Well, hello! I don’t know which is more tiresome for you, Gentle Reader: my movie writings or me talking about how freakin’ hot it is and needing something to sip to cool down. By all means, let me know.
I mean, it’s July in New Jersey. So it’s hot. And humid. I’d really love a good rafter-shaking thunderboomer to disperse it all, but sadly nothing like that in the near-term forecast. Just makes you want to lie down till it passes.
Instead I’m chilling out with this very nice 2019 Mastroberardino Fiano di Avellino DOCG, one of my Full Pull purchases from earlier in the year.
Avellino is in the Campania region of Italy, in the south close to Naples. Fiano is a (yep, you can see in the photo) white grape that was grown in the area as far back as the 13th century. It was largely destroyed in the phylloxera epidemic in the mid to late 1800s and then rediscovered in the 70s and 80s.
The texture is melony, nicely rounded and soft, with a little bit of sharpness on the end. Serve this around 45° for more freshness. I get a little nuttiness on the nose. I can’t wait to make some tortellini pasta salad (cheese and/or chicken) to go with.
Extremely sippable. Grab a couple for poolside. And other Fianos range from the $20s to the mid-$30s, so we should definitely keep some around for summer entertaining.
Let me know what you need to know! Hit me up on Insta or here via Substack.
Awesome column as always! Great pic of Johnny after he obviously had to much of that Avellino...