Decant Stop Tasting Wine Blog

What a disappointment.  Compared to the Durigutti Bonarda, this was a 180 in style.  Don’t get us wrong, we love the fruit bombs.  But if it doesn’t have complexity, it will never get more than 90-91 points.  This wine was pretty yummy as far as fruit bombs go, but not worth more than 91 points.  It is simple and near one dimensional, both in taste and bouquet.  Not worth the $24 we paid for it, and certainly not the $40 retail price.  Don’t waste your money on this one.  There are plenty of similar wines for less money, many of which are listed within this site. 

Rating:  91

Price:  $24

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I think this might be the first half-bottle we’ve bought and of course this wine proved why I was always afraid to go that route… we loved the wine and were really sad when the bottle was empty – we wanted more.  Call it [bad] luck I guess, I mean what are the odds?  We kept trying different white wines and wished they were half bottles, but when we finally buy a half bottle, we love it.  Figures. 

Other thing this wine proves is that everyone’s tastes are different.  Stephen Tanzer rated this wine 89 and we rate it 91.  Most of the time we rate lower than the pros, so we were a little surprised to like it better than the ratings suggest.  On to the review.

On the nose lemon bursts from the glass, with a little grass and minerality.  Mouth-feel is very smooth, medium weight, good acidity.  It would probably go with chicken quite well, although we had it with Mahi Mahi, which went very well.  Taste was butter, honey, and grapefruit (but not too sour), and a little lemon grass.  I don’t typically care much for butter in my wine, but the balance of this wine was superb, so all the butter really did was make it really smooth, if not a little creamy.  Buy the 750ml bottle!

Rating:  91

Price:  $22 350ml (K&L)

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I asked our guy at Wine Expo for an "already aged" red that was similar in style to a Barolo, for around 20 bucks.  The guy never fails us.  If you’re good at describing what you want, he’ll hand it to you (no silver platter available).  That’s pretty much what this is.  At about 10 years old it has some aging under its belt, although I could see how a little more would still serve it well, and who knows how long it will last.  The cork was a bit moldy, but the wine was unaffected. 

It is pretty earthy and dusty on the nose, with some indication of red and dark fruit.  However, once in the mouth it opens right up with plum, apple peel, slight oak and tannins.  Mouth-feel is medium bodied and light to medium acidity.  Right as you swallow you get a bit of red fruit with spice and black pepper.  The finish is long and goes from watermelon and muscat and fades to what I can only describe as cucumber.    Very interesting and very delicious.  All in all a great wine for a good value, especially with its age and complexity.  The thing holding it back from a better score is its dustiness.  It is ever-present and a little distracting.  I would still recommend this wine, but luck will have to be with you to find it.  Give Wine Expo in Santa Monica a call as they are your best bet.

Score:  90+

Price:  $22  (Wine Expo)

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This is the first white wine that I’ve had no complaints about for as long as I can remember.  This is quality stuff indeed.  The nose is more or less the same as the flavor – grassy, with citrus and a little cantaloupe.    It has medium acidity and is pretty flexible for food pairing.  The finish is pretty long and pleasant too.  I guess I actually do have one complaint, which is the price.  Not that it is crazy expensive, but to me this is at the same level as many 10-13 dollar reds that I’ve had, but at twice the price.  Certainly there are wines this good at a better price point.  The search continues.  I would recommend this wine though, because it is quite good compared to other whites I’ve tried.  It probably is quite different than the California Chardonnays a lot of people are drinking too, or all of the other wines from labels that produce millions of cases per season.

Rating:  89

Price:  $22 (K&L)

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This was the best of the bunch at this tasting, a pretty serious wine.  Color was medium ruby red.  The nose was pretty tight, lightly oaky and a good dose of cranberries. 

Tasted of oak (subsided to a great degree after airing a while), well rounded tannins, cranberry, strawberry, and flowers (mostly rose petals).  Mouth-feel was pretty pallet attacking with those tannins and good acidity.  Finished with cranberry, raspberry, and heavy tanning (also subsided a bit after a while), and lingering rose petal. 

All of the bottles were there on a side table and we could have grabbed any of them to drink after the tasting, but this was the one that everyone poured from in the end.  If I didn’t have to drive home I would have just kept drinking and drinking this one.  It probably would have been even better after another couple of hours.  I also wish we had a decanter, which also would have improved the wine overall.  This is a typical problem in restaurants… something I hope will change.  At any rate, we would have scored it 89, but since I know it would have broken over the threshold to 90 soon, I went ahead with that score in full confidence.  Worth the price, but not a great value – I’d feel better recommending it at $20 or less, which you can get by buying a case of it. This will also improve with age, so this might be an excellent option.

Rating:  90

Price:  $22-26

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This wine was given to Rika as a “Secret Santa” gift at her work’s gift exchange.  We weren’t really expecting too much, but were pleasantly surprised.

Color is dark, ruby red with just a hint of purple.

The nose is very aromatic with a heavy vegetal component, like bell peppers and sage.  Very earthy… old wood and dirt.  There’s some spice in there too… it is certainly interesting.

Taste is hard to describe.  It is very earthy, with subdued fruit – sour plum, not so ripe strawberry, and black pepper.  It is quite acidic.  We started drinking it with Korean bbq style beef ribs, and it was quite good for that.  The sourness of the wine complimented the sweetness of the ribs.

Mouth-feel was not too bad initially, but by the end of the 3 hours it was pretty weak. 

But by itself, there’s a good bit of spice on the back end.  Tannin structure isn’t bad, but don’t think there’s much life left in it… that is to say I doubt it will get better with age.  Not near as much oak as I was expecting, although I took a tiny sip right after decanting it and it was fairly oaky then, but after an hour that subsides quite a bit. 

All in all it was an interesting wine that continued to change as it aired over about the 3 hours we had it out.  There was a point, at around 45 minutes to an hour that it was at its best, in my opinion.  For the money, I’d have to say pass on this one, as it isn’t $20 better than the 3 Buck Chilean Chuck.  I’m not saying its the same… it wasn’t that bad.  But you can do better for $23. 

Thanks Robert for the wine, we did enjoy it, and found it quite intriguing. 

Rating:  86

Price:  $23  (average price found online)

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