1985 Tenuta Col d'Orcia Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Poggio al Vento

Community Tasting Notes (13) Avg Score: 94 points

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  1/1/2023 - Jochems Likes this wine: 97 Points

  I had the unique opportunity to open a bottle of this wine and enjoy with my closest friends on New Years Eve. We had it together with some other excellent wines, and in that comany this bottle was really shining!
  
  After having had some recent experience with sightly older Brunello (a 1999 Ciacci Piccolomini and a 2004 Conti Costanti, both riserva) I was already prepared for a long process of slow-oxing. I decided to open the bottle already 24 hours in advance. Poured a little of it to test it, just into the shoulder of the bottle, and let it stand in my wine cooler at 17 degrees Celcius. The cork was in excellent condition, just soaked until about halfway, and came out in one piece. The fill was somewhere low-neck.
  
  The first tasting after popping the cork showed some hay, hazelnut and a hint of berries. And it was quite lean and acidic.
  the next day in the morning (14 hours after opening the bottle), the real wine started to emerge: complex aromas with still a core of fruit and super smooth on the palate. About 10 hours later I took the following note:
  
  Light ruby color, with only the slightest hints of amber at the rim. Beautifull aromas that keep on evolving with ripe cherry, leather, hay, truffle, sottobosco, some berries, wet earth and red licorice. Every swirl of the glass seems to bring other aromas. On the palate it is superbly silky with mouth coating layers of tannins, sweetness of fruit and beautifully balanced acidity. The finish follows through seamlessly and seems to keep on evolving.
  A facinating wine that surprises with its livelyness and complexity.
  
  And it makes for great stories… My first encounter was during the offline in Montalcino, where it amazed me. And where I met such wonderfull people, some of which I still share wine stories with until today. And then last night, new stories with a wonderfull person who was enchanted by this special wine as well. And the conversation that a simple question like ‘do you know that this wine precedes Chernobyl?’ provokes…
  
  Anyway, finding another bottle of this will be challenging, but I’m not sure I need one: all the memories that were created with my encounters with this wine to date are already so precious!

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  5/19/2018 - scotty_b wrote: 90 Points

  Dried flowers, earth, black tea, sweet fruits (almost port-like). Drink now, this is on the down-hill slide.

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  3/19/2016 - pavel_p wrote: flawed

  Second (and luckily last) bottle in seemingly same excellent condition with a very tight and barely tainted cork and a bottom neck fill. Unfortunately this Riserva is also dead, mahogany color, muted nose and medicinal and oxidized notes on the palate. Would recommend opening those remaining 12 bottles held by cellartracker users immediately, if nothing else it will free up space in your cellars...

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  2/20/2016 - pavel_p wrote: flawed

  Bottom neck fill and the best cork I have ever seen, with only about 2mm of the tip stained (at age 31 that is). The fears raised by the somewhat cloudy mahogany color were however confirmed by the first sip - vinegar. What a shame - have one more bottle.

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  7/18/2013 - cooberp wrote: 87 Points

  Past prime. Nose of concentrated balsamic vinegar, paprika, and licorice. Tastes fresh because of very high acidity, but there's only a hint of fruit left. Also a bit heavy. This bottle had an impeccable fill and cork, so its ship may simply have sailed.

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View all 13 Community Tasting Notes

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