Community Tasting Notes (39) Avg Score: 93.1 points

  • Incredibly unique, hard to describe, lemon, spice, floral, flinty mineral notes developed with time, lush viscous

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  • First time having wine from this producer, and it was spectacular. Very intense and full (especially for 12% alcohol!), some wax, ripe yellow and tropical fruit, nuts. A great experience.

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  • BYOB dinner and then some; 2/1/2024-2/2/2024 (Avalon, Amsterdam): [Tasted blind] Great to taste this with some age, great wine. Medium intensity with piccalilli (not my aroma call, but a great descriptor), savoury, herbs, lemon, apple. Medium+ acidity, long finish. 92-93

    In great balance and I always like it when a wine is not fruit driven

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  • M&PD Tasting: Italy (Seattle, WA, USA): Cool wine that took a while to open up. Ironically the more air it saw the more reductive, smoky and flinty it seemed to get. I could have spent a day with this one.

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  • MPD dinner at Nell’s. Big and oily. Nose a bit muted.

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  • Ravenau-look-a-like, HSA said. I don't agree. First time for me tasting this, though, so maybe I'm not the one to judge. Stonefruit, minerals, butter, fije acidity, good complexity, certainly still young. Very fresh.
    #Enomania

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  • Beautiful creamy electric full of subtle finesse

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  • Very funky on opening, but that blew off quickly. Solid complexity and length. Happy with this, but this bottle was not a good QPR. Maybe just a bit shut down right now

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  • This felt like an old lover that you meet a few years down the road, things change and you aren’t sure if the magic would still be there. I thought this was still very good albeit in a different way. The electrifying acidity that I adored back then was no longer at the forefront, with more overt oxidative and tropical pineapple notes. Gained power and complexity with air but the freshness never came. Based on the previous bottle in 2018 I thought this would easily go for 20 years, but based on today’s showing I would recommend to drink soon. Still a lovely drink, mind.

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  • World class wine. Tremendous complexity and a long life still ahead.

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  • Can't believe it's been 3 years already since my last go with this one? Heard rumors of it's demise...but hell no...juice is still rockin! Love the brilliantly shiny, rustically cloudy, shimmering gold and green tinge color...slight reduction(or sulfur embalming ;-)) at first, but air releases the perfect ripened orchard and tropical fruits...creamy with a slight bite to it...plenty zippy lemon and grapefruit squeeze sours refreshens...SO exotic and quite unique with lime blossoms, peach tea, Chenin woolliness, pickling spice, grilled pineapple sprinkled with some fresh cut herbs...salivating acidity, yet saline with crushed rocks and smoky minerals...has that waxiness ala Raveneau that I just adore...really seems to be holding it's own with age...maybe some dried honey notes showing now, and not any youthful spritz like before...showing tremendous integration and intriguing complexity...a World class drink of white wine here!

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  • 100% organically farmed Bombino Bianco (more likely a local synonym for Trebbiano Abruzzese than Bombino Bianco the variety). The wine is made from approx. 5-10% of the best grapes harvested, the rest is sold off as bulk. Fermented spontaneously and aged in old oak casks. Spontaneous MLF. Bottled unfined, unfiltered and without any SO2. 12% alcohol. Tasted in a Valentini Trebbiano 2014-1999 vertical.

    Luminous, youthful yellow-green color. Intensely bright, mineral and at the same time slightly reduced and subtly funky nose with precise aromas of lemony citrus fruits and salty ocean air, some crushed oyster shells, a little bit of flinty smoke, light stony mineral nuances, a hint of apple skin and a subtly bretty touch of leathery funk. The wine feels intense, very dry and somewhat concentrated on the palate with a medium body, slightly viscous mouthfeel and crunchy, almost piercing flavors of sharp green apples and fresh green currants, some stony mineral notes, a little bit of lemony citrus fruits, light funky notes of leather and a hint of something vaguely metallic. The noticeably high acidity lends great sense of intensity, freshness and structure to the wine. The lengthy finish is crisp, lively and persistent with a dry, palate-cleansing aftertaste of lemony citrus fruits and crunchy green currants, some tangy saline notes, a little bit of phenolic spice, light smoky nuances and a hint of apple peel bitterness.

