In our years of visiting Ohio wineries, there is one common theme among most owners. They love wine and, one way or another, found the courage to enter the competitive Ohio winery scene. Such is the case with Carso Rosso Winery in Strongsville, Ohio.
Madam planned a recent trip to the Cleveland area to visit a location of one of our favorite restaurants. Our second winery stop that day was Carso Rosso. Adam Zambetti was a distributor for Ohio wines while his wife, Noelle Zambetti, opened On The Hunt Specialties, her local artist clothing and jewelry boutique, 4 years ago. The boutique also had a retail liquor license and sold Ohio wines.
Soon they were persuaded to begin making their own wine and, in August 2020, opened Carso Rosso, named for the Carso wine-growing region of Italy and Rosso, or red. The outdoor seating area features comfortable seating areas arranged under umbrellas and a shade structure, which was comfortable even on a hot, humid summer day. In the winter, they use igloos on the patio for customer warmth.
At the time of our visit the winery offered 7 varieties and all were available on a very nice tasting tray, complete with labels under the glass. Due to COVID, the wines were served in plastic cups but you could get a glass to pour them into. The wines were attractively presented on a wood paddle and under each cup was a laminated tag indicating the variety. We also ordered a cheese, meat and cracker tray as the winery offers cheese from Ohio favorite, Grandpa's Cheese Barn.
First up was the Merlot, which Madam and I gave 3.5 out of 5 stars. The deep red color foretold the jammy nose and full mouth feel that was heavy on jam and berry notes with slight tannins. Next up was the Frontline Red Blend, composed of Zinfandel and Merlot, which we gave 4 stars. It also had a dark, jammy nose, with a full mouth feel and very nice peppery finish.
We then moved on to the whites, beginning with the Riesling, a nice German-style that we gave 2 stars. This dry-style wine had a nose and notes of grapefruit and pear. The Dolce White, which we gave 3.5 stars, had a nose of Niagara grapes. However, while it had the full sweet grape flavor of the namesake grape, it actually had a perfect sweetness level to it.
The Dolce Red, made from Concord, was the Porch Sipping favorite of both us, and earned 4 stars. It had the full, grape jam nose you expect from Concord but was not too sweet and offered a wonderful full Ohio grape flavor.
One of the last wines we tried was the Cabernet Reserve, a wonderful dark red with a fruit-forward, berry nose. The result on the palate was a lovely dark berry taste with a smoky tobacco finish that earned it 3.5 stars. We finished with the Moscato, which offered a full grape nose, and a taste that was just slightly sweet with notes of grapefruit and pear, earning it 3 stars.
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