4/20/2024 - olracx62 wrote:

wow a great chardonnay in its best drinking window with orcard notes and almong hints which together deliver a complex taste and scents which grow sip after sip. Great wine at a stunning price tag. But let him its time to mature.After a windy bike ride to Piacenza via Vecchia Cremonese bike lane

4/13/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

superb rose 100% pinot noir from Franciacorta. Minerality and full bodied. Great stuff. Best paired with strawberries and shrimps after a long bike ride with hot temperature from Pavia to Piacenza

4/17/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

Great Burgundy-style chardonnay with nuances of white flowes, almond and a touch of oak. Really elegant and fully enjoyable. Top QPR

4/2/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

Badia a Passignano never falls short and is a benchmark in Chianti Riserva. This 2015 vintage confirms with its complexity and overall pleasantness, with some fruit left and tertiary scent ranging from underbrush to leather and pencil. with some elegant oak in the background A good companion also alone in your baloon for reasonings

4/10/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

Still fantastic! Bold, rich, jiucy, thick but elegant, some fruit still there, tertiary scents but limited. A full pleasantness sip by sip. Fantastic vintage. Another - the last - bottle in cellar as a trophy bottle

4/4/2024 - olracx62 wrote:

interesting but not convincing: apparently not so well integrated and somehow rude in taste and in overall perception. Air does not help. The basic wine from G Russo seems easier and rounder. Maybe it was a wrong bottle...

3/31/2024 - olracx62 wrote:

renown winemaker Renzo Cotarella confirms his ability to craft a very good wine. Balanced, pleasant, round and probably at its peak now. Recommended after an appropriate cellaring. At LT in a rainy day at Easter time

3/25/2024 - olracx62 wrote:

Just entering into its drining window. Austere chianti riserva with little roundness, more a food wine at this moment. Some acidity left, assuring a long lofe ahead. Undebrush and pencil. Little emotions, though and limited pleasantness

3/24/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

amber yellow at the eye, at the nose round scents of orchard. Palate is consistent and delivers wonderful tastes of scented flowers melt with white ripe fruit. The ensemble is a champion of elegance and balance you can rarely find in a seasoned chardonnay. Highly recommended

1/20/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

excellent Franciacorta - one of the best rose in my opinion - which delivers the power of pinot noir together with the elegance of execution and balanced minerality. A real pleasure. After a long bike ride to Piacenza on the banks of the PO river

3/15/2024 - olracx62 wrote:

worth its price but not memorable. Some excess fruit . After a long bike ride south of Piacenza

3/19/2024 - olracx62 wrote:

still too young with tons of fruit and some excess acidity. Wait

3/16/2024 - olracx62 wrote:

powerful and bold as expected but nonotheless a little bit anonymous, plain in its thickness without what you might remember of a wine once you think about it. Leather, undebrush, dark choacolate, pencil, little fruit left still. Well executed but leaving little memory

3/9/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

excellent BdN with pleasant minerality and nice power. Vibrant bubbles and some boulangerie. Best paired with schrimps. After a bike ride from Lodi to Treviglio with Francesco

3/9/2024 - olracx62 wrote:

at the very beginning of its drinking window, still somehow not well integrated, apparently needs some air but doesn't help that much. Give it its time. Paired with a nice T Bone steak with Giorgio, Giulia, Marco and Anna hoping for the best. Unfortunately it was the last day I met Giorgio. RIP

2/22/2024 - olracx62 wrote:

still way too young although pleasant. Red fruit and elegant oak, some acidity and some spices. Will get its fullmpotential in a couple of years at least

3/1/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

perfectly aged and able to deliver the essential DNA of this cru. Some fruit left, tertiary scents and underbrush coupled with balanced oak. A perfect ensamble of what you culd expect from a first class chianti riserva. Drink up

3/4/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

nice and typical Cabsauv from Veneto with a touch of elegant wood and some underbrush coupled with red fruit. May improve with some additional cellaring, hopefully delivering some tertiary scents

2/25/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

great pinot blanc reserve, where elegance and balance is the name of the game. So far, in my opinion, t the best in Italy, better than barthenau san Michele from Hofstatter whcih is my Bright, clear lemon yellow with golden yellow reflections. Notes of Golden Delicious, peach and bergamot, subtle play of nut butter. Coats the palate with a pleasant creaminess, shows good fullness and complexity, with a rich texture, harmonious finish.

