March 11, 2012 - Dark burgundy in color, cherry, strawberry and smoke with herbal notes on the nose. Sour cherry, licorice, blueberry and smoke on the palate and a nice long finish. Mellow tannins may indicate that this wine is starting to decline, but it is still a nice bottle to pair with red sauce pasta dishes or stronger cheeses.
November 5, 2011 - Not much going on upon opening. After 30 minutes in glass some nice spice and minerality came through along with subtle red fruit and some earth. Nose sprang up about an hour later with nice dark chocolate notes coming through. I thought this might be a dud when I first opened it, but it came along nicely.
December 31, 2010 - Water with rocks in it.
A fleeting hint of red and black fruit, but not enough. Some decent earth, but too much of a mineral component. Disappointing given the 90 WS score.
October 9, 2010 - Nose of cherry and young cedar. Cherry with a raspberry finish. Not as robust as I would expect a Chianti to be
June 6, 2010 - ok
March 26, 2010 - Tasty
December 21, 2009 - Disappointment...no way this was ever a 90 pt wine...one of the only WS90's that I have not liked...brownish in color, earthy...not a typical chianti classico and for that vintage a real loser.
May 8, 2009 - just OK,,,,kinda raisinny
February 13, 2009 - good not great...ok Chianti
September 18, 2008 - This is one odd ball wine. This is the 3rd one we have had in the past year. Did not really like the first one, love the second bottle, and this one is ok... only ok. The inital smell is of tobacco and berries. Lots of smoky tobacco. The color is very light. Initially it is very hot in the front pallet. But this settled after hours of decanting. After about an hour of decanting, it made an odd change. It started to taste just like a good Oregon Pinot Noir with the berries really overpowering the back of the pallet. This did have a nice long lingering finish. The pinot effect really made me take this wine down a couple of points.