1998 Cantine Antonio Caggiano Taurasi Macchia dei Goti

Community Tasting Notes (3) Avg Score: 91.7 points

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  6/13/2017 - forceberry wrote: 94 Points

  Alcohol 13,5%. Tasted blind.
  
  Rather lightly translucent dark ruby color with a figgy purple-maroon hue and a slightly brick-orange rim. The nose is very restrained, dry and savory with reticent dried fruit character, some black pepper, a little bit of sweeter blackcurrant character and a hint of ripe damson. Full-bodied and very tannic on the palate with concentrated, savory and really tightly-knit flavors of licorice, sweet pruney fruit, tannic bitterness, some ripe dark forest berries, a little bit of aromatic new oak, a hint of peppery spice, a bloody nuance of iron and a touch of leather. The wine is immensely structured with moderately high acidity and immense, very grippy tannins. The finish is very long, complex and remarkably tightly wound with savory, developed flavors of peppery spice, robust tannic bitterness, sour cherries, some blood, a little bit of wizened damson and a hint of spicy oak.
  
  A massively muscular Taurasi, that doesn't feel as much as "Barolo of South Italy" as the are often called, but instead something more burly, muscular and extracted, more akin to the modern Sagrantinos from Umbria. This is a real bruiser of a wine and you can taste that at some point it must have been quite a modernist one as well (that new oak is still pushing a bit through, after almost 20 years), but the wine feels that it is slowly getting there. Although you could smell easily that the wine has some age under its belt and also the wine felt somewhat developed taste-wise as well, it is still far away from its plateau of maturity. Although starting to drink nicely, I'd wager the wine is hitting its peak about 10 years from now and it will most likely keep for decades. Open or keep, but if you open the wine now, pair it with something that can offer enough stuff for the massive tannins to chew on.

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  2/27/2011 - krispi wrote: 91 Points

  Could use even more time in bottle. Lots of structure and fruit left

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  10/28/2010 - fillay wrote:

  Bright and cheery, with lots of cherry lozenge to go around. Still clearly Taurasi, with a little sweaty horse and some tooth-scrubbing tannins that beg for food. My only other reference point for Taurasi of this general age was a '97 Struzziero, which was comparatively a pruney old man - this is your 40-something aunt who still breaks out her cheerleader outfit from time to time.

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