Wine of the Week ~ Casal Thaulero’s 2015 Orsetto Oro Pecorino Terre di Chieti

~ Wine of the Week ~

Casal Thaulero’s 2015 Orsetto Oro Pecorino

Last week, I told you about Casal Thaulero’s 2015 Borgo Thaulero Pecorino Terre di Chieti. A week later, from his first communication, Chris Toscano reconnected, “Hailing from Abruzzo, Italy, Casal Thaulero’s Orsetto Oro Pecorino… is maintaining the high quality and low cost you know and love in a white wine.” I concur.

Translated, the Orsetto Oro is Gold Bear… An wonderful animal totem.

As with all imports, it’s another great value. This one is just $15.99 a bottle. It goes up just a small notch from last week’s, and continues to be another delicious value wine.

The Casal Thaulero’s 2015 Orsetto Oro Pecorino has the typical color of straw-yellow for this variety. If your palate is like mine, you really appreciate the 13 percent wines. They’re not hot, they’re gentle on your nose and palate, just so easy to enjoy as a sipper, or pairing really well with the right foods. Something with a bit of cream would be a great combination… the richness of the cream and the perfectly balanced acid will make this your new best friend. More complex than last week’s 2015 Borgo Thaulero Pecorino Terre di Chieti, this wine brings a bit of Balsamic nuances to the wine, along with the acacia. This Orsetto Oro Pecorino wine was delightful to have for a few days of lingering enjoyment, holding its own the entire time.

If you want another great, white wine value; especially if you’ve now tasted your first Pecorino, here you go to further expand your range! This one is more of a Sophia Loren kind of wine; a bit of earthy, sassy substance and yet possessing a very feminine mystique as she walks out the door, smoothly finishing what she started.

Let’s Explore the Pecorino Wine Grape

[Image of Italy’s wine regions is borrowed from Wine Folly. If you’re interred in wine made easy, you really owe it to yourself to visit this very comprehensive and fun website.]

Who:

Botanists are inclined to believe that the Pecorino grape is native to Marche.  [Check out the calf region of the boot on the Eastern Shore.] According to Kim Marcus of Wine Spectator: Pecorino is an “Italian white grape variety that was thought to be long lost until vines were found growing in a ravine in the Marche region…The wine has been brought back to life by vintners and growers, especially those in the Abruzzo region, a mountainous district in central Italy.” Jancis Robinson’s Wine Grapes, states there were barely 87 hectares (215 acres) of Pecorino in Italy in the year 2000, so it’s a comeback kid.

What:

This is an Italian thin skinned, white grape variety. It originated by Benedictine research, in Arquata del Tronto, In Abruzzo it’s used for the sparkling wines of Controguerra. It’s also found in several Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT) wines of that region.

The grape variety has great acidity and sugar content. It’s minerally and dry, with a straw-yellow, color. It’s bouquet is floral and a bit spicy.

When:

It is believed that 800 years ago the Pecorino grape was born in Arquata del Tronto, of the central Italian province of Ascoli Piceno.

Where:

Today Pecorino is found mostly in Italy’s eastern coastal regions: Not only in Marche, but also in Chieti, Pescara, the Teramo provinces of Abruzzo, and in Liguria, Lazio, Tuscany, Umbria.

Pecorino Cheese

Pecorino, the grape’s name, had me wondering about Pecorino cheese. You, too? Pecorino stems from the Italian word pecora, meaning sheep, so that’s pretty definitive for the cheese. I didn’t know about this cheese, either, prior to getting this wine. (I’m not a cheese connoisseur.) There’s no existing link that the grape variety is linked to Pecorino wine, however, that I’ve found.