About 6 weeks ago I had a contretemps with losing my car key and ending up letting 4 cases in the back of my little blue bomb roast for a day in 90 degree Healdsburg. I posted about it after I'd opened the two bottles that showed a pushed cork and finding them both undrinkable. Since then, three bottles haven't had a problem that I could detect and one to be entirely drinkable but maybe tasting of the effects of heat.
The one I finished tonight and did enjoy was Forchini "Poppa Nonno", a Tuscan style blend. The server quoted me the mix, but it was close to closing time for them and I'd had too many tastes already, and I neither noted nor remembered what she said. (My Gettysburg?)
I opened it last night with spaghetti and meat sauce, and finished it with a mesquite-grilled rib steak this evening. There was just a little bit of that caramelly cooked taste, but the wine was still palatable. Nice Sangiovese tartness. I don't recall any caramel or prune taste in the tasting room, and those are things I look for. I recognize that caramel and oak can easily be confused, and conditions in a tasting room and at my table aren't the same and those differences can affect one's opinion, but in this case I'm convinced that there is a difference.
Nonetheless, I'm going to go back to Forchini - I'd never been there before. One way or the other, it was a good value at $17.99, and 14.8% alcohol wasn't out of line or particularly evident to me.
John