5/27/2021 - GrimSqueaker81 wrote:

A thoroughly average wine. No high points, no low points, the viticultural embodiment of mediocre.

1/22/2024 - Aussie Dog Likes this wine:

Aged very well, great example of an Australian riesling, great colour but still very well rounded and youthful

2/14/2022 - salua wrote:

double decanted for half an hour before dinner. Lovely deep rich colour, fully developed shiraz nose. Plenty of fruit up front that builds in the middle to a very full on, long finish. What an amazing wine. Still going strong at 26 yr old. Sadly my last bottle. Doubtful it will get better, but how much better could this wine get? A seriously great example of McLaren Vale Shiraz...if you can find it...buy it

4/4/2023 - Rote Kappelle Likes this wine:

I am a bit troubled by some of the reviews of this wine and this vintage. It is not because some reviewers clearly don't think much of the wine - like music, if you like it, or don't like it - 'de gustibus non est disputandum'. The negative reviews also clearly make an effort to identify what they are unhappy with and they are not identifying things that are not there etc., so that is fine.

What troubles me, deeply, is what I perceive to be a lack of understanding, or appreciation of what Chianti Classico is and the lineage and stature of this particular maker and this particular wine and vintage.

I do not advocate for some kind of slavish deference to the great and the good. Great wineries make some awful crap from time to time and they should be called out without fear or favour. I also don't advocate for the drinker to not state their preference or subjective feeling about the wine.

However, I perceive, rightly or wrongly, that comments like 'at the end of the day I have to stay with Cabs' (no argument with a personal preference) suggest a total lack of respect for, or knowledge of what is being consumed. As do the comments that the wine is 'kind of boring' or that it is 'austere'.

Chianti Classico should be all about the character of Sangiovese and the soil from which it comes. It should be relatively light bodied, with plenty of fresh but not sour acid, firm but fine and ripe tannins and it should express aromas and flavours of crisp, red cherry, perhaps a little pomegranate, some floral elements (suggestive of roses) and some earth/smoke/tar. It is made to compliment food. This wine has excellent length and intensity as befits the vintage and it ticks all the Sangiovese boxes. I was excited by this wine and its purity.

Now, I love the characteristics of Chianti Classico made to reflect the traditions of the Sangiovese grape; others may not. However, this wine is stunningly successful at providing exemplary Sangiovese characteristics. As such, whether one likes it or not, this should be recognised.

I also loved the fact that this wine is so fresh and almost crunchy fruited despite being from the 2019 vintage, which magnificent as it is, often has one weakness - relative lack of fresh acid. But it still has the ripeness, fleshiness and quality of this year. The wine may seem 'austere' compared to a Chateauneuf de Pape, or an Oz Shiraz, or a Tuscan IGT with a wallop of Merlot and oak, but in a big year, from some of the best vineyards in the heart of Chianti Classico, in its own terms, austere this is not.

Let's also remember that this maker is regarded as one of the brightest stars in the Chianti Classico region, respected for the way they express the typicity of Chianti. This is not Korean Shiraz, or Congolese Pinot or some other surprising and possibly dodgy wine style; this is one of the great wines styles of the world. Again, that doesn't mean you have to pretend you like it but I think it does mean we should show some respect - 'kind of boring'? No issue with saying 'Not really my thing' or similar.

Let's also remember the price of the wine. You are getting great PQR here for a truly exceptional Chianti Classico.

Before I wrote this, I decided to see what other people who know their Chianti had to say about the maker and the wine. Nicolas (possibly nicker less after a few bottles of Classico) Belfrage, MW writes of 'One of Chianti Classico's most illustrious and historic estates' and of the CC he writes of its fruit and fragrance and firm backbone. Nesto, MW and di Savino write of the CC that the way it is made and its provenance 'bring the taster directly into the flavour and sensorial world of Chianti Classico - cherries, refreshing tartness and a sharp edge of astringency'. They are not falling asleep whilst drinking this, or finding it thin and nasty.

The wine does benefit from time open and, whilst I loved the wine from the moment the cork came out, it will put on some body with about 6-8 hours open. It is humming the next day as well.

No-one has to like this, but let's try to understand it. The negative reviews are not wrong, they are not mis-identifying things (for the most part), but I do think they suggest a lack of effort. The reason the wine was recommended by Josh at the wineshop was probably because he understood that this was a superb wine of its kind and worth trying so as to expand one's boundaries. I like Cabernet, too.

4/17/2022 - tenorselbow wrote:

I really don't like sugar in red wine so my low score may be an overreaction. It may be made for the American palate, which seems to have sugar in all sorts of food (pizza crust?). I think adding sugar to savoury food or dry wine is like adding glitter to a drawing - it might make it stand out but in the end that's the only thing you remember. I'd love to try this wine without the sugar. I think it might be impressive but it's impossible to tell.

1/7/2022 - tenorselbow wrote:

Monumental nose, as big as a Chardonnay nose, of minerals, 60 minute dry cleaners and stonefruit. Mouth of stewed peaches, lanolin/wool and passionfruit. Good acid in the finish of lychees, honeycomb that's been chewed for a few minutes and snowpeas.

