7/14/2023 - NickA Likes this wine:

Haven't tried this wine before, and was really looking forward to it given its reputation, but it seemed slightly flat (NB - pretty sure it wasn't faulty). Pleasant bitter orange notes with garrigue undertones, elegant mouthfeel, but just seemed a touch dilute; I'd prefer either something with more flavour intensity, like Tempier, or a properly dark rose from Spain or Italy.

12/1/2022 - Woodbridge Brad Does not like this wine:

The nose was promising but in the mouth the berry notes were lost in an earthiness that speaks of an unclean cellar.

7/20/2021 - Beerzebub Likes this wine:

P&p; drinking well right away but at its most expressive with 2+ hours of air in the bottle. Fresh violet and blueberryish fruit, olive, a leafy, herbaceous streak along the lines of bay laurel, and mustard seed and black pepper spicy notes. Similar flavors, tasty, fairly concentrated fruit but stays fresh and friendly, with good acidity and grippy but smooth tannins. Comes across as almost too smooth and polished, but ultimately quite an expressive, tasty and enjoyable wine.

6/16/2022 - Utstein wrote:

Pnp. Medium ruby colour. The nose is quite herbacious, red fruit. Fresh acidity and quite vegetal tannins. Red cherries ad lots of herbal notes. Fruit is not very prononunced and struggles to cope with the «green» tannins and herbal notes. But still, the acidity keeps it fresh and the fruit emerges better with some air in the glass. Medium aftertaste. My guess is that Brun picked the grapes a bit too early for this one.

5/14/2023 - gblacave wrote:

Opened on Mother's Day as a more robust rose.

Red berries and dark citrus notes on the nose. Less lift from lighter floral or mineral tones than I was looking for. It's quite full on the palate and heavy for a rose, which seems to be the style.

Serviceable for the right occasion (and with the right fare), but not one for the side of the pool.

12/18/2022 - Anna@WineCellar Likes this wine:

Red, medium intensity. Developed medium nose with some floral notes over red sour berries. On the palate dry, medium(+) acidity and low level of very finesized tannins, light body. Cranberries and lingonberries. Finely textured. Medium length with the afterfeel giving a fine cobweb imprint on the tongue. Like the mouthfeel.
(Note taken day 4, the best day.)

2/20/2022 - GrapeCrusader Likes this wine:

Kind of a weird wine, but in an interesting and good way. Very rich, golden color with sweet fruit flavors to match. Seems like a dessert wine or at least something that could be used as a dessert wine. Very intriguing, nonetheless. A little funk and cheese rind, along with stone fruit and white pepper on the nose. Some white flowers like jasmine as well. In the mouth, medium-weight with a beeswax and honey like texture. Really strong and pronounced flavors of both bosc and asian pear. Good acid to balance the rich stone fruit flavors.

4/30/2022 - mrholmberg wrote:

I kind of agree with Ozric's note but I wonder if this needs a lot air or if it's just flawed. Haven't had this wine before so not sure what to expect.

10/30/2021 - AndrewSGHall wrote:

Pure rustic shit at a better level. This is for uppity campesiňos.

8/6/2021 - daveste Likes this wine:

Good Riesling but not very distinctive. Labeled dry but tastes off-dry, probably a feature for American market. Wish it had more acid.

12/12/2021 - Jon Harrison Likes this wine:

(Imported by Neil Rosenthal, NY)
Once, a long time ago, in the early 90s, I used to purchase Ferrando Carema black label (etichetta nera) for a restaurant wine list that I ran in San Francisco (WS best of award). Those were the days. I never had the opportunity to try the white. Wow.
___________

Color: Medium straw. More color than most young white wines.

Nose: Medium intense. Not grassy. No oak. Yet wonderful. Intriguing. Mirabelle, straw, almond flower.

Pal: Comes on here! Mouth filling! Wonderful concentration and intensity of flavor. Wonderful richness. Excellent minerality. Dry finish.

One of the best indigenous Italian white wines I've ever had the pleasure to drink.

92: solid. Maybe up to 94.

JGH sommelier CMS-III, SF Bay Area, CA

11/11/2021 - ATL wrote:

Really quite bad.

8/23/2021 - N777 Likes this wine:

Appearance: Medium/medium(+) clear ruby, no gas and a little bit of sediment

Nose: medium intense aromas of sweet red cherries, vanilla and toast, with a little bit of menthol, funk, and bubblegum aromas.

Palate: medium bodied, smooth/slightly lean texture, medium(+) acid, light tannins, and dry/borderline off-dry. Light medium(-) intense clean flavors of red cherry and cranberry with notes of bubblegum and asphalt. A nice delicate red fruit medium(+) length finish and nice balance. Medium/medium(-) complexity

A really nice lighter fruit-forward bojo that drinks somewhat like a red burgundy. Light, smooth, and clean

(Made some edits)

6/10/2021 - Charlie C wrote:

To be clear: I tasted two bottles of this wine -- the first two out of a case --3 days apart. The first bottle I tasted over a 90 minutes period. the second bottle I decanted and tasted over a 2 hour period. The results were essentially the same. The wine was undrinkable. It was off from the first sniff. A bit of mustiness did blow off. That doesn't bother me. The real problem was sulphur in such quantities that it obliterated everything else. Since the wine was supposedly made with barely any sulphur addition, I can only imagine that it was made in a highly reductive manner. Either that or there was some enormous blunder in the winemaking that resulted in some bottles having added sulphur far out of proportion to what was intended. I have seen nice notes on CT about this wine and they reflect what a trusted wine dealer described to me. The first bottle being flawed I understand, it happens. 2 for 2? There is no way I can trust the next bottle to be OK. I will avoid this producer in the future. Your mileage may vary.

