by Agostino Berti » Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:05 pm
I finally put my money where my mouth is. (Don't really know what this proverb means, but I like it) I crossed the line. Instead of sitting back and just criticising wine, I decided to start working at a winery to see how the stuff is really made. 8 hours of pruning vines in the hilly Oltrepo'.....the food you eat after that is the best you've ever experienced. Anyway, that's another story.
The real story are the tasting notes below. After stashing wines in my cellar for the past 8 years or so, the cellar is finally bearing fruit...or so I thought. There's two problems with my cellar: one, I used to be a Parker-head, two, I used to be broke. So a lot of the wines that are coming of age now are either Parker wines (over-oaked dense bombs) or cheap.
I think some Parker big pointers don't age well because they're made in a big fruity style meant to impress immediately. Also, winemakers who make Parker-style wines to impress Parker, get big points and make big money - have no soul. So the wine has no soul. And everyone knows that a wine without soul doesn't age well (keeping in the Easter spirit here.)
Cheap wines: I like to experiment with ageing. I put all kinds of stuff in the nooks of my cellar just to see what happens. Below are the results and they are not that positive. The cellar is 300 yrs. old and almost perfect. The sweltering 2003 summer saw the temperature down there go up to around 70 degrees but I don't think it did any major damage. These were mostly bought directly from the wineries and stored prefectly so no excuses.
Matteo Correggia - La Val Dei Preti 1997 - Nebbiolo D'Alba - 14% alc.
Interesting and kind of tasty but half gone. Old smells, decaying taste. Drinkeable and interesting but I would say flawed. I bought this from a wineshop a few years ago so it may have been bad storage on their part. I expected a bit more from this reknown producer.
Botticino 2001 - Vigna Cobio - Tognazzi - 13,5% alc.
I think this cost me 5 or 6 Euros max. direct from the producer. This weird, tiny DOC appellation forces it adherents to blend Barbera, Marzemino, Sangiovese and Schiava! What was I thinking storing this off to age! This used to be a tasty, perfumed little wine.
At first the nose seemed OK, unfortunately in the mouth it had a weird acidy taste. Not horrible overall, just not good. Don't age this wine.
Corvino 1997 - Tenuta Mazzolino - Cabernet Sauvignon - Oltrepo' Pavese - 13% alc.
I think I bought this for 9 Euros from the place a while back. 9 Euros direct purchase is actually not cheap in Italy. You can get some great wines for that price. Just don't buy this one. The guy at the place told me this was actually '96 but they had run out of labels or something....anyways, tastes old, smells old. Didn't hold.
San Germano 2006 - Marchesi Alfieri - Monferrato - 14, 5% alc.
This is neither aged nor cheap. Bought it direct for around 18 Euros. Delicious Pinot Noir from Barbera country in Piemonte. Nice aromatics, deft use of oak, balanced in the mouth, complex and nice. Full bodied but subtle at the same time. I truly wonder how this will age. I think it'll do quite well. I've got 4 remaining bottles stashed.
Rosso di Montefalco 2001 - Rocca di Fabbri - 13% alc.
Mostly Sangiovese I think with maybe a bit of Sagrantino juice thrown in. This used to be a good wine. Seemed to have structure. Costs only 7 Euros or so are the market, so why not put a few away and see what happens? Wrong. You can't spit in the devil's eye and expect to get away with it. Nose: fading, not particularly good. Mouth: OK. Not awful. Some mouth feel. Bordering on watery fruit juice at this stage.
Martuffo del Glicine 2001 - Martilde - Oltrepo' Pavese - 13% alc.
100% Pinot Noir. Payed a hefty 6 Euros for this direct from the winery. No nose, no mouth. Basically colored water. No oxidation.
Merlot 2000 - Dolfo - Goriska Brda, Slovenia - 12,8 % alc.
Had higher hopes for this one. Wasn't too cheap. Merlot usually ages well. Not bad. Just didn't evolve into anything. The nose is nice but too subdued. The mouth is Ok but close to neutral. Another experiment that did not give fruit. Better than most of the others but not impressive.
Cabernet 2003 - Oton Reya - Goriska Brda, Slovenia - 13,5 % alc.
This isn't that aged and wasn't an experiment. Oton makes good wine and is a great dude. His Merlot is a cult wine in my pantheon. The Cabernet, I think its a mix of Franc and Sauvignon, is not quite on the Merlot's level though. The mouth is big, balanced and fruity. Delicious. Juicy finish. The nose, on the other hand, seems a bit dumb at this stage. And I detect a slight bit of mustiness, earthiness - which is nice in some way but I hope other aromas emerge with time. I think this has room to age.
Campoleone 2000 - La Fiorita/Lamborghini - Umbria - 13,5% alc.
Here's the big dog. A Parker favorite. Made by big-shot flying oenologist Riccardo Cottarella. Sells for around $70 in the US! Sangiovese and Merlot. 9 yrs old and perfectly cellared...
What are those people on cellartracker smoking? 92 pts? 93 pts? Where's the nose? Anonymous nose...a little whiff of vanilla perhaps. Big mouth, pretty well balanced. Some coffee on the finish. Its ok but quite disappointing. It actually tastes like its cracking up a bit. Unfortunately I have two more in the cellar. A truly fabricated wine. As they say in Italy its "neither fish nor meat", that is, its neither here nor there, neither a true sangiovese nor a true merlot. Its a pleasant, full bodied anonymous wine with a little barrique flavor. Paid 26 Euros 6 yrs ago. I don't think its gone up in price, nobody wants the stuff over here.
Conclusion: I'm glad I cellared all those cheap, weird wines, I've actually learned a lot from it. I have quite a few more to go through. Who knows, I just may find a gem amonst them. No worries, I have some great wines as well that I'm saving.
Regards,
Agostino
“Seekers of gold dig up much earth and find little.”
― Heraclitus