2023 Li Veli Susumaniello Rosato IGT Salento
You can be forgiven for never having heard of the Susumaniello grape. In order to, you’d, most likely, either be studying for your second level sommelier exam or have had opportunity to eat and drink in coastal Puglia, along Italy’s Adriatic Coast. Even if you had traveled there, you might have been more likely tempted to order something marginally more familiar (or easier to pronounce), like Puglia’s much better known Negroamaro or Primitivo instead, to go with your Orrechiette pasta. Susumaniello (sue-sue-mon-ee-ello), though, is worth the inevitable trip of the tongue when you try to order it. It is, in our opinion, the very essence of this sunny, wind-swept cerulean blue coast in a bottle. Grown only at a handful of family-run masseria around the white-washed hill town of Brindisi, this pungent, fragrant red variety is typically either blended away with Negroamaro into various Salento blends, turned, by some intrepid producers into a wonderfully rustic red where its deep, deep color and incredible aromatics can really shine. A late ripener, Susumaniello, when it’s harvested at the proper time in the season, can also make a truly delicious, really distinctive dry pink wine that not only looks fabulous with the sunshine streaming through a cold glass, it seems born to accompany the wonderful pastas, spicy fish dishes and smoky, grilled meats one finds in this incredible region. I first discovered Li Veli’s wonderful Askos Susumaniello Rosato at a small trattoria overlooking the impossibly blue Adriatic in the stunning hilltop town of Ostuni. I know. I could have been drinking battery acid and it would taste good in that town, but, even so, I remained objective enough to determine that this was going to be a tremendous bottle of wine no matter how and where you consumed it. Dry and minerally, there is great substance to go along with its fabulous aromatics and persistent flavors. Just think about walking through one of the many impossibly colorful gardens that surround the whitewashed walls of Ostuni and you get the idea- lemon, blood orange, all kinds of flowers, maybe a squeeze of pink grapefruit? Something tropical perhaps? Wow. Not going to be anywhere overlooking the Adriatic with a perfectly grilled San Pietro bathed in a fragrant chili brodo in front of you this summer? Do the next best thing and chill a bottle of this and make your own magical food and wine pairing in your own backyard heaven on earth! And it’s really, really good all on its own too!
**** Arugulas, *** Hammocks on PRIMA’s scientific Rose scale.
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