Winey Tasting Notes: Italian Memories with Piccini’s Memoro Italia Vino Rosato

During the summer of 2014, The Winey Family took a trip to Italy. We were celebrating the graduations of both Winey Children – one from college, one from high school. We’d always wanted to go to Italy, so we took off for an amazing 11 days in Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre and Venice. It ranks as one of our all time favorite trips and we love to reminisce about it.

The Winey Family at the Coliseum

It was a glorious time – from the culture to the history to the sunny, hot weather. And of course, I found some wines to write about: The Wines of Cinque Terre, When in Rome….Drink Frascati, Pinot Grigio in Rome..at Target, Spritzing like they do in Italy.

One variety of wines I didn’t write about then were the Italian Rosé wines, which I absolutely loved. I had tried different Rosés before, some French, some US, and some Italian and I liked some, others, not so much. But the Rosés I found there were wonderful! And for the most part, they were anonymous house wines or local wines that could not be found back here in the US of A. And believe me, I tried. But I just couldn’t find one that brought me back to our time there, most notably to a very special canal-side dinner in Venice. It was there that I had one of my favorite Rosés of the whole trip. But I never got the name (it was a house wine and there wasn’t a whole lot of English-Italian communicating going on – on both sides!).

I never really gave up looking, it was always in the back of my mind that I could find a Rosé like the ones I sipped on our trip.

One day, in the grocery store, I decided to buy a bottle of an Italian Rosé that I had seen many times. It was only $8 and had been hanging around the store for quite a while. I had passed it by because, well, I don’t really know why. I just did. Time and time again. It just didn’t seem to be one I’d like.

The wine is question is Piccini’s Memoro Italia Vino Rosato (NV, 13.5%, Chianti, Italy). It’s a blend of 40% Negroamaro, 30% Montepulciano, 20% Nero d’Avola and 10% Merlot del Veneto. I will never know why I decided to buy it that fateful day…..but oh my, I am so glad I did. Because this was the one that brought me right back to Italy! The Rosé I had been searching for, and I found it about a mile away in my grocery store, no less.

First of all this wine is so pretty: a lovely medium-deep pink translucent color. The nose was faint raspberry. The first taste was sharp strawberries followed by raspberry and then a line of cranberry. The flavors were crisp and clean without any citrus, so I would call this a juicy, full flavored dry wine. No citrus here, like you’d find in a Sauvignon Blanc…this was pure Rosé – from those red grapes!

This wine was just wonderful: crisp and refreshing and light all at the same time. I know it would be a great wine to pair with food when summer arrives, but I absolutely loved it all on its own in the middle of an Ohio winter.

“Memoro Italia,” according to the back label of the wine, is Latin for “remember Italy.” And let me tell you, this wine lives up to its Latin. It made me remember our time in Italy in the best of ways! And it’s a time that I’ll always cherish: full of family, fun, travel and love.

Cheers!