Red Wine
- Details
- Published: 21 May 2016 21 May 2016
It was a pleasure to catch up Elena Gargani at the London Wine Fair recently and taste her range of Italian wines. In particular the Gianni Gagliardo Barolo 2011 stuck out as fantastic wine for drinking now or laying down for many years to come.
If you like your reds to be rich and complex with balanced fruit - think fresh ripe cherries - with a firm tannic grip that make this a superb wine for roasted vegetables and heavier meats like roasted lamb, then this is for you.
I like Elena’s suggestion of treating this as “meditation wine” - kick back, assume the lotus position, put on some music of high intensity (Philip Glass’s ‘Akhnaten’ for example), pour a glass and breathe deeply… “Ommm”.
Great wine.
Elena Gargani is the Director of Cru Privé (www.cru-prive.co.uk) based in Newcastle but with nationwide sales.
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