The palate follows the nose like Paparazzi trail Naomi Campbell. The lemon is just a tad sweet, and the apple helps make this more than a thin white wine, especially after it warms up in the glass for a while. The acidity is really low – a little too low for a brand new pinot grigio, but works well with spicy hummus and pita chips (which is what I ended up pairing it with).

Here’s why this wine deserves a recommendation: When you need a pinot grigio, it’s available. You can find this thing just about anywhere you can find wine.

Cheers,
TSW

* - WoW's Party Wine denotation is given to a bottle that you can bring to a party, and it'll make you look good, but isn’t so amazing that you’ll be devastated if you end up not getting any.

** - I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, Gallo does a lot a great work: Rancho Zabaco and Gallo of Sonoma to name two. It was just that Bella Sera was only exported. It seemed to me that it wasn’t good enough for Italians. Now I understand you can get it in Italy. I’ll take that as a good sign.

I have to admit to avoiding this wine like a supermodel avoids food. The idea of Gallo importing Northern Italian pinot grigio left me with a bad taste my mouth. A taste I figured was in line with the budget wine.

Then I started to hear that it was actually pretty good juice.** Well, drinkable at least. Being that I’m all about the value wines, I figured I should check it out.

I’m happy to report that “drinkable” is an understatement. “Amazing” and “freakishly awesome” might be overstatements, but for as little as $6, this is a fine find.

The nose has a mineral quality that smells like lightly wet stones. The citrus and apple are light, bright and still a little rounded and full.