In addition to enjoying the wines and varietal selection so much at Bonny Doon Vineyard, Myles has begun following the winemaker there, Randall Graham on Twitter. Thus far this has meant that Myles wants to try everything he recommends. Last weekend he bought a bottle of Chartreuse (a curious tasting liquor) and on Thursday he came home from work with a bottle of Freisa.

Freisa is a native Italian grape, grown in the Piedmont region (ours was from Asti). It's a particularly tannic grape with high acidity. Myles said that what attracted him to this wine was hearing that it's often made by harvesting 80% of the grapes and allowing that to ferment while the remaining 20% dries on the vine. Then, once the remaining grapes are dried out, they’re added to the rest and finish fermenting.

Once I heard that Hugh Johnson (famous British winewriter) called wines made from Freisa “immensely appetizing” and Robert Parker, Jr. (famous American wine writer, who is often criticized for liking “fruit bombs”) calls them “totally repugnant”, I was definitely curious to try it. And considering Myles paid $7.99 for the bottle, I was really hoping it would be great.

The wine was very acidic and bitter, but was a good food wine. Not too shabby!

The Score: ★★★