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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Another bargain from K&L’s clearance!  Dark ruby color, dusty, smokey, black and sour red fruit on the nose, and smokey oak, plum, and black cherry, with a bit of tannin and spice on the pallet – and little veggie action and orange peel on the back end.  Light acidity, but a great food wine.  Read more

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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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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OK, you’ve probably noticed we’re in rut with Italian wines.  Well, it isn’t so much that we’re trying to do that, but K&L recently had a clearance of Italian wines to make room for a new shipment… so we bought several.  That said, you might make a note that I do tend to enjoy Italian wines quite a bit.  I like that they haven’t sold out [as much] to the American driven fruit bomb style.  Anyway, on with the review.

We didn’t like this wine too much.  It was fruitier than the last 2 we reviewed, but lacked the depth we desire – which the other two had more of.  C’est la vie… we paid 5 bucks for it and can’t expect much.  It does, however, retail for $13, so should, in our opinion, taste better.  That’s just a matter of taste preference, however, and we do realize that many people here in the U.S. will like this wine just fine, maybe even quite a bit.  It is easy to drink and has no harshness anywhere.

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We had this with pizza and it went well.  Later, after the taste of the pizza was gone, the wine was basically pleasent but unmemorable.  I would call this typical run of the mill chianti.  We bought it on sale resently for $10, but retailed for $20 upon release.  I’m very glad I didn’t pay full price.  Not bad, really, but you can do better for the money.

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I rather liked this one, but Rika had a difference of opinion.  To me it tasted very similar in profile to the Layer Cake, only to a lesser degree.  It was actually your typical old world Italian wine… big on structure with plenty of vegetation, decent tannin, and good acidity.  The very definition of food friendly wine.  Rika felt is was overly vegetative and not enough fruitiness.  The more I drank it, the more I agreed.  Still, it is a pretty good wine, and for 10 bucks (retail $15) I felt like it was good wine for the money.  On the other hand, the Durigutti Bonarda is less money and better wine… and a similar style.

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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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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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