November 12, 2015 - Drink up - at peak or beyond
October 14, 2013 - Another excellent bottle. No rush to drink this.
January 3, 2013 - A nice unsophisticated Chianti. Dark color, Presence of dark fruit, tar earth and leather.
March 11, 2012 - OCW4Poker XII - Wines of Washington (WCC - Irvine CA): This was left over from the previous night. Surprisingly dark color, no sign of fading at 11 years old. Fruit is holding up well although not a sophisticated wine, it does show leather, tar, and muted fruit.
April 12, 2011 - A little woody initially, but gets much better with some air as the oak integrates with the rich black cherry fruit and savoury leathery, coffee and earthy elements emerge. Rich, polished and drinking very nicely now with tannins mostly resolved.
March 11, 2011 - Great drink
November 27, 2009 - Nice pasta wine though a bit pricey for that. Opened Tuesday and enjoyed it very much, and had about a half bottle left, which I put out with the Thanksgiving wines. I recall liking it more the first day, though it wasn't bad yesterday. Probably not the ideal pairing with turkey and trimmings
April 6, 2009 - Very dark red. Initially it exhibited lots of vanilla oak, but after several hours of aeration, typical aromas of red cherries, earth and olive appeared, plus leather and spices.Still oak remains obvious. Mid-full bodied with somewhat dry tannins and very high acidity suppressing the fruit. Long finish . To drink or to cellar further.
April 5, 2009 - "Farewell" Party for Sasi (Lam Soon): This is huge on leather! Its like a sweat stained leather saddle. Sweaty and with some green capsicums too. This really shouts Pauillac but its not! Extremely forward and galloping in its approach with a tempo of flavours building up to a cloud of tobacco, smoke, tar and cherry-flavoured licourice.
April 4, 2009 - Sasi's farewell tasting (Richfield, Lam Soon Building, Singapore): Actually very impressive at this price range, just not very typical for a Chianti Classico. Tons and tons of leather on the nose - of the sweaty horse saddles variety. It faded a little, which was somewhat of a relief, to show very sweet, almost candied plums, blackcurrants, and a dash of spice, like cloves and cardammon - reminded me of an Indian murtabak. Palate was really fresh, yet super rich, creamy textured - a testament to the strength of the 2001 vintage as well as a telltale sign of very "modern" winemaking. Flavours wise, I got cherries, plums, a touch of crystallined fruits and some smoke. Finish was medium length, with tightly grained tannins which were on their way to being resolved. Yummy, and would be excellent with food - I can just imagine a lovely osso buco!