MIKE RICCETTI
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    • Best Values
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    • Cajun and Creole
    • Chicken Fried Steak
    • Cocktails
    • Crawfish
    • Downtown Dining
    • EaDo and East End Dining
    • Fajitas
    • French
    • French Fries
    • Fried Chicken
    • Galleria Area Dining
    • Greek
    • Guinness pours
    • Houston-centric
    • Italian
    • Italian-American
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    • Mexican
    • Middle Eastern
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    • Montrose Dining
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    • Pizza at Non-Pizzerias
    • Raw Bars
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    • Sandwiches
    • Seafood
    • Splurge-Worthy
    • Steakhouses
    • Sushi
    • To Take Visitors
    • Tex-Mex
    • Thai
    • Tough Tables
    • Wine Bars
    • Wine Lists
  • The margherita pizza project
  • The martini project
  • Musings on Houston Dining
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    • The top 10 new restaurants of 2021
    • The top 10 new restaurants of 2019
    • The top 10 new restaurants of 2018
    • The dozen best Inner Loop values
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MIKE RICCETTI

Mostly food and drink...

...and mostly set in Houston

Found at Giacomo’s: unlitro, a very enjoyable red wine from Tuscany for a song

1/17/2017

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​The other night at Giacomo’s I was looking for a light- or medium-bodied easy drinking red that would work well on its own and with light appetizers for myself and a couple siblings and their spouses as we waited for our parents.  After scanning the list for a minute or two, with a two or three inexpensive bottles in mind, I ask chef-proprietor Lynette Hawkins if she had any suggestions that would fit what I outlined.  She quickly recommended unlitro from star Aldo Adige-based winemaker Elisabetta Foradori, who was involved in property in the Maremma area of southwestern Tuscany, Ampeleia.
 
Unlitro, which means “A liter” in Italian, is pretty accurate description, as it a liter of red wine contained in an old-style squat bottle, not unlike those used by the cult Sicilian winemaker COS.  Unusually, unlitro is made mostly with Alicante Nero – which is Grenache, very unusual for Tuscany – with Carignan and Alicante Bouschet, a couple of other French grapes.  The wine was perfect for our needs, we all liked, with plans to purchase it in the future.  Also, it was just $28 for a liter.  That’s $28 for a bottle-and-a-third.  It is tough to imagine that there is as well-made and enjoyable red wine on a wine list in the Houston area for such a small tariff.
 
How to describe it?  The list at Giacamo’s does a very job doing so: “has flavors that are pure and lively with no oak to interfere with the myriad aromas of wildflowers, forest fruit, red berries, and subtle spices. A lingering hint of sweetness is balanced with refreshing acidity on the finish. This is both a lovely sipping wine and food pairing wine.”  I tasted some cherry and strawberry among the fruit, which was evident, but not predominant and a profile that lighter than the typical Grenache and Italian in profile.  And, $28, too.  Our table of nearly ten finished three bottles.
 
Unlitro is available retail locally at Houston Wine Merchants for $19.99.  That’s just an $8 markup over retail at Giacomo’s, a testament to their terrific wine pricing.  There were only four bottles left of unlitro at Houston Wine Merchant on Friday after I bought one.  It is worth sample and more.
 
Giacomo’s
3215 Westheimer (between Kirby and River Oaks Boulevard), 77098, (713) 522-1934
giacomosciboevino.com
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    Mike Riccetti is a longtime Houston-based food writer and former editor for Zagat, and not incidentally the author of three editions of Houston Dining on the Cheap.

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