Bonarda is an Italian red grape whose ancestral home is in the northern Italian provinces of Lombardy and Piedmont. While it does little in its native Italy nowadays, it can be quite something in Argentina, where Italian immigrants brought the vine in the 1800s. The region of Mendoza has large blocks of old vine vineyards that produce deeply hued, intensely fruited wines with attractive acidity and soft tannins. They make for beautiful early drinking reds and are tremendous values. In California, this same strain of Bonarda is known as Charbono and can produce similarly dramatic, if under-appreciated, wines. (Wine/Grapes)