Wine and Cigars on a cold and rainy Sunday (Atlanta, GA): '90s vertical tasting: Caparzo La Casa BDM, Leoville Las Cases and La Tour Haut Brion. PNP and paired with cheese and charcuterie. Color is brownish ruby. No tannin. Nose was a wonderful red fruit (raspberry?). Elegant wine. I would say this is at peak and it showed well without a decant. Perhaps a few more years of life in this. Brad - heavypourwine.com
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
It's a good problem to have when you follow up a 1990 Biondi-Santi with a 1990 Caparzo 'La Casa' and have to pick a WOTN. Despite scoring both as 94 point wines, I think the Biondi-Santi might have been a 94.5, slightly edging the Caparzo for how alluring its nose was, but wow, this is the second Caparzo 'La Casa' (2010 tasted previously) I've had and they never cease to excite me. An earthier driven nose that would follow into the palette, redcurrants were dominated by lots of earth, cassis and hints of smoke on the nose. A medium+ body had a very similar structure as a frutier upfront of blackberries and raspberries quickly pivoted to a mid-palette that consisted of leather and mushrooms with a hint of boysenberry. With a longer, heartier finish than the Biondi-Santi, this accompanied our main courses exceptionally well.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Il Giallo dinner (Sommelier Guild of Atlanta) (Atlanta, GA): Tied for WOTN for me. Fully mature and at peak IMO. Paired perfectly with suckling pig. Can't think of another BDM that I've tried recently that was better than this. I just grabbed some for my cellar. My "Drink Latest" for this is 2025 but I'll probably drink all that I bought very quickly once received given how tasty it was.
(The other WOTN for me was this unique and fantastic Pinot Noir (dry red wine) from the Charles Heidsieck champagne house - crazy!)
Brad - heavypourwine.com
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Once again with Christmas dinner rib roast. This bottle a bit less fresh than the first. This one seemed more on the downhill slope. Much more leather and tobacco and very tart fruit, cranberry. Still good but needs to be drunk soon.
1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No
/ Comment
Had this with Christmas dinner (prime rib roast). This was outstanding. Fresh dark red plum fruit, slight berry hint, fennel, thyme, leather. This still has a lot of life left in this format (Magnum 1.5 L).
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Friday Tasting Group: "Killer Bar" (#02 for me) (Vintage Wines Ltd., San Diego, CA): "The 5-ha La Casa Vyd is located on the Montosoli Hill, at al elevation of 275 m, & enjoys a S/SE exposure. The Montosoli Hill is not large, but its slightly greater elevation shields it from both mists & spring frosts, & yields grapes of incontrovertible quality. The terrain is shisty-clayey, of a sort locally known as Galestro, & is well drained." Also, "Caparzo was one of the first wineries to introduce barriques to Montalcino."
P: Med body; Very NICE, ALMOST swtish frt met by so astringent pucker which slowly, seamlessly transitions into quite a LONG, still very, VERY slightly puckerish finish with a discrete swtness to the dusty tannins. IMPRESSIVE stuff for now & making its 35th? 13.5% ABV; My Exceptional-. 96 pts WS & 91 WA.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Stored at 55 degrees with humidity control since purchase in Italy 20 years ago. Although I would not hold this longer, it has good color, indicating perhaps a few more years of life. Gorgeous dense, tobacco and spice nose. Good depth and complexity. Still enough fruit to balance the soft but evident tannins. Not a big wine (medium bodied), but it has a mouth-filling, almost silky, quality. Quite lovely.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Served alongside the 97, which was just a 'baby'. THis wine was beautiful with soft tannins and a lovely nose of secondary notes, tobacco, spice. Quite smooth and long on the palate. QUite enjoyable.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Most of the experience was middle palate. It was light and gentle. Quick finish. Not what I expected but enjoyable. It took on some weight day 2 and 3 but was flat and 2 dimensional.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Wirklich sensationell für das Alter. Helles klares Rot, kein Satz, Kork durchweicht aber fest. Präsente Säure und Frucht, kirschig, fein elegant, kein Alterungsnoten oder Firn. Sehr lang im Abgang mit vollem vielschichtigem Aroma. Leider die letzte Flasche, nur noch 93er im Keller.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Montalcino visit Spring 2011; 5/25/2011-5/28/2011 (Montalcino): From the great Brunello cellar of Il Giglio in Montalcino. The wine was popped and poured and consumed over about 3 hours. It was immediately open for business, but kept on evolving over dinner. After about an hour the nose was more muted and had changed from the prominent leather component to fresh black fruit. Later on the leather blended back in and some savoury meat and light herbs set in. At some point this was my overall impression:
Ruby color with some light brick at the rim, hardly showing any age! Full aromas of fresh black fruit, cherry, old leather with some meat and dried herbs evolving in the glass. Following trough full bodied with silky smooth tannins, good fruit and rounded acidity. The mid palate is striking with its full body and soft texture. The seamless finish is very long and remains fresh throughout. This wine has developed gracefully, and we concluded that we might even have been drinking this bottle to early! This will easily develop further over the next 10 years. It might even develop the sweetness and etheral character that I've found in some other older Brunelli. That will even take it beyond 95pts. Drink now -2025. (please bear in mind that this drinking window is based on a bottle that never has left Montalcino, most likely other bottles will be further in their development and are more likely to be 'drink now'!)
