Stars of
2000 Riserva di Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi DOC Classico, Villa Bucci
A family owned estate since the 1700s,
they first produced this riserva version of Verdicchio in 1983.
After a day tasting red wines, the colour of this wine, a pale to mid lemon
gold, looked most attractive. The nose
was also most inviting: elegant, rich and buttery. This is far from the light, zingy style of
much basic Verdicchio dei CdJ (not that there’s much wrong with that style in
the hands of good producers): this is rich and full on the palate and notably
mouthfilling. Interesting fruit combined with a nuttiness
and a minerality that I find rarely in Italian whites. Good length.
7/10
2002 ‘La Rocca’ Soave
Classico, Pieropan
Notwithstanding the numerous vintages of the century that seem to have been
declared in recent years, 2002 is one of the best vintages of the last ten
years or so in Soave. Pieropan’s first
vintage of the La Rocca Soave was in 1979.
Until the mid 1990s the wine was aged in large old oak foudres, but
around 1995 they started to experiment with using new oak barrels, but bigger
than the standard barrique as the garganica grape would find it difficult to
stand up to new barrels with a high wood to wine exposure. Now around half the wine goes into 500 litre
barrels and the rest into stainless steel and large foudres. Garganica responds best to low yields and the
vines for these wines are around forty years old. The grapes are also picked much later than is
normal in the region – such that Pieropan had to put up a fence round the
vineyard as locals were making off with the grapes to make their own homebrew,
assuming that as the grapes were still on the vines so long after all the
others had been picked that they weren’t wanted! Apparently these wines age very well, and David Gleave was speaking in terms of up to 20
years.
The result of the low yields and late picking is a wine that is a deepish mid
gold colour. It has a really lovely,
quite delicate floral nose with hints of tropical fruit, but with great depth
and a honeyed richness behind it, with a hint of smoky oak. On the palate, it is immediately attractive:
rich and full with slightly tropical fruit flavours. Excellent length. 8/10
2001 Nero d’Avola
Santa Cecilia, Planeta
Originally in its first vintage (the 1997), Planeta’s Santa Cecilia had a touch
of syrah in it, but now it is 100% Nero d’Avola, a grape that is native to
Sicily, but also now starting to interest a number of Australian
winemakers. The grapes are sourced from
two different areas of Sicily: Noto in the south east and Memfi in the northish
west, and spends 12 months in french oak barriques.
A deep ruby with a youthful rim. A fascinating, deep, character-full
nose with bits of dried fruit and scarcely perceptible oak. Very rich, excellent sweet
fruit. Very firm tannins on the
finish. Planeta are often accused of
producing wines in a too international style: there is an element of that in
this wine, but I still find it, like most of Planeta’s wines, has an individual
character that I find links the wine directly to its land of origin. 8-/10
1998 Taurasi, Vesevo
Taurasi is the area inland from
Aglianico is a late ripening thick skinned (and so presumably heart-friendly!)
variety with high acidity and tough tannins.
Combined with the three-week maceration, we had a pretty clear idea what
to expect and weren’t let down …
A very dark black plum-skin colour and a deep, deep largely impenetrable nose
that eventually reveals some deep, dark, bitter chocolate notes with very dark
brambly fruit. On the palate, this
immediately reveals itself as a large-boned well structured wine that is
extraordinarily full with tannins that are not so much grippy as more like a
Staffordshire bull terrier that’s got you by the throat, locked its jaws and is
shaking you, ignoring all pleas for mercy until it is surgically removed. Some welcome acid cuts through on the finish. Of course it needs food and of course it
needs time (5-8 years?), but at the moment it’s just a violent bruiser of a
tannin monster to which I can’t really give more than 5+/10. There is potential there, and it’s a real
shame that there wasn’t an older version, more ready to drink, available to
taste – though note that this is already 6 years old!
2000 La Poja IGT,
Allegrini
Allegrini bought the La Grola vineyard in 1979 and La Poja is right at the top
of the La Grola hill. The soil is very
poor and very chalky: ideal thought Allegrini for the normally rather vigorous
Corvina, with which La Poja is exclusively planted, and which is the sole grape
in this wine (which is of course why it’s an IGT not a Valpolicella). Being on top of the hill, the site is a
breezy one, which helps to keep temperatures down and to avoid development of
moulds. The grapes for La Poja are
picked in late October, with almost late harvest ripeness. For what it’s worth, the first vintage was in
1983: David Gleave seems to have a special interest in when the first vintages
were of the wines he was was presenting!
