2018 Avignonesi Grifi Toscana IGT

Community Tasting Notes (4) Avg Score: 90 points

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  11/26/2022 - timothynbond Likes this wine: 86 Points

  Deep purple color. Fragrant nose with dark berries, cocoa, and tobacco. Medium-plus body, medium acid, medium grippy tannins. Sweet blackberry fruit, cranberry sauce, with good mid-palate depth, but a bit syrupy on the finish. Ripe. Enjoyable, but a bit much for me.

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  9/24/2022 - ikkaariainen Likes this wine: 92 Points

  This vintage is 50% cab sauv / 50% sangiovese. Enjoyed in Charlotte NC at restaurant Forchetta at a combined Charlotte NC chapter Chaîne des Rôtisseurs and Opera Carolina dinner. Highly recommend, a good QPR wine at the average CT price and drink or hold - entering a reasonable drinking window but currently will benefit from an at least 60-90 minute decant and with proper cellaring this has an easy decade++ to go. Paired perfectly with slow braised wagyu short ribs. Deep purple - almost black, no bricking, aromatic, full bodied, developing complex and depth which is where additional aging will really show and with a long aftertaste. Nose dark and initially somewhat muted but with aeration and swirling in glass became very aromatic and almost explosive with dark cherry, plum, licorice and black pepper present. Oak and tannins quite present at this point of maturation. Flavor profile of dark stone fruit, cassis and blueberry up front with earthier leather, tar and graphite notes developing mid-palate with a smokier grilled meat finish.

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  9/10/2022 - Diderot Likes this wine:

  This dark, luscious blend of 50% Sangiovese and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon is more than a match for the proverbial grilled ribeye. It's ready to drink now and will hold for another 5 years or so.
  
  Alas, the Winemaker's Notes contain some of the most dreadful prose I have read in some time. In wine-reviewing circles, bad (dare I say "purple"?) prose is not at all uncommon. The Winemaker says "Dark ruby red in color with purple reflections, the nose opens..." A "nose" is a set of aromas, not a set of colors. The wine itself is dark ruby red with purple reflections, but the sentence is clearly ascribing these colors to the nose. This is called bad writing. (If your nose, moreover, were dark ruby red in color with purple reflections, then you have been drinking way too much.) The dreadful prose continues, as we learn the flavor "evolves like a balsamic explosion." So do explosions often evolve? I merely ask the question. In my limited experience, an explosion is usually sudden and often loud. If you watched a film of one in slow-motion, perhaps it could appear to evolve but not otherwise.
  
  I am happy with this wine, as were my fellow tasters at a tasting last night. But we are already beset by precious and inane wine lingo, like "sourcing" grapes (didn't we used to just buy them?), or "pairing" salmon with a white Burgundy (isn't it ok to just say they taste good together?). Do we really need to do such execrable things to the English language? As silly as anything is the addition of the meaningless word "point" to the word "price." Hence, "price point." Huh? The word "price" is enough. We all know generally what that word means. You don't need to be all fussy and say "price point." If you want to advertise the notion that wine is for precious snobs, this kind of language does it well. But for the rest of us, who love our mother tongue, it's enough to enjoy wine without tarting up the experience by adopting silly affectations like these.
  Thank you.

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  5/10/2022 - WineGuyX Likes this wine: 91 Points

  Not terribly aromatic, but it smells wonderful. Creme de cassis, flowers and creosote. Full-bodied with a moderately high level of tannin. This is tight right now and in need of another year or two in bottle. Elegant and refined, this is lithe on the palate despite the tannin and acidity. This is packed and well balanced, perhaps if a little more sweet fruit comes through, this would merit a higher score. Drink 2023-2028 91

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