A Small Tribute: Villa Armando

I thought I was going to come home and take a break from working on this site, but I have discovered that “blogging” can be somewhat addictive! That’s all the better for my readers, and I guess I am doing what I enjoy, after all.

I wanted to share a little secret about a traditional table wine that I truly love and that wine is…

Villa Armando is a traditional red table wine, similar to that of Campobasso’s Mellow Red Wine. It has a hand crafted and homemade
style that captures the full-bodied taste missing from most table wines. If there is one wine that reminds me of that home made “dego red”, as my friends so fondly referred to it – this is it. A friend of the family turned this onto my mother and the tip was passed to me… What a delightful gift!

It took me a while to discover who were the brains behind this operation, and it turns out that it is Blue Moon Wines from Walnut Creek, CA

from the product page:

From Our Family to Yours Since 1948In a world where wine brands come and go, Villa Armando stands apart – introduced, owned and bottled by the Scotto family for three generations:

“My brother Sal and I introduced Villa Armando in 1948. We sold it door to door in downtown Brooklyn, where our friends and neighbors appreciated the old world quality and wine styles. Today, it’s still the wine we pour at our family table and enjoy with food and friends. We hope you enjoy it, too.”

– Anthony Scotto, Sr.

Using Zinfandel, Alicante, and Muscat, they have recreated the flavorful, fruity, rustic wines enjoyed by many Europeans back home.

Other Varietals include a Mellow Rose and Mellow White. I have yet to find or try these.

This wine is 16% Alcohol by Volume… fairly high, considering most tables wines generally fall between 8% and 14%. It does taste a little dry for a table wine, but personally, I like it.

Do yourself a favor and try to find this wine. Give it a chance. Not all good wines need to be expensive, and this one hits the nail on the head at $19.99 per gallon. I found this gem at Lariccia’s Italian Foods in Youngstown, OH. If you cannot find it, contact Blue Moon Wines to see if it is distributed in your local area. It seems that they cover most of the United States, so hopefully you shouldn’t have a problem locating it.

Creovino! Rates it:

Wine Cellar Management Software

Wine cellar management has to be quite a task when your collection starts to get into triple digits. I can only wish (at the moment) to have a wine cellar with such contents. When I do this software seems to be quite promising. Wine XT seems straightforward and easy to use.

From the publishers site:

“Wine XT for Apple Macintosh MacOS X is an essential tool to manage the contents of your wine cellar with your mac. This wine database offers a clear presentation and flexibility in use on your Mac. Pleasant and easy to use, Wine XT makes it possible to enter information in a fast way by easy functions like other Mac Os X software. You can manage your wine inventory and your own wine tasting notes. You can note sight, smell, taste and the quality of a wine in your wine collection. Manage the wine cellar racks, reviews and used wine with this wine collector accessory. Using the MacOS X system address book for winery and supplier addresses.”

Wine XT even offers international support for 10 different languages – although not complete translations.  It runs on Macs only – I have not came across any PC equivalent. Personally I am a Mac user but would be interested in locating a PC version of such software.

Wine XT can be purchased from its publisher’s site:

http://www.wine-software.net/