Fall 2022 Offer #15: Pialli Tai Rosso

Alessandro Pialli - 2021 “Rosso Calbin” Tai Rosso

Bottom Line - Pialli’s 2021 Tai Rosso is the rare complex red wine that pairs beautifully with fish dishes, chicken, and spicy foods. It’s velvety smooth on the palate, with enough supple fruit and lingering acidity to retain overall balance despite minimal tannins. This Tai Rosso looks like a light wine but it doesn’t drink like one. While excellent as an aperitivo, it will shine with a diverse array of flavors and dishes on the table.

My notes: “White pepper and raspberries, with secondary aromas of rose, underbrush, and wet stone; generous red fruit in the mouth; lighter-bodied, with lively acidity. Authentic and inviting.”

This wine is currently only available in northern Europe and Italy.

To order, just click the one the blue link above and follow the prompts. Keep reading for more in-depth information on Pialli’s Tai Rosso.

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Wine friends,

A few years back, I was talking to a coworker about my wine obsession, and how it was so bad that I had started “working” at a wine store on weekends just to get discounts on high-end bottles. This coworker was a friendly curmudgeon (retired Navy officer) so in typically abrasive form he asked, “You’re not one of those snooty guys who thinks I can’t drink reds with fish, are you?” 

Well, maybe.

It’s not that fish and red wine always clash, or that they can’t be decent together. It’s that, for me, they are rarely great together. Plus, there’s usually a white wine nearby that could work much better.

So I was skeptical when Alessandro Pialli told me this wine, his Tai Rosso, pairs spectacularly well with the notoriously fishy, Baccala alla Vicentina (stockfish Vicenza-style). But I nodded and agreed to try out the pairing soon. The wine had been spectacular with the spicy local sausages he served during our tasting, and I wanted to keep tasting it.

A few weeks later, I ran Alessandro’s baccala experiment at home. Sure enough, he was right. This Tai Rosso was not just tolerable with fish, the combination was a revelation. 

While other reds have delicate light tannins, Pialli’s Tai Rosso has feathery tannins that seem to vanish upon entering your mouth. There’s nothing to conflict with the fish. 

The fruit profile is unique too – ripe and sweet, but somehow the alcohol level is low. This wine never feels taxing or heavy.

That settles it. If you want to drink a red wine every night, you now have my blessing – as long as you are serving this wine on fish nights.

Alessandro Pialli is a small Colli Berici producer with a growing reputation and not enough bottles to go around. He only produces about 20 thousand bottles per year. 

Here is where Pialli sits on the map of northern Italy:Azienda Agricola Pialli

In 2000, Pialli became the first biodynamic producer in the Colli Berici. You can check out some of the vineyards and territory here: https://www.vinipialli.it/garganega

While Tai Rosso and Grenache are genetically identical, over the centuries Tai Rosso  has developed a unique character in the Colli Berici. Compared to Grenache, Tai Rosso has much thicker skins and larger grapes. It also produces wines that have more acidity, a paler color, and less sugar than Grenache.

Food pairing: 

The back label of this Tai Rosso tells us the wine is “very versatile, adaptive as an aperitivo, but also with the entire meal, and it marries well with the traditional baccala alla Vicentina.” I had it with spicy chinese short ribs a few nights ago, and that was a winner too.

Alessandro Pialli - 2021 “Rosso Calbin” Tai Rosso

13.5% ABV

To order, just click the links above and follow the prompts.

Happy Tuesday,

Chris

If you have any questions or feedback, please email us: [email protected].  

How it works: 

After clicking one of the links above, you’ll be able to request 1-12 bottles. Actually, that’s all you have to do!

About a week later, when we close the offer, you’ll get an email confirming how many bottles we allocated to your account. We will charge you when the wines are allocated.

We’ll do our best to allocate all the bottles you request. But when there are more requests than bottles available, we’ll allocate one bottle to all requesting members before allocating a second bottle to anyone. We want as many members as possible to try these wines.

This is the 15th of 18 offers during the fall season. Through the first week of November, we are sending offers on Thursday and Sunday, and the Open Tuesday re-up on Tuesdays.

We ship in increments of 12. With 18 offers this season, there should be plenty of chances to get to 12, 24, or 36. If you don’t have an increment of 12 at the end of the fall season offers, we can hold your wines until the next offer season – spring 2023.

Wines offered in the fall will ship in late November-early December for $5 per bottle (if you have an increment of 12.) This is about the same as the price to ship coast-to-coast within the U.S. – but our wines come directly from Italy.

Once your payment method is on file, you can make future requests with just a few clicks from the offer email. If you don’t have a card on file, you can add one during your first order. Your personal financial information is protected by Stripe.

Chris MacLean

Rob Genova

Open Tuesday Wines S.r.l.s.

Via Augusto Anfossi 19, 20135 Milano - Italy