Gabbiano - Chianti

Price: $9.99
Region: Italy
Year: 2006

I have a couple of wines to review from this past weekend, but I'm going to start with the first one I tried. Nothing too special about this Friday evening, just grabbing my wife's new favorite pizza from a relatively new Italian restaurant nearby. This particular pizza has chicken, spinach, and artichoke. Definitely a good pizza, so I decided it needed an Italian wine to go along. The store I was close to has a much smaller selection, and much higher prices then my usual store, so I was just looking for something I hadn't tried before that was around $10. Low and behold, I saw a Chianti that fit the bill, so I decided to give it a try.

I have not had a whole of of Italian wines. I have the one I usually get that is n my list of default wines, and I have also had a couple of more expensive wines around the holidays, but as you can see from what has been reviewed so far over the past 6-7 months, wines from Italy are not that common. That being said, I'm more then aware you can find many good Italian wines at a good price. I was hoping this would be the case here. My first impression when taking a look at my glass of wine, was that it had a very nice ruby red color. Definitely not a dark Cabernet, or Shiraz, but very vibrant. When I lifted the glass up to take a smell, I could tell it was going to stand out. It was very fruity, but definitely not overpowering. Just a really pleasant, fruity smell. So far so good. Now, for the important part. I took a sip, and was a touch disappointed. It was definitely not bad, but there was something about the taste that just didn't make it stand out. I was thinking based on the great smell, that the taste would be equally as good, but it was just OK. I hate to say middle of the road, because I just don't have a whole lot of Italian wines to compare it too, but definitely not on par with my Italian defaut wine. Definitely not a bad "pizza on a Friday night wine", but nothing to write home about either..

Rating: 2.75 Corks ( Pretty good)