A 3-Minute Wine Review of The Fratelli Sette | Food Lovers

It is probably one of the finest expressions of red that you will find in the country today. And this is a 2013 vintage, the bottle that I'm tasting. And it's aged in French oak for about 14 months. Hi, this is Kripal Amana from Food Lovers and welcome to the 3 Minute Wine Review. When it comes to wine, I believe there's only one thing that matters. Whether you like the wine or not. Everything else is just fluff. The outer layer. I love wine and I taste a fair bit of it. In this series, we will explore a range of wines. Wines for everyday drinking and wines for that special occasion. We will explore the wines, its palate, aroma... ... and the kind of food that it would perhaps go best with. We'll try and take the guesswork out of wines for you. So the next time you chance upon the wine on a supermarket shelf... ... or on a restaurant wine list, you'll know exactly what you're in for. As compared to a few years ago, the Indian wine industry has come a long way. So not only do you see a range of wines and winemaking styles... ... but one is also beginning to see depth as far as the wines go. And today you have some wines that can truly compete... ... with some of the best out there in the new wine world. And one such wine is the Fratelli Sette. It is probably one of the finest expressions of red... ... that you will find in the country today. It's a very subtle, understated sort of a bottle. And on the bottle it bears the signature of Piero Massi... ... who's the Italian winemaker for Fratelli. And interestingly, Fratelli translates to brothers in Italian. And this winehouse is a coming together of three sets of brothers. The Secchi brothers from Italy... ... and the Sekri and Mohite Patil brothers from India. Now this wine has a good old-fashioned cork closure. There's a certain romance to opening a bottle of wine which has a cork in it. The wine is a blend of two varietals. So it's got 60% Sangiovese and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon. And this is a 2013 vintage, the bottle that I'm tasting. And it's aged in French oak for about 14 months. So therefore, I expect this to be a big wine. Big in terms of flavour, big in terms of mouthfeel and tannins. Ideally, it's great if you can decant this wine. I've decanted this wine into this decanter and kept it for about 30 minutes now. If you don't have a decanter, you can just open a bottle of wine... ... and keep it for probably about an hour before you serve it. And this will allow the flavours in the wine to develop. But if you're really impatient to get to the wine and you want to get to the wine in a hurry... ... sure, you could pour the wine from the bottle into the glass and nurse the wine slowly. I think you will see this wine evolve from the first sip to the last. On the nose, it's really luscious. You get a sense of the oaky character of the wine. You get notes of vanilla. You also get the jammy notes of black fruit. And you also get a bit of spice. It's well balanced on the palate. And it leaves you with this long, lingering finish. It's the sort of wine that you can have a conversation with. When it comes to food, think of meaty kebabs, think of indulgent curries... ... think of slow roasts, think of casseroles bursting with flavour. So, you could pair this wine with a Lambara Kebab. You could pair it with meaty grills. You could pair it with morels, intensely flavoured porcini, portobello mushrooms. But the other day, I tasted this wine with a Lamb Rogan Gosh. And the pairing was sublime. It was a match made in heaven and that was the icing on the cake... ... as far as the food and wine pairing for this wine went. This wine is priced at Rs. 1642 here in Bangalore. And Fratelli has produced only 19,000 bottles of this wine. Now, that's a small batch production when it comes to a wine. In my opinion, this is a wine that will only develop with age. You know, the tannins will get softer and the wine will evolve further in the bottle. If, like me, you love your full-bodied reds... ... I would advise you to buy a few bottles of these. Keep them away, you can enjoy them now and also over the years... ... as the wine evolves in the bottle. Until the next time, as the Italians say, Cin Cin!