This pretty Pinot Grigio is named for the Venetian painter Titian–but is it a masterpiece? Let’s pour a glass of Tiziano and ponder its dimensions.
Medium yellow in the glass and giving off aromas of apple and citrus blossom. Faint stone fruit, too. The palate is mostly apple and ripe pear. I taste hay and sweetgrass, too. There’s a hint of toasted grain flavor–not quite popcorn, but it is corn-like or grain-like. Flavor of lemon drop candy. When the chill comes off it, there’s a tropical note of gold pineapple and rather nice length.
Vivino reviewers go on and on about minerality, but I think that’s overstated. (Or maybe I just missed it.) To me, the texture is a tad creamy–not sharp or powdery–and leaning toward off-dry. Body is on the lighter side of medium with some noticeable residual sugar.
Fruity, youthful, and middle-of-the road, this is a bottle that has “house wine” written all over it. It’s sweeter than I like to drink–but for restaurants with a limited wine list, it’s a brand that could split the difference between dry and sweeter wine drinkers.
Now for confession time: This Tiziano barged into my home as a blind tasting practice bottle. It did not go well. It was actually the second time I’ve completely misidentified this wine this year. I don’t want to go into all the embarrassing specifics here…I’ll just say it took me way too long to land on Pinot Grigio delle Venezie.
I think this wine trips me up because it’s riper, lower in acid, and fuller in body than a lot of Italian Pinot Grigio that I’ve had. Darker, too. Also, it doesn’t taste like lemon spa water…a good thing in my book.
It’s all stainless steel–but I know that some delle Venezie is aged on its fine lees over winter and it tastes like maybe that could be the case here.
Tiziano Pinot Grigio is slightly sweet, but it was not enough to assuage the bitterness of defeat. I decided to take revenge on this tricksy wine by whipping up a kickass food pairing. I drank the rest of the Tiziano Pinot Grigio with garlic shrimp over risotto and it was a thing of beauty.
Bottle: Tiziano Pinot Grigio delle Venezie (2021)
Variety: Pinot Grigio (100%)
ABV: 12.5%
Suggested retail: $12.99
My rating: 7.4 (out of 10)
Review disclosure: I was not compensated or provided any free products for this review. Opinions expressed on The Wine Fairy blog are entirely my own.
Leave a Comment