You can imagine how thrilled I was when I discovered one of my favorite northern Italian white wines on the list the other night at Giacomo’s Cibo e Vino on Westheimer: The 2010 Anas-Cëtta (Nascetta) by Cogno for under $40. (The name of this rare grape is Nascetta, pronounced nah-SHEHT-tah. Originally, winemaker Valter Fissore called it Anas-Cëtta to avoid a legal issue by using a dialectal inflection of the grape’s name and in the end, the proprietary name stuck.)
The Cogno Nascetta is a structured white, with nuanced aroma, great depth in flavor, and some tannic structure that make it a truly noble expression of winemaking in Piedmont, a region known solely for its red wines.
But when served too cold, the wine won’t reveal its character.
My preference would be serve it “cellar” temperature, i.e., around 55° or 56° Fahrenheit, allowing it to “open up” on the table in the bottle and evolve in the glass.
After opening the bottle and pouring me a tasting sip, our excellent server disappeared only to reappear with an ice bucket. And she was very polite when I told her that our party didn’t need it.
Chilling it in ice water would have been equivalent to pouring it down the drain. Wine is a living, breathing entity just like us: Would you take an ice bath before making love? No, I didn’t think so.
Follow Eating Our Words on Facebook and on Twitter @EatingOurWords
This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 1, 2012.
