Back in mid-September, I joined a group of Boston wine drinkers at a little Italian eatery in Newton. The theme was anything goes Italian wines, but the caveat was “No Sangiovese, No Nebbiolo.” I was curious to see what would show up. I was not disappointed.
Sparkling and white wines:
1996 Chartogne-Taillet Champagne Brut Fiacre. Even though this is an Italian tasting, you gotta have Champagne, right? This one shows some maturity on the nose, with creamy almond notes and copper kettle, stale ginger ale, and lime peel aromas. It is nicely effusive in the mouth, with a pleasantly creamy texture married to a fine core of liveliness. There is good depth to the poached apple fruit and a good sense of drive that marries nicely with a mouthwatering component on the edges of the tongue that brings one back for another sip.
NV Bellavista Franciacorta Cuvee Brut. Upon pouring, this displays a very frothy head of foam. On the nose, it is very aromatically crisp, with mineral and rock notes, sharp citrus and herbal elements. It really froths up in the mouth, with some chalk, pear, bitter almond, herb and apple skin flavors. It turns sweeter later on, but finishes a bit simple and sour. It has its interesting moments, but they are fleeting.
2006 Corte dei Balbi Soprani Moscato d’Asti. The nose is soft with honeysuckle, orange blossom and peach fuzz aromas. Frankly, it is a bit too soft and I find myself wishing for more vibrancy. In the mouth, it again is soft and sweet, with candied peach flavors that are gentle and pleasantly frizzante, but failing to really excite. It dissipates quickly on the back of the palate, yet the flavors do somehow seem to linger longer than expected.
2004 Pieropan Soave Classico La Rocca. The color here is a bit golden in nature. On the nose, it feels a bit tired, with some metallic and stale beer aromas. It is a lot better in the mouth, where it has a richness I was not expecting. It is round and mouth-filling, with a lot of flavor and accents of spicy wood. It finishes spicy with a little nick of acidity. There seemed to be some disagreement at the table as to whether this was too young or too old, but I would say it seems to have some stuffing left despite a bit of flatness on the nose.
2007 Fratelli Brovia Roero Arneis Sanche de Vezza d’Alba. There’s great amplitude and zip to the aromas of lime rind, dusty spices and mellow gooseberry in this wine. In the mouth, it exhibits fine drive and freshness. There is good plumpness and depth, and a sort of engaging surface tension. It has an elegant texture, but a crisp edge, and finishes clean and refreshing. I like it young and wonder whether additional age could really help.
1999 Azienda Agricola Valentini Trebbiano d’Abruzzo. This was definitely one of my favorite wines of the whole tasting--sporting chameleon-like aromas, flavors and textures while exuding just tons of personality. From what I recall, this was said to have been decanted about 8 hours earlier. On the nose, it swirls and changes and evolves constantly, with wild aromas of V8 juice, lemon herb tea, horse fur and all kinds of earthy notes. It’s really hard to describe and frankly hard to pin down—fascinating stuff! It is fuller-bodied in the mouth, with a luxuriant, sexy and caressing texture that turns a bit waxier over time. It finishes dry, with gin botanical notes. I would say give this more time, but I really enjoyed the journey it took me on this evening.
Red wines:
1998 Giacomo Conterno Barbera d’Alba. Ah, this is beautiful. It is a pale garnet color, and sports lovely aromatics of sour cherries, warm red berries, dusty exotic spices and fascinating undertones of darker fruits. In the mouth, it is warm, inviting and gently enveloping. It has freshening acidity, soft tannins that gently coat the teeth and pretty flavors of sour cherries, cranberries and soft earth. It is just a great pleasure to drink.
2000 La Spinetta (Rivetti) Barbera d’Asti Ca di Pian. This is a whole different beast. The contrast really could not be any starker. The color is a deep dark purple, and the bouquet is full of sawed oak, darkly toasted spices, warm plums and some bridle leather aromas that are clearly “internationally-styled”. In the mouth, it is dense and fairly richly-textured, with flavors of spiced plum, blackberries, dark cherry and bitter dark chocolate. I try to be open-minded about all kinds of wine styles, but it is hard not to find this over-done when it is sitting in a glass right next to the beautiful Conterno.
