1997 Massa Vecchia La Fonte di Pietrarsa Maremma Toscana IGT

Vintage 1997
Type Red
Producer Massa Vecchia
Variety Cabernet Sauvignon
Designation La Fonte di Pietrarsa
Country Italy
Region Tuscany
SubRegion Maremma
Appellation Maremma Toscana IGT
Price $46.99



The Little Wooden Guy likes older Cabernets.

Night One

The color shows the age of the wine. It is brick red with the first hints of orange at the edges. The nose is classic older Cabernet, leading with florals, nuts and tarragon, rather than big fruit. Some plums were behind all of that, but did not dominate at all. The palate, too, is far more floral than fruity.

Violets take the lead on the palate, followed by tarragon and a touch of mushroom. Leather and grilled meat join the prior flavors, rather than replacing them, on the mid-palate. The finish is long, tannins are smooth and no longer predominate. This seems to be near the end of its life, perhaps just a bit over its peak. I will be interested to see how it fares on Night Two.

Night Two

The wine drank almost exactly the same as on Night One, except it was even better knit-together. It was wonderful and is clearly peaking right now. It am thrilled I have three more bottles, and will drink them over the next few months.





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2003 Poggio Amorelli Oracolo Toscana IGT

Type Red
Producer Poggio Amorelli
Variety Super Tuscan Blend
Designation Oracolo
Country Italy
Region Tuscany
Appellation Toscana IGT



The Wooden Guys did not get to try the wine, since we had it at Wine at Work Wednesday, and man are they going to be upset when they read this. Go buy this wine. Seriously, buy it. Study it. Drink half a bottle and have the other half on Night Two. This is a case study in how a wine can change, and how a dozen different aromas and flavors can knit together with some time and air.

Night One

The nose on this wine is absolutely wild. The first whiff will make you look up and say "hmmmmmmm" out loud. After that, it is a search to match the aromas with something familiar. Menthol? Absolutely. Lemon grass and asian spices? What the heck is that doing in there, floating above the glass like a bowl of Vietnamese soup? Chestnuts. Chestnuts?! Then the fruit, some white raisins, perhaps. There is also licorice, the real stuff, not the artificial candy.

The palate is just as odd. It definitely presents the taste of raisins, but it still has the odd predominate lemon grass and other asian spices taste of a Vietnamese restaurant. It offers huge changes on the mid-palate. Menthol pops out, followed by licorice. The very end of the mid-palate offers the crusty end of a leg of lamb. The finish is long, tannins strong but silky smooth and balanced by good acid. On Night One tasting, it seems like it would have lots of cellar life left.

Night Two

This has not changed a tremendous amount since Night One. The "Vietnamese Restaurant" nose is there, even stronger than before. The asian spices, not hot Szechuan, but exotic, are stronger, particularly on the sides of the tongue. Menthol faded a bit from Night One, but the spices are explosive.

On the palate, the spices run through the jars in your pantry though the hidden leaves and powders in the back of a restaurant with whole ducks hanging by their necks from the rafters and half a dozen woks going at once. White raisins become mulberry for just an instant, then shifts to natural licorice toward the finish.

This is good. This is far better than the 87 from Wine Spectator, but the whole shift from "interesting" to "really good" came on Night Two, so that is understandable. On Night One it threw a dozen things at you, but on Night Two those dozen things knit together into a smooth arc. This is the sort of wine an oenophile can spend hours studying, picking out different flavors and aromas, tasting it as it changes, minute by minute, and most important, from one day to the next.





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2006 Campo di Sasso Insoglio del Cinghiale Toscana IGT

Type: Red
Producer: Campo di Sasso
Variety: Red Blend
Designation: Insoglio del Cinghiale
Country: Italy
Region: Tuscany
Appellation: Toscana IGT
Price: $48
From: Bin Ends Wine for $38.40. This was tasted as part of Twitter Taste Live sponsored by Wilson Daniels.




Night One

Cabernet Franc is obvious in the blend, as the tobacco leaf scent leaps first out of the glass. Just as the bottle is opened it also has the curious smell of dried tangerine rind, which blows off after about half an hour. The nose is rich with cocoa and dark fruit.

