But first we had to define it. Someone came up with a map that indicated only Umbria, Tuscany, Lazio, and Marche were considered this region, though it made us wonder who Abruzzo and Emilia Romagna pissed off to not be included.
First, Gabe passed around a little pinot rose from Oregon, the 2010 Teutonic Wine Company which none of us had heard of. Everybody liked it better than I did, I found it had too much acid and too little flavor. But earlier as I'd prepped the wines I chose for the night, I found them too heavily acid too and wondered if my taste buds were off. And I do think they were, but I caught up quickly.
All wines were served blind in random order.
1) Dense roasted black and red fruit, chickory, bone dry, chocolate, merlot?, warm year, plenty of acid, sturdy tannins, earth, needs beef, hard going from the rose to this right off the bat. Retasted later, either it or I had improved, but it never meritted consideration in my or anyone else's top wines of the tasting. I actually thought it highly likely to be my Lamborghini. 2005 Falesco Marcelliano.
2) Lighter in color and ruddy, nebbioloish. Sweet jammy ripeness in the nose, assertively acidic, not a crowd pleaser, red apple skin, develops a strong black pepper streak in the finish. Interesting but not very Italian. 2nd taste later: a massive sweet floral nose had appeared which reminded two of us, independently, of geraniums with some latex involved. Not unpleasant at all, just wildly different. Definitely the most fun wine of the night. 2006 Paolo Bea Sanvalentino, Umbria. A blend of sangiovese and sangrantino, apparently.
3) Classic Chianti nose, raspberry and cranberry fruit, spice, raisins, metal, chinese temple incense, smoke, doesn't have the richness of a Brunello. Very good. 2007 Castello di Ama, Tuscany.
4) Smokey, black cherry, leather, good density, more fruit and richer than the previous three wines, very good. 1998 Lamborghini Campoleone, Umbria. Note: this was my wine. I decanted this wine at home two hours before the tasting. It was quite swampy, so I poured it through a coffee filter to strain out the sediment. The first didn't do enough good and I had to change it's diapers two more times to basically get it into drinking shape. I don't recall ever having to go that far to clean up a wine before. Also, though it seemed likely that this wine was not a brand new release, it didn't show it's age. If I had more bottles, and I don't, I'd hold it for another five years minimum.
5) Bacon and blueberries! Big fruit, modern, extracted, "slick" said Brian, with acidity buried under the breakfast foods. So we were all pretty shocked when this was unveiled as a 2004 Felsina Rancia Reserva. This was my wine, and no way did it taste anything like this at home. Like the Lamborghini, it was also decanted for two hours and separated from sediment, though there was very little. If you own these, lose them in your cellar.
6) Big berry nose, raisins, very Italian, bold fruit on the palate, lot of body, great balance, inviting--where we'd had to work at understanding all the previous wines, this wine lavished us with attention. Oh crap, I didn't note the vintage (she said, staring at her note pad in disbelief). Oh well, it's a Marina Cvetic from Montepulciano.
7) Instantly the most likely to be a Brunello: licorice, dusty tannins, classic rich sangio nose, big body, cedar, cinnamon, tart balance, raw beets, red clay, lingering sweetness on the finish. Just about everybody's WOTN, including mine. 2001 Tenuta La Fuga, and indeed that's a Brunello.
8 ) Beefy, meaty, fab nose, sangio w/substance, perhaps some cabernet? (no, was the eventual answer). Stunning. Marc's wine, the 1999 Fontalloro.
