Beau, one of the owners of Wine Styles, was kind enough to bring in a bottle of
2003 Chateau Smith Haut Laffite Pessac Leognan. This showed the 2003 vintage definitely...with a huge nose of leather, tobacco, and chocolate. Maybe a bit much for one of Vacaville's godawful midsummer evenings, but SHL was one of my very first good Bordeaux, and I enjoyed this quite a bit.
2001 Felsina Fontalloro Toscona IGT. This got mixed reviews on cellartracker, and I am going to copy user "Kevin S" who pretty much nailed it:
Medium weight. Sour cherry palate, with some cedar notes, perhaps a little lean. There's good length on the finish and it was better when paired with food, but stand alone this is a bit lacking.
Definitely didn't show its best when compared to a very rich Bordeaux. Not bad, just not all that exciting. I have had better luck with Felsina's Chiantis, which I consistently like!
...(Humans) are unique in our capacity to construct realities at utter odds with reality. Dogs dream and dolphins imagine, but only humans are deluded. –Jacob Bacharach
