Once again for this week’s vineyard, I’m going in blind, however, unlike the Olema wine from a few weeks ago, I had a small point of reference. This week’s wine is Matte, a pinot noir. You might ask what the point of reference is. Matte was created by Stefano Migotto, the winemaker who created Caliveda! Therefore, there are a lot of similarities between the two, but at the same time, they are also quite unique.
Matte almost mirrors a traditional pinot noir in both aroma and flavor, yet it is a little more mellow in both areas. What I like is that this mellowness doesn’t make the wine anonymous. The aroma is soft, and you need to really stick your nose into the glass to catch it. However, you will find notes of dried red fruits, plums and semi-sweet jam.
Along with flavors that contain notes of strawberries and vanilla, there is also what sommeliers can describe as balsamic. To everyone else, no it’s not balsamic vinegar, but rather mint, aniseed, eucalyptus, incense and resins. In Matte, I would say the notes of aniseed and hints of eucalyptus and mint are the most prevalent flavors. While this wine isn’t classified as being sweet, like a dessert wine, there is still a taste of sweetness.
While it’s not my favorite, in this instance, the sweetness helps mellow the balsamic flavors which creates a more well-balanced wine. I think this wine serves as a good middle ground, or introduction into the world of red wines if you find yourself favoring sweet dessert wines already.
While Caliveda could also be a good option, because they are similar, Caliveda contains substantially more oak which might be a bit too much, or feel almost too bitter or sour if you are a fan of sweeter wines.
Matte is fairly new on the market because of its similarity to Caliveda. I was told that they were both ready to be launched around the same time, but because of their similarity, Caliveda was chosen to be launched first and it had great success being voted wine number one amongst Total Wine & More “Top 20 Wines of 2023.”
Will Matte become the new favorite and claim the number one spot for “Top 20 Wines of 2024”? Personally, I don’t think it will claim the number one spot, but if people find this style of wine their favorite, I think it has great potential to be quite high on the list!
For $16.99 at Total Wine & More you get a good wine for the price, and definitely worth a try if you enjoy Caliveda!
Cheers!