bottle no. 4939 out of 9980
I found this in a bottega in Sondrio in Valtellina last year which sells from salumi to detergent. They have a staircase that leads to a cold, damp underground cellar where they keep their wine. A lot of bottles are upright, old and still good due to the humidity- I've tried some. They forget to reprice a lot of these so there are some great aged values. This particular bottle, I found 4, was 33 Euros. I actually felt guilty buying them cause the price was so low. At some fancy NYC wineshop this would cost 200 dollars being Masi's limited Amarone bottling, from a great vintage, perfectly stored. I found them in the horizontal position which was a plus.
Started out with a thin body with no nose. Then it took on body and the nose became rather intriguing, not flamboyant. Flavoursome, balanced mouth. Heavy nose of terroir. A fairly complete which offers pleasure and drinkeability with some intellectual rewards, still, why pay 200 or 300 dollars for this? This has held up admirably, no oxidation that I can detect. A wonderful bottle giving me aged black fruits on the nose and mouthfilling pleasure that is quite elegant. Did it live up to high expectations? Yes, just about.
) But I struggle with descriptions because often what I smell and taste is simply not something I have a word for, or have smelled before. Most of the time people use a combination of descriptors to assemble a picture of a wine - but sometimes they seem forced, like, "the nose explodes with camphor, herbs, and taggiasca olive with a hint of musty cushion and old curderoy pants." 
