WTN: An Italian Dinner

An Italian themed blind tasting dinner (with a lovely oxtail ragu over polenta).

2010 Planeta Carricante – a real poser. Showing some colour and with petrol hints in the nose akin to Rieslings, lots of flavour on palate and a quite acidic finish. Not much experience with this native varietal, but willing to keep an eye out for more.

2003 Frescobaldi Camp ai Sassi Rosso di Montalcino – a clearly sangiovese based wine, with pale edges, a rather pleasant fruit based nose, a bit ripe, and an oddly sweet finish. I expect it is nearing the end of its useful life as it fell apart in the glass after not too much time.

1995 Selvapiana Chianti Rùfina Riserva Bucerchiale – working my way through a case of this and it continues to please. Good dark colour, excellent nose of dark cherry fruit and a hint of almost Rhonish pong, still showing good fruit on palate and good length and acidity.

2000 Virna Barolo Cannubi Boschis – corked!

2000 Cantine Giacomo Ascheri Barolo Sorano – medium colour, decent nose, medium fruit levels, still shows slightly high tannin and lots of acidity with a slightly astringent finish. Not my favourite. Maybe just the bottle?

2005 Matteo Correggia Roero Riserva Ròche d'Ampsèj – another hard one to nail! Most Roero we see is white Arneis, not red Nebbiolo.The nose had toffee and plum with an undrnote of tobacco, but on palate it narrowed down – leaning out at the end and drying. Sadly, heading over the hill, though I’d have expected more longevity from a Nebbiolo of this age.

1999 Castelgiocondo (Frescobaldi) Brunello di Montalcino – I was happy to taste this as I still have some in my cellar. Ripe fruit, more prunce than cherry, and perhaps a hint of mint. Soft tannins, and good balance, finishing medium long. At peak.

2000 Tommasi Amarone – ripe sweet nose of raisin and leather, good concentration but obviously never a heavy hitter. Fully mature – drink up.

2000 Chateau Dereszla Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos – a delightful, if out of theme finishing wine. Amber colour with a sweet apricot nose with floral overtones, sweet in the mouth but very well balanced, coming across very much in the same idiom as a well balanced Sauternes. Very good, finishing with good length.

2005 Matteo Correggia Roero Riserva Ròche d'Ampsèj – another hard one to nail! Most Roero we see is white Arneis, not red Nebbiolo.The nose had toffee and plum with an undrnote of tobacco, but on palate it narrowed down – leaning out at the end and drying. Sadly, heading over the hill, though I’d have expected more longevity from a Nebbiolo of this age.

Bill, I'm surprised. I opened the 2001 vintage of this last summer (a year ago), and it still felt very young, but was becoming very nice indeed, to paraphrase Clive Coates.

2003 Frescobaldi Camp ai Sassi Rosso di Montalcino – a clearly sangiovese based wine, with pale edges, a rather pleasant fruit based nose, a bit ripe, and an oddly sweet finish. I expect it is nearing the end of its useful life as it fell apart in the glass after not too much time.

I would have thought that 12 years after vintage is really pushing it for a Rosso di Montalcino, even from a good house, they are made for earlier release than the Brunello and earlier drinking. Never kept any more than 5-6 years after vintage (2-3 years after release) and curious if people on this board have had good experiences with more bottle aged Rossos?

I don't age mine past 5-7 years - although I find that I buy them less and less now that they go for what I used to pay for a decent Brunello!

I find that many of these, along with the Dolcettos, up in Piemonte, have become more international in style - more attractive with sweeter fruit up front (and in the case of the one we tasted, this carried over into the finish) and lower acidity. Given that some Italian wines ride into relative old age purely on acid rather than tannin (Barberas are one example) that means earlier drinking less ageable wines. This was clearly one of those.

I had my first Selvapiana Bucerchiale (97) recently and was really impressed, particularly for the price (<$25).