FLACCIANELLO DELLA PIEVE 1990 – Tenuta Fontodi
I have some doubts about young Flaccianello which I have recently tasted, particularly the blockbusting 2003 with its malt after-taste, but this mature example is truly wonderful and I am hoping that the few bottles of more recent vintages in my cellar will develop in this way.
Decanted some 45 minutes before the meal, it was instructive to note how the wine’s bouquet developed over this time. At first quite there were subdued primary red fruit notes, but these slowly amplified to take on depth and complexity, including notes sour cherry, fine oil, balsam with some discreet malt blended in.
The colour was deep red with no bricking at the rim and, very important, the cork was solid and only stained at the bottom millimetre.
On the palate the wine encased these complex aromas harmoniously in a deep gently sweet-seeming body offset by quiet Sangiovese acid tang and firm but resolved tannic structure and above all great length. This is a Tuscan aristocrat and it passed my main test for greatness in a wine, namely I wanted to go on and on drinking it but, alas, it was my last bottle.
One observation, which also applies to mature Bordeaux; the wine’s harmony and balance seemed masked by the succulent beef which accompanied it (though perhaps the Béarnaise sauce was not a good idea). It only expressed itself fully in the pause between the main course and the dessert.