Italian Wines - A Little More Money

The third group of wines were a little more serious and so were some of the prices.

First was a 2006 Kepos Ampeleia, a Toscana IGT wine.  The wine was a blend of Grenache, Mourvedre, Carignano, Alicante and Marselan.  In short this was Cote du Rhone meets Tuscany.  The nose was very, very closed on this wine and after a lot of swirling it still stayed locked up tight.  There was good, deep fruit up front, lots of body, good acid and god tannin.  The fruit was a lot of very ripe strawberries and some darker cherries.  One could taste the earth here and it was essentially Tuscan earth, a drier earthy taste than a Cote du Rhone.  Good wine but at $29.99 not really a bargain.

The next wine was wonderful, a 2007 Le Macchiole, a Bolgheri Rosso blend of Cabernet, Merlot, Sangiovese and Syrah.  Deep dark fruit in the nose with with oak and vanilla in the mix.  Great flavor of ripe black cherries, cassis and at the end some tarter red cherries.  Good acidity, good clinging tannin integrated into the taste and a long, pleasant finish made this wine the best of the day to this point in the tasting.  At $39.00 a bottle it may have been the best bargain of the day.  It's resting nicely in the cellar as it's still a baby.

Finally we arrived in Barolo,  the Massolino 2004 Barolo from Serralunga d'Alba.  This wine was poured from a decanter where it had been sitting since being poured prior to the tasting.  The color in the glass was true,  somewhat light and orange at the edges.  This was a Barolo in the traditional style.  The nose was full of tar and flowers with earth and a few herbs mixed in.  With every swirl something else came out of the glass.  The taste was still closed but the earth was there, along with the flowers and some tart fruit, but the earth was foremost.  Good body and huge tannins that hammered the sides of the tongue and good acid that intensified the tannin.    Way too young to drink and a wine that probably needs ten years in the bottle.  $65.  If this blog is still going in ten years I'll let you know how it tastes since the one pictured here is resting nicely.

There were three more wines, and those will wait for another day.