Wine of the week 5/14/19

Our new wine of the week is
Azienda Agricola Tintero Elvio Langhe Arneis 
Regularly $14.99/On sale for $12.96

For centuries, Arneis was planted in the Nebbiolo vineyards of the Barolo region where the sweet scent of ripe Arneis (the name means “little rascal”) berries would attract birds and keep them away from the more valuable Nebbiolo clusters.  Any remaining Arneis grapes would be harvested with the Nebbiolo and serve to soften the tannins in the legendarily huge wines of the region. Producers over the last century began to focus on 100% Nebbiolo wines, and Arneis was gradually pulled out and replaced with the red grape.  Arneis was effectively lost until the 70s, when Alfredo Currado of the Vietti wine family discovered a long-neglected patch and slowly brought it back to the entire Piedmont.

Pierre Tintero left France for Italy in 1900, and found work at an estate owned by the widow Rosina Cortese.  They married two years later and bottled their first wine just as war descended on Europe in 1914. Their fourth generation descendants Marco and Cinzia now run the estate.  This fresh and aromatic wine is absolutely too good to pass up. We highly recommend filling a shelf in your fridge with bottles for the summer!