    A very dry, mineral and precise vintage of Valentini's Trebbiano d'Abruzzo with great interplay between the brisk acidity and the noticeably concentrated, almost oily mouthfeel. The wine does show a tiny bit of bretty funk which seems to be typical of Valentini Trebbiano, but it is not as noticeably funky as the 2012 vintage nor like the almost undrinkable funk fest as the 2014. Instead here it just adds a little bit of sauvage complexity and the wine comes across as very lean, precise and vibrant - maybe just a tad too young for its own good. Lovely stuff with tons of upside, but perhaps still a bit too tightly-wound for immediate enjoyment - unless you are looking for very lean, mineral and noticeably acid-driven stuff where all the finer nuances are shut behind a hard, cool layer of acid and minerality. Recommended.

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  • Decanted an hour before serving. Medium yellow, not crystal clear. Utterly fascinating aromas and flavors, including marzipan, pear, citrus, botanical herbs, and a good dose of soil. Medium weight, marvelous texture, crisp finishing acidity. The only downside in my mind was that the finish was slightly overbalanced to the herbal side. What an endlessly interesting, complex white wine this is though.

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  • Had this wine once before from the 2014 vintage, like this 2013 slightly more. Light on the palate, 12%, discrete nose with flowers and some subtle toasty notes from oak. Very discrete, very composed, precise palate with good acidity. Aromatically on the discrete/neutral side but better than the 2014.

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  • Super tasty but not as long as complex as I expected. Crisp white fruits, saline, great with fennel and basil.

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  • Aroma of almonds, sweet herbs (like basil) and lemon. On the palate the wine started out somewhat "broad" with oily texture and hints of roasted nuts. Over time however, it developed great elegance and freshness as the acidity became more prominent and its features integrated in a balanced way. Exciting, wonderful wine.

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  • On fire now but appears to have the stuff to last a while

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  • Bright lemon with golden hue, a very slight cloudiness suggesting unfiltered/unfined nature. Fresh fennel, almond, lemon nose intermixing with ginger, savoury, sea water notes with some honey dairy cheesy notes.

    Bone dry, medium body, a bit oily mouthfeel, back by sharp acidity. Lemon, apricot, herbaceous stony minerals, some petrol, honey and nutty. Complex, unique wine. Very elegant.

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  • Dull yellow, ever so slightly hazy. Some reductive aromas, then botanical herbs and citrus peel. Medium body, light glycerine sheen. Dry, herbal, and earthy with lemony flavors. Something evoked dry Loire Chenin Blanc. This fell well short of expectations generated by more complex, dynamic bottles from other vintages.

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  • The nose is powerful on almonds, hazelnuts and honey. On the palate, the touch is oily.
    There are some oxidative notes which integrate well with the whole which remains fresh and digestible despite a large body and very little acidity. Me, who thought that a white should be stretched so have an acidic frame to keep a balance, this bottle proved to me the opposite, with very little acidity but a lot of texture and a very expansive juice which remains supple although creamy .
    It is a very mature wine where almond and honey dominate on the palate. The finish is intense, herbaceous and confusing, which lines the throat, giving the wine unparalleled length.
    Objectively it is excellent as well as confusing for me to have a white with such low acidity but yet perfectly constructed. However, I prefer fresher wines, a matter of taste.

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  • Parte a razzo ed i se ed i ma che si sentono spesso su bottiglie di questo grandissimo produttore qui non hanno ragione di esistere. Limpido, pulitissimo con un naso che spinge sulla caramella d'orzo, sul mare, cedro e fieno, arrivano il floreale e le erbe officinali, la nocciola. L'assaggio rivela un perfetto connubio tra una freschezza da alte latitudini ed uno spessore e corpo da fuoriclasse d'oltralpe, tornano il mare, la nocciola, gli agrumi gialli dolci e si sviluppa pieno ed interminabile. Da qui all'infinito...capolavoro !!!

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  • Of the wines we opened tonight the Trebbiano 2013 from Valentini stole the show especially over the course of the meal in the glass. It started quite restrained and shy, with nice floral aromatics, certainly not showing any age let alone the oxidation I have had in other vintages. In the following two hours it gained aromatic complexity with a Burgundian flinty, smoky, matchstick angle, and a exceptional midalate density and depth.

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  • Less of the reduction of my last bottle, and while that renders this more accessible on first pop, I miss the juxtaposition of leesiness and flint that excited me a few months back. Easily mistakable for white Burgundy, really clean fruit with an impressive denseness to the stoney minerality. Very good!

