Podere San Giorgio Bonarda vivace  2003, D.O.C. Oltrepo Pavese. **HERITAGE WINE**

Colour: medium, intense, red with no purple, slight haze of tiny little bubbles of CO2.
Nose: expressive, loaded with sweet strawberries and cherries, deliciously jammy, also fresh, not complex but clean, straight and honest.
Taste: a little touch of sweetness is followed by a range of juicy, ripe sweet fruit (strawberry, cherry), piquant tannins and fine freshness, combined with impressions of pepper, almonds, an attractive, slight sweet bitter touch, delicious and exciting combination of sweetness rusticity (aroma as well as tannin and acidity) and a prickle of CO2, not complex, deep or refined, but clean and very well balanced.
Finish: like the taste: juicy and slightly sweet, but also piquant, clean and an exciting and delicious balance between the rustic, fresh and aromatic side of the wine.

* An exciting combination of exuberant juicy, ripe sweet fruit (strawberry, cherry), piquant tannins, fine freshness and a juicy touch of residual sweetness. The opposing aspects piquancy, rusticity and sweetness are well balanced, giving this wine an intriguing tension. Not complex or deep, but just delicious.

- Drink this wine as young as possible, will keep until 2006. Will not improve with age.

- Residual sweetness in a red wine is something a serious wine amateur rather would like to avoid. In most cases I agree on this, but there are exceptions. Sometimes a wine possesses such an intriguing combination of taste constituents that I fall in love with it. In this case the softness, sweetness and juiciness of the wine are perfectly balanced with a matching type and quantity of piquant tannins and idem freshness. These two sides of the wine compensate each others' unpleasant characters, creating a new exciting taste impression you will never find in a modern, full blown rich, sumptuous, wood aged wine. A style that increasingly dominates the shelves of the supermarkets these days.  This is Italy, the idiosyncratic style in which the aroma's, tannins and acidity of the indigenous Bonarda (Croatina) grape (+ some Barbera and Uve Rara) from these Lombardian vineyards beg for some sweetness. Never mind this wine is not complex, refined or deep,  it is produced just to enjoy it and have a good time with the company you eat your meal with.  Very good producer with consistent quality red wines. The Castel San Giorgio is the more prestigious range of wines.
 

- lotnr.: L 134.04

- tasted: 01-10-’04

- estimated retail price ca. 7 euro

- average production: ca.  bottles

- Azienda Agricola San Giorgio, Mrs. Elena Perdomini, Località Castello, 1 - 27046 Santa Giuletta (PV), tel.: + 39-0383-899168 /  fax.: + 39-0383-899165 / e-mail: info@poderesangiorgio.it / web site: www.poderesangiorgio.it