Post-Fogarty

Castello della Paneretta 1999 Chianti Classico Riserva (Tuscany) – Ashen red fruit, wan and fading. Drink up a few years ago. (11/11)

Little loaf

Castello della Paneretta 1999 Chianti Classico Riserva (Tuscany) – Past maturity, but not so far that it lacks all interest. Sandy minerality, old roasted cherries turned very slightly spirituous, dust upon dust, and an intrusive burnt-honey quality that comes from the wood of which this wine always had just a little too much. (10/11)

Renzo cortex

da Renzo “Fattoria di Basciano” 1996 Chianti Rufina (Tuscany) – Old grape, gritty with earth and broken-down tar. Still quite structured, still very present, but just enough past its prime that the structure dominates. (10/11)

Raw grapes

Carpazo 2007 Rosso di Montalcino (Tuscany) – Grating and surly, with more tannin than its black raspberryish fruit needs, and with more anger than the drinker wants. (8/11)

(Don't) lay down Torselli

Torselli 2003 VinSanto del Chianti Classico (Tuscany) – 50 cl. I don’t, as a rule, drink much vin santo these days, and thinking about it for a while I realized that it was because so much of what I tasted was sort of tedious. Not bad, just much less interesting than sweet wines from elsewhere. Here, though, that tedium is coupled with another problem: the vintage, which tended to render sweet wines a little flabby and vapid. This is the case here. Sweet gold fruit, hacked off at the edges and without much of a start or finish. (8/11)

Green tea

Montevertine 2002 “Montevertine” (Tuscany) – This is just so supple and approachable that the structure almost goes unnoticed. But eventually, get noticed it does, and it’s where the frayed edges and deficiencies of the wine show. Maturing quickly enough that, if I owned any more, I’d be thinking about getting to the rest of it. For all the previous talk of insufficiency, though, there’s plenty to like about the soft red fruit and earthy spice of the wine. Drink up, though. (9/10)

Peasant

Montevertine 2006 “Pian del Ciampolo” (Tuscany) – The usual beautiful, soft red fruit with the fine particulate texture somewhere between earth and spice. Hints of vegetation, still a fair (but gentle) wash of tannin, balanced all around. This is good now, but it’ll be a fair bit better a few years down the road. (8/10)

Uncle Quinis

Sardi Giustiniani 2008 Colline Lucchesi Vermentino “Quinis” (Tuscany) – Starts tentatively, then grows in interest as vermentinos so often do. Water-marked aquatic leafery, subtle shadings of sunlight, an ascending finish. Good. (7/10)

Ernest Borgo

Borgo Scopeto 2000 “Borgonero” (Tuscany) – What once may have been deep-throated strawberry and blackberry fruit has been pushed, wrenched, and twisted into something laden with Botox and fakery. It’s recognizable as wine, but further precision would be problematic at best. (5/10)

Kings of Pian

Montevertine 2004 “Pian del Ciampolo” (Tuscany) – Corked. (5/10)

Forsoni, not for Hitachi

Forsoni “Sanguineto I e II” 2004 Rosso di Montepulciano (Tuscany) – Earthen strawberries, dark and dusty, though this is either in an odd transitional stage or showing signs of wear, as structurally it’s a little disjointed and rough. I don’t have sufficient years of experience with the wine to know which it is. Still, despite the inconsistencies, it’s as appealing and food-adoring as it always is. (4/10)

Forsoni, not for Toshiba

Forsoni “Poderi Sanguineto I e II” Vino de Tavola Bianco (Tuscany) – Lot 04/09. Hot. Decayed flowers and guttered raindrops, with that ever-present alcoholic fume dominating no matter what the temperature. I love Sanguineto’s reds, but am a more than a little repelled by this effort. (1/10)

Banti raid

Banti 2004 Morellino di Scansano (Tuscany) – Two bottles, exactly the same: sorta anonymous, chunky red fruit with slaps of darker paint and a good dose of acidity. Dries out as it finishes. Eh. (12/09)

Teri Ciampolo

Montevertine 2002 “Pian del Ciampolo” (Tuscany) – Succulent, beautifully balanced, but in no way overworked to get to this state. Gentle red fruit and brown earth, light spice, smooth-textured cotton. Pure loveliness. Primary, partially tertiary…it’s hard to care when the wine is this good, at any stage. (9/09)

Terri Ciampolo

Montevertine 2005 “Pian del Ciampolo” (Tuscany) – Wow, is this pretty. I thought I’d lost my enthusiasm for sangiovese, but wines like this could re-energize it. Dusty strawberries, flecked with earth and structured by their seeds, with tiny-leafed herbality and a long, faintly buzzing finish full of rocks and light foam. Really, really approachable, but there’s enough structure to eliminate near-term worries. So, hold it for a while? I answer: why? (7/09)

Old mass

Massa Vecchia 2005 Maremma Toscana Bianco (Tuscany) – A bit of a brett bomb, though eventually the wine starts to show things other than fetid stench, including a silky palate that glides and skates as if on the smoothest ice. A little more attention to hygiene, and this would be a beauty. (7/09)

Agnus

Dei 1991 Rosso di Montepulciano (Tuscany) – Dead, decomposing, and in no danger of reanimation. No, I didn’t expect a different result. (4/09)

Tufi underground

Teruzzi & Puthod 2003 “Terre di tufi” (Tuscany) – Getting a bit tired already, not from age as much as the effort of supporting its brawny upper body on a rather spindly lower half. Ponderous despite a fair expression of metal-sheathed white apricot, and not for the long haul. (10/08)

Big Night

Forsoni “Sanguineto I e II” 2004 Rosso di Montepulciano (Tuscany) – This is such a beautiful wine, and has almost single-handedly restored my confidence in the category. Spicy strawberry and black cherry fruit with double-helixed structure and a very, very light bite of chewy skin tannin, this is a wine that loves nothing more than to dine. Don’t disappoint it. (10/08)

Tavernelle on the green

Banfi 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon “Tavernelle” (Tuscany) – Very simple. Generic fruit. And…nothing. Profoundly indifferent wine. (9/08)