I have the unique pleasure this time of reviewing three unusual Italian wine grapes most have never tried.

Occhipinti, Il Frappato, 2006 (Sicilia, Italy) - A co-worker bought this wine after a North End (Boston) Italian taste testing in a wine shop.  Really this was quite interesting.  Frappato has strawberry and raspberry flavors as expected, a nice strong bouquet, and a substantial finish.  However, a curious thing was one of the tasters at our work club hated the smell and it turned out he had been swirling the glass.  The rest of us did the same and got the same effect.  Somehow the aeration was releasing a bad sulphur smell, yet when you let it settle it both smelled and tasted fine.  Anyway, this clearly is better than average, but due to the oddity with the bouquet I'm going to score this a 7 out of 10 for above average.

Foradori, Granato, 2002 (Italy) - This is the Teroldego grape.  The seller told me to decant it well in advance so I did so in a morning and drank in the evening.  The first glass was excellent, like a cross between a nice pinot noir and nice cabernet sauvignon.  it was rich and had some cherry and raspberry.  The second glass the next day seemed flat maybe from too much decanting.  But on the 3rd day the last glass again was quite flavorful.  Anyway, I enjoyed this, but it is nowhere worth the $45 I paid for it (I'd go $20).  Simply a 7 out of 10 for above average.  A separate sample is at work waiting for that club to try it.

Marco Felluga, Ronco dei Moreri, Refosco, 2004 (Venezia Giulia, Italy) - One I tried on my own separate from our work tasting group.  This has the lighter weight of a pinot nor and flavors I'd call blackberry and mocha.  Interesting and different but really not a standout.  I'd give it a 6 out of 10 for basically upper average.