become viticultural terroir of significance and one of the top winegrowing regions for quality red wine within California.

About the winemaker, Austin Hope:

Austin Hope, a third-generation farmer and first generation winemaker, began working in his family’s vineyard when he was eight years old. He is a graduate of the California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo with a Fruit Science (Viticulture) degree. Following college, Hope worked under highly reputable winemakers in the state, most notably Chuck Wagner of Caymus Vineyards. Today, he oversees all winemaking and viticulture at Hope Family Wines.

Along with the wine, they also sent me a little information package for the bottles I was getting. It contained information sheets telling me about the appelation, the blend percentages, how the wine was produced, etc. But I also noticed another interesting piece of marketing collateral. It was a little card advertising an iPhone app called Wine DJ. The app is designed to build you a music playlist based on the particular Liberty School wine you are drinking.

Let me repeat that: This wine company built an iPhone app to use while drinking their wines.

I don’t know how much better at marketing they could get.

Be sure to check out all the Hope Family Wines and get ready for some great reviews of Liberty School, Candor and some other Hope Family Wines coming up here at Wine Welfare.

Hope Family Wines Information:

Tasting Cellar

1585 Live Oak Road, Paso Robles, CA

805-238-4112 (open Fri-Sat, 10-4 PM)

Mailing Address

P.O. Box 3260, Paso Robles, CA 93447

Online

www.hopefamilywines.com

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1. What the heck is wine, actually?

Wine, whether still, sparkling, fortified, or aromatized, is nothing more than fermented grape juice. Or, to put it another way, wine is grape juice that is left out too long.

2. How many kinds of wine are there?

If you are talking about kinds of grapes (referred to as “varietals”) then we might be here for awhile. There are thousands of different kinds of grapes around the world, and all of them can technically be made into wine, but most are not simply because their flavor does not really convert to good wine (don’t try to take those green grapes you buy at the grocery store and turn them into wine, please!). Some of the most popular kinds of grapes used to make wine are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel, Riesling, Grenache, Syrah and Chenin Blanc.

If you are talking about colors or styles of wine, that’s a little easier. Wine can be red, white, or pink (called rose). Wine also comes in different styles, like dry, medium or sweet. The amount of alcohol in wines varies, though most fall between 4% and 15% alcohol-by-volume (ABV). When it comes to fortified wine, the alcohol content is usually between 15% and 22% because to fortify wine means to add grape spirit (essentially plain old alcohol) to it.

3. How do you make wine?

Contrary to what I said in #1, you can’t simply leave grape juice out for a few months and expect to get wine, although you would come somewhat close (mental note: buy grape juice, leave out). Here is the Reader’s Digest Condensed version of how wine is made:

• Decide the kind of wine you want to make and plant the grape vines. I could get way more specific, but I’m trying to keep this short and sweet.
• Harvest the grapes.
• Press the grapes (to get the juice out, obviously)
• Ferment the grapes. This pretty much involves letting the grape juice be. Natural yeasts attach themselves to grapes and grapevines while growing, and these find their way into the juice and start the fermentation process.
• Filter, or at least separate the juice from the skins if necessary. Technically you have wine now, but it’s time to work out flavor and structure. Some winemakers do this by blending other varietals in, some use a particular type of oak barrel to age the wine, and some use both.
• Age the wine. This varies depending on a lot of factors, but most red wines are oak aged for 1 to 2 years. Whites are aged in either stainless steel tanks or oak barrels as well.
• Bottle it, cork it, label it, sell it.

4. What’s with the wood barrels?

Nearly all wines aged in barrels are aged in oak barrels. The wood helps “calm” the wine down and creates more complex, mature flavors. The highest quality, thus the most expensive oak barrels are French. French Oak is used more than any other kind because of the flavors it imparts to wine: spiciness, fullness, vanilla-ish flavors that are generally pleasing to the palate. You can also find American and Hungarian oak barrels at lower prices, though they impart different characteristics that are not as popular. The thing to remember though, is that French oak barrels are good for aging wine only once. After about a year of use, they lost most of their flavor-enhancing abilities. Most wineries will buy new French oak barrels to age certain wines, then simply re-use them to age wines that do not need any oak flavors.

