I'm in the midst of doing research for our upcoming vacation to Italy in
October. As my general knowledge of wines increases I'm still woefully
ignorant of Italian wines.

A friend told of us about the wonderful visit he had at Castello Banfi last
month. While browsing at our local State Store, saw this months WS article
about the same winery and decided to see if they had anything by Banfi on
their shelves.

They had one bottle of Castello Banfi *** Laude, which I believe is a
Super-Tuscan. We opened it last night 30 minutes before dinner (grilled
flank steak marinated in a sesame-orange dressing, grilled zucchini slices
and flavored cous-cous). I tried a small taste on opening and decided it
needed some air as the tannins were overwhelming. Tried it again just before
we sat down and although it was a little better I decided it needed
decanting.

This helped quite a bit as the wine came more into balance. Tasted a bit of
oak, lots of ripe blackberry fruit and some good acidity. The wine really
opened up towards the end of the meal but started to lose what acid it had.
All in all pretty enjoyable. Not bad for $21 (PA prices). I'd try to rate it
but wouldn't have anything to compare it to. :-)

We opened a 375 ml of Graham's Tawny Port 10 YO for dessert. Always yummy.

Regards,
Jon