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  • I should have popped and pour instead of slow oxed it for 6 hours. Fizzy, lemon, stone, and flint. The first glass from the pnp was more vibrant and flinty.

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  • Bit of a stunner here. Devilishly clever use of first class fruit, hit of lemon on the nose, extremely refined across the palate, remarkable vineyard wine. The use of neutral oak making a thrilling and refined wine, deserving of contemplation and greater analysis.

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  • Truffles and a couple of bottles: Wild florals, apricot, smoke, mango and peaches. Cuts through the fruit presence on the palate with ease - lovely minerality and acid. Good texture here as well. Really like the profile and cut.

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  • Wow wow wow, the Valentini Trebbianio d'Abruzzo is killer tonight. Significantly reduced, this took the better part of an evening to open up, before revealing a leesy nose of lemon, brioche, and crushed stone. Crisply textured. I really like the mix of leesy and reductive qualities. Stellar wine.

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  • Corked, but not badly enough to see that the underlying wine is very promising... Too bad, though.

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  • Wow an unexpected pleasure. Bought 6 bottles on a trip to Italy this year on the recommendation of local wine store owner who said it was his best white. Citrus zest, a bit of pineapple , and lots of floral notes. Searing acidity and long finish with great viscosity and mouthfeel.

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  • Valentini and Pepe Dinner
    Close to wine of the night for me, a bottle I've had a few times. It requires a lot of air to really show and then explodes with focused aromatic sensations combining minerals and zest, herbs - acidity was super precise and lingering.

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  • My first Valentini...instant fan! It's fascinating...exotic and bursting with energy and brightness. Little tingle spritz and sulfur reduction at first...but quickly integrates beautifully showcasing the pure orchard and tropical fruits...and interesting mix of creamy ripe and underripe sourness..intense citrus acidity...smoky and saline crushed minerals...exotic florals of lime blossoms, mint peach tea, grilled pineapple...has a nuanced woolliness ala Chenin, as well as a mix of herb garden and pickling spice. Very seamless and subtle, yet snowballs to a powerhouse of complexity, while maintaining laser sharp precision. VERY impressed with this wine! Would love to see where it goes with some age to it!

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  • Once again valentini makes a bulls eye.
    This is outstanding and wil only get better.
    Bravo

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  • Exceptional wine.
    Initially the nose was very animally, like of a red wine.
    With decanting reduction clears, but even the animal notes are beautiful.
    Aromas of straw, sleek and concentrated palate. Long finish.
    One of the great whites of the world.

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  • Double decanted 1/3 of a bottle at noon time and started serving at 7pm. The sulphur was completely blown off. Nose had melon fruit, white flowers, stone and dried extract. Palate was chalky with balanced fruit and acidity. I could imagine a 60 mins decanting would be more appropriate to enjoy its evolution.

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  • Dinner at Margeaux Brasserie (Chicago, IL): Served double blind. If you look at my note from two days ago, I said that if I had the 2012 version of this blind, I would have called it chenin. Guess what I called this? I'm consistent, if not correct. This bottle I enjoyed a lot more than the 2012 version (which seemed a little wooly and funky) -- this was much more pure and clean, and there was much more delineation between the fruit and mineral elements here. Nice overall concentration and intensity, as well as great complexity.

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  • This the type of wine that you throw descriptors out of the window and just admire the pedigree.
    Tight on opening but amazing floral aromatics. Such an evocative wine, somehow I tasted the pineapple, sea and Chinese tea at the same time. Gained complexity in the decanter and as they always say, the last sip was the best. World class, full of personality, so brilliant that I wish you were here.

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  • 2013 - decanted for 1.5 hours, it was the most reductive among the three whites. On the nose, slightly flinty, white flowers, salted mint, lemon peel and citrus foam, on the palate, it was initially a bit muted (it was probably still too young to be consumed), but certainly gained more complexity over time. The acidity was gentle and clean, with white fruits and slightly chalky minerality.

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  • A private lunch (Restaurant Bak, Amsterdam, NL): Citrus and deep minerality, orange zest, floral and pure, more modern and approachable in style than I remember from older (more peppery and rustic) vintages, very good precision and length. Open for business, not really sure about its ageing potential.

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  • White chocolate, matchstick, mineral, sea shell, stone, and pineapple on the nose and palate. Lots of acidity. This will be superb in 10 years. Truly impressed.

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