February 25, 2023 - In a great place.
August 23, 2022 - Large and powerful, a bit unresolved but decanted for 2 hours before serving (lots of sediment to remove). The nose had a lot of brett to it, all sorts of forest floor funk going on. On the palate, plenty of fruit still left. Drink within the next decade.
July 30, 2022 - Cooked
July 6, 2022 - ripe fruit, better than expected though somewhat non descript
December 26, 2021 - Bright, fruit driven with earthier notes in background. Beautiful bouquet. Had with Iberico pluma with sauce extracted from iberico px sherry stew. This melded amazingly with the sauce. Medium body, but long finish. So delicious!
December 24, 2021 - Fascinating to see the varied experiences of this wine on CellarTracker. Large amount of bottle variation is the only way I can think to explain it. So, the following is just my experience with a particular bottle. That’s always the case but feels especially relevant here. This bottle looks to be in great shape- clean label, high fill, cork only soaked ¼ of an inch. A huge amount of muddy sediment at the bottle of the bottle. In the glass, the wine looks super youthful, pale bright red, translucent, watery rim, no bricking at all.
The nose, on the other hand, is much more developed. Prominent aromas of leather and saddle soap, manure, wood shavings, miso, a touch of soy sauce. There is a little bit of unpleasant cheap cigar smoke that I wish would go away, but doesn’t. Behind all these tertiary aromas lurk some dried cherries, dried black currants, dried lavender. The overall impression is quite concentrated, dark, and aged: almost like a Bordeaux. It’s a very complex and intriguing nose, mostly, though not entirely, attractive.
Tasted like an old wine in the mouth- not one that is over the hill….yet. There are more fruits on the palate than on the nose. They are dark; black currants, prunes, black cherries. There is an equal measure of tertiary flavors, by far the most dominant being leather. I taste a graphite type flavor/aroma that I usually associate with Bordeaux blends, that feels a little out of place. The finish is long, and skews away from fruit. Holds up well over 4 hrs in a decanter.
This is a nice bottle, and I (mostly) enjoyed the wine, though it feels a bit heavy, clunky, and plodding for Sangiovese. I know Montalcino can be hot, and Google tells me 1999 had a particularly hot end of season, but I prefer Sangiovese to have more lift and grace than this. I enjoy darker/heavier wines as well, but if I wanted that, I’d drink a Cabernet. I was surprised to see the ABV was 13.5% (I expected higher). In summary, enjoyable, though of a particular style that will appeal to some drinkers. I’m somewhere in the middle.
December 25, 2020 - Decanted for 90 minutes which allowed a scent of funk (old cork?) to blow off. Opened up beautifully displaying black currants, dark cherries, blackberries, leather and spice. Bright, vibrant and still plenty of fruit. At this age (21 years) I thought it would be on the austere side. Well balanced with mellowed tannins. I find I enjoy lower alcohol wines more, tiring of the CA cab monsters. This was a classy bottle of wine. Had plenty of life left but the cork did not.
November 4, 2020 - Last bottle was Dec 2012- this has come a long way. I decanted for 90 min which was necessary. Certainly in prime now and should be enjoyed within 3 years. Nice finish.
July 7, 2020 - Bouchonnée!
December 30, 2019 - Enjoyed with my ragu bianco. We didn't get the vampire blood noted by a prior reviewer. Rather we thought this was a great example of a solid brunello with still more life in it. Oddly, I note that we drank this exactly 13 years to the day from when we acquired it in Florence.