New label, same incredible quality.

It’s almost embarrassing to do a Vitiano review. I’m hardly the fawning type, yet I sound like a gushing school girl whenever I write about these wines. The quality is consistent from vintage to vintage; the wines are always spot on, balanced, and varietally correct; and they always offer $15 to $20 worth of value.

All of which is true for this edition of the Rosso ($10, purchased, available at Jimmy’s). And, since I was able to find it for $10, it will reappear in the 2011 $10 Hall of Fame. The Rosso, a blend of sangiovese, merlot and cabernet, is dark, deep, and fresh. Don’t expect a New World style of wine that will overwhelm you with fruit or tannins; rather, it’s an amazingly subtle wine for something that is this inexpensive. Drink it with any sort of red meat, tomato sauce or even roast chicken. Highly recommended.

One note: The wine blog that I do, the Wine Curmudgeon, is one of the 100 most trafficked wine blogs on the Internet, as measured by alawine.com (which is regarded as the authority for this sort of thing). I’m as surprised as you are.