2008 Passopisciaro Sicilia Contrada Rampante

Community Tasting Notes (9) Avg Score: 88 points

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  6/13/2017 - forceberry wrote: 87 Points

  The grapes are sourced from the Contrada Rampante vineyard, the highest Passopisciaro vineyard located at the altitude of 1000 meters. 2008 is the first vintage of this bottling. 15% alcohol. Tasted blind.
  
  Luminous cherry marmalade color. Aromatic, but somewhat odd nose raising a feeling that something's off: there are slightly green aromas of aldehydic green apple, some thinner-like chemical aromas, a little bit of cherry jam and a hint of butter. The wine is wild, lively and bright on the palate, but rather green as well. There are youthful and crunchy flavors of tart cranberries and some lingonberries, red cherries, some rowanberries and sharp, green hints of green apples and willow bark. The wine is quite structured and focused with racy acidity and rather modest, lightly grippy tannins. The finish is dry and lively with long and crunchy flavors of tart dark berries, some cranberries and a hint of sour cherries with a sharp, aldehydic notes of green apples and chlorophyll. The tannins feel more pronounced towards the end of the aftertaste, making the wine end on a quite grippy note.
  
  A nice, bright and crunchy wine, but obviously suffering from something. Perhaps the cork has leaked a bit air at some point or the wine was just bottled with a bit too much oxygen? The wine doesn't seem tired, old or otherwise oxidative, but it has this light, green tang of acetaldehyde that throws a quite dissonant note in this otherwise harmoniously crunchy wine. That aldehydic note isn't noticeable enough to make this wine taste like red Fino Sherry, but still enough to give the wine a sharp and rather unpleasant green edge that doesn't really suit the wine. Although the wine most likely isn't showing like it should be, I'm still not rating it as "flawed/defective", because it is otherwise in a very nice and enjoyable condition. One should still note, that this little blemish has cost the wine several points and a bottle in pristine condition should score several points more.

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  11/3/2015 - MartyL wrote: 86 Points

  A little pruney and hot. Better when chilled, but still not my thing.

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  10/9/2013 - BURGHen Boy wrote: 83 Points

  Not much of a nose. Lean and tart on the palate. A bit disjointed. Will decant when I try again to coax out the body of this wine.

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  8/31/2013 - ksimback wrote:

  This is now my second bottle. We popped and poured over 2 hours. Definitely a muscular wine with a lot of structure and great acidity, but what I liked the most was the delicate, almost Pinot-esque aromas. Great mouthfeel with a heavy, blanket-like texture. This wine was excellent again and can be enjoyed now but I will wait a few more years before I go back again to let the tannins soften a bit.

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  5/23/2013 - AndrewSGHall wrote:

  Ditto on the bottle of a month ago. I am astounded how light and crystalline this wine is with the fairly high octane. Delish stuff.

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