No intention of a head-to-head comparison here, as my only reason for opening the 2 bottles was simply to cast a wider net on pairing with bold-flavored Chinese takeout dinner.
2005 Brancaia Il Blu, Toscana
Dark, inky violet in color. Label says 50% sangiovese, 45% merlot and 5% cabernet sauvignon. I liked the rustic, earthy and fresh-baked confection that came with my first whiff of the wine. Then, in the mouth, there was tart sangiovese acidity with plenty of in-your-face big, full and sweet fruit. An international wine without a doubt. Not at all shy with showcasing its alcohol level of 14.5% abv. OTT and AOTP. This was a Milli Vanilli in all its unabashed and shameless glory. C
2002 Roche Syrah Carneros, Napa Valley, California
Label says 15.1% abv and I assumed that it wouldn’t lie, but in the overall scheme of things, this alcohol level was neither a distraction nor an attraction. A wine that didn’t seem to attempt to be anything else but a pleasant and good-drinking California wine from the warmest part of Napa Valley highlighting its gentle layers of ripe, sweet, blue and black fruit. My Cali syrah experience is quite limited and I was pleasantly surprised with the nice bacon fat smell that was constant in my glass and which I thought was purely a Rhone kind of thing. Delicious. Since Milli Vanilli was a 1989 hit, I’d go with this as the Paula Abdul of the same year with straight-up hits and with “it’s just an ‘ole Laker girl me singing songs with my natural voice” attitude or something like that. B+