The first impression on the palate is of how smooth the wine is, even with a strong tannic structure. Cherries, leather, and some clear licorice also make up the initial attack. This continues to evolve, not just on the mid-palate, but from minute to minute. It is probably not fair to try to judge this wine until it has had some time to decant.

This is a real candidate for Night Two improvement.

Night Two

Classic Cabernet Franc tobacco is the first aroma out of the glass. A deeper whiff brings sticky dates and figs, and behind those, blackberries.

Tobacco also leads on the palate. The fruit is all black, dates, prunes and blackberries. A solid mid-palate adds pencil lead, and the dates turn to figs. The finish is very long. The tannins are smooth and silky, leaving a sense of suede, not merely leather.

2003 Castello di Monsanto Chianti Classico Riserva

Type: Red
Producer: Castello di Monsanto
Variety: Sangiovese Blend
Designation: Riserva
Country: Italy
Region: Tuscany
SubRegion: Chianti
Appellation: Chianti Classico
Price: $23.99



The Little Wooden Guy offers the Sun Salutation to this quite reasonably priced product of earth and sunshine.

Night One

The color is very dark in the center, almost black, with a bright ruby edge about three-quarters of an inch deep.

The nose is interesting, offering more than most chiantis in this price range. It has cherries and some pomegranate, but also adds earth, chestnuts, and some spices, as well as a bit of tar.

The palate is filled with red fruit, opening with cherries, their sweetness mitigated by dry cranberry and perhaps some pomegranate. There is more than just fruit here, though. This is a very floral wine, with violets ripping across the palate. The mid-palate is pucker-dry, cranberries and violets, plus a touch of tar on the finish. Acidity is good, quite bright, and the tannins are a touch rough, not much, and very drying This could improve significantly from Night One to Night Two.

Night Two

The nose is floral, more so than on Night One, rich with violets and roses. The fruit has changed some, too. Before, it was cherries and cranberries. Now, it is dried cherries and dried cranberries.

The palate has not changed a lot. Acid is still bright, tannins perhaps slightly smoother. I saw this wine for $17.99 today at Costco. For that price, this is surprisingly cellar-worthy. Based upon a two-day tasting, I expect it has a couple more years of not just life, but perhaps improvement as well.

Quick tasting, lots of wine

I went to a wine tasting last night at one of my local wine stores, Vine & Table. It was a customer tasting, not a critic tasting, so there wasn't any spitting. That meant I had to choose pretty carefully among the 50 or so wines, to pick the ones I wanted to try. Here's the line-up, with some quick notes. Note, please, that I did not realize the tasting list did not include vintage until I started writing this entry. Just about everything was most recent available.

Casa Lapostolle Cabernet Sauvignon "Alexandre"

Type- Red
Producer- Casa Lapostolle
Variety- Cabernet Sauvignon
Designation- Cuvée Alexandre
Vineyard- Apalta Vineyard
Country- Chile
Region- Central Valley
SubRegion- Rapel Valley
Appellation- Colchagua Valley
Price $17.99

There was plenty of black fruit on the nose, plum and black currant. Black currant drove the palate, but there was also some brush and green pepper. Tannins were smooth, balance was pretty good. This was a fair, and fairly priced, Cabernet.

Allegrini Palazzo della Torre

Type- Red
Producer- Allegrini
Variety- 70% Corvina Veronese, 25% Rondinella and 5% Sangiovese
Designation- Palazzo della Torre
Country- Italy
Region- Veneto
Appellation- Veronese IGT
Price- $22.99

The nose opened with blackberry, followed immediately by a stunning amount of coffee and chocolate, mocha heaven. On the palate it was very smooth a creamy, offering up blackberry, a bare echo of the chocolate on the nose, and some licorice on the mid-palate. Finish was mid-length. The palate did not meet the nose' promise, but at $22.99, it was still good. There is one other advantage, as well. If you are trying to join the Wine Century Club, it has two grapes you don't normally run across.

Louis Jadot Pommard 2005

Type- Red
Producer- Louis Jadot
Variety- Pinot Noir
Country- France
Region- Burgundy
SubRegion- Côte de Beaune
Appellation- Pommard
Price $51.99

This is very young, and it showed. The nose was closed, barely giving up hints of cherry pit, strawberry and mushroom. It was a bit more tart on the palate, showing cranberry and raspberry, along with a little earthiness. It did not have tremendous depth or much of a mid-palate. I know the '05 Burgundies are outrageously priced, and $52 is low on the scale, but that is still a lot of money for a wine of this quality.