5. How many countries make wine?

This one is slightly tough, but I can list most of them. Overall I’d say it’s around 50, but I’m sure it’s more. The major producers are Italy (makes the most wine of all), France, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, Peru and the United States. There are many more that produce small amounts of wine, some of them you would never even think of when it comes to wine: England (yep, they make some!), India, China, Japan and more.

I hope some of these answers were helpful and showed you a bit more about the world of wine. I plan to do more of these in the future, so if you have any questions you’d like me to address, just send them to me via our Contact page.

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Official site and full bill text here.

If H.R. 5034 passes, it will mean the end of the direct shipment of wine in the states where it is now permitted.

If you’d like more information about HR 5034 you can find regular updates at Join the Movement.

You can also join the thousands who have signed up on STOP HR5034 Facebook page (like that will do anything) or send your thoughts to Washington and write your Congressional representative asking him to vote NO on this issue.

Basically this bill is lame. Wine shipping is already so ridiculously limited in this country without this ink on toilet paper being placed in front of these fat white Congressmen. Why in the world certain states do not allow wine to be shipped to them is beyond me. I always thought the saddest thing about the U.S. is how far behind we are in education, but this is just outrageous.

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Oh wait, it’s because the group at NationalWineDay.org couldn’t decide on a date (I wonder why…) so they just decided that it should be today, May 25th!

So everyone pop a bottle and celebrate this momentous new……holiday?

Cheers!

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We found an interesting and educational little video about wine basics called “Wine for The Confused.” It stars John Cleese and covers everything from how wine is made from the vineyard to the bottle, noble grape varietals, and how to describe wine in simple, easy terms. It even has a section on how to order wines in a restaurant without breaking the bank. All of this while avoiding snobbery and hosted by John Cleese! Enjoy!

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So in lieu of posting a wine today, we thought we would try something a bit different. We want Wine Welfare to become a destination not only for great budget wine reviews, but for wine education as well.

Some of you might be more of the “grip it and rip it”-type who don’t care what you’re drinking, where it came from or why it tastes the way it does so long as it tastes good and is less than $20. We love that.

There are also some of you interested in learning more about the wines we are suggesting or just wine in general. Maybe you have always been curious to know more but never had the time. Maybe you don’t really know anything about wine and want to know how this delicious stuff is made and if they still stamp grapes with their feet in Italy. Or maybe you are a self-taught expert, in which case we would like your help.

The point is, learning about wine is fun, and it’s even more fun showing people everything about wine. Now, we do not promise to be experts and we are certainly not Sommeliers (that’s someone who actually went to classes to learn about wine). Those who have read our reviews know that we are bargain hunters, always on the look out for a great bottle for less. What we do promise to be is educational, entertaining and helpful when it comes to sharing what we know about wine, whether it be in the form of wine videos or simply an article explaining how a particular wine goes from vine to glass. Whatever we offer, we promise you will enjoy it.

So, to start off, we are going to introduce you all to probably the most well-known “Wine Guy” on the web, and possibly the planet. His name is Gary Vaynerchuk and we have been following him for years. He’s just an energetic, Jets-loving, wine geek who was able to build his parents small liquor store into one of the largest and most comprehensive wine outlets and online retail stores in the country: Wine Library. Gary has also done a daily wine show for the past 3 years, with nearly 700 episodes under his belt. He’s funny, irreverent, energetic and extremely interesting, and we are offering you one of his classic shows here.

So sit back with a glass of….what did we do last….oh yes, the Man Vintners Chenin Blanc, relax, and get ready to learn a little something about training your palate with Gary Vaynerchuk.

Also, remember to visit WineLibrary.com for great deals, and check out Gary’s daily wine video at WineLibrary.tv (after visiting WineWelfare.com, of course).

Cheers!

Wine Welfare

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