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WTN: 1998 Fattoria di Felsina Vin Santo Tuscany Italy.

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Bob Ross

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WTN: 1998 Fattoria di Felsina Vin Santo Tuscany Italy.

by Bob Ross » Sat Sep 15, 2007 9:03 pm

1998 Fattoria di Felsina Vin Santo Tuscany Italy. $36 at Columbus Circle Liquor, New York, NY.

Sometimes other people write tasting notes far superior to those I can do myself; Matt Kramer did so with this wonderful wine.

This wine was just delicious. Sipped a dozen times over four weeks. Very intense EGA. 5*.

Matt Kramer:

If you take the effort to track down a bottle of this extraordinary wine, I promise you that you won't wonder why anybody bothered to make it. Instead, you'll wonder where it's been all your life.

Fèlsina's vin santo is aged for seven years before the small barrels cocooned in the winery attic are opened - exhumed really. There's not much money in making a wine such as this. It's a matter of love - of history, tradition, and a unique taste. And there's a real risk of failure, as once that tiny barrel is sealed (often with a forbidding glob of wax over the bung), there's no further fiddling.

Still, Fèlsina's got it down, if not to a science, then to the more predictable effects of practiced craft. Theirs is a consistently superb vin santo - at least those they choose to release commercially. (If there are lesser barrels or vintages, we never get to see them.)

This 1998 vin santo from Fattoria di Fèlsina is superb. A honey-hued blend of malvasia and trebbiano with a 20% addition of the red grape sangiovese, this is a dense, rich vin santo with surprisingly refreshing acidity that's almost roomfilling in its multiplicity and intensity of scents: apricots, nuts, pineapple, tropical fruits, raisins, and gingerbread, to name a few.
To use a word I rarely apply to any wine, a vin santo such as this is fabulous. It's also a wine that, because of its individuality, you serve as an aperitif or, more traditionally, as an after-dinner accompaniment to nuts, aged cheeses such as pecorino, pound cake, and most classically of all, with biscotti.

Serve it cool, but not cold. The price is downright cheap for the impressive quality.


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Re: WTN: 1998 Fattoria di Felsina Vin Santo Tuscany Italy.

by Jenise » Sun Sep 16, 2007 12:44 pm

Bob, I love Vin Santo, and every time I read a note like this I wonder why they are so rarely mentioned. This sounds grand. Was that price for a 750?
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Re: WTN: 1998 Fattoria di Felsina Vin Santo Tuscany Italy.

by Bob Ross » Sun Sep 16, 2007 2:01 pm

I should have noted the size, Jenise, but the bottle went with the recyclables on Wednesday.

I'm almost certain it was 500 ml, but I see Chambers Street lists it as a half bottle. And Columbus Circle only lists the '99 as a full bottle.

In any event, as you know, a small taste goes a long long way with this wine -- it's actually a great QPR.

Sorry I can't be more precise -- should have written it down at the time.

BTW, Kramer's note on pricing reads "The price is downright cheap for the impressive quality: $36 for a 500 ml bottle. Multiple merchants carry this wine including Chambers Street Wines and Columbus Circle Liquor in Manhattan, as well as Blanc and Rouge in Brooklyn, among others." That $36 is roughly the price for a half bottle at CSW, and Columbus Circle lists $39 for a full bottle. Bit of confusion all around, I guess.

And I see an amazing range of prices on Wine Searcher Pro as well.

REgards, Bob
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Re: WTN: 1998 Fattoria di Felsina Vin Santo Tuscany Italy.

by Jenise » Sun Sep 16, 2007 2:13 pm

it's actually a great QPR.


Yes, which is why I wondered after the size. It was entirely possible that even at this price, it was a 750, such are the values that Vin Santo offers. I guess I shouldn't be so quick to regret that the wine is relatively undiscovered, eh?
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Re: WTN: 1998 Fattoria di Felsina Vin Santo Tuscany Italy.

by Bob Ross » Sun Sep 16, 2007 3:26 pm

I see that I bought six bottles last summer, Jenise, they were 500 ml for $36.

Incidentally, Kramer's basic article may be available to folks without a paid subscription at

http://www.nysun.com/article/40479

He has a very nice description of how the wine is made, etc.

And here's another article mentioning a much smaller winemaker with an excellent Vin Santo:

http://www.nysun.com/article/43580

Kramer is so much fun to read -- he likes the off beat wines -- and wineries.

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