VERMENTINO is the Perfect AFFORDABLE Summer Sipper!!!

It's considered an Italian grape, although it might have Spanish origins and there's more plantings of it in France. Whatever the case may be, Vermentino might be the perfect summer sipper. There are about 3,000 hectares of Vermentino planted in Italy, about 3,500 in France, mostly in the south, especially in the Languedoc-Roussillon, Provence, and the island of Corsica. There you can find it under the name Roll. In Italy, most of the plantings are in Sardinia, although you'll find it in Tuscany as well. You'll also find it in Liguria, where they sometimes call it Pigato, and also in Piedmonte or Piedmont, which they call it Favorita. A lot of Piedmontese and Ligurians claim that it's a different and distinct variety. However, when it comes to Jancis Robinson's wine grapes, it suggests that DNA profiling shows they are the same variety, and I'm just going to put it underneath the umbrella of Vermentino. I have to admit this, Sardinia holds a special place in my heart, but I think I might prefer the Vermentino from Liguria. But let's see how they perform in the blind tasting. I have a lot of experience with the variety because I go to the island of Sardinia often. I've also judged the international Vermentino competition in Sardinia several times, so I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on the grape. In Sardinia, you'll see the wines more commonly labeled as Vermentino de Sardinia. You'll also see Vermentino de Galora. That's the island's only DOCG. Those wines are a little bit bigger, a little bit richer. In Tuscany, it's planted, and the prices are pretty firm, and producers sell a lot since there's a lot of visitors to Tuscany during the summer. When Vermentino is made into a simple light style, I feel it offers a lot more complexity than Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio at its price point. I usually expect some citrus flavors, sometimes grapefruit. I also get this nice little sage-type note. It's almost like I get this windswept land type of flavor. It's almost like if you've ever been in a desert or any dry parched land, you kind of get that flavor. There can be a little bit of salinity in the wines too. They usually have enough juiciness to eat, but not too much. All the Vermentinos I have here are in the teens to $29 price point. Let's taste them. Tasting out of my Zolto Universal glass, I love this shape for white wines. Something a little bit different in this video, I like to do blind tastings because I learn just as much as you. However, I'm the only person doing this. I source the wines, I Coravin them, and I have somebody mix them up for me. A lot of people want me to taste them one by one by one. However, if I have four to seven wines, it's not really a blind tasting because once you get through a few, I try not to do it, but it's human nature. You start to use deduction to figure out the next couple of wines. When I taste them all together, then the reveal at the end, that's the best replication of a blind tasting I can do when I source the wines. But then I have some people complain, say my brain doesn't work that way. I think it's funny that everybody says they want blind tasting, yet they want things to be linear and made it to be easier. I don't get it. Sometimes it's frustrating. However, what I'm going to do is I'm going to film myself tasting these wines. We're going to go right to the reveal. And then as I reveal the wines, I'll cut away to my tastings. This is completely blind. Let's get going. If you want to hang out with me and other wine geeks, I suggest you check out channel memberships in the second tier of the Grand Reserve tier. I've organized a monthly live hangout tasting where it can come up on screen, hang out, share your wines. We can just talk shop. I've also launched a live video podcast. Members of the Grand Reserve tier can come up on screen and ask a question, call in like a live radio show. It also helps support the work I do here. So thanks a lot. I think all of these wines here uniformly showed what Vermentino is, except six and seven were distinctively different. Like I said, I'm going to reveal the wine and then I'll edit and flashback to my tasting notes on it. I'll make that flashback in black and white so you can discern the difference. Let's start out with the simplest one, wine number one. It was straightforward. I still gave it 88 points. I thought it was delicious wine. It was the simplest for me out of all these wines. But you know what? I've noticed with a lot of simple Italian white wines, they just like that fruit and that unique flavor up front. So I think this is going to be a crowd pleaser. Here are my tasting notes. Wine one is just typical, typical when I expect a Vermentino. I get grapefruit right at the beginning. I feel like the Vermentinos from Sardegna lead with a little more terroir flavors first. Like when I think of Tuscan Vermentinos, I think of them as being fruity off the bat. Grapefruit, lemon, lime, almost like a Sprite type flavor. A soda from the U.S. Straightforward, simple, fun, not too yogurty. The only Vermentinos I see that have a lot of yogurt notes are Vermentino de Galluras. This is simple, fun, straightforward. I'd like a little bit longer of a finish, a