Romano Clelia 2009 Fiano di Avellino Colli di Lapio

A little over two years ago I first tasted Fiano, in the 2006 vintage of this wine. I've been conducting a little aging project and now a new vintage.

Extremely pale straw color.

Generous fruity peach and pear smell.

Fruity ripe peach flavor, I can hear the yellow jackets buzzing around the windfalls.

Excellent full-bodied white, $20.93/bottle.

Romano Clelia 2006 Fiano di Avellino Colli di Lapio redux

Two years ago I enjoyed a bottle and put a few away. Last year I opened one. Now, it's time to do so again.

Pale straw color, bubbles of petillance form on the glass.

Smell has developed with time! Peach and apricot, pear.

Dry fruit flavor, ripe pear, peach, petillant tingle in the mouth.

At purchase, this cost $19.99 / bottle, and I said I was a bit disappointed. Disappointed no more, this has benefited greatly from a bit of age.

Feudi di San Gregorio 2007 Fiano di Avellino

Medium straw color, some petillance visible on the glass .

Big smell jumps out of the glass: ripe pear, dates, figs, honey, walnuts.

Dry flavors of pear and apple throughout, honeyed at the beginning, nutty at the end. Good food-friendly acid. Full and round. Petillant.

Outstanding medium-to-full-bodied white for $28.99. I'm astonished by how good this is. Over-oaked Chardonnay's everywhere, Fiano's almost unheard of. TANJ!

Romano Clelia 2006 Fiano di Avellino Colli di Lapio redux

Last year I tasted a bottle of this, and put five more aside for annual repetition.

Pale straw color.

Fairly neutral smell, perhaps apple, not much else going on.

The petillance I commented on a year ago is still very much there. Where last year I tasted "melon and green apple fruit", today I find an apple richness that reminds me of a lesser degree of the richness that develops as Riesling ages.

This was a good match for roast chicken, and I'll wait a year for the next bottle, and see how its developed further.

Romano Clelia 2006 Fiano di Avellino Colli di Lapio

Extremely pale straw color.

Smell of melon and green apple. The inside of my glass displays many pinpoint bubbles.

Before any flavor, my tongue is stung by petillance, then melon and green apple fruit emerge.

I had expected a wine similar to Viognier. In fact, it's quite different. Neither are usually oaked, and both are medium-bodied, but I don't think the similarity goes much further. I don't detect the apricot flavor I often detect in Viognier.

I find this an interesting refreshing wine, but a bit of a disappointment for $19.99. I have five more bottles of this and since it's often said that Fiano rewards moderate aging, I intend to open a bottle each year until I run out.