Vermentino Le Bozze, Caccia al Piano,

Note:

I wish I had discovered this at the start of the summer as it’s easily the best value white wine I have tasted this year, and would have been the perfect one for drinking outdoors.  My host described this as a ‘great glugger’ – and of course he is right, as you could drink this by the gallon, but it also does it a huge disservice because my first thought was actually ‘wow, this has intense character’.  I cannot remember having a Vermentino with quite this combination of bright-ripe-salty-savoury.  Super pure, zingy, racy, crunchy, chalky, saline, bright.  I confess I do buy Vermentino and other Italian whites periodically from Waitrose and other multiples, but this offers and individuality and expression I have never once had from a large production Vermentino.  And no wonder – they make less than 10,000 bottles of it.  For me this was summer love at first mouthful.  You can, of course, find a bigger, more intense Vermentino, or one that has been battoned to make it more textural, or even one which sees some oak.  But are they actually as good to drink ?  And I mean ‘drink’, not ‘taste’.  I really don’t think so.  How on earth do you score this ?  Is it a 98-point glugger ?  Or a merely a 90-point ‘serious’ wine ?