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I fell out of love with Chardonnay in the nineties and didn’t touch the grape until I discovered soft white Burgundy 20 years later. In the past five years, I have evangelised about Italian wines and Castello della Sala Cervaro 2015 was a Christmas gift from my husband bought because it is an Italian white wine made in the style of a white Burgundy.

The wine is a blend of Chardonnay and the ancient Greek grape Grechetto grown in the Umbria region. There is no information that I could find about the quantity of each grape  in the wine but the similarity to a white Burgundy is so striking, except for the raised acidity, that the majority of the grapes must be Chardonnay.

The colour is pale gold and the nose is as fresh as an early morning meadow with citrus and pineapple. As the temperature of the wine increased in the glass the nose developed buttery notes.  On the palate it was fresh, lively, youthful and exuberant, citrus and pineapple. The length was pineapple with a creamy finish which just went on and on. A little bitterness at first on the finish but then soft. The flavours were heightened, almost dancing and needed to settle down. It was full bodied with crisp acidity. There was more acidity than in the Louis Latour, Mâcon-Lugny 2015  a Burgundy white wine which I reviewed in October 2017 and this is due to the addition of the Grechetto grape which produces wines with high acidity. This is not an easy drinking wine and like most of the wines on my blog needed food. It is best brought up a few degrees from the fridge to experience the flavours and to feel the lovely oily texture in the mouth.

I enjoyed Castello della Sala Cervaro 2015 with Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni topped with Manchego and Parmesan cheese served with fresh spinach and basil leaves. The dish was a perfect match. The tomato sauce was light and fresh and the basil leaves echoed the freshness of the wine. The wine stood up to the tomato sauce in the cannelloni which was made with fresh plum tomatoes, good quality, light olive oil, garlic, a small amount of sugar and seasoning. The food had a calming effect on the flavours in the wine and it was as if they lined up on the palate to behave and produced an elegant, gorgeous, soft taste which was so smooth that it was an absolute joy.  After the food the wine continued to be smooth and gorgeous.

Castello della Sala Cervaro 2015 is a fine wine and very expensive. The Antinori family have been involved in the production of wine for over six centuries, since 1385 and are an important and prestigious name in wine production in the region. There has been a lot of additional processes in its production wich are time consuming and therefore costly, such as grape sorting to ensure only the best grapes are used, the transference of the Chardonnay wine from stainless steel tanks to French oak barrels for three months, malolactic fermentation, which took place in the oak barrels, and the blending of the Grechetto wine fermented in separate stainless steel tanks. The Chardonnay and Grechetto wines when blended were bottled and then aged for several months.

Castello della Sala Cervaro 2015 was ordered into Majestic Wine in Poole from the Majestic Wine website and cost £55. I loved it. Click here to buy this wine!

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Read my wine and food column in the Bournemouth Echo on the first Saturday of each month.