1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No
/ Comment
it took forever to open up but when it did it was fantastic heavy on the alchol but the fruit is alive and well raisins and prunes drank it with a pasta with white truffles
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Still a dark red color, this wine is singing right now. Showing its fruit, with noticeable oak - but it works for a big, lush Italian red and was very enjoyable with food. Just short of great on the finish. A-
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Took about half hour to open up but once it did was like biting into a blackberry pie. Luscious berry sweetness but with the tart, acidic finish. Great. wine.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Gorgeous nose, hints of tobacco with dark fruits. it is well balanced but with big tannins that give the wine an austere, yet elegant feel. The nose is full, the attack is smooth and balanced and followed by a relatively short/medium, but fruity and bea
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Very nice with bouquet of dried cherries, some leather. I decanted and it seemed to fade and lost fruit with time. Advise that you pull the cork, decant and serve without giving it any air time.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Beautifully glistening ruby red. Despite a fully saturated cork, the nose is clean with tell tale sangiovese aromas. Nice initial attack of bright tart cherries seemlessly transitions to a medium full mid-pallate. Smooth and graceful with good complexity of dried tuscan herbs and terracota. Unfortunately, the fruit fades quickly and the finish is much weaker that I would have expected. A nice drink but comes up a bit short.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
WOW, this was the wine of the night. Very strong nose of jammy strawberries, saddle leather and a bit of eucamyptus, gamey and roasted meat aromas!! Very fresh and ripe in the mounth with lots of silky tannins
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
Dark garnet colour. Aromas of violets, anise, earth, and coffee. Medium-full bodied, with cherry, earth, spice, and a bit of mint. Soft in the mouth; shows well-integrated tannins. Delicious wine with nice structure. Drinking well right now.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
/ Comment
1/28/2024 - HeavyPourWine Likes this wine: 94 Points
Wine and Cigars on a cold and rainy Sunday (Atlanta, GA): '90s vertical tasting: Caparzo La Casa BDM, Leoville Las Cases and La Tour Haut Brion. PNP and paired with cheese and charcuterie. Color is brownish ruby. No tannin. Nose was a wonderful red fruit (raspberry?). Elegant wine. I would say this is at peak and it showed well without a decant. Perhaps a few more years of life in this. Brad - heavypourwine.com
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
11/5/2023 - ankitmehra Likes this wine: 94 Points
It's a good problem to have when you follow up a 1990 Biondi-Santi with a 1990 Caparzo 'La Casa' and have to pick a WOTN. Despite scoring both as 94 point wines, I think the Biondi-Santi might have been a 94.5, slightly edging the Caparzo for how alluring its nose was, but wow, this is the second Caparzo 'La Casa' (2010 tasted previously) I've had and they never cease to excite me. An earthier driven nose that would follow into the palette, redcurrants were dominated by lots of earth, cassis and hints of smoke on the nose. A medium+ body had a very similar structure as a frutier upfront of blackberries and raspberries quickly pivoted to a mid-palette that consisted of leather and mushrooms with a hint of boysenberry. With a longer, heartier finish than the Biondi-Santi, this accompanied our main courses exceptionally well.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
4/15/2023 - HeavyPourWine Likes this wine: 96 Points
Just wow
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
3/17/2023 - HeavyPourWine Likes this wine: 98 Points
Il Giallo dinner (Sommelier Guild of Atlanta) (Atlanta, GA): Tied for WOTN for me. Fully mature and at peak IMO. Paired perfectly with suckling pig. Can't think of another BDM that I've tried recently that was better than this. I just grabbed some for my cellar. My "Drink Latest" for this is 2025 but I'll probably drink all that I bought very quickly once received given how tasty it was.
