February 23, 2024 - Decanted for sediment returned to bottle after 30 minutes of aeration. Totally on point now with some years still ahead. This is full and joyous on the mid palate and long finish. I was surprised to see 15,0% abv as it never once showed itself, but therein lies the magic of Giampiero's hand. Sadly my last one. highly recommended
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January 31, 2024 - Love this wine. Great with steak, pork, chicken, pasta. Very versatile and a lot of personality. Sorry I don’t have specific notes it’s been a while since I last had it.
December 16, 2023 - Brought by John. Anise, herbs, bark, and dark cherries with plums on the nose. Palate with Plums, dark cherries, bitter chocolate, herbs and bark. My notes says tannins which prob means that there were still plenty of it. Nice finish. As with most Bea wines, this had plenty of soul and very much enjoyed this. 92+
September 10, 2023 - Drinking great from first taste to last. No decant needed. Lovely dusky black cherry, cherry, leather, some earth/mineral, nose has light layering fruit, floral, herb initially. Nice combination of age and freshness in the fruit, after a couple of hours by end of dinner dark fruit really dominated. Good balance, length, perfect tannin for moderate body. Drink up.
August 20, 2023 - A generous present from Philip Chan: Our favorite Paolo Bea wine -- one of our favorite wines, period -- is the 100% sagrantino Pagliaro. This one is mostly Sangiovese (with 15% sagrantino and 15% montepulciano). It has the Bea style, without the full-on wildness of the Pagliaro -- lovely, leathery flavor, a lot of tannin, dark blackberry fruitedness. The tannin, which persisted all the way through the last glass, is more exciting than intimidating, and so the wine is drinkable now, but will last for a long time.
May 6, 2023 - Delicous tonight. Totally ready and resolved for my taste. A crowd pleaser with a steak.
August 21, 2022 - Bottle was corked
September 20, 2021 - After four years I return to this wine from Paolo Bea. The last bottle was flawed and returned to the store; this one - paired with ribs as other writers suggest - was wonderful and delicious. Decanted for less then an hour. Drank it over two nights - it lost some of it's power by day two. Very complex and plenty of tannins on day 1, well-balanced with deep dark fruit. Not at all raisony or overdone. Beautiful. Day two was OK but the complexity was gone and it became somewhat ordinary. If you have any 2010's I would drink them this year.
November 29, 2020 - Drank over a couple nights; recorked and put back in the fridge. This was showing a lot of secondary characteristics up front but with still very chalky/dusty tannins. On Day 2 tannins disappeared and this was much more enjoyable. A very good wine but a bit past its prime for my liking. Given what I’d heard about the longevity of Bea’s wines (maybe applies less to the Sangiovese, though) I expected this to be much fresher.
February 14, 2020 - This wine was delicious. We decanted it for 2 1/2 hours before drinking, but probably should have decanted it for 4 or 5 hours. Toward the end of the bottle, it really opened up, presenting first dense tannins, then redcurrant, blackcurrant, and mulberry, along with a distinct but hard-to define herbal character. These were followed by tobacco, chocolate, and oak spice toward the end of the swallow. The body was very full, and the finish moderately long. If memory serves, the 2010 was a blend of Sangiovese, Sagrantino, and Montepulciano.
We had this with our Valentine's Day meal of wine-braised beef shortribs, winter squash and brown-butter puree, and homemade polenta. This was our only bottle of this wine, which we purchased at Paolo Bea and shipped home in a mixed half-case. My wife wishes we had purchased a case of this wine!