WTN: Berthelot, Montevertine

[Jenise]

Quarantine, Day 5:

So one way we've decided to break the gloom of isolation is to schedule a "happy hour" with friends. Simple phone contact with everybody on a different extension is good, and FaceTime is even better. Last night we hooked up on FaceTime with John and Annabelle, who are major fans of champagne, and drank:

NV Paul Berthelot Champagne Premier Cru Eminence Chardonnay
Nicely dry with green apple and pie crust notes, good persistence.


After the call, to accompany a beef-tomato-onion pasta dish, I opened this:

2009 Azienda Agricola Montevertine Toscana IGT Sangiovese Blend, Sangiovese
Decanted for aeration, no sediment. Bright ruby color with okay fruit and development, and it worked well with our beef-tomato farfalle but once the food was gone it faded into astringency. Better than our no-there-there bottle in 2018, but merely decent like a $15 passively-stored bottle and nowhere close to reputation. I acquired them from a good retailer on release, so suspect an earlier supply-chain issue.

Thanks for notes.
Never had a Berthelot.
I always loved Montevertine, but stopped buying 5-6 years ago for principle/moral issues. The youngest I have left is a mag of '06 PT. I've never seen a well-treated bottle that wouldn't do 10 years (even Pian del Ciampolo), I'd wonder about supply chain as well (or being shut down, but that didn't sound right from your description with food)

[Jenise]

This was my last one so no more to worry about, Dale, but triangulating between other Monteveretines, other vintages I've had in the past and what others have said about good bottles of this one on CT (though none are recent), it's gotta be the case.

[David M. Bueker]

OK, so maybe my memory is betraying me, but what’s the issue with Montevertine?

Manetti made several posts on his winery FB pages about dirty Moroccans, and said he was planning on changing name of wine to Mein Kampf.
I don't spend anytime researching the political/social views of winemakers, and am sure there are probably others whose wines I love with views I abhor. In this case I know the views, so can choose not to give any of my money to him (even indirectly). I do still have some older Montevertines, which I enjoy taking to fundraisers for racial/economic justice.

[David M. Bueker]

Hmm...don’t tell my bottles of Le Pergole Torte.