August 5, 2013Conrad (The Wine Wankers)

Domino’s Pizza and a grand old Super Tuscan

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Late last week I picked up the wines I’d recently won at auction and I just had to open one up on Friday night.  I don’t always drink old wines, I love young vibrant wine too, but I’m going through a phase and, for me, that’s what my wine drinking is all about.  Each phase I go through opens my mind to a deeper experience with wine, so for now my posts will be weighted towards an aged wine experience.

The wine I really wanted to pop open was the 1996 Carpineto Farnito, a Toscana IGT  wine made wholly from Cabernet Sauvignon and known as a Super Tuscan! I scored a few bottles of this wine for $30 each and Wine-searcher shows them selling for over $100 so the bargain edge was also attracting me (recent vintages are more around the $40 mark).

The IGT part stands for Indicazione Geografica Tipica and unlike the restrictive DOC and DOCG Italian wine classifications, an IGT classification, although still region specific, allows for much more freedom in grape and blending choices.  And this is where the free use of the single varietal Cabernet comes into it, usually more known for being a primary grape variety of French Bordeaux than of an Italian wine from Tuscany. Cabernet is only used in about 4% of Toscana IGT wines.

Both my wife and I had just suffered long days, and our 2 boys were not joys getting to bed, so being a Friday we decided to order in take away.  Considering we were having an Italian wine we had to get Pizza but the choice of pizza joints in our area is limited so we ordered Domino’s.  See, we’re a classy couple with an image to protect so we had to go with a “chef’s best” BBQ pork and hollandaise pizza (a tough choice after considering the BBQ duck and blue cheese).  We made the right choice.

Carpineto labelThere’s always a risk with these aged wines that they just haven’t done too well.  They do always end up being very different from when they were first released, but the question is, is that difference something memorable or forgettable (or just plain sink-worthy).  In this case, we were rewarded.  Yes, a lot, but not all, of the fruit had dropped away.  There was still a noticeable and enjoyable hint of cherries in there, but what had replaced the fruit was an interesting array of flavours from capsicum to a hint of licorice with a backdrop of vanilla leading into a medium length slightly chocolaty finish.  None of this was intense, all rather subtle, and the tannins had clearly dropped away leaving a smooth and somewhat savoury wine that went rather well with our poshed-up pizza!

Update September 2013

I’ve been informed that you can pick up the 2007 vintage from Dan Murphys for 30 bucks and it’s meant to be a cracker!

Update November 2013

wine wankers carpineto farnito super tuscan great italian wine australianI just cracked open another one of these with pizza just to verify that it was as good a pizza wine as it was the first time, and to see if another one of these bottles had passed the test of time.  As soon as the cork left the bottle I got a beautiful whiff of fruit… a great sign.  On sipping though this one had dropped a bit more fruit than the first bottle, the cherry aspects were still strong,and t it had picked up more complex savoury flavours with a decent vanilla backdrop.  Sipping this with the duck and camembert pizza was a delight… it still worked!

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Update February 2014

wine wankers best italian wine australia carpineto farnitoHad another pizza night recently and just had to open the last one of these to pair with it.  Considering the previous bottle had dropped more fruit than the first I thought I had better finish these bottles off.  On popping the cork there wasn’t an overly strong presence of fruit, not the best sign, but as soon as I poured it there it was and it sat nice and purple in the glass.  I took a sip and wow!  This was the best one yet.  Loads of fruit flavours from cherry to raspberry and a bit of blackberry too.  It had also developed the complex savoury flavours that sat in the background and that carried the beautiful taste of the wine for quite some time between sips.  This was a great way to finish of what were a few good bottles of wine that really were a match for pizza!

Author: Conrad

56 comments

  3. You got us drooling for some vintage grapes & Dominoes. And what the hell??? BBQ Pork & Hollandaise? For real? Where DO you live cuz I’m quite sure our Dominoes doesn’t carry that variety. Or maybe it’s just been so long since I ordered a Dominoes Pizza that I didn’t realize they’ve broadened their varieties. Your post has inspired a trip to our local Dominoes to be sure. Also, wanted to thank you. Since meeting you and reading your blog, I opened up & watched something I probably never would have, before coming to your blog & being tantalized by your descriptions of delicious wines. Two months ago or so, after reading one of your posts, we had a movie pop up on our blockbuster at home. We thought it coincidental that it should come on right after talking with our Wine Wankers so we gave it a shot. It was freaking brilliant and like your blog had us dying to go on a wine tasting adventure. If you have not watched it yet, please treat yourself to: SIDEWAYS with Paul Giamatti, Thomas Hayden Church, Sandra Oh & Virginia Madsen. There’s a part in the movie where Virginia Madsen talks about why she loves a wine….beautiful writing!!! So, to our Wine Wankers who’ve inspired us to give a chance to a movie that appreciates the delicious qualities of wine, we say thankyou. Now I’m off to order Dominoes!! LOL 😀

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  10. I love that you and your wife ordered in Domino’s and had a $100.00 market value bottle with it! Nice! I use my china quite often. Isn’t every meal a special occasion when shared with a loved one? 🙂

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  15. That’s amazing- is that type of pizza really offered at Dominos in Australia? Because I’m pretty sure it isn’t here in the States, even in Napa 🙂 Of course, I haven’t ordered from there since college.

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  17. Conrad, I’ve always suspected that someone somewhere invented pizza because he had this great wine that would go really well with…something…Love your take it on it mate. Cheers REDdog

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  22. This looks like the best evening ever!! Now I want Dominoes. And Wine. When you put Dominoes on a bread board like that it looks so much more ‘cultured’! 😀 If you’d told me you were in an Italian vineyard I’d have believed!

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  24. I must ask; what the hell ifs your profile pic all about? Now that I’ve seen actual photos of you, I can sleep with the lights off! I’d love to hear the story behind your profile photo!

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  25. I’m drinking an Adelaide Hills red with fish curry at the moment so certainly don’t have an issue with wine/food/takeaway/cordonbleu matches (in fact the weirder the better IMHO) but bloody hell your ingredient combos on the pizzas makes me hope you bought a twelve pack of dunny paper last time you went to Coles

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