Wine swinging with two different wines of 2019 Albino Armani 1607 Pinot Grigio: Valdadige Pinot Grigio and Colle Ara Valdadige Terradeiforti.
The beauty of this tasting was the opportunity to compare an excellent Pinot Grigio vs. an exceptional one. Technically this tasting is called horizontal because we had wines from the same vintage and producer but different vineyards.
To start with, anytime you have Pinot Grigio from Valdadige DOC (appellation), it’s an upgrade. It blows away characterless $10 and below Pinot Grigio. In fact, if you never had $15 Pinot Grigio, you have no idea how great this wine can be.
Albino Armani Winery
First, the winemaking Armani family has no relation to the fashion Armani family. While Giorgio Armani, the fashion designer, made his name famous in the mid-1970s, the other Armani family made wine for much longer than Giorgio sew cloths.
The Armani family has lived in Italy’s Alto Adige region for at least six centuries and handcrafting wine for 400 years. 1607 on the label indicates the year when Simone Armani hands down his estate of “arbori e vigne” (trees and grapevines) to his son Domenico.
Today, under the direction of Signor Albino Armani, the family has five separate wineries, three in the Veneto, one in Trentino Adige, and one in Friuli Venezia Giulia. Armani’s winemaking philosophy is multifaceted, and among them, they try to combine when possible tradition and cutting edge technology. This tasting offered us a chance to observe it in action.
Albino Armani (Valdadige) vs. Albino Armani (Valdadige Terradeiforte)
What unites both 2019 Albino Armani 1607 Pinot Grigio Valdadige DOC and 2019 Albino Armani 1607 Colle Ara Pinot Grigio Valdadige Terradeiforte DOC is Adige Valley the grapes came from.
In the Adige Valley, the climate is characterized by drastic day-night temperature swings and constantly blowing wind. These conditions make this area one of the most suited to the cultivation of Pinot Grigio.
Both wines went through the same production process with a few adjustments along the way that make all the difference. The labels provide some clues why these wines differ in taste as well as in price.
From the source of the grapes perspective, Pinot Grigio Valdadige DOC is made with grapes that come from a geographically large area, and fruit can come from anywhere within it.
On the other hand, Colle Ara Pinot Grigio was made with grapes from the smaller Terradeiforti DOC (appellation). The grapes are hand-selected from the 350-meter elevation vineyards with the best sun exposure and located in the National Park of Lessina.
What does it mean for the wine? It implies that grapes for Colle Ara came from a smaller select geographic area known to produce high-quality quality fruit and should result in better wines. Let’s find out if it’s so.
2019 Albino Armani 1607 Pinot Grigio Valdadige DOC
Pinot Grigio Valdadige has a pale lemon-green color. It’s important because it’s one of the differentiating points with Colle Ara.
We sensed the aroma of white flowers, lemon, yellow kiwi, beeswax, and minerality on the nose.
On the palate, Valdadige has bright acidity and medium body with the flavors of nectarine, yellow apple, and peach skin, and a hint of orange bitter.
2019 Albino Armani 1607 Colle Ara Pinot Grigio Valdadige Terradeiforte DOC
The difference between these two wines was apparent as soon as we poured Colle Ara in the glass. It had a pale golden-copper and almost salmon pink color. We’ll come to it later.
We could tell right that Colle Ara is a more complex wine judging just by the aromas we detected. It had so many things going on: apricot and yellow apple, orange blossom and cotton candy, beeswax and minerality. We couldn’t stop smelling this wine.
It was just as impressive with flavors of peach and orange, apple and yellow plum, lemon and orange peel.
Colle Ara felt almost like Chardonnay in a mouth and a better-structured wine compared to Valdagio Pinot Grigio. It was among the most impressive Pinot Grigios we tasted in 2020.
Valdadige vs. Colle Ara
Both wines made from the same grape and come pretty much from the same area? What makes such a big difference?
Besides the quality of the fruit, Colle Ara followed a slightly different production path. Albino Armani borrowed a page from a traditional Italian winemaking book and combine it with modern technology: soft pressing and cold maceration in contact with grapes skins overnight. That’s where that copper hue in the wine color came from.
The structure and body came from ageing some of the wine in neutral oak barrels and letting wine mature on the lees in the bottle. No wonder it felt like Chardonnay.
And the Winner Is
This is a tough one. In many regards, Colle Ara felt like a more delicate, sophisticated, and better-structured wine. Still, we felt like we would love to have both wines again without hesitation.
As judges in professional wine competitions, we would award first place to 2019 Albino Armani 1607 Colle Ara Pinot Grigio Valdadige Terradeiforte DOC, but just by tenths of the points.
As the Wine Swingers, we’ll keep swinging with both!
Update!
2019 Pinot Grigio Grave Friuli DOC
2019 Pinot Grigio Grave Friuli DOC by Albino Armani was the third Pinot Grigio we tasted from this producer. It was exciting and educational to compare the same producer’s wine from the same grape varietal with the source of grapes that sets them apart.
A rare chance to taste terroir difference and find the one that sings to you.
Pinot Grigio is among the most successful grapes brought to Italy from France by innovative Italian winemakers. The best examples of it come from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region.
Pinot Grigio Friuli Grave 2019 impressed us with its aromatic profile of white flowers, peach, cream, and beeswax. On the palate, it has the flavors of apricot, apple, lemon curd and bee pollen, and dry apricot
aftertaste.
We can hardly call this lovely wine a sophisticated one, yet this entry-level Armani’s Pinot Grigio easily
made our bargain list at $12 per bottle.
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