Robmcl920
Member #464,683 signed up 5/27/2016 and last accessed 4/27/2024
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2020 Vietti Barolo Castiglione
4/22/2024 - Robmcl920 Likes this wine: 91 Points
The '20 Castiglione is a pretty wine that stands out for its energy and exotic, tropical fruit tones. My sense of Vietti is that they may be moving towards a style with higher acidity than prior and more exotic / tropical fruit tones than before. I noticed this nearly across the board in '19 - in particular, the Barbaresco or Monvigliero are the two best examples of it that year. The '20 Castiglione continues the trend. I'm not aware of / sure if anything has actually changed in the winemaking, but this is how the wines have come across to me.
On the nose, I found a blast of fresh citrus / exotic tropical fruit notes, going beyond the common orange peel and more into passion fruit and fresh orange like notes. Alongside these exotic notes, I found more typical crunchy red berry fruit, red roses, and mint. From both the tropical fruit and the way the red berry fruit comes across, you immediately get the sense that this is going to be a high acid wine. On the palate, that's exactly what you get. The wine is medium in body with high acidity with red berry and citrus fruit, red florals, spice, and mint. There's a lot of tannin today that could use some time to integrate. The energy level here from the acidity is very high, almost overbearing, and I do wonder what happens to a wine with this fruit profile and acid level with time in the cellar. That said, it's attractive and I find it easy to drink this wine despite its intensity.
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2021 Kelley Fox Wines Pinot Noir Maresh Vineyard Liminal
4/20/2024 - Robmcl920 Does not like this wine: 88 Points
I found the ‘21 Liminal to be disappointing. I’ve enjoyed Kelley Fox in the past, ie the 2019s, but this seemed diluted / washed out in comparison. There was no obvious flaw with the cork or wine that would point to this being unrepresentative.
The wine showed limited aromatic intensity even as it sat in the glass, but the flavor profile was as I’d expect, with crunchy red berry fruit, spice, and herbal tones. On the palate, the wine was medium to light in body with great finesse, almost no perception of tannin, but lacked concentration. It’s almost like somebody watered down the wine a bit.
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2020 Elio Grasso Barolo Gavarini Chiniera
4/8/2024 - Robmcl920 Likes this wine: 94 Points
The '20 Gavarini Chiniera is a beautiful young wine. It has all the signatures of Gavarini Chiniera common across the good vintages (very floral with fresh red roses and a red berry fruit profile), and the tannins are finer grained at this stage than the '19 or '16. It also has a richness / concentration that I gather was sometimes difficult to achieve in '20. I think it's a touch less electric / acidic than the '16 or '19, but it has a lot more early appeal.
On the nose, I found a burst of fresh red floral tones along with sweet red berry fruit, mint, and a touch of orange peel, in other words, classic Gavarini Chiniera. On the palate, the wine is medium plus in body with good density and plenty of tannic heft, but the tannins here are very fine grained and integrated into the wine in a way I don't think the past few vintages have been for Grasso. The palate is very primary at this point as you'd expect, all sweet red berry fruit and fresh red florals with just a hint of mint. Acidity is medium, and I'd like to see just a touch more, but the wine seems well balanced.
I never like seeing 15% alcohol on a Barolo label, but you don't feel it in the wine.
Day 2: The Gavarini continued to show well with a bit of the wine left in the fridge overnight. The aromatics are still very pretty and signature Gavarini with lots of red floral tones, red berry fruit, mint and orange peel. Very fresh and lifted. The palate shows beautiful inner sweetness and unusual finesse for a young Nebbiolo.
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