Louis Jadot Pommard 2006

Type- Red
Producer- Louis Jadot
Variety- Pinot Noir
Country- France
Region- Burgundy
SubRegion- Côte de Beaune
Appellation- Pommard
Price $65.99

This was completely closed down. The nose was simply absent. There was a bit of red berry and pepper on the nose, but not much. I realize the '05s commanded high prices, but a price INCREASE for the '06 is just not justifiable.

Elyse "Morisoli" Cabernet Sauvignon

Type- Red
Producer- Elyse
Variety- Cabernet Sauvignon
Vineyard- Morisoli Vineyard
Country- USA
Region- California
SubRegion- Napa Valley
Appellation- Napa Valley
Price- $79.99

The nose on this wine was like a straight right from George Foreman- it came straight at you and caught you right between the eyes. It was huge, with buckets of plum and elderberry and a powerful smell of meat and soy sauce. Yes, soy sauce. It was equally big on the palate, bringing blackcurrant and redcurrant, some smoke, a very smooth full mouth feel, and firm but surprisingly well-integrated tannins. It was sweet, adding the brown sugar and vanilla I note in so many California Cabs, but in this case those flavors did not take over and elbow out the fruit, they just merely joined alongside it. The finish was mid-length, a bit of a surprise.

Page Wine Cellars Proprietary Red

Type- Red
Producer- Page Wine Cellars
Variety- Red Bordeaux Blend
Designation- Proprietary Blend
Country- USA
Region- California
SubRegion- Napa Valley
Appellation- Napa Valley
Price- $56.99

The nose was jammy and spicy, with red fruit, pepper and cedar. The palate was interesting, offering up a taste I never before found in a Bordeaux blend. It started with cherry, followed very quickly by A&W root beer and cream, almost a root beer float. The midpalate brought vanila and cedar. Finish was long and smooth.

Four Graces Pinot Noir

Type- Red
Producer- The Four Graces
Variety- Pinot Noir
Country- USA
Region- Oregon
SubRegion- Willamette Valley
Appellation- Willamette Valley
Price- $26.99

The best way to describe the nose was dried strawberries, that fruity musty sweet smell. The palate was very typical mid-price Oregon pinot, cherries and black tea, plus a bit of pepper and allspice.

I Giusti & Zanza Nemorino Rosso Toscana IGT

Type- Red
Producer- I Giusti & Zanza
Variety- Syrah Blend
Designation- Nemorino Rosso
Country- Italy
Region- Tuscany
Appellation- Toscana IGT
Price- $19.99

The nose had loads of pepper and black fruit. The palate was odd, though, with a clashing mix of nuts, canteloupe and blueberries.

Azienda Agricola Lohsa Mandrone di Lohsa Maremma Toscana IGT 2004

13.5% alcohol
$21.99

This was an interesting two-night trip. The color was medium garnet, slightly cloudy, with clear edges.

The nose of this wine exploded with leather, white chocolate, plums and toasted nuts. There was also another scent, was it fruity or floral?, hiding in the back, something I could not quite put my finger on. Stay tuned for the second night, when it makes a big appearance.

The palate had dark, very dark but not burned, toast, cranberry, and black cherry up front, tobacco, white chocolate and smooth dry leather tannins on the midpalate, and a long finish. On the first night this was full bodied, mouth coating, but apparently very young.

On the second night that mysterious scent made its appearance again, this time front and center. It was mango. Yup, mango. Not mango from a can, or jelly, but real, honest-to-goodness fresh mango from the Indian River, specifically Merritt Island, Florida. There was also some white chocolate and flowers, mostly three day old hibiscus and roses. Bring it to your mouth and take one last quick sniff and lavender shows up, too.

On the second night it still seemed young on the palate. It was tight and dry. Cranberries and fresh plm skins give the sour, plus the tiny clear wild cherries you find growing in Michigan, up near Traverse City. Tobacco and leather are there, too.

This could use a lot more time in the cellar, maybe five years or more, going on the last two nights. There is a lot of wine here and it shows on the nose, but the palate is still too tight to show its best.