little more complexity. But I think these types of wines have so much fruit up front that they are going to be very enjoyable to a lot of people. Wine number one, 88 points. Let's take a look. 88 points. It is the Lucien Lestelle Vermentino de Sardegna 2022. This comes into the U.S.A. at 25 bucks. Fruity, straightforward, simple. I think this was good. However, I have to admit 25 bucks for Vermentino de Sardegna, I think it's good, delicious wine. I think I just expect a little bit more. Okay, I have two tied for 90 points. Number two is what I thought straight up is Vermentino de Sardegna. Obviously, we have a Vermentino de Sardegna. I don't know if I have a couple here. I can't remember. I knew what these wines were beforehand, but like always, I corven them, had somebody mix them up for me. Let's see here. I think it led with seawater, had the lemon, lime, and it had the length. Two has a little bit more complexity. This leads with seawater type flavors, mineral. I get the lime type notes. No grapefruit in this. Sea, lemon, lime. This does have length, which I really enjoy. What I like about good Vermentinos is when they have a little bit complexity, it's not too off-putting. Sometimes mineral-driven whites can be a little bit too much for a lot of people. That's really good. The seawater, the sea salt, that really differentiated. I thought it was really good wine. I gave it 90 points along with wine number seven. Let's go with wine number two. 90 points. I think this is what you're going to want to expect with Vermentino. Let's take a look here. This is the Farnacelli Sizzolo Bulgari Vermentino 2023. This comes in at 20 bucks. Bulgari, an area in Southern Tuscany known for super Tuscans, namely Sassicaia, Ornolia, Masetto. I think at 20 bucks, this is a heck of a bargain. This is everything that you're going to want out of Vermentino. This is something I would highly, highly recommend. Cute label. I haven't tasted their reds before, I don't think, but I thought that was a pretty darn good wine. That's just, to me, stereotypical fresh Vermentino. If you want to try something new, this is something you go for at 20 bucks. I think you're not going to be disappointed. Number seven, a little bigger, richer stuff. It reminded me of Vermentino de Galore. For me, sometimes Vermentino de Galore can get a little bit too big, a little bit too ambitious. It's from the north tip of the island of Sardinia. The wines are a little bit richer. They come in bigger prices. That's what I think it is. It had more dried fruit flavors. Like I said, six and seven were the most unique out of all of these. Dried peach, rich. It was, like I said, different than the fresh citrus flavors of all these other ones. Seven has the most development. There is some Bottle Patina here. These are all younger wines, so it shouldn't have development. It smells a little bit richer. There's bottle development. It's more, most of the, number six had some white fruit flavors. The rest of them were pretty citrusy. This one has more dried fruit flavors, like dried peach type notes. This is for people that like bigger white wines. I think it's the Vermentino de Galore. Vermentino de Galore's usually be a little more concentrated, a little bit bigger. I prefer to drink Vermentino de Sardinia, but I think that this will be the Vermentino de Galore. That's just, I'm used to the more richer style. 90 points, 90 points. Let's take a look here. I am on fire today. This is the Selenu Vermentino de Galore Superiore 2021 This comes in at 25 bucks. You even see the color here, a little bit richer, a little bit bigger. A lot of people like this style. This would be more for cream dishes or pork type dishes. Again, I love the length on this one. It was very good, except for Vermentinos, I kind of want more fresher stuff. I actually prefer usually the more Vermentino de Sardinia style, but to each his own. Okay, number six, the other one that was also distinctive. I gave it 90 plus points. It's a wine that I felt like saw some wood. I don't know if I have any barrel aged wines here. Again, the Vermentinos usually are made in a fresh style. Very unique. Here are my tasting notes. Six isn't as fruity, at least with more cream and more kind of bottle development. I'd like a little bit more fruit here. I wonder if this bottles off a little bit. Oh no. This might actually see a little bit of wood. This is a different style. There's a touch of wood. I thought all these wines were made in stainless steel. A lot of times Vermentinos are just made in straight stainless steel. They're sold young. This is nice. It's not oaky, but I can tell when you taste a lot of wines, you learn what wood flavors are. There are subtle lime and guava notes. Now here's the thing. I really like this style, but this is for like wine geek type I think a lot of people are just happy where they're just fruity and approachable. I think six is age worthy. I think you want to put it away for a little while. I gave it 90 plus points. Let's take a look here. I like how I said, I prefer Lagurian Vermentinos and they're still standing. So let's see what it is. Anyways, 90 plus points. I think this one was the only one that was barrel aged. This is the only blend. No wonder that this is different. This is a very famous