Tormaresca Neprica IGT

Wine: Tormaresca Neprica IGT

Grapes: Negroamaro (40 percent), primitivo (30 percent), cabernet sauvignon (30 percent)

Region: Puglia, Southern Italy

Vintage: 2008

Price: $8.99

In the glass: Tormaresca is a firmly opaque blackish-red color with crimson streaks going out into a light, slightly tinged rim definition with medium-high viscosity.

On the nose: It is a spicy and sassy red, full of ripe red and black cherries, crushed purple Catherine plums, peppery spice notes and earthy minerals, with hints of herbs de Provence, tar and tobacco box.

On the palate: The wine has interesting and forward black fruit characteristics of wild cherries, plums, black berry confit, elderberry fruit juice, fresh figs, and slightly peppery notes over herbs and minerals.

There is a lovely balanced and soft midpalate, showing yet more cherrylike fruit, and then a decent finish with a hint of sweetness at the very end.

It is a full-bodied and ripe big red wine.

Odds and ends: "Age-old roots play an important role in our philosophy, but they have not served to inhibit our innovative spirit," said Marchese Piero Antinori, whose family has been making wine in Tuscany since 1385.

Antinori was but one of a handful of great winemakers who knew that, for Italian wine to succeed on a worldwide basis, they needed to think beyond chianti. His southern Italian venture -- among many around the world and quite far from the base in Tuscany -- produced this interesting Tormaresca wine from Puglia, in the "heel" of Italy.

It is a decidedly international blend of the native and French grape varieties that comes out similar to a lighter version of a zinfandel. The result is not only tasty but superbly priced for this "nouveau" style of Italian wine. Try it with grilled spice-rubbed lamb chops, and drink it through 2014.

Gil Lempert-Schwarz's wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89106-0749, or email him at gil@winevegas.com.