9/3/2020 - Michael Mackenzie Likes this wine:

A revelation which made lockdown that much better.
Matelica seems less well known than Castelli di Jesi. It is also one tenth the size with only 325 hectares of Verdicchio. Further inland, blocked from the sea breezes reaching Jesi, the Continental climate in this one landlocked valley with more day/night temperature variations allows the vines a longer growing season, giving the wines greater acidity and more pronounced aromatics. Harvesting is in October.
Having just tried Feliciana's Lugana Felugan 2018 yesterday (see Tasting Note), it is fascinating to see how Verdicchio is different here, allowing for clonal and winemaking differences.
Vineyard holdings are 25 hectares, of which 18 are Verdicchio.
Colour: Light straw, with slight green tinge, bright, clear.
Nose: Fresh and quite full, ripe, pears, quince, raw almond, hint of hay.
Taste: Med body, well rounded, ripe and smooth, pears, almonds, some herbaceous notes, good acidity, medium finish, dry, raw almonds.
Overall, a wine that gives much pleasure as it evolves in the glass. 2018 was a ripe year with picking earlier than normal for Bisci, yet the acidity/ fruit balance is there. I see that Gambero Rosso gave it Tre Bicchieri. Well done.
Production of this wine was 84,748 numbered bottles.

4/10/2021 - Seafoam Manor wrote:

This is drinking really young at this point and is a bit all over the place. The bright cherry and spice Grenache notes are there, but the general weight of it feels a bit like Burgundy, the tannin structure feels a little like Piedmont Nebbiolo, which might be due it its high altitude upbringing. Maybe that's the through line?

This took several hours to (sort of) come together, but even through that evolution you would only get pieces of the wine really hitting at the same time. I have a feeling that this is a wine that I'm going to really enjoy in like three years. I was shocked to see that this was 14.5%abv, because it is handled masterfully, with the only evidence showing up in the legs. This is a wine to add to the growing list of really good cool(er) climate, leaner, expressions of Grenache that seem to be popping up all over the place, but it needs time.

***Okay, with eight-ish hours of air, this has showed its true self, with an elegant expression of what you would generally expect from Grenache. This affirms my, "sit on this for a few years", or open this at breakfast to drink it with dinner.***

3/21/2021 - D_RICH wrote:

Do not give this wine extensive breathing time. An hour is fine, or simply PnP. I left it for three hours in a decanter -- too long. It was better upon opening or at hours 1-2. Otherwise, the quality of the wine is consistent with my prior notes; a fine house white. *** Addendum (tasting on 3/30/21): I have enjoyed this since. Do not decant. After opening, keep in the bottle, and store (with (yes, no cork) cap on) in refrigerator. Stellar, with lovely viscosity, on day 2. (88-90 on day 2 from bottle, no decant).

7/23/2020 - slanum wrote:

Pretty basic stuff here, emphasizing a straightforward fruitiness. To be honest, I get a note of white vinegar in the nose, less so in the taste but it seems to be there, too. Double-checked that with another taster who agreed. Tainted?

2/24/2020 - Brown11 Likes this wine:

What a surprise this wine.
So fantastic and ready to drink I have seldom drunk a Bandol.
Unbelievable minerality, earthy bouquet that flatters and pleases in the most positive sense. It makes you want to drink and then the explosion comes. Unbelievable length, finest Mourvèdre spice and a wonderful lightness with a certain sweetness.

So far my wine of the year. It may still be there, but it's already a great, oh, great pleasure.

8/28/2018 - forceberry wrote:

Vinified without sulfites, fermented spontaneously with natural yeasts, macerated for 3-4 weeks and aged for 6-8 weeks in concrete. Bottled with light filtration and a small addition of sulfites. 12,5% alcohol.

Youthful, somewhat translucent dark ruby color. Very big, brooding and quite ripe nose with vibrant aromas of ripe blackberries and boysenberries, sweet raspberries, some strawberry jam and slightly earthy tones. You really can notice the warm vintage in the sweetness here. The wine is medium-bodied, very youthful and quite dense on the palate with dry, concentrated and even somewhat robust flavors of tart cranberries, sour cherry bitterness, some crunchy crowberries, a little bit of peppery spice, a hint of earthiness and a touch of fresh red plums. Overall the wine feels quite sinewy and muscular - the ripeness and sweetness in the nose are conspicuously absent from the taste. The wine is quite seriously structured for a Beaujolais with its high acidity and moderately grippy tannins. The finish is young, crunchy and pretty tannic with noticeable astringent grip and concentrated, tough flavors of tart cranberries, sour cherry bitterness, some peppery spice, a little bit of fresh brambly blackberry and a hint of earthiness.

Normally the 2015 Beaujolais wines have been too sweet, soft and big for my palate, and although this wine seemed to go into that direction by its nose, it turned out to be a very classically built, serious and crunchy Gamay of the highest quality on the palate. True to the Brun style, this isn't a light and playful expression of Gamay, but instead a dead-serious, muscular and stern powerhouse that isn't as big as it is intense and tightly-knit. Overall the wine feels all too young and it could easily use another 6-10 years to tone that sinewy structure down. Most likely the wine will keep for much longer. Simply delicious stuff, very highly recommended. Ridiculous value at only 13,95€.