Hello;
A friend of mine celebrated his 60th birthday yesterday. Him being a person
of great personal charm and warmth, and also CEO of a rather large
corporation, he was feted with, amongst other things c. 90 bottles of wines,
ranging from good to very good. Several were Brunello di Montalcino - 1997
and 1998. The only one I recognised was 'Il Poggione'. He asked me (me!)
what to do with them, and, my exeperience of BdM being severely limited, I
recommended 'cellar and forget' for all of them, particularly 'Il Poggione'.
To the best of my lknowledge, the 1997 is a great vintage with a bright
future ahead of it, so, my guess would be to let it lie for 10 years or
more. 1998 must be recently sent to market, and I suppose the jury is still
out.
What is your opinon? Just your 0.02 EU, how would you treat 12 bottles of
BdM?
Open on in 5 years and try it?

Cheers

Nils Gustaf
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In article >, "Nils Gustaf Lindgren"
> writes:

>he was feted with, amongst other things c. 90 bottles of wines,
>ranging from good to very good. Several were Brunello di Montalcino - 1997
>and 1998. The only one I recognised was 'Il Poggione'. He asked me (me!)
>what to do with them, and, my exeperience of BdM being severely limited, I
>recommended 'cellar and forget' for all of them, particularly 'Il Poggione'.
>To the best of my lknowledge, the 1997 is a great vintage with a bright
>future ahead of it, so, my guess would be to let it lie for 10 years or
>more. 1998 must be recently sent to market, and I suppose the jury is still
>out.
>What is your opinon? Just your 0.02 EU, how would you treat 12 bottles of
>BdM?
>Open on in 5 years and try it?

90 bottles of wine- that's some birthday! Hard to make specifc suggestions w/o
makers- I don't think I had the '97 Il Poggione. Just had the '98, drinking
well, in a nice middle of the road style (not totally traditional, but not a
fruit & oak bomb either). But I passed on buying.

1997 Brunello is a bit controversial. The WS declared it the "vintage of the
century", Parker was much more reserved. The ones I tasted were big ripe
Brunellos, in any case. My guess is that while they'll last, they're not going
to be 30 year wines. I have heard reports that lots are closed down at the
moment. I think I'll aim at trying the ones I have (I have 1 or 2 bottles each
of Antinori Pian delle Vigne, Lecciaia, Caparzo, and...someone?!?!?) somewhere
between 2008-2015. If I had 12 of one bottling though, my schedule would be
more like one now, then one every 3 years till I thought it was entering a good
window.

I haven't had enough '98s to make a vintage judgement. I liked the Caparzo and
Uccelliera, though.


Dale

Dale Williams
Drop "damnspam" to reply

"Dale Williams" > wrote in message
...
> I haven't had enough '98s to make a vintage judgement. I liked the Caparzo
and
> Uccelliera, though.

I'm very fond of Italian reds, Dale. What I'm hearing (and tasting) tells
me that Italy has had a remarkable run of good to excellent vintages lately,
abruptly ending in 2001.

I'm by no means expert on the topic, as 1996 might have been good too, but
1997 through 2000 are really good. I tasted the 2001 Felsina (not the
Rancia) last week and it was just a bottle of acid. >:^P Very
disappointing.

Tom S

"Dale Williams" > skrev i meddelandet
...
> In article >, "Nils Gustaf
Lindgren"
> > writes:
>
> 1997 Brunello is a bit controversial. The WS declared it the "vintage of
the
> century", Parker was much more reserved. The ones I tasted were big ripe
> Brunellos, in any case. My guess is that while they'll last, they're not
going
> to be 30 year wines. I have heard reports that lots are closed down at the
> moment.

So, perhaps wait, but not 10 years, then? Considering the (I think bloated)
prices of BdM, opening one to find it´s deep in the tunnel would be a
disappointment.


> I think I'll aim at trying the ones I have (I have 1 or 2 bottles each
> of Antinori Pian delle Vigne, Lecciaia, Caparzo, and...someone?!?!?)
somewhere
> between 2008-2015.

So, perhaps, 5 years. He has an embarassment of ddifferent producers amongst
the BdM, and I didn´t make any notes about them.

> I haven't had enough '98s to make a vintage judgement. I liked the Caparzo
and
> Uccelliera, though.

Ah. So the jury _is_ still out, then? ))


Thank you for your advice, Dale. My own experience of BdM is severely
limited (partly due to the prices), and those I´ve had, were either of the
1993 vintage which apparently matures rather fast, or they were simply too
young.

Cheers, and it´s off to Bourgogne SAturday ....

Nils Gustaf
--
Respond to nils dot lindgren at drchips dot se

1997 was a great year for Italian vintages, Super Tuscans of course.



rr

On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 02:24:34 GMT, "Tom S" >
wrote:

>
>"Dale Williams" > wrote in message
...
>> I haven't had enough '98s to make a vintage judgement. I liked the Caparzo
>and
>> Uccelliera, though.
>
>I'm very fond of Italian reds, Dale. What I'm hearing (and tasting) tells
>me that Italy has had a remarkable run of good to excellent vintages lately,
>abruptly ending in 2001.
>
>I'm by no means expert on the topic, as 1996 might have been good too, but
>1997 through 2000 are really good. I tasted the 2001 Felsina (not the
>Rancia) last week and it was just a bottle of acid. >:^P Very
>disappointing.
>
>Tom S
>

In article >, "Nils Gustaf Lindgren"
> writes:

> My own experience of BdM is severely
>limited (partly due to the prices), and those I´ve had, were either of the
>1993 vintage which apparently matures rather fast, or they were simply too
>young.

While I enjoy BdM, I must say that from a value standpoint it's hard to make
them a regular part of consumption. The lower-priced ones tend to be $30, even
in comparatively weak vintages. There's a lot of $50 Brunelli that can easily
be surpassed in quality by $20-30 Chiantis or STs like the Campaccio.

Tom S wrote:
"I'm by no means expert on the topic, as 1996 might have been good too, but
1997 through 2000 are really good. I tasted the 2001 Felsina (not the
Rancia) last week and it was just a bottle of acid"

'96 wasn't bad, just earlier drinking. My personal preference overall of these
recent vintages was the '99- '97 was overripe by my tastes. '99 SuperTuscans,
Chiantis, all seem very good. We'll see re BdM.


Dale

Dale Williams
Drop "damnspam" to reply

Hello Dale;

One of my most impressive wine memories was back in 1996 - Xina and self
spent a fortnight in Tuscany - and we had gone for the evening meal to one
of those innumerable little topwns in the Amata Mts - Magliano di Toscana?
whatever - and we passed a small wine shop, built into the town wall, and
stopped to look into the wares. The shop keeper came out, engaged us in
conversation, and noted that we were looking at his BdM´s. He said, 'Don´t
go for them - they aren´t very good value /you´ll please understand that my
command of Italian was at the time severly limited/. Vino Nobile gives good
pleasure at lower price and ... ' at which point he pulled up a bottle of
Morellino di Scansano RIserva, poured us each a generous glass (in two big
balloons) and tweirled the glasses energetically. The perfume from the wine
was stupendous - black currants, cherries, blackberries - simply wonderful.
So was the taste. At a price of about EU 10 (this was in the ITL era) he had
an instant sale of 6 bottles, which, unfortunately, din´t taste near as good
after 2400 km on the autostrada/autobahn.

No MdS I have tasted after has been nearly as good as that one.

Cheers

Nils Gustaf


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