2000 i Clivi Merlot Colli Orientali del Friuli Galea di Ferdinando Zanusso. This was served blind. The nose opens up with a big whiff of concentrated tomato paste, creme de cassis and some meaty funk notes. After sitting for a while, it begins to settle down to allow aromas of plum, leather, fur and earth to emerge. In the mouth, it feels a bit chalky and gritty-textured, with intense, chewy red fruits and tannins. It really expands to coat the whole mouth and has a sort of mountain fruit feel to it. The longer it is open, the easier it gets to drink, so I suggest an hour or two decant if one chooses to drink this now. After it was revealed, I was a bit surprised, as I have had this wine on three separate occasions over the past 6 months or so and this was the toughest and tightest it has showed. It is always a bit barnyard-oriented on the nose and a bit chewy in the mouth, but this bottle exhibited those characteristics with much less charm and overall character than previous bottles.
2001 San Giusto a Rentennano Merlot La Ricolma Toscana IGT. Like the previous wine, this is also Merlot, but it is a whole different kind of expression of that grape. The 22 months this spent in barrique shows in the aromatic profile of blackcurrant liqueur, faint dill, eucalyptus and fine earthy notes. After a night in the refrigerator, the leftovers were decidedly cassis and tomato paste-oriented, with a more scorched earth and sour cherry aroma profile. In any event, this is quite fruit-forward on the palate, seemingly aiming to be sexy—with a rich, voluptuous texture and a sort of slutty Merlot profile. It is a low-acid wine with full body, smooth pillowy tannins and a fine density of fruit. To me, it never gets too goopy or syrupy, but I doubt it would appeal to the traditionalists out there. On day 2, it does ratchet up the acidity and the more sour cherry-fruited side of its personality comes through more strongly—and it seems like it begins to be more clearly identifiable as Italian. I, for one, enjoyed it.
1997 Foradori Teroldego Rotaliano. This is really feral on the nose, with aromas of animal fur, saddle leather, raw meat, black licorice, chocolate, dark fruits and scorched earth. It is much less animalistic in the mouth, but just as intense. It hits the palate with a big burst of dark fruit and spices that stun you for a moment, and only then does one slowly begin to become aware of the fine structure, some of the warmer fruit elements, the palate elongation and the soft, beautiful texture this wine has to offer. It finishes fresh and rather lasting. It is a wine with notable personality as well as the structure and stuffing to go for a while longer yet. Indeed, it might be best to wait another few years on it.
1998 Castello Banfi Cabernet Sauvignon Sant’ Antimo Tavernelle. There are roasted cherries and red currants on the nose, along with a bit of a green streak. In the mouth, it has some obvious red fruits that are pleasant but not particularly distinctive. It has a decent amount of juiciness and it all hangs together pretty well. It is easy and perhaps capable of added complexity down the road, but right now it is pretty straight-forward and serviceable.
2000 Librandi Gravello Val di Neto Calabria IGT. This wine from Calabria is 60% Gaglioppo and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon. The nose here sports some cassis and red currant fruit, a jab of spicy oak and some not so pleasant leafy notes. In the mouth, it is extremely tightly-structured, with an aggressive tannic edge all the way through it. Otherwise, it packs a punch of big black cherry and mixed currant fruit that has its appeal. However, it feels decidedly tough on the finish, where equal parts aggressive tannins, aggressive acidity and aggressive alcohol conspire to make for a rough ride. Not one of my favorites this evening.
1995 Mastroberardino Taurasi Radici. Aromatically, this doesn’t really do it for me. Aromas of stewed, roasted and raisined red fruits, tomato paste and fern mix with some possibly reductive notes and baked figs for an odd blend of similar but occasionally clashing elements. Thankfully, it is much fresher and more appealing all around in the mouth, with a big squirt of acidity to carry along juicy flavors of fresh fig and earth. Sticky tannins are hanging in there, but the finish cuts through that with a nice clean feel. The tannins have tamed since the last time I had this about 4 or 5 years ago, but I am not entirely sure that the rest of the wine has improved. Still, it is likely best to come back to this one down the road to see what emerges.
