WTN: 01 Badia Coltibuono Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG

Wow! This wine was perfect tonight with my roasted eggplant and mozzarella appetizer and angel hair pasta with feta, grilled chicken, spinach, kalamata olives, chopped tomatoes, and garlic at FIGS BYOB restaurant here in Fairmount, Philadelphia.

Beautiful ruby-red color; 90 % Sangiovese and 10 % Canaiolo; beautiful black/red cherry spice on the nose that beautifully permeated our entire table by simply pouring the wine. Cushiony soft on the attack, elegant and refined, with soft tannins. I was amazed to find out that this wine has been in aged in both French and Austrian oak barrels, but done tastefully so without any trace of spoof. This is one of the most enjoyable CCR I have had recently, especially since there was no Cabernet thrown into the blend. Must have again and often!

Thanks for the note, Paulo. I've not seen the riserva bottling from this producer before. Do you recall the price?

Clinton wrote:

I've not seen the riserva bottling from this producer before.

Me neither. I've only seen the classico a couple of times down here. Interesting.

Richard

I own the 99 reserve, which I carried back from Tuscany. I haven't looked for it in the states for a while.

I can't remember what I paid for it but, it's well worth it if you can find it.

Also, if you're in Tuscany, the vineyard has a spectacular restaurant, well worth the trip up a long. winding road. The views are fantastic too.

Thanks for the note, Paulo. I've not seen the riserva bottling from this producer before. Do you recall the price?

Hi Clint! The price was $27.99, purchased at the Total Wine store in Cherry Hill, NJ, on May 19th. I will be going back for more!!

Clinton wrote:

I've not seen the riserva bottling from this producer before.

Me neither. I've only seen the classico a couple of times down here. Interesting.

Richard

Richard,

If I recall correctly, it is because they only make the riserva in "good" vintages. Hope you can get a hold of this 01 riserva wine - it is a beauty!

Also, if you're in Tuscany, the vineyard has a spectacular restaurant, well worth the trip up a long. winding road. The views are fantastic too.

I will have between the 6th and 9th of August to run around Tuscany before I return to the US on the morning of the 10th, so if I can swing it I will go check them out, Barry! Thanks for sharing your great experience visiting this producer! When were you there?

Agree the restaurant is very good and spectacularly set. They also do tours of the beautiful old Badia. You can arrange it through a distributor or wine store and it will likely be comped. Well worth doing.
Charles

Great TN Paulo! I recently had the less expensive 2005 Cetamura which I really enjoyed and at $9.99 (USD) it was a great QPR wine for everyday drinking. I will definitely look out for the Riserva next time though.

[Jenise]

We have similar tastes. When I read your note I thought, "that sounds familiar." So I did a quick search and found that up, about six months ago, this was my favorite of the first flight of six at an evening of 18 Tuscan wines. Only downside, and something I should bring to your attention although your mileage may vary, was that the leftovers showed oxidation the next morning.

Here's my note: "2001 Badia a Coltibuono/Chianti Classico Riserva Shows some age, could be a 99, complex and yet traditional, this wine has it all. Group 3rd, my 1st. Next morning disappointed, however, with mild oxidation. Drink up!"

Nice notes, Paulo, thanks. One of our favorite producers. I had an interesting flight of the Riserva a couple of years ago:

Flight 1: Badia a Coltibuono Chianti Classico Riserva Tuscany Italy. [$45 for the flight.] Imported by A Leonardo Lo Cascio Selection, Winebow, Hohokus, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620. All 12.5% alcohol. The 1959 and the 1969 vintages contained about 80% Sangiovese and 20% white wine grapes.

1959 Badia a Coltibuono Chianti Classico Riserva Tuscany Italy. [$21 per glass.] Brownish red color, especially brown around the edges, light hue, high acidity, slight fruit and black pepper aromas and tastes. Amazing that a 40 year old Chianti can have any fruit at all. A great cooking wine; Janet: “a couple of years away from vinegar”. T3*.

1969 Badia a Coltibuono Chianti Classico Riserva Tuscany Italy. [$30 per glass.] Lovely garnet red color with light brown on the edges; excellent aroma of cherries and black pepper with smoky and earthy notes [“dirt” to Janet’s nose]; excellent fruit and black pepper with light acidity and good tannins, beautifully balanced; light mouth feel, very smooth and velvety, but with an amazing chewy character; surprisingly long finish with good to very good fruit, spice and earthen notes. Delicious. [We both liked it so much, we bought the Cellar’s last two bottles at $85.00 each.] T5*.

1978 Badia a Coltibuono Chianti Classico Riserva Tuscany Italy. [$40 per glass.] Pretty red color; light hue; excellent fruit and black spice aroma, vibrant and alive; very good fruit taste with earthen and black spice notes and a sense of sweetness; good acidity and tannins, nicely balanced; medium mouth feel, a bit spritzy; medium finish with good fruit notes, a less refined more rustic wine than the 1969. Very good food wine. T4*.

Hmmmm... interesting, Jenise. I will buy this wine again and see what happens on day 2. I do remember the tannins being quite mellowed, but still present. I shared this bottle with a friend so we killed it in one evening. I am curious, though, about the wine being aged in French and Austrian barrels. Do you know anything about Austrian barrels? I can usually pick out and sometimes be turned off by French barrique aging, but never heard of Austrian barrels. I would certainly say that this wine is to be enjoyed now.

Great to read your notes from older vintages, Bob! Thank you for sharing them and adding much depth and perspective to our post!

[Jenise]

Don't know anything about Austrian barrels, Paulo. Nor do I know anything about how the bottle I enjoyed was stored, but I would presume that whoever brought it bought it recently from a good wine store, as would be the wont of the group.

There's a famous story about Austrian barrels and Kepler, the astronomer/mathematician, Paulo. Here's one version; there's a more detailed one in a biography of Kepler in my library:

Kepler's wine barrel problem

Kepler's "Doliometry," the "barrel calculation." When Kepler, the imperial court astrologer at Linz, married the second time, he bought for the wedding wine from a barrel. To compute the bill, the wine merchant measured the barrel by inserting a foot rule into the taphole S until it reached the lid at D, then he read off the length SD = d and set the price accordingly. This method outraged Kepler, who saw that a narrow, high barrel might have the same linear measure SD as a wide one and would indicate the same wine price, though its volume would be ever so much smaller.

Giving further thought to this method of using d to determine the volume, Kepler approximated the barrel somewhat roughly by a cylinder, with s the radius of the base and h the height. Then he asked: If d is fixed, what value of h gives the largest volume V? V is a polynomial in a. Today we would use a method depending on the derivative to fod that the relation between d and h would have to be 3h2 = 4d2 which is the exact formula Kepler found using a method of indivisibles, that defined a barrel of definite proportions.

Kepler noticed that in his Rhenish homeland barrels were narrower and higher than in Austria, where their shape was peculiarly close to that having a maximum volume for a fixed d - so close, indeed, that Kepler could not believe this to be accidental. So he imagined that centuries ago somebody had calculated barrel shapes, as he himself was doing, and had taught the Austrians to construct their barrels in this particular fashion - a very practical one, indeed. Kepler showed that if a barrel did not satisfy the exact mathematical specification 3h2 = 4d2, but deviated somewhat from it, this would have but little effect on the volume, because near its maximum a function changes only slowly. Thus, while the Austrian method of price determination, if applied to Rhenish barrels, would be a clear fraud, it was quite legitimate for Austrian barrels. The Austrian shape had the advantage of permitting such a quick and simple method. So Kepler relaxed and let his suspicions dissipate.

The Mathematician's Search for Optimization.