TN's from a night of Tuscan Reds

[Michael Malinoski]

I was happy to join Ed’s group for their monthly tasting in early October, with this month’s theme of Tuscan reds. As usual, the food was quite good and folks brought some really interesting selections. Per the normal custom of this group, all wines were decanted by the restaurant staff and served blind in one single flight.

1997 Fattoria Le Pupille Saffredi Maremma Toscana IGT. The absolutely lovely bouquet here suggests a wine of some advanced age, showing a lot of secondary aromatic nuances that feel rather relaxed and cushiony. Scents of crushed raspberry, bark, jalapeno pepper, dusty earth, tobacco, worn leather, frozen persimmon and peppermint dust all work together beautifully in a mature and resolved fashion. In the mouth, this again comes across as older than it actually is, but I have absolutely no problem with that since it has a soft, pliant texture and a totally rounded and resolved mouthfeel that I like a lot for drinking pleasure right now. Fine flavors of warm sour cherry, dusty raspberry and soft earth are carried along by a burst of acidity in the mid-palate—giving the wine a sense of length and persistence despite not being particularly deep or overly-concentrated. This is just elegant and resolved and ready to be enjoyed now. No need to wait on this at all. My and the group’s WOTN (3 first place and 1 second place vote).

1999 Campogiovanni (San Felice) Brunello di Montalcino. The bouquet of this wine is much stronger, opening up with forceful aromas of creme de cassis and warm cherry liqueur that have perhaps a hint of volatility to them. Slowly, though, it starts to mellow and come around, folding in finer notes of soft dirt, lava rocks, forest greenery, horsehide and duck confit. Aromatically, it just gets better and better throughout the evening. In the mouth, it feels languid and gentle, with tannins held largely in check early on. Soft sour cherry, gentle vanilla, oak spices, cocoa and some dried red fruit flavors have good length and feel warmly enveloping. It flows along easily, with medium weight, fair intensity and gentle structure. However, a second glass later in the evening is where the wine begins to show its youth, as it starts to cinch up and take on a more tough and tannic character despite the blossoming of the aromatic profile. Perhaps this is in a bit of an in-between phase right now and my advice is to hold off a few years before testing the waters again.

1997 Antinori Solaia Toscana IGT. The nose on this wine is tight and taut at first and takes a while to unwind a bit. It is definitely on the sleek and slick side, with well-fashioned and multi-dimensional aromas of tar, horsehide, tobacco and fireplace ash working in support of black cherry and dark raspberry fruit. It is extremely silky and glossy on the palate, with an almost gossamer feel to it. Yet, the wine certainly does not lack gravitas, as heavy bass notes of black currant, black bean and tarry flavors ground the wine at the dark end of the flavor spectrum. Still, the wine is more about taut earthy flavors right now than it is about fruit, and at least early on in the tasting, the finish actually feels too dusty and dried for my palate. That feeling is exacerbated by the dusty tannins that come on strong toward the finish. By the end of the night, though, it seemed to me that the finish had begun to freshen up and the classier side of the black fruit had begun to wrest away control. Overall, then, my impression is that this wine is a bit not fully-developed right now. Perhaps in a few years, it will all work together more effectively.

2001 Poggio Antico Brunello di Montalcino Altero. This wine opens up with some musty attic and caramel aromas that have me worried for a bit. But slowly, the wine begins to pull in more engaging notes of blonde wood, tobacco, spiced cranberry, rhubarb, cherry and funky mushrooms. In the mouth, it is warm and perhaps a bit roasted, with a hint of alcoholic warmth, as well. Still, it gets beyond that and offers up generous amounts of spicy cherries and other red fruits that feel plush and giving. The tannins are thicker and more obvious than on a lot of other wines and the finish again seems to have a prickle of heat to my palate. Overall, the wine feels disjointed to me, and probably needs more time. Others seemed to like this a lot more than me, as it garnered third place in voting among the group (with 1 first place vote and 3 seconds).

1990 Terrabianca Chianti Classico Riserva Vigna della Croce. For me, the nose on this wine is all about green pepper. It is like going to the salad bar and sticking your nose directly into the sliced pepper bucket. Beyond that, though, it also manages to offer up other interesting notes like dusty earth, white pepper and candied red fruits that provide complexity and a bit of balance. In the mouth, this is totally voluminous, really expanding out to fill all of the crevices of the mouth. The fruit, though, is not in any way over-done, nor is the wine overly weighty. It is just rounded and expansive, with a fleshy and cohesive texture, no real tannins in sight, and soft, pliant acidity. I wish I liked the bouquet better, but otherwise this is a nice big mouthful of wine.

1982 Castello dei Rampolla Sammarco Toscana IGT. There is a bit of warm varnished volatility on the nose of this wine that more or less manages over time to eventually integrate into the other aromatic elements such as rich cassis, cherry pie, tomato leaf, dark soot, caramel, mushroom stalks and game bird. It shows some caramel notes on the attack, but then fans out really well through the mid-palate to deliver a ton of overt fruit flavors that are fairly rich and that lean toward the warm cherry and raspberry compote side of things. It is very warm-fruited and has a ton of life, but there are some drying tannins present that are definitely a factor. Some charred smoke and a hint of that caramel come in on the finish, which may show a bit too much warmth. Still, this has a lot of life left and a ton of stuffing and I was very surprised when it was revealed to be as old as it is.

2006 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia Le Volte Toscana IGT. This was by far my least favorite wine of the evening. It smells strongly of industrial rubber, with some obvious new oak, black licorice and slick, modern confectionary-toned black fruit along for the ride. On the palate, it is again dominated by the rubber flavors, along with some star anise, black fruits and oak. It is extremely young and primary, but with a stylized glossy feel to it. There are lots of fine but obvious tannins throughout and it is just too soon to tell if this will materialize into anything decent down the road or not.

1982 Tenuta Caparzo Brunello di Montalcino. This just smells very nice in a gentle Old World sort of way—with aromas of dried red fruits, old leather, old tobacco and mossy earth that are resolved but strong. The wine has a nice languid glycerol character on the tongue and hangs together beautifully. The softly tangy mixed red berry fruit flavors are quite tasty and there is fine acidity running all the way through to the lengthy, even-keeled finish. It has great balance between the fruit, weight, texture and acidity and also seems to have some stuffing for even further aging over the short term. This was my and the group’s #2 wine of the night (with 2 first place votes and 1 second place vote).

1998 Isole e Olena Cepparello Toscana IGT. The nose is fairly tight on this wine--with some notes of green tobacco leaf, faint leather, creamed cherry and a whisper of mint. It stays taut, refined and classy throughout the evening but never really seems to find its stride aromatically. In the mouth, it comes across as totally youthful, with tons of dry, spicy tannins that detract somewhat from the warm cherry and raspberry fruit that is rich and vibrantly full. There is also an obvious sense of structure here, and the wine seems built much more for the long-haul than for current enjoyment. I suggest forgetting about this one for a while.


-Michael

[sdr]

Great notes as usual, Michael.

I am currently exploring the world of Italian wines and your impressions are most useful.

So far I seem to prefer nebbiolo, but you show me that sangiovese (and STs) are not to be ignored.

~stuart