2006 Fattoria Galardi Terra di Lavoro
Community Tasting Note
David Paris (dbp) wrote:
Friday, February 5, 2010 - Decanted. This wine looks thick and dark. Immediately after opening the nose was pretty darn tight, and also smelled massive, and almost a bit modern. Luckily that died down, and now with an hour and a half of air, things are getting interesting. Aromas of pork fat slathered in barbecue sauce, ketchup, a chicken wing bone, and teriyaki sauce. Now that we have the foods out of the way, there's also some black volcanic rock aroma, chalk, and a little bit of wood glue. The meat aromas are totally wild, though... The initial attack on the mid-palate is now that of burning fireworks and red lava rock, but quickly firm and rocky tannins ramp up. There is certainly some juicy dark fruits, minerals, and rocks present on the palate as well. Very tasty. The finish is where this wine kills... it goes on and on, lasting and evolving over a minute, and even several minutes later I feel as if I NEED another sip. Crazy structure with just a hint of the complexities that will come with more age. Starts with some blueberries, cranberries, and cantelope all smashed up in a volcanic bowl with a volcanic rock. When you eat the mashed berry goo, you also get quite a bit of rocks with it. It's really quite juicy, but about 20-30 seconds later, things begin changing towards the mushroomy, ferny, earthy sort, almost like a Burgundy, but quite a bit denser. This really lingers, as I slap my cud around I get more and more interesting flavors developing. While this is certainly interesting to consume today, it's also quite brutal. While my score is relatively high, the enjoyment isn't all that great... definitely potential here, though. This began closing down after 3 hours; I will leave the second half of the bottle in the decanter over night and check in.
I came back to this after 24 hours of air and it was a bit better than it was after three hours open the day before, but worse than at the 1.5 hour mark. I've noticed this with several other young Aglianicos tasting best shortly after opening. Some wines love the additional air, but this one didn't. Still massive structure blaring through. After 48 hours in the open decanter the wine was already smelling and tasting oxidized. The structure was definitely coming through in spades, though. I even saved a glass and tried it after 72 and 96 hours... each time tasting more oxidized though with massive structure. I've had some Italian wines (namely Pignolo) hold together without getting oxidized in a glass for 5 days, but not so here, despite the massive structure. I didn't intend to give this that much air, but I got busy and was unable to finish the bottle. An interesting experiment, at least. I was hoping the air would reveal some additional hints at its evolution, but not so. I probably won't be touching another bottle for 6+ years.
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