2/5/2024 - olracx62 wrote:

Needs some aeration before sipping allowing the the palate to get stronger while keeping delicate and elegant. Riipe red fruit, some dark chocolate and clear hints of cigar box. Enjoyable altough not so impressive

2/17/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

nerello mascalese somehow at a crossroads between a nebbiolo and a pinot noir. Elegant and powerful at the same time. Maybe youthful still, a little bit. Scents of ripe red fruit with some spices, at the palate some bitterness which does not disturb the complex taste of elegance and power. A peculiar wine so far away from ordinary cathegories, worth a repeted try and enjoy. After a fast bike ride to PC on the Po river banks

2/8/2024 - olracx62 wrote:

bold and rich PN, apparently still youthful somehow, with nice scents of smoked ashes and a solid body. Less elegant and feminine than others, but with overall pleasantness. Not my favourite PN, though

2/4/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

I like so much this Pinot Noir from Gottardi, burgundy-styled, with hints of smoke and ashes, and fresh at the same time. Truly elegant and balanced. Recommended

2/1/2024 - olracx62 wrote:

typical cepages from Valle d'Aosta (mainly local Merlot) which requires a long cellaring before delivering round and soft tasting. Pellerin confirms, even though it's been "elevè en fut de chene". So wait some other years before drinking

1/31/2024 - olracx62 wrote:

very good stuff. stil youthful though. Sangiovese in its most austere expression, no compromise but round and with a lot of promises with some additional cellaring. Best QPR in its cathegory

1/23/2024 - olracx62 wrote:

still quite youthful but already at the beginning of its drinking window. Silk texture normally typical of higher level Bolgheri, balanced tastes and elegance. Fruit still alive and kicking waiting for tertiary scents, A nice discover which may only improve over time

12/7/2023 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

I always liked carignano-based wine from Sardinia and this Barrua (made also with CabSauv) tells a story mirroring Sassicaia, Rich wine with notes of leather, graphite, licorice and underbrush melt with some ripe red fruit. The limit of this Barrua is that - at the end - it is hard to tell it is made of Carignano because the cepage is covered, but the outcome is undoubtly seductive.

1/22/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

after 10 years in my cellar, now time has come for this Amarone, which maintains its promises and delivers complex juicy notes of ripe red fruit, plums and blackberries, pleasantness and elegance, rich and balanced as expected, round and bold. "LIquid silk" as a previous note says

1/22/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

a quite peculiar cannonau in a way resembling to Primitivo di Manduria, with its taste reminding of "drying" of the grapes, typical of Amarone as well. At the nose, earth and underbrush, at palate you feel both its elegance and its delicate rustic essence with its complex nuances of spices and underbrush again, with some bitterness in the end. Alone in my baloon

1/21/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

great PN, the greatest from Italy I have ever tasted, much ahead of Barthenau from Hofstatter, which is most renown. Complex, mature, where elegance prevails on balanced power, fashinating notes of ashes and smoke, spices here and there, red fruit, blackberries, in a concentrate of pure pleasure. In a blue evening before and after.

12/18/2023 - olracx62 wrote:

pleasan and typical sangiovese. Wait another couple of years o get its full potential

12/15/2023 - olracx62 wrote:

good potential but still way too young. a little bit uripe still,with seductive notes of blackberry, but missing the wonderful ashy-salty note on the palate I found in 2015 vintage.

