July’s gathering of the North Texas Winos took place at Amici’s Italian Restaurant in Carrollton. Not only is Amici’s a cozy Italian restaurant with very good food at reasonable prices and great service it is also a BYOB restaurant that charges ZERO for corkage. Outstanding value. I highly recommend giving it a try.

There were eleven attendees to this month’s event. Winos present were Mr & Mrs preferred, Mr & Mrs BubbaP, Mr & Mrs BubbaP Neighbors, vintage, THE 291 with a friend from the Wine Lover’s Page and closing out with Mr & Mrs wineismylife.

As we were setting up and waiting for all of the attendees to arrive we had the following wines as a warmup:

2002 Seresin Sauvignon Blanc

1997 Del Dotto Cabernet Sauvignon

After everbody arrived and BubbaP finished attacking the Brunello di Montalcino (lol) we loosely organized the wines for the evening. Our theme for the evening was “Italian Varietals”. Everybody did an excellent job bringing a good mix of whites to start and a wide variety of reds from Sanviovese to Barbara to Brunello di Montalcino to Barolo.

Here were the wines in order of tasting:

2001 Ruffino Chardonnay Toscana Libaio

2002 Frattina Pinot Grigio

1994 Fuligni Brunello di Montalcino Vigneti dei Cottimelli

2001 Bruno Rocco Vigna Trifole Dolcetto d’Alba

2000 Antonio & Elio Monti Montalpucino d’Abruzzo Pignotto

1998 Allegrini Veronese La Grola

2001 UNTI Sangiovese

2001 Icardi Pierino Taharin Babera d’Asti

1996 Fratelli Brovia Rocche dei Brovia Barolo

1993 Pio Cesare Ornato Barolo

2002 Di Majo Norante Sangiovese

1995 Bussola Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Classico Vigneto Alto

2002 Sourgal Moscato d’Asti

Everybody was allowed to cast 1 vote for WOTN. This resulted in a three-way tie at two votes each. Everybody was then allowed to cast 1 vote for his or her second favorite wine as a tiebreaker. Here are the top wines of the night:

2001 UNTI Sangiovese.
2002 Sourgal Moscato d’Asti.
2001 Bruno Rocco Vigna Trifole Dolcetto d’Alba
2000 Antonio & Elio Monti Montalpucino d’Abruzzo Pignotto.
1993 Pio Cesare Ornato Barolo.

FWIW, My Wines of the Night were:

1993 Pio Cesare Ornato Barolo.
1996 Fratelli Brovia Rocche dei Brovia Barolo.
1994 Fuligni Brunello di Montalcino Vigneti dei Cottimelli.

I have several pictures I took and will post a link later once I get them uploaded to the Internet.

Our next event will probably be sometime in September and will likely be Northern Rhones. In November will will probably taste Champagnes in preparation for the holiday season.

Look forward to seeing everybody again!