Il Ponte Fra Due Terre 2004

I have written before that one of the great joys of wine is finding a smallish and lesser or unknown producer who happens to produce outstanding wine (and hoping that no one else discovers them). Well here in Berkeley there is a wine merchant who does all the work of sorting out the great stuff from the crap for you called Vintage Berkeley. Nothing at the store is over $25, nothing is from a major producer, and pretty much everything is outstanding value. I picked up this bottle from that store.

Usually new world sangiovese is pretty gross. The brilliance of this particular California Sangiovese blended from Sonoma and Napa grapes is that the winemaker used to head up Robert Mondavi's Italian wine experiment in California. While Mondavi ultimately decided not to pursue a mass production of Italian style wine, the wine maker for this beauty of a bottle in the meantime learned where the best sources of Sangiovese were for the state. Sure he could only produce 200 cases of wine from them, but being lucky enough to try a bottle I can attest to both the outstanding quality and, honestly, phenomenal quality to price ratio this wine brings to the table.

On the nose I got a classic Chianti style cherry and plum with distinct barnyard notes. The palate had real acidity and balance to it, with real integrity to the simple but pure fruit flavours of cherry and strawberry. The 2% Petite Sirah added to the blend very likely added both depth of colour and depth of flavour and, along with the abundent sunshine, gave the wine a distinctly Californian edge, while yet not overwhelming the Italianite qualities of the wine. Essentially this is not only the best New World Sangiovese I've had, but it tops many more expensive examples from Italy. Wow!

Excellent

$21 at Vintage Berkeley

Kestrel Estate Sangiovese 2003

Having recently tried this small Washington producer's Syrah and finding it quite exceptional, I decided to give another of their varietal offerings a try. This time I chose something not so well known in Washington - a Sangiovese from the Yakima Valley. At 13.8% alcohol, I found this surprisingly Italian in style with a barn-y, raspberry and burnt hay nose. A very lively wine, it was also stinky just like a Chianti Classico. In the end, this was perhaps too simple for the price, but it was well made and had terrific structure. Plus, I would definitely mistake this for a Tuscan wine in a blind tasting - which is pretty cool in itself.

Very Good

$36 at Everything Wine

Felsina Fontalloro 2000

I thought I'd make Monday a little more exciting than usual by opening a bottle of this, one of Tuscany's most respected sangiovese -based IGTs. Felsina is a classic chianti producer who knows how to turn sangiovese grapes into wine that greatly exceeds the norm in quality.

This was dark rudy brown in the glass and had a nose of black currants, cassis and cedar. The palate was tart but well balanced and very nuanced. I detected leather, spice, dried prunes, currants and sweet blackberry fruit. This also had a very long finish with very fine and integrated tannins. So, even though this oxydized fairly quickly after I opened the bottle (probably 2-3 hours), this was a beautifully structured and elegant sangiovese - one of the nicest I've tasted.

Excellent

$70 at BCLDB

Avignonesi Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2004

Work has been keeping me busy, so the updates have slowed a bit. Nevertheless, the wine drinking continued. I had this a few nights ago as foray into the fantastic 2004 vintage in Tuscany. I think that Vino Nobile di Montepulciano can offer tremendous value in sangiovese - with prices between cheaper Chianti's and more expensive Brunellos. A good middle ground.

The nose had bright berry fruit that opened into a fairly simple, but authentic palate. This was very fruity, but in a pure unmanipulated manner. Other flavours were a little savory, and were undergirded with a bit of caramel. A simple and medium length finish rounded this out well. I'd pair this with a pasta or stewed meat of some sort - but I'm not an adventurous wine-pairing afficionado.

Very Good

$40 at BCLDB

Carpineto Chianti Classico Riserva 2003

This wine approaches two hurdles quite well. The first is that this is Chianti, often a simple and boring take on Sangiovese. The second is that the vintage - 2003 - was very hot and tended to produce (at least in my experience) baked and thin wines. Carpineto was one of the first Chianti producers to take wine production more seriously, and having had both their normale bottling and this riserva, I think they still deserve recognition as a high quality producer.

This was quite an aromatic wine with hay, manure, cherry and raspberry on the nose. The palate was long and balanced, with well structured acidity. I enjoyed the finish, which I found refined and elegant for a chianti, albeit not overly complex. This is an excellent clasically styled Chianti that surpasses its vintage.

Very Good+

$45 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars

Castello Dei Rampolla Chianti Classico 2004

I write this after a day of trudging through the first half of an essay on Sustainable Development law. It seems to me that we often use that term without really understanding what it means, and that while we have trouble defining it, that it still points to something of merit. So after the complexities of a philosophical and legal discussion of development and the environment I thought something simple was in order.

Chianti is a superabundant wine, but rarely where it counts. It often suggests something simple. These days, however, Chianti is growing in complexity and density and is becoming a little more exciting. This wine hints at that potential.

This particular producer became a bit of a cult hit with its Cab based super tuscan blends, which are likely the polar opposite of this wine. The nose is burnt red fruit. It almost smells like burning hay. The palate continued this trend and coupled those flavours with a high level of acidity that demanded food. This is not a sit on the patio sipper, but a wine built for a simple stewed meat or pasta. So, while the fruit is simple, the wine is good and even has a bit of chalky tannin. The acidity is high enough, though, that this without doubt a food wine. Enjoyable, but overpriced.

$38 at BCLDB

Very Good

Ruffino Chianti Classico Riserva Ducale Oro 2003

This week brings another Wine Blogging Wednesday Extravaganza brought to you by Andrew from http://www.spittoon.biz/. His clever theme involved picking any Italian wine and then giving a tasting note in 7 words. WBW's have had an illustrious tradition of encouraging the humble wine blogger to break their regular patterns and do something creative, whether it is trying an unheard of region, a unique varietal, or in this case approaching wine in a unique fashion.

The wine I chose for this week was a special pick from my cellar - a 2003 Ruffino Chianti Classic Riserva Ducale Oro - a renowned chianti. And, without further ado here is the review:

"Fruit alive with wit, but classically tempered."

I look forward to reading everyone else's notes! My full tasting notes are as follows:

This is a beautiful wine - in fact one of the best I've ever tasted. It consists of stunning fruit, excellent balance, perfect acitidy (crisp but mellow), and moderate and well structured tannins. The fruit is very light berry flavours like rasberry and strawberry, but it is tempered by earth and stone-like sentiments and structured, as I suggested in my 7 word review, with great wit and yet with a strong classical temperament. Great wine, great theme, great night.

Excellent+

$50 at BCLDB