1990 Cavallotto Barolo Vignolo. This was the one wine that openly flouted the rules, but not a single soul minded, as its presence in the line-up was a potent reminder of what one can miss when passing on Nebbiolo. The wine is calmly beautiful on just about every level. It has a generous bouquet of leather, forest greens, soft dusty earth, dried cherries galore and all kinds of crushed flower petals. On the palate, it feels mostly resolved, but with plenty of life ahead. It has lifted acidity, fine-grained tannins and a certain ethereal nature carried along by a fine glycerin texture. Beautiful flavors of dried cranberry, dried cherry and strawberry are soft and contribute to an interesting inner mouth perfume. Softly teeth-coating tannins do come in on the finish to remind you what you are dealing with here, but the whole package feels beautifully balanced, pure and pretty.
1998 Paolo Bea Montefalco Rosso Riserva Vigna Pipparello. There’s a pleasant and distinctive nose on this wine, with aromas of leather, caramel, fresh raspberries and persimmon. It has a very fine seamlessness on the palate, with tangy acidity, medium body and a warm red fruit and spice flavor profile. There are some sticky tannins, but this young wine is beginning to unfold quite nicely and should be killer stuff down the road.
1998 Paolo Bea Sagrantino di Montefalco. A lush nose of chocolate torte, confectionary notes, exotic spice box, and pretty violets starts out a bit reticent but really picks up steam. In the mouth, it is bigger, denser and more serious than the Rosso Riserva from the same vintage—offering a stronger feeling of oomph. The purple fruits and woodsy spices that dominate are finely delineated over a silky texture. Tannins are big but not overwhelming, though the finish feels a bit austere at this point. There’s long life ahead here.
1999 Paolo Bea Sagrantino di Montefalco. CORKED.
1993 Rocca Ducale Sagrantino di Montefalco. There’s a bit of mystery to the bouquet of this lovely wine, with interesting notes of chalk, earth, ferns, bark and dark red fruits. In the mouth, it is rounded and easy-flowing, but don’t mistake that for a lack of intensity, which this wine allows to slowly build. Before all is said and done, the wine kicks it up a notch with intense dark red fruits, fine acidity and fine tannins. It sort of snuck up on me and I ended up saying to myself, “man, this is good stuff.”
2006 Speri Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso. On the other hand, this is not good stuff. It smells very rough and primary, with effusive aromas of vulcanized rubber, alcohol, white pepper, bacon grease and animal fur riding atop some goopy, over-wrought dark fruit. It is completely chunky and graceless in the mouth and is trying to pack in just way too much of everything—coming across as a pretty substantial mess.
1990 Masi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico. I missed this one. No notes.
Sweet wines:
1996 Reichsrat Von Buhl Riesling Forster Ungeheuer Auslese Pfalz. Aromatically, this is quite appealing—with scents of high-toned apricots, syrupy fruits, wax, and creme brulee. I also like the flavor profile that features poached apricots and tropical fruit notes. At times, though, it felt a bit cloying on the palate, but then that would sort of resolve itself and begin to actually feel brightly acidic (and then go back again). Eventually, it seemed to sort itself out, though, allowing the fine flavors, exotic spices and warming personality to carry the day. It leaves one with a sense of a round, fleshy, gently sweet wine with occasional crisper moments and good overall intensity. My final assessment after all that was that I ended up liking it a good deal.
1992 Sichel Riesling Kirchheimer Kreux Beerenauslese Rheingau. Not tasted. No notes.
1997 Pierre-Bise Coteaux du Layon Beaulieu Les Rouannieres. This has gorgeous aromatics of toasted creme brulee topping, lime zest and brown sugar that combine in complex and lovely combinations. It has beautiful apricot and fleshy white peach fruit in the mouth—exhibiting fine balance to carry along the wonderfully dense and sweet fruit. At times, it shows a bit too much raw sugar (reminiscent of the 1996), but overall it is lovely stuff that leaves a long palate impression.
1995 Michele Castellani Recioto della Valpolicalla Classico Il Casale. Warm yellow raisins, mashed black cherries, exotic spices and some volatile notes fill the nose here. In the mouth, the early sips are pretty nice, showing warm, solid and sweet syrupy fruits that have good length. After a while, though, it begins to show more and more heat and eventually ends up being hard to drink.
-Michael