Rosa Imperiale by Il Duca

We're baaack! Happy New Year! We've been insanely busy over the holidays, but that doesn't mean we stopped drinking wine! We actually drank way more, and I'm going to need to stock up soon, so if there are any suggestions for things to buy let us know! We drank Rosa Imperiale on a night that I made turkey burgers - to the disappointment of beef eating Bodie, but he ended up loving them so HA. SO turkey burgers is what we will pair it with because my Christmas present to myself is making things easier on myself. This one is is like the Rosso we reviewed before but with 10 times the carbonation. Basically, if you are a soda drinker and have at minimum 3 Dr. Peppers per day like Bodie, this is the wine for you.

Name: Rosa Imperiale

Price: $9.99 from Total Wine

Alcohol Content: 5.5%

TLDR: Yay

Winery: Il Duca according to Total Wine, but imported by Riboli Family Wines.

About Winery: I could not find anything online about any winery named Il Duca. The bottle looks surprisingly like the Stella Rosa brand, and if you go to riboliwines.com (listed on the back of the bottle), you actually find that the Riboli Family Imports lists Stella Rosa as one of their brands. According to their site, they have wineries all over the place, and according to the bottle, this wine was imported from somewhere in Italy. But alas, I have no specific information on which winery this comes from because I cannot read Italian or spend 12 hours hunting this information down. Either way, it tastes great and is from Italy.

Varietal: This Frizzante (fizzy) style wine was made in Piedmont, Italy primarily using Brachetto grapes.

About the Grape: Brachetto grapes are known to be sweet and aromatic with a berry nose and taste. It is a black-skinned grape which lends to its darker color. It is sometimes referred to as "the lovers wine," romanticized and marketed for special holidays like Valentine's day. According to wine-searcher.com: "One of the more romantic stories about Brachetto is that it was the wine Marc Antony and Julius Caesar presented to Cleopatra in their attempts to win her favor. The queen, so the story goes, found the wine unleashed her passions." Sexy.

Bottle Description: "Partially fermented grape must from the beautiful Italian countryside, comes our delicious Rosa Imperiale. A refreshing red wine to be served chilled and accompanied by fresh fruit and cheese."

Color: Deep Burgundy Purple

Nose: Something between sweet berries and bubblegum. You sort of get a cherry and berry note, and it's very similar to one of our other tastings that gave off a reminiscent cherry snow-cone smell.

Taste: Holy carbonation. This wine is like drinking sweet grape soda that you know will eventually get you drunk, although it's going to take a LONG time at 5.5% ABV. It's somewhat jammy and has a very grape and berry taste, almost like cough syrup but in a good way. I get the same cherry and raspberry notes that are in the smell, as well as a mild apple. It has medium acid and very low tannin. The bubbles are somewhat overpowering though, like when you chug a freshly opened Coca-Cola.

Finish: Mild finish - again, like soda.

Food Pairing: First of all, who knew feta was so good on turkey burgers. I didn't until tonight. But with the food, the wine lost all the wine-flavor and was straight grape soda. Going back to the bubble volcano, if you're sipping it slow this probably wouldn't happen, but when you are drinking it with a meal to wash down burger and bun it's a bit much. Therefore, I would recommend this wine be a solo sipper and not a dinner pairing since this is where it shines.

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