Arneis Champagne Blend Other Italian Reds Nebbiolo Rose / Blush Wine
The Arneis white wine grape varietal is a native fruit of the beautiful northern region of Piedmont, in Italy. Whilst it has had great success over recent decades in several New World countries, Arneis has been cultivated for centuries in northern Italy, where it is recognized as one of the most representative grapes of the region. Arneis has long been used as a blending grape, due to its highly aromatic character, but it is becoming more and more common to see single variety bottles made using this grape. At its best, Arneis produces beautifully full bodied white wines, packed full of orchard fruit and apricot flavors, with a fine crispness and acidic punch. However, it is a notoriously difficult grape to cultivate successfully, hence its name which translates as 'little rascal'.
The sparkling wines of Champagne have been revered by wine drinkers for hundreds of years, and even today they maintain their reputation for excellence of flavor and character, and are consistently associated with quality, decadence, and a cause for celebration. Their unique characteristics are partly due to the careful blending of a small number of selected grape varietals, most commonly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. These grapes, blended in fairly equal quantities, give the wines of Champagne their wonderful flavors and aromas, with the Pinot Noir offering length and backbone, and the Chardonnay varietal giving its acidity and dry, biscuity nature. It isn't unusual to sometimes see Champagne labeled as 'blanc de blanc', meaning it is made using only Chardonnay varietal grapes, or 'blanc de noir', which is made solely with Pinot Noir.
The Nebbiolo grape varietal is widely understood to be the fruit responsible for Italy's finest aged wines. However, its popularity and reliability as a grape which gives out outstanding flavors and aromas has led it to be planted in many countries around the world, with much success. These purple grapes are distinguishable by the fact that they take on a milky dust as they begin to reach maturity, leading many to claim that this is the reason for their unusual name, which means 'fog' in Italian. Nebbiolo grapes produce wines which have a wide range of beautiful and fascinating flavors, the most common of which are rich, dark and complex, such as violet, truffle, tobacco and prunes. They are generally aged for many years to balance out their characteristics, as their natural tannin levels tend to be very high.