(The other WOTN for me was this unique and fantastic Pinot Noir (dry red wine) from the Charles Heidsieck champagne house - crazy!)
Brad - heavypourwine.com
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
12/30/2022 - tzelmer wrote: 90 Points
Once again with Christmas dinner rib roast. This bottle a bit less fresh than the first. This one seemed more on the downhill slope. Much more leather and tobacco and very tart fruit, cranberry. Still good but needs to be drunk soon.
1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment
11/9/2021 - Classicrocker913 wrote: 95 Points
Excellent! Had this with some spaghetti and meatballs. Very ready to drink as soon as we opened it. Dark cherries, dried plum, a little tobacco.
1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment
9/23/2021 - Portsnifter77 wrote:
Past prime. Disappointing. Still got me drunk haha.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
2/17/2021 - tzelmer wrote: 94 Points
Had this with Christmas dinner (prime rib roast). This was outstanding. Fresh dark red plum fruit, slight berry hint, fennel, thyme, leather. This still has a lot of life left in this format (Magnum 1.5 L).
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
11/1/2020 - Philippe_C wrote: 96 Points
Beautiful nose of ripe strawberries, sandalwood, leather, loads of fresh tannin, good red fruit following, cold finish of 45 seconds!!
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
3/29/2019 - srh Likes this wine:
Friday Tasting Group: "Killer Bar" (#02 for me) (Vintage Wines Ltd., San Diego, CA): "The 5-ha La Casa Vyd is located on the Montosoli Hill, at al elevation of 275 m, & enjoys a S/SE exposure. The Montosoli Hill is not large, but its slightly greater elevation shields it from both mists & spring frosts, & yields grapes of incontrovertible quality. The terrain is shisty-clayey, of a sort locally known as Galestro, & is well drained." Also, "Caparzo was one of the first wineries to introduce barriques to Montalcino."
N: Cherries & TOAST, pyrazines underneath; Intensity lurking
P: Med body; Very NICE, ALMOST swtish frt met by so astringent pucker which slowly, seamlessly transitions into quite a LONG, still very, VERY slightly puckerish finish with a discrete swtness to the dusty tannins. IMPRESSIVE stuff for now & making its 35th? 13.5% ABV; My Exceptional-. 96 pts WS & 91 WA.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
1/27/2019 - ozstef wrote: 94 Points
Spectacular. Still dark fruit. Tannins soft. Awesome
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
10/4/2015 - Dennis Graves wrote: 93 Points
Stored at 55 degrees with humidity control since purchase in Italy 20 years ago.
Although I would not hold this longer, it has good color, indicating perhaps a few more years of life.
Gorgeous dense, tobacco and spice nose.
Good depth and complexity. Still enough fruit to balance the soft but evident tannins. Not a big wine (medium bodied), but it has a mouth-filling, almost silky, quality.
Quite lovely.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
5/2/2015 - Telacey wrote:
The cork was wet and the wine was tainted. Sad, last bottle in my collection.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
1/25/2015 - plitton wrote: 91 Points
Lots of earth and texture. A lot going on. Very enjoyable.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
4/22/2014 - rnellans wrote: 94 Points
Served alongside the 97, which was just a 'baby'. THis wine was beautiful with soft tannins and a lovely nose of secondary notes, tobacco, spice. Quite smooth and long on the palate. QUite enjoyable.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
1/9/2014 - plitton wrote: 91 Points
Most of the experience was middle palate. It was light and gentle. Quick finish. Not what I expected but enjoyable. It took on some weight day 2 and 3 but was flat and 2 dimensional.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
10/31/2013 - uli369 Likes this wine: 93 Points
Wirklich sensationell für das Alter. Helles klares Rot, kein Satz, Kork durchweicht aber fest. Präsente Säure und Frucht, kirschig, fein elegant, kein Alterungsnoten oder Firn. Sehr lang im Abgang mit vollem vielschichtigem Aroma. Leider die letzte Flasche, nur noch 93er im Keller.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
10/20/2013 - MC wrote:
Tired and fading. B
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
11/24/2012 - Charlie Carnes Does not like this wine:
This was thin, and really unimpressive. From magnum.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
11/7/2011 - jdesimone4 wrote: 92 Points
Fantastic brunello. Very smooth but still complex
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
5/26/2011 - Jochems wrote: 95 Points
Montalcino visit Spring 2011; 5/25/2011-5/28/2011 (Montalcino): From the great Brunello cellar of Il Giglio in Montalcino. The wine was popped and poured and consumed over about 3 hours. It was immediately open for business, but kept on evolving over dinner. After about an hour the nose was more muted and had changed from the prominent leather component to fresh black fruit. Later on the leather blended back in and some savoury meat and light herbs set in. At some point this was my overall impression:
Ruby color with some light brick at the rim, hardly showing any age! Full aromas of fresh black fruit, cherry, old leather with some meat and dried herbs evolving in the glass. Following trough full bodied with silky smooth tannins, good fruit and rounded acidity. The mid palate is striking with its full body and soft texture. The seamless finish is very long and remains fresh throughout.
