Wine of the Week: A Very Charming Italian

When traveling to wine producers we are privileged. We meet so many fascinating and fun people, all around the world. These past few weeks we have been to Italy and meet so many great people from Piemonte in the North, via Abruzzo to Sicily in the South. But it was in Abruzzo we met a true original and one of the most fun and generous persons I have ever met on my travels. 

At a lunching with Zaccanini he introduced us to a friend of his with the great name Fausto Zazzara. An entertainer and funny man, and also, as with so many Italians, a fantastic chef, he made one great dish after the other for a typical Italian lunch that lasted for hours. But it was the wine he served that surprised us the most. It was his own sparkling wine, made there in the mountains of Abruzzo. A great and fruity sparkling that piqued our interest. He invited us to his cellar and Zaccanini insisted we should go. He promised us it would be something different and he wasn’t kidding.

​The next day we drove to the tiny town of Tocco da Casauria. And Fausto showed us around. I had my I phone with me and filmed a little bit so you can see for your self the charming and fun place he has. He only makes 15 000 bottles a year and he is the only one who works with the wine, although, since he has five names, he says he has five persons working in the cellar. Being on a tasting with Fausto is something special that is for sure. But he follows up with his wines. We tasted his whole range, he has four different sparkling wines, and the white is this weeks Wine of the Week. But I have to mention the rose he had left on the lees for 48 months. It was a sort of experiment that he forgot about and then suddenly one day he found some bottles hidden away in corner. I stead of throwing the wine away he tried it and lo and behold, and orange sparkling wine that tasted like fresh blood oranges appeared! I have to say it was one of the fines sparkling wines I have ever tasted, that wasn’t a champagne. Here’s hoping some bottles find their way to Norway soon.

Tasting Notes:

​Fausto Zazzara Majgual Metodo Classico Brut 2015
254,90 kr
Fresh and sharp sparkling wine. A lot of lime on the nose. In the mouth the lemon and also lime is very present. Very refreshing and super drinkable. A perfect aperitif. 

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