Peroni Nastro Azzurro

Three things became evident to me over the weekend:

• My Mother-in-Law may very well be alive to see her beloved St. Kilda finally win the AFL premiership

• I probably won’t be to see the Bombers do it and

• Italians may actually know what they’re doing when it comes to making beer.

  I, like many other people, have had the chance to try this weeks’ Drop,

Peroni Nastro Azzurro

, before. And, like many other people, have always managed to avoid the eye of the person offering as I’ve grabbed something, anything, else. But I spent the weekend in Melbourne and was forced to have Peroni at dinner.   So now I’ve come around to thinking that Isabella Rossellini is not the only thing that I’m fond off that’s come out of Italy in the last 30 years, and, wonder why I haven’t tried Peroni Nastro Azzurro. Sure it’s a Pilsener, but the clever marketing department at the Italian brewer, (that’s based in Rome) have worked out that the “P” word seems to offend a lot of beer drinkers; as such the bottle makes no reference to Pilsener.   Poured into the glass it was light in colour, almost as pale as a Scotsman in winter. It has a typical Pilsener-ish taste and aroma, crisp and light. With a clean mouth feel and a slight bitter aftertaste. With the second mouthful I noticed the bitterness was a little stronger than I thought, nice, I liked it. It had good bubbles, or carbonation, that kept right till the end; it doesn’t finish off tasting like a flat beer. Often with European Pilseners you can find that the taste declines slightly as the beer warms.  I found the 330ml Peroni’s to be no exception. But by my reckoning all that means is that you’ll need to drink your six-pack of the 5.1% alcohol stubbies quickly to fully appreciate the beer! I can’t wait for my next Roman challenge!