We started our meal with a 2006 Argiano Brunello Di Montalcino, a wine that my mother told me retails for over 100 golden dabloons (I make up a lot of words for dollars, so keep that in mind.) Upon hearing the price, I sort of prepared myself for something of an experience in tasting the Brunello. Looking back on it though, I wish I didn't know the value of the wine. As you'll find out throughout my wine-blogging, I really don't want to know about the price tags associated with particular wines, at least when I'm the one drinking them (it's different when I'm working at the store, because I have to be able to communicate good values to customers.)
Anyways, let's get to the Brunello. For those of you that don't know, Brunellos are made out of the Sangiovese grape, and are produced in Tuscany. If my memory serves me correctly, Montalcino is located south of Florence (don't quote me, because I could be wrong about that, and wine connoisseurs can really make you feel stupid when you make a mistake, trust me, I'd know.)Upon pouring the wine into my glass and getting my tasty Gruyere Swiss cheese sliced, I quickly noticed the color of the wine. My mom told me she saw an orange aspect in there, but my eyes didn't buy that. She was thinking about Barolo. This Brunello was a little see-through, and at the stem of the glass I could picture a tiny little round ruby, so I told my parents and my brother that I thought it was ruby colored... to this they said I was wrong (BUT I KNOW WHAT I SAW!)
On the bouquet (am I using this word correctly?) I got the characteristic plums right away, and while aerating the wine I got this barnyard dimension that really grew on me throughout the glass.The scent got me thinking about my aunt's farm in Italy, where she has oxen on one side, and a tall wall of hay on the other. This wine really brought me back there. When I finally starting tasting the wine, what I mostly picked up was the plums, and to tell you the truth, I was disappointed. I really want to say something different about it, but that's what I got. What I did find interesting though was that typically, you have to look through the terroir to get the the fruit. This time, I found I had to go through the plums to get that wet-hay like taste that I recognized in the nose. And since I'm talking about a Brunello, I guess I'm supposed to tell you that it was "medium-to-full-bodied", because no one that has ever reviewed a Brunello has failed to mention that aspect (seriously guys, we get it already.) On a final note for the Brunello, my dad did tell me that it would benefit with a little more age. If that was the case though, why did we have it tonight?
We got through that first bottle fairly quickly. There were four of us at the table, after all. Later on, the penne were served. As usual, my father interrupts me from my pasta (whilst forking the penne), to send me downstairs to fetch another bottle. This time, he sent me to find a 2007 Falesco Montiano. This wine comes from Lazio, a central region in Italy in which all I can tell you is that the historical city of Rome is located there (I've been around and about in Lazio before, so I guess I can tell you what it looks like, the weather, and the hotspots to check out in Rome, but I'll leave that to Wikipedia if you're interested.)
The grape varietal(s) were not labeled on the bottle, so I can honestly say I was in the dark when trying this wine... Until my dad told me it was merlot-based. So much for that sense of mystery and exploration. I began to pour the wine for my family, looking at the color and texture of the wine in every glass. At this point, my parents were arguing the nature of IGT wines, so I avoided that conversation (since I have no idea what that means), and focused all my attention on the body of the wine in the glass. It was much darker than the Brunello, less red, and more purple. I was pretty sure those are the signs of a tannic wine. My mom later told me they were, so I gave myself a pat on the back.On the nose, I could tell this wine was very true to its terroir, it was a classic Old World (or Old School) wine. I was getting wet tobacco, some oak, and an extremely faint note of vanilla. It was pretty interesting, I had a lot of fun breaking it down. In order to convince my skeptical family that there was vanilla in there, I took a bottle of vanilla extract out of our pantry and made them smell the extract, and then taste the wine. I'm proud to say that my tactic worked. Vanilla was definitely in there, and its combination with the tobacco gave it a very rich and elegant scent and flavor. Later on my dad noted "wet horsehair", to which I said "YES". This wine smelt like wet horsehair, and it was awesome.
I had a hard time getting any fruit when tasting it, but eventually, by the end of the glass, I could get some raspberry in there. It was full-bodied and tannic, but I really enjoyed the balance in the mid-palate. When I swirled the wine around in my mouth, I could tell it was going somewhere in there, and that's what a good structured wine does to you. It also helped that since it was Merlot based, its softness made the wine very pleasant to dissect.
Wow. I really went on for a while tonight. If you made it through to the end, I commend you. If you think you learned anything, awesome! If you're an experienced wine drinker and think I'm a hack, let me know what I missed. I'd really appreciate the help.
As always, stay tuned for another review very soon, and thanks again for the viewership, I really, really appreciate the patronage!
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