12/22/2023 - olracx62 wrote:

well made chianti riserva with complex notes of underbrush and dark chocolate coupled with a touch of balanced oak. Some additional cellaring will further improve

1/16/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

Clear and medium ruby in colour without any sediments. Aromas of hawthorn, violets and vanilla oak spices. Then notes of cranberry. Medium-bodied, balanced with an enticing medium-high level of acidity and medium level of supple tannin. The medium-long floral finish was filled with flavours of bramble, ripe dark cherry, licorice, amazing hints of spices and and a fashinating saline minerality. May only evolve further, to get a perfect balance. Great stuff, this vintage better than 2015, in my opionion, with much still to tell. Vibrant and emotional

1/13/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

light rubin in the baloon, typical scents of ripe dark cherry, earth and wet stone with hint of spices. Very pleasant and expressing core DNA of Pinot Noir. May still improve in balance and pleasantness. After a bike ride to Sesto Calende with return after sunset

1/13/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

outstanding rose, 100% pinot noir. Great stuff, enticing minerality, truly elegat and perfectly balanced. Hard to find a Franciacorta rosè able to compete. After a bike ride up to Sesto Calende with a compelling return

1/11/2024 - olracx62 wrote:

still youthful but already delivering the DNA of Gottardi Mazzon altough complexity and elegance are likely to improve over the next two- four years

1/8/2024 - olracx62 wrote:

bold and complex PN from Alto Adige. way too austere and less sophisticated than expected. Hard to find spices and hints of smoke which I like most in Burgundy reds, with somehow a bitter end out of tone. Good stuff but probably 2011 vintage falling a bit short.

12/29/2023 - olracx62 wrote:

not bad but -really - I was expectng some more from BC 2008. Slow to open.with some oxigenation gets better, expressing some tertiary scents and some more complexity. Stucture is elegant but not enough powerful (medium bodied to be generous), quite anonymous, in a word. Again, not bad but falls quite short on brand expectations- After a bike ride alonsgide the Dora River with Francesco, on an icy bike lane

1/3/2024 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

wonderful rosè 100% Pinot Noir which I believe - to my esperience . to be the best Franciacorta rosè. Plenty of minerality, pure elegance and balance, very close to a first-class champagne rosè. A pleasure. After a bike ride to the hills of Bergamo

12/22/2023 - olracx62 wrote:

solid and pleasant CabSauv from Sardinia, rich, bold and powerful, plenty of ripe plums, some sweetness at the end.

12/18/2023 - olracx62 wrote:

typical wine made with "appassimento" on the "graticcie" technique, like Amarone and Sfursat, but with Negroamaro grapes typical of Puglia region in the south east of Italy. If compared to Nebbiolo-Sfursat or Corvina-etc-Amarone this won't win the prize but all in all it's a complex wine with depth, thickness and some sweetness, and it's good for meditation on your own. After a stunning ride bike in the fog on the Po river banks

12/12/2023 - olracx62 wrote:

surprisingly lost its smoky scent and taste, so typical of Gottardi Mazzon. Good but lacking one leg.

12/8/2023 - olracx62 wrote:

Monticchio close to its best but not at its full potential. Maybe some additional cellaring with deliver more complexity and depth. Good stuff, however

12/6/2023 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

wonderful barbera with complex taste and nose and hints of gentle oak. At the beginning of its best drinking window with a perfect cellaring time. At this price tag, no competition. Highly recommended

12/18/2023 - olracx62 wrote:

unfortunately flawed

12/3/2023 - olracx62 Likes this wine:

thick, powerful and rich of tannins, still. But nonetheless this 2016 Volpolo, more youthful than 2015, seduces with its balance and integrity. Alone in my baloon, sip by sip, tasting every drop.

12/2/2023 - olracx62 wrote:

quality Amarone well cellared up to the beginning of its best drinking window: red marasca plums, complexity and elegance, alcol not overwhelming. Yummy and very plesant. Further cellaring will add tertiary scents and further complexity. After a long bike ride on a wonderful Po bank with the setting sun

11/30/2023 - olracx62 wrote:

one of the best carignano del sulcis in my opinion, and probably #1. In any case the best red wine from Capichera. Juicy and jummy, fruity, with hints of spices in the background, in a top vintage for Sardegna. Complex, elegant and mouthfilling. BTW, still youthful. Alone in my baloon at night driving my thoughts high. Big

11/22/2023 - olracx62 wrote:

pleasant chardonnay a la facon of Burgundy, maybe still too young and lacking some depth although - for sure - good stuff for the palate. Time will hopefully improve complexity and roundness