The 100th Grape is Within Reach

My current wine quest is inching ever so close to the end. I was looking over some of the major grapes that I am yet to try and realized that I have been ignoring some important Italian grapes. The count at the time stood at 98. However out of nowhere, thanks to a wine tasting I went to last night, I realized that I have failed to check off one Italian grape that I actually first tasted back in 2006.

Anyone who had "Wines" senior year at Cornell, had the chance to try a variety of sparkling wines during the last class of the semester. You can say it was the professor's way of toasting the class, mostly seniors, and wishing them a pleasant journey after graduation. Starting off with Champagnes from France, then the cava from Spain, we were fortunate enough to finish with a sparkling red wine from Italy. It was unanimously the class favorite. It had just enough sparkle, just enough strawberry and subtle maraschino cherry flavor to make you forget about the upcoming stress that Finals were going to put on your life. It is probably the main reason that I hold this bottle of bubbly in such high regard. If you are curious to the wine's name, I'll tell you.

It is the Banfi Rosa Regale. 100 percent Brachetto. 100 percent delicious. And you can find it at most supermarkets and wine stores. And it's light red color looks great in a flute, perfect for any romantic occasion.

Having realized that I had missed this grape, I instantly knew that I was standing at the very edge of success. My next move, find a way to cross the 100 grape mark in style. Another realization I had yesterday was, that due to my little quest, my girlfriend had actually accumulated quite the high grape count as well. I was paving the way and she was catching the draft behind me to the finish line. There are not too many times that I try wine without her. So here we are, she is standing at grape #89 and I'm at grape #99.