A very, very dark, weighty appearance. Gorgeous cherry and tobacco notes on the nose
with christmas cake overtones and some sweet oak. A lively, impressive attack
with lots of lovely lovely elegant fruit. A fine tannic structure develops building
into an impressively weighty serious wine with a very nice balance and enormous
length. Once again this is really rather
tight and closed. The fruit battles
through, however, keeping its head above the tannins. 9/10
1999 Romitorio di
Santedame, Ruffino
A IGT from Chianti-land: ablend of 60% Colorino (harvested with a yield of 4½
tons per hectare) and 40% Merlot (yielding 6 tons per hectare). So the Colorino has 25% less yield and is
apparently much harder work; and it ripens two weeks later than everything
else.
An intense very very dark vibrant purple with clear signs of
youth. The nose is leathery with
chocolate coated sour cherries and plummy notes. A lightish attack with good
acid. Enormous
character. Nice balance. Really good elegance. Good solid tannins. 7+/10
1999 Brunello Vigneto
Manachiara, Tenute Silvio Nardi
Aged 2½ years before bottling. Very dark black plumskins appearance. A slightly closed nose with
warm red fruit and an interesting spiciness. Good, elegant, rich fruit on the palate
accompanied by big tannins. Although
still too young and rather closed, this is a very serious wine, especially on
the finish and after, with excellent length.
7+/10
1997 Brunello di
Montalcino DOCG Riserva,
A single vineyard Brunello aged three years before bottling. An even, plummy ruby colour
showing some maturity (much more so than the Silvio Nardi). A lovely elegant nose – really rather
glorious: plums cut with cherry juice and chargrilled steak. On the palate there is a nice balance of
fruit and acid and a good tannic structure.
Very elegant and characterful. Huge length. Hefty tannins. 8-/10
1997 Brunello Poggio
all’Oro Riserva, Castello Banfi
A single vineyard Brunello. A very even mid ruby damsony colour; not quite as advanced looking
as Poggione. The nose has intense
concentgrated chewy fruit with a very soft leather and
very light spicing. Lovely
fruit on the attack – quite sweet.
An elegantly stuctured wine with nice richness and
with quite a bit of grip from tannins.
A fresh modern style Brunello. 8/10
1999 Barolo ‘Bricco
delle Viole’, G D Vajra
Vajra’s Barolo Bricco delle Viole is mostly aged in 25-30 hl casks, but in 1999
many of these new casks were brand new, resulting in a slightly more oaky feel
than in more recent vintages.
A lovely light, more garnet colour: quite even and relatively mature. An interesting nose: sour strawberries but
also a touch of VA. It needs a lot of
agitation to release its elegant perfume, almost reminiscent of dried rose
petals. Really lovely
soft attractive fruit. Fragrant and very accessible with nice soft tannins. 7-/10
1999 Barolo Bricco
Rocche Bricco Rocche, Ceretto
Yes, that’s not a typo and not simply a matter of being so good that they named
it twice. Ceretto’s estate is called
Bricco Roche and this is a single vineyard Barolo from the Bricco Rocche
vineyard. Aged in
300-litre barriques.
A lovely even, fairly mature, ruby. The nose has a violetty rose perfume, but
much more earthy and even the merest hint of bretty farmyard. Hugely elegant on the
palate, with gorgeous fruit and a touch of licorice root. Lively tannins provide a fine elegant
structure. Notable
length. A
superb wine. 9-/10
1999 Barolo Vigneto La
Corda della Briccolina, Batasiolo
Another single vineyard Barolo; this one has spent two years in barrique and
one in bottle. A
deepish ruby, but notably younger looking than the other two Barolos. An earthy ripe nose of
great depth and concentration with an elegant licoricey perfume. A gorgeous attack: lovely elegant weight and
power combined with a fresh acidity.
Much lighter tannins, but still providing a really good structure and
becoming the dominant character on the finish and after. 8++/10
This was an interesting tasting. The two whites were very fine examples of their DOCs and put to rest any idea that Italian whites are all watery quaffers, which is not to say that some aren’t. The reds similarly represented a break from more traditional styles as all were made in fairly modern styles: it is unclear, for example, how today’s Brunellos will age as they are, said David Gleave, made quite differently to previously. What particularly struck me, however, was what hard work the reds were: they may have been fine wines (some were indeed excellent), but they were tough tannic monsters, very tight and very closed. Some more than others, but none represented easy drinking. Partly this was the setting: these are wines that need food. Partly, it was a feature of the wines simply being too young. It was a real shame that there were not more mature examples of some of the wines. Perhaps Italian producers don’t lay down museum stocks in the same way as producers elsewhere? Or maybe the bottles were sourced from currently available wines on the Liberty Wines list?