This wine has developed gracefully, and we concluded that we might even have been drinking this bottle to early! This will easily develop further over the next 10 years. It might even develop the sweetness and etheral character that I've found in some other older Brunelli. That will even take it beyond 95pts. Drink now -2025.
(please bear in mind that this drinking window is based on a bottle that never has left Montalcino, most likely other bottles will be further in their development and are more likely to be 'drink now'!)
1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment
4/22/2011 - mlawren1 wrote: 92 Points
Took over an hour to open up but once it did really lovely wine. Loads of stone fruit and blackberries that slowly fade away.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
12/19/2010 - rnellans wrote: 92 Points
Dark core with slight browning of rim. Earthy, leather, dried cherries on the nose. Nice cherry fruit with some dusty tannins on back end.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
12/15/2010 - sergiozy wrote: 91 Points
it took forever to open up but when it did it was fantastic heavy on the alchol but the fruit is alive and well raisins and prunes drank it with a pasta with white truffles
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
11/7/2010 - mlawren1 wrote: 93 Points
Blackberries and cherries. Meaty and earthy with a great finish.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
5/8/2010 - MC wrote:
Still a dark red color, this wine is singing right now. Showing its fruit, with noticeable oak - but it works for a big, lush Italian red and was very enjoyable with food. Just short of great on the finish. A-
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
9/26/2009 - mlawren1 wrote: 92 Points
Really meaty over a layer of cherries and raspberries. Bit tight then opens up to a smooth finish.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
6/5/2009 - mlawren1 wrote: 92 Points
Took about half hour to open up but once it did was like biting into a blackberry pie. Luscious berry sweetness but with the tart, acidic finish. Great. wine.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
12/17/2008 - ricknat1 wrote: 91 Points
Gorgeous nose, hints of tobacco with dark fruits. it is well balanced but with big tannins that give the wine an austere, yet elegant feel. The nose is full, the attack is smooth and balanced and followed by a relatively short/medium, but fruity and bea
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
11/9/2008 - rnellans wrote: 90 Points
Very nice with bouquet of dried cherries, some leather. I decanted and it seemed to fade and lost fruit with time. Advise that you pull the cork, decant and serve without giving it any air time.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
10/21/2008 - Chateaunewf wrote: 90 Points
Beautifully glistening ruby red. Despite a fully saturated cork, the nose is clean with tell tale sangiovese aromas. Nice initial attack of bright tart cherries seemlessly transitions to a medium full mid-pallate. Smooth and graceful with good complexity of dried tuscan herbs and terracota. Unfortunately, the fruit fades quickly and the finish is much weaker that I would have expected. A nice drink but comes up a bit short.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
8/8/2006 - Philippe_C wrote: 96 Points
WOW, this was the wine of the night. Very strong nose of jammy strawberries, saddle leather and a bit of eucamyptus, gamey and roasted meat aromas!! Very fresh and ripe in the mounth with lots of silky tannins
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment
6/19/2004 - futronic wrote: 91 Points
Dark garnet colour. Aromas of violets, anise, earth, and coffee. Medium-full bodied, with cherry, earth, spice, and a bit of mint. Soft in the mouth; shows well-integrated tannins. Delicious wine with nice structure. Drinking well right now.
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment