Word: wined
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...characteristically nuanced Sangiovese is undoubtedly best articulated after emerging from the sophisticated terra cotta of Tuscany. The Italians have had 600 years to engineer and fashion Il Magnifico Chianti into what one might call a powerful expression of grace. Wine producers in California and Washington try in vain to emulate Chianti’s complex personality of dusty oak with subtle, sweet hints of cherry and violet. They rarely measure...
...fruit produces strong, ripe expressions of cherry. It nestles softly in the mouth, with a warm Gem¸tlichkeit to it. The finish is pleasing and long. The gritty tannin from the acid pits in the grapes skillfully holds it together. Yet my tongue tells me that this inchoate wine would be best consumed in a year or two. While ’97 was positively the vintage of the century, its tannin, in most cases, needs time to mature, open up and thaw...
...Paolo De Marchi, the producer of Isole e Olena, places among the top winegrowers in Italy. His echt classico is a wine of fine breeding: the unimposing structure yields uncommon class and elegance. The outspoken Tuscan character imposingly projects the overall gestalt. Its pièce de resistance is clearly the bouquet of red berries, dark cherries, black currants and vanilla. It has a varietal twang and an agreeable consistency of flavor and aroma...
...profound and complex classico. Dry, crisp, harmonious. Smooth. Deep. Chest-beatingly masculine. It is a bona fide example of the governo. In the governo method, batches of grapes are left to out to dry up and shrivel in order to be pressed and added later to an already fermented wine, thus creating a second round of fermentation. This process is universally believed to enhance the flavors that embrace Chianti, softening the tannins, giving a richer, fruitier wine. The routine is considered de rigueur among some Chianti producers. Here, the mildly vegetal notes of tobacco are pitted against a soup?...
...bygone era. Not so the deluge of so called supertuscans that resulted from the fiasco. Obiter dictum, the word “fiasco” alludes to another bygone era of Italy. One in which an opera singer’s wretched performance was greeted by a barrage of wine flasks or “fiasci” at the offending artist. Hence the fiasco. But I digress. The supertuscan promiscuously blends a veritable smorgasbord of internationally known grape varieties. The veneer of its glamor has faded as Chianti producers have since rebounded. The supertuscan’s meretricious colors...