Reviews
- James Suckling -
Technical Details
- Paolo Scaiola and Rocco Surace
- Italy
- Piedmont
- Cuneo
- Roero
- Canorei
- 9 months in wood followed by 3 months in bottle
- 12 Months
- 14%
Tenuta Carretta Roero Arneis Canorei Riserva 2021
37% OFF RETAIL!
If you’ve never had it, Arneis is such a fascinating grape, making round and delicious wines that are generous and crowd-pleasing. Simply put, this is a treat! 92 points and under $25 makes it an easy choice to add more than a few to your wine fridge for spring and summer.
Recently, Tenuta Carretta celebrated 550 years – yes, YEARS – of its long, storied history. We generally visit this historic property every year, and talk about soccer, food, hilarious American movies, truffles, and taste a bunch of the upcoming releases. This one they sent as a sample that we tasted together over Zoom – and it was simply divine!
The winery predates Christopher Columbus, with records placing its founding to the year 1467. The estate is set in rolling hills of Piobesi d’Alba, Roero, just north of the City of Alba and on the left bank of the Tanaro River. Named for the Piobese noblewoman, Domina Carretta, who first owned the estate, Tenuta Carretta makes mostly red, still wines – only recently branching out into the world of additional Italian varieties.
This is a monopole cru for Carretta and is unlike any other Arneis on the planet. Buttered toast and vanilla with fruit salad flavors of melon, peach, and tangerine, plus some white flowers, with salted pineapple and almond cream and hints of wild fennel. This is ripe and oily in texture, with mouth-coating viscosity and a concentrated finish with superb length. Twelve months on the lees in barrel, and very low sulfur because of all the lees contact. Like nothing you’ve ever tasted. Just a gem of a wine that has rightly become a long-standing First Bottle favorite!
PAIRING IDEAS: A classic northern Italian dish to eat with Arneis is this: Frittelle di Zucchine. Crispy fried shredded zucchini fritters, basically, with some salty Parm bringing it together – so good and a fantastic counterpoint to this richly-styled Arneis!