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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My experience with wine has made me a disbeliever of labels.  Almost like the prettier the bottle the worse the wine.  I know that is a gross generalization and should never actually be applied, but….  Anyway, the bottle is one of the best I’ve seen.  It looks like its hand painted grape vines and wording.  The big turn off for me, like a big red flag,

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This is a big, big wine!  It is like pouring yourself a glass of ink!  Forget about seeing through it, but on the edges there’s some beautiful dark violet color.  The aroma, to me, reaks too much of alcohol… but beyond that there’s dark fruit, cherry, and rose.

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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 the 2nd vintage of this wine we’ve had, the first being the 2003.  Again, my expectations were high, but this time impressed me even more.  This is for sure the same wine and most of what was found in it last year, are present this time around, but with a bit more fruit and acidity.  It isn’t at all hot, and still has little tannin.  After 18 months in the barrel, you can definitely taste it, a little smokey vanilla.  The black pepper was more subtle this time and licorice was non-existant sadly.  The finish is quite nice and long.  Most people will see this as a better wine, including myself.  Highly enjoyable!  Remember to decant!

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I like simple labels, and that’s one thing that appeals to me about this wine.  It looks simple, but you get the feeling all the passion went into the wine.  Upon decanting this bottle, that was also apparent.  The nose was quite interesting, with ripe fruit (mostly red), floral, and spice… and sweet somehow, not like candy so much as maybe a confection.  On the pallet it is floral, smooth red and blue fruits, low-medium acidity, and bit of tannin at the end.  There’s mostly the same on the finish, but adds a bit of black pepper and a vegetal component.  The after-taste is quite long, and I could swear that in there somewhere there’s watermelon.

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We were very lucky to get this wine, and the luck runs deep with this purchase.  As you already know, if you’ve read this blog at all, we’re relatively new to “the serious” wine scene.  As such, we don’t have a cellar with 10+ year old wines to pull from, from time to time.  That day will come eventually, but for now, we’re stuck trying to find those wines for a price we can afford… because we tend to like them quite a bit.  Of course with age comes risk – risk of spoilage.  We don’t know how this wine was stored all these years.  Lucky for us, apparently it was stored well.

I got this wine during K&L’s Italian wine clearance sale.  The original price was $17 and was on sale for 4 BUCKS!  I figured, for 4 bucks my expectations would be low and it wouldn’t matter much if it was spoiled or just not that great.  But we totally hit paydirt with this one.

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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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My experience with this wine is a lot like this…

You don’t have anything planned for Friday night.  You’re at the library checking out your books when you notice the librarian is kinda cute.  (If you’re a female reading this, just substitute the librarian for a computer geek) Very cliche, I know, but her fashion sense is off and she’s fairly shy, but she’s got a nice smile, so you decide to ask her out, if nothing else than to have something to do Friday night.  She giggles and says sure, you exchange numbers and you’re on your way.

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