La Cappuccina 2016 Campo Buri Carménère

🇮🇹 An Italian Carménère 🇮🇹

👀 You may have noticed that I’m a little quieter than usual this month … I’m in the pursuit of my first ever ‘damp January’. For those unfamiliar, it’s a little looser than its Dry January sibling, and can have different interpretations based on its follower. For me, it means limiting myself to a few units per week. This is a big lifestyle change for someone that normally has wine most days. But after years of letting myself enjoy wine when I want, as often as I want, it is a necessary test.

🤧The first week of damp January was a little easier to stick to after I came down with a major sinus infection. But I’m finally feeling better and decided to celebrate my wellbeing with this lovely, rare Italian Carménère by La Cappuccina.

🍷 La Cappuccina 2016 Campo Buri Carménère - Oseleta: When I first saw the bottle of wine, my immediate thought was - Carménère from Italy?!

🕵🏽‍♀️ If this surprises you too, here’s some quick facts: Carménère has been planted in Italy for a long time. However, for ages it was mistaken as an Italian variety of Cabernet Franc. It wasn’t until the 1990s that the variety formerly assumed to be Cab Franc was discovered to actually be Carménère.

🍇 This wine is a Carménère-Oseleta blend. The Oseleta grape is even rarer and is indigenous to the Veneto region. It contributes fruit, spice, and body to a blend.

🍰 So how does the wine taste? Here’s an analogy: have you ever looked at a large, multi-tiered cake and thought, that is going to be too rich! - only to taste it and find it to be delightfully light and full of flavor? That is this wine. Highly aromatic in the glass, with notes of stewed cherries soaked in brandy, vanilla, oak, and a bit of smoke. On the palate, it’s medium-bodied, lively, mouth-filling, and well-balanced, with a clove-and- cinnamon stick finish. This wine was definitely “damp January” worthy.

The Carménère, in all its beauty.