Double-Dog Dare You

Recently I staged a double-blind tasting of twelve Brunello di Montalcino. Seven from ‘01, two ‘99's and three ‘99 Riserva bottlings. I served this flight of wines to our enthusiastic yet notoriously honest (read: ill-behaved) tasting group, The Dogs of Wine. They were stumped. I guess this entry will serve as their calling-out. Granted it was a member-light, substitute-dog heavy event, but I was sort of shocked.

For the first 40 minutes the wines were in their respective glasses. The Dogs offered no meaningful guesses. Although the bandwagon effect was in evidence as someone (who should compensate me for not naming them) started babbling about Rhone wines. Then a handful of others agreed.

Brunelli are no more like Rhone Valley wines than I am a Yoga instructor. This “wine expert” might as well have called out white zinfandel. Finally a member who has actually tasted a few Italian wines conjectured that there may be Sangiovese on the table. I love these guys but I am glad we don't work together. Then again, they probably aren't looking for my help at T. Rowe Price or GBMC anytime soon, are they?

The highlights of the tasting (although I was only happy with how nine showed - two were corked, one disjointed) were the wines from Valdicava and the ‘99 Riserva from Castello di Romitorio. The Valdicava wines showed singular mineral perfume and freshness and still had excellent length and power. The ‘99 giving more muscle and the ‘01 showing more depth of fruit for ageing. The Romitorio showed excellent breadth as well as depth and may have been the richest of all on the palate.