Wine of the Week! 01/09/24

Cora Pinot Grigio

Normally $12.99 / Now on Sale for $10.96
100% Pinot Grigio (IGT Colline Pescaresi)

The Cora wines are a proprietary label created by (and, of course, for) New York importer, Bowler Wines. Founded in 2003 as David Bowler Wines, they built their portfolio out of small family farms that dedicate themselves to low intervention winemaking. For the Cora line of wines, they turn to Abruzzo vintners, Tenuta Talamonti.

A relatively young winery, Talmonti was founded in 2001 outside of Loreto Apurtino near east central Italy’s Adriatic coast (where the calf of “the boot” meets the heel). Run by Antonella di Tonno and Rodrigo Redmont, Talamonti sits 300m above sea level overlooking the Tavo Valley.

Of course, the star white grape of Abruzzo is Trebbiano, though you can also find fine whites from regional indigenous grapes Pecorino, Passerina, and Cococciola. However, for Bowler, Talamonti produces this Pinot Grigio, bottling the wine under Abruzzo’s Colline Pescaresi IGT/IGP classification — a classification that allows winemakers to color outside the region’s designated lines, as it were.

If you’re used to non-descript Pinot Grigios, know that the Cora is not one of those. Talamonti gently presses their grapes and ferments them in stainless steel tanks for two weeks — so much do they want to highlight their freshness, well-ripened from their southeast facing vineyards. The Cora gives you a slight touch of shale before sliding you into its bright fruit. Have it just on the cool side to really enjoy those notes. Our distributor rep for this wine likes to call it, “the Pinot Grigio that actually tastes like something.”