Mandra Rossa 2008 Fiano – Wine Wednesday

This week’s Wine Wednesday comes to us from one of my favorite wine regions in the world, Italy. And it’s made from an ancient and relatively obscure grape, the Fiano. While Fiano generally grows in Campagnia, these grapes were grown in Sicily. Who knew? For those of you who like big, luscious, fruit forward wine, Fiano is the wine for you. If Marilyn Monroe had been a wine, this is what she would be. Sexy, curvy and luscious.

In addition to the beautiful wine that Fiano grapes produce, the grapes, themselves, and the resulting wine have an interesting story. Fiano grapes have been growing in Italy since Roman times and were believed to have been the much vaunted and written about Apianum wine. There is speculation that the Greeks may have even cultivated Fiano before the Romans got their hands on it.

Fiano is a crowd pleaser. You will find that your friends that like Chardonnay and Pinot Gris will like this wine. Butit’s generally not much of a budget wine because of its obscurity, low yields and popularity among people in the know on wine (I think that most I have purchased prior to my Sicily find have been in the over $20 bucket). Therefore, I was ecstatic when I came across this wine for $7.99 at the Wine House. I thought that I would give it a whirl—how bad could it be?—and I was desperate to replenish my supply of inexpensive wine for Wine Wednesdays. We may not have admitted it before, but we drink a lot of bad and mediocre wine to bring you the gems that we find for Wine Wednesday. Last week, we drank 5 bottles before we found one.

This week’s Wine Wednesday is the Mandra Rossa 2008 Fiano, which is a literal steal at $7.99. Visually, the wine was clear with a medium to medium plus yellow color. You could see the viscosity in the glass. On the nose, the wine was clean with a medium youthful intensity of passion fruit, mango, guava, lemon, orange peel, cantaloupe and magnolia. On the palate, the wine had medium to medium minus acidit, medium to medium plus body, medium alcohol and medium intensity of Tutti-Frutti gum, passionfruit, candied grapefruit, orange peel, guava, magnolia and jasmine. Medium finish with a slightly bitter edge.

This was a good wine (I would have thought so at a $20 price) and a virtual steal at $7.99. Snap some up and serve them to your favorite wine snobs at your next party.