Decant Stop Tasting Wine Blog

Is this Borolo?  Sure tastes like it.  This is a massive and serious wine!  We had it with our Valentine’s dinner.  Before the pour i wiffed the cork and got really excited… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves!

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This is a blend of 85% Sangiovese, 10% Merlot, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Spicy on the nose, and a light to medium color density.

I wasn’t expecting much before opening this wine, given the low cost and who’s heard of an Italian wine with a screw cap? Not me, I’ve only seen it in Aussie wines mainly, and occasionally with Californian wines. But hey, I tried a Cote de Rhone this summer that was not only screw cap, but had a plastic bottle! OK, we’re not talking about a very serious wine obviously, but still… winemakers are clearly willing to experiment.
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I didn’t have really high expectations for this wine, because I saw it as “the cheap version” of the Felsina Chianti Classico “Rancia”, which goes for twice the price.  But this wine is not half as good.  I’ve fallen for this scenario before… buying the lesser wine of a maker who’s premier wine is fabulous.  I have found this seldom means much.  In this case, however, what you get is what you would expect, if you didn’t have my experiences… a very nice Chianti Classico with real character and depth. 

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This is an Italian Cab-Merlot-Sangiovese.  Color is fairly rich and purple, which seems a bit rare for an Italian wine, but maybe not so rare for the Umbria region?  On the nose it is like blackberry jam with dust on it, pretty much, but not bad.  It isn’t a bashful wine.  It is fairly tannic and vegetal up front, with good acidity.  The fruit is a little subdued for the color and aroma, but still fairly pleasant… mostly red fruits with a little of that blackberry thrown in.  It has a medium length after-taste that includes black pepper – one of my personal favorites.  But all in all we weren’t all that happy with the wine.  It just didn’t have anything really pleasurable about it.  That said, I think it has the structure to improve over 3-5 years, so if you can afford the space, buy a bottle (or more) and let me know how it works out.  Better yet, invite me over to taste it! 

Rating:  88

Price:  $9 (K&L)

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Another pretty successful tasting party I think.  Of course, for me it would have been better if I didn’t come down with the 24 hr stomach flu that’s going around.  I started feeling it around 8 that night and it quickly took hold.  Luckily I was able to taste all of the wines before retiring, but by that time I was so far gone that I couldn’t do proper reviews for the wines.  But the food was good and the wines everyone brought were all good.  Obviously some better than others, but that’s what its all about, and it was fun finding out which were the best.

The theme this time was 2003 Italian red wines.

Here’s a list of the wines at the tasting (right to lift in the image below):

2003 Il Ducale Tuscana
2003 Fratelli Revello Dolcetto d’Alba
2003 Blason "Vencjar" Friuli Isonzo Rosso
2003 Zonin Amarone della Valpolicella
2003 Castello di Monsanto Chianti Classico Riserva
2003 Ruggeri Corsini Barolo "San Pietro"

The "winning" wine was the Barolo, followed by the Chianti Classico, then the Amarone.  Hopefully I can give you reviews of these wines soon.  I have purchased the Barolo again to do the tastings, but the other two, oddly enough, are proving more difficult to find.  Check back soon!

Thanks to all who came!

This wine was a pretty big hit.  Even with decanting at first it was pretty closed on the nose and thin on the palate.  The next day it had opened up enough to provide much more enjoyment.  Color was a medium ruby red and the nose was fairly closed, but showed some sour red fruit.  Tasted of rip tannin, cranberry and thyme.  There was medium acidity and slightly tannic.  The finish was cranberry sour plum peel, and light spice.

Rating:  87

Price:  $8

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