So farra, so gooda

Sella & Mosca 2002 Alghero “Tanca Farra” (Sardinia) – Swaggering, but the calloused mountain man and the fancy suit don’t necessarily cohere. Angry, dark-souled fruit with a fierce lash of skin and strap. It’s not overly big, though it is thickened by ambition, but the essential core of this wine survives its commercial acculturation without taking too much damage. (8/10)

Mosca on the Hudson

Sella & Mosca 2005 Cannonau di Sardegna (Sardinia) – A normally-reliable crowd-pleaser, here tasted from two bottles and found wanting from each. The strawberry bubblegum with a little more grate to it is present, as expected, but it cannot escape the two-ton lead weight pressing down on it. It’s not that the wine is overly heavy, it’s that it’s squashed. If both bottles are corked, it’s imperceptible and they’re identically-infected, which seems low-probability. Maybe a bad batch, or damaged, or just not very good. (2/10)

Mosca on the Hudson

Sella & Mosca 1999 Cannonau di Sardegna “Riserva” (Sardinia) – Over the last nine years, this has turned from grenache to aged cabernet franc. How’d that happen? Razor-edged fruit, sharp and porcupine-y, bristles with narrow-gauge redness around a gravelly core. It’s interesting, but I think the wine’s more appealing in its fresh and fruity youth. (12/08)

Sella & Mosca 2004 Cannonau di Sardegna “Riserva” (Sardinia) – Strawberry, sun, and bubblegum…though the latter is a very minor component in comparison to the other two. It seems somewhat insulting to call any wine gluggable, but this one definitely is. One of the most reliably appealing quasi-mass market labels out there. (12/08)

Fired

Sella & Mosca 2004 Cannonau di Sardegna “Riserva” (Sardinia) – Fruity, fresh, and fun. Strawberry bubblegum with a gravel foundation and fine balance. This is an extremely reliable wine, though I suppose it sacrifices some uniqueness for that reliability. (2/08)

Shot from a cannonau

Sella & Mosca 2004 Cannonau di Sardegna “Riserva” (Sardinia) – Showing the beginning stages of a faint browning in both color and taste, but still a fun stew of sun-dried fruit, perhaps a bit of tomato skin, and a gravelly texture. One of my favorite red wines for things that usually go better with white. (2/08)