Purchased a few months ago at Terroir in SF (Here's hoping they reopen soon!).
Quite funky and quite delicious.
Someone here speculated that self conscioussly "natural" wines have a certain character that transcends region or even varietal. This wine might be an illustration of that, as it was not all that stereotypically "chianti-esque" (or maybe chiantiesco?
) Still...it was delicious.Nose showed quite a bit of funk from brett or some other beasty, but while at the upper end, I am quite brett-tolerant and I enjoy this level of funk. Very nice berry fruit peaking out from underneath the brett...the fruit was almost Barbera-ish in its yummy berry goodness. Also some bright cherry fruit, and excellent acidity-this would be a good food wine. Very nice bitter note on the finish. Pretty much enjoyable all around, but not chianti typicite.
For comparison, we tasted the 2007 Felsina Beradegna. This is not in all that great a place right at this moment, but it still showed nice lean bright cherry fruit.
Finally, my friend John wandered over to the shelves to pick up a bottle of Selvapiana Chianti Rufina Riserva, which I had raved about. Unfortunately, after popping the cork we noticed this was the last bottle on the shelf of the dread 2003 vintage. My one negative note from the 2004 was a bit of heat (14% abv) so California levels of alcohol were not a surprise here (14.5%) and it tasted even hotter. Unfortunately, the fruit was stewed and out of balance and the alcohol was really noticeable. I'm not sure this wine would age very well, either, as the stewed pruney notes suggest no grand future for this bottling. A much harsher wine than the 2004. They should have declassified this vintage.
