Wine of the week: Pio Cesare Arneis 2013

Does Mom like white wine? Do you want to spend more than $10 since it’s wine for Mother’s Day? Then enjoy the Pio Cesare Arneis ($15, purchased, 13%). If all $15 wine tasted like this, the Wine Curmudgeon would drink more $15 wine.

Arneis is a rare Piedmontese white grape usually used for blending in expensive red wine, or to make flabby, simple stuff that we rarely see much in this country. The Pio Cesare Arneis, on the other hand, gives this grape a respect it has rarely had. I first tasted it four years ago, where it was almost an afterthought during a lunch that included most of the great red wines from Pio Cesare, one of Italy’s top producers.

This vintage (which was about one-quarter less expensive than the first Arneis, and no, I don’t know why) was even more enjoyable. Look for white pepper, some subtle white fruit that stays just out of recognition, and that is still amazingly fresh even though it’s a three-year-old white wine in this era of drink it or toss it. It’s also rounder and fuller than most $15 white wines, without the acidic edges that even some chardonnays at that price have.

Highly recommended, especially if you want to try something other than chardonnay and more green apple fruit and fake vanilla. Drink it on its own to toast Mom, or with any sort of Mother’s Day brunch.