4/2/2017 - cobbpa wrote:

Really enjoyed this. A few hours of bottle air helped. Good herb tones, a touch of meatiness, and dark black fruits throughout. Nice structure & balanced finish had our group guessing Cote Rotie blind. After ~6 hours of air it started to lean more toward fruit & showed its California side, but the whole ride was enjoyable.

4/17/2021 - Lauraedouard-betsy Likes this wine:

Yummo

6/28/2019 - Razandots wrote:

Another average red

10/27/2020 - tenorselbow wrote:

Nose of rhubarb, new handbag (don't know the brand) and pencil shavings. Mouth of beef pho, sawdust, white pepper and dark plums. Excellent balance and good food wine. Short finish of licorice, apple skin and a touch of umami with good acid.

2/14/2020 - tenorselbow wrote:

Intoxicating nose with great height reminiscent of the froth of freshly squeezed oranges, cranberries, aged wooden furniture and ever so slightly sweaty saddle (but in a good way!). Elegant mouth of loganberry, rhubarb and tapenade with more height but not much depth, almost like a Pinot Noir. Long sherbet mineral finish with notes of cinnamon popcorn and balsa wood. Was even better with lamb shanks.

7/29/2002 - ostling Likes this wine:

Refreshing but complex and body. Lots of red fruit, some mineral notes

11/20/2017 - The Nutter wrote:

Fresh colour, hay-like, Cork tight & clean, but when in glass that dreaded nose of damp cardboard, not heavy but enough to irrigate the sink. Had 4 bottles similar. Why am I unlucky?

5/4/2011 - njgolfer wrote:

On the nose: leather and burnt tobacco. Hints of cherry. On the palate the wine is smooth and nicely balanced. Well rounded tastes of green pepper and tobacco. Finishes with fresh cherry. One of the better pinot noirs I have had in awhile.

6/19/2018 - tenorselbow wrote:

Rant Alert!
Normally I wouldn't review a wine that I gave such a low score to but I sense that there is an alarming trend in Chilean Cab Savs towards vegetal/bell pepper/capsicum overtones. I realize that Cab Sav has this naturally but lately I've been finding it overwhelming in Chilean Cab Savs -especially this one. I theorize it's caused by picking the grapes too early or having too much leaf cover.
There was a period of austerity in Australia in the 1980s when Cab Savs had this vegetal characteristic - very elegant they said, lip-puckeringly, stingily elegant. Chile, you don't have to go through this - pick the damn grapes when they're ripe!
OK people have different tastes. I'm just saying that the Emperor's New Clothes suck and just because there are some Cab Savs out there that are overripe there is no need for this overreaction.
There is a very good wine in there somewhere, it just tastes like it had a layer of crushed eucalyptus leaves added during fermentation.
A good pairing with eucalyptus candy.

10/20/2018 - Nomadirish wrote:

Had as the first wine of the night - drank and poured - found it uneventful and not much to it - forward fast with no finish.

10/30/2011 - Li6 wrote:

What an incredible wine. Vibrant citrus and mineral flavors fan out over the palate, gaining weight with air contact along with some honeysuckle notes. Incredibly vibrant acidity keeps everything focused and fresh. The wine is 10 years old, and I would never guess it in a million years. 10.5% alcohol, to boot.

Picked it up at Wine Odyssey Australia, a wine shop and bar I happened across during a trip to Sydney last fall. I was looking for Hunter Valley semillons to take back with me (lame that they're impossible to find in the U.S.), when I found this wine. I was wary that a Marsanne with 10 years on it would be fresh (not a huge fan of mature Marsanne, with its honeyed flavors), but the saleslady talked me into it. Glad I listened!

5/4/2018 - Czara96 Likes this wine:

Ok I learned from a great wine maker when I lived in Italy that if you profile a great wine based on varietal, region, climate, and winery, you can push the envelope by aging beyond the norm. There is inherent risk in the wine going off but if you store properly and take a calculated risk, well baboom - magic in the bottle. I have the algorithm for this - shhh.

The Tranformational Wine Experiment:

This ‘06 Pillar Box Reserve Shiraz at 16% alc. opened up with a pop and pour to a beautiful dark plum colour with a pronounced dark berry, plum and liquorice profile. Very balanced and stable with good tannins and great acidity. Remarkable wine for 12 years and given the suggested drink window was through 2011. This is well beyond the drink window but this is drinking like a big bold Aussie! Paired with butter chicken and basmati rice - spectacular.

10/15/2017 - jkscully Likes this wine:

This is another attractive, though not complex Australian Shiraz: the palate ranges from cranberry to blueberry and there are attractive notes of cinnamon, chocolate, and coffee on the finish. This is not a cerebral wine, but it is polished and hedonistic. As many on cellartracker have noted, this wine represents good value, but I think it lacks the sophistication to compete with anything over $40 (still, not bad for a $24 wine). I wanted it to pop more with food, but it was an ok match with skirt steak pinwheels stuffed with parsley, parmesan, and lemon peel.

Sometiems I try to imagine what I would have guessed if I tasted the wine blind and, in this case, I think I would have guessed Ribera del Duero. In the future, I would be curious to compare a Ribera del Duero with a few Syrahs. How similar are balsamico and garrigue in terms of flavor profile?