producers. This is the Bibi Graz, Casa Mata, 2021, Bianco, Toscana IGT. This comes in at 26 bucks. Had a little bit more complexity. Let me look up and see if this is barrel aged because this is confusing me. It wasn't in wood, but to spend time on lease, it's a blend of 60% Vermentino, 30% Trebbiano and 10% Ensonica, a grape that I have never had before. This does have some bottle age to it. Bibi Graz, super well-known producer, making some excellent Sangioveses, some excellent blends down there in Tuscany. Beautiful label. I thought that was very good. Again, a unique wine out of all of these. Number three, I thought was delicious and the Lemon Meringue Pie. The C had a real mineral type finish. I like minerally white wines, but it wasn't overly mineral. Three has like a, I have one wine here that's a blend. All the others are straight Vermentinos. This has a little complexity. It even has a little bit of diesel fuel in this. This is the most complex out of the three thus far. Just a very touch of diesel fuel. This leaves with some tangerine peel, a little bit of cream, kind of like a Lemon Meringue Pie. Bigger, more substantial. I actually kind of prefer the Vermentinos from La Gordia. I just find them, especially the Colli di Luni Appalachian. Sometimes I find them to be a little more complex and richer. Very, very mineral finish. That's why I gave it 91 points. I thought it was delicious. Let's take a look here. Let's take a look. What do we got here? From Piemonte. This is the Abrigio Giovanni, the Fama Favorita 2021 from Piedmont. This comes in at 20 bucks. This has some wood. 35% is in wood. 65% is in stainless steel. Then they blend it. That's what I like about white wines. You can do that unique blend. I thought this was delicious. I have not tasted a ton of Favoritas like Piemontese, Vermentinos, and I thought this was brilliant at 20 bucks. That is ridiculous value for money. Man, those guys from Piedmont, not only can they do Barolo, Barbaresco, they can do a variety of wines. Okay. I said earlier that some of my favorite Vermentinos are from La Gordia and I had two La Gordians in. It looks like they come up on top. Number four, it was very unique. Had like a lot of pine salt type smell and sage notes. I think it would throw a lot of people off. Wow. Four smells a little bit like pine leaves, a little like pine soil cleaner, like this cleaning product use. I know that doesn't sound good, but I kind of like it. Lime and sage. I mean, this really smells like sage. Literally, if you're ever in the Mediterranean, I used to live in the Mediterranean part of the year. I used to have sage bushes out back and I used to love taking them off and then brushing them, cooking them with fish, brushing them on my meats. Got nice length. This to me is what I like about good Vermentinos that have that sense of terroir, that real brushed sage note. You got to know your palate though. I think a lot of people might like number one, the straight off, fruity, easy one. But man, I thought it was a gorgeous wine. A lot of complexity, 91 plus points for this bad boy. Let's take a look here. This is La La Bahia del Sole. This is the Sarticola. Coli di Luna Vermentino from Liguria, 2023. This comes in, I think around 29 bucks in the USA. This is a single vineyard wine. This is excellent. They also make more affordable Orno di Ise bottling, which I also think is delicious, but I wanted to taste this because I've never tasted this wine before and I thought it was absolutely delicious. Top wine, number five. Had similar notes to number four, but this one had thyme notes in it, which I really liked in addition to the sage notes. Five also is super complex. Getting a little bit more intensity here. This season has some sage and thyme type notes. It's pretty explosive. Grapefruit, lime. The difference between these two is this has a little thyme in addition to the sage. This is more pine sole. These are exciting wines. Vermentinos are so cool because there's a movement towards indigenous grape varieties and sometimes indigenous grape varieties you pay more because producers or regions or countries don't have the amount of quantity, but there is a decent amount of Vermentino in Italy, so the prices are pretty competitive. Man, I'd really like this. Whatever this is, it's really up my alley. This just brings all the fruit and complexity together in Vermentino. Let's move on. 92 plus points and it also looks like it's a Ligurian wine in a winery I've never had before. This is the Terenzuola Fosso di Corsano 2020, so it has some bottle age. Colle di Luna Vermentino. It comes in at 29 bucks. The wines from Liguria are a little more expensive. Liguria is a region that's just south of Piedmont. Genoa is the porter known for its pesto, pine pestos. That's why maybe I get some of the pine things that grow together. They go together. Sometimes they smell together. That's maybe why the Ligurians had those pine soil notes. 2020, this had some bottle age, but man, I thought this was excellent. But I think at 92 plus points, you're really getting what you paid for. So tell me, did you like how I did the style of blind tasting video? Have you ever tasted Vermentino before? Do you have any styles that you really like? I'd love to know. Drop it in the comments below.