From the Cellar

Bodegas Terra Sigilata 2010 Filón, Calatayud (Spain)

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Category: Uncorked Tonight

(March 8, 2015) ... There are two tenets of travel I live by: always brings your first bottle and always bring glassware. I have been laughed at for that second one but once people realize the crappy glassware they'll have to deal with in a hotel room suddenly I look pretty brilliant indeed. Such was the case in early March when we took a trip to Philadelphia - sure I had scouted out where the nearest wine shop was long before we got there, but it was easier that first night, after our long car ride, to order pizza and pop the cork on the bottle I brought and just stay in and relax. And this was a beauty to relax with. A 100% Garnacha wine out of Spain with aromas of mocha, blackberry, vanilla, cinnamon, and baker's chocolate followed on the palate by a complex array of flavours: blackberry, cassis, blueberry skin, mocha, wrapped in silky tannins with just a slight hint of leather.

Nobile Welcome Dinner with Carpineto (Italy)

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Category: Uncorked Tonight

(February 18, 2015) ... It's the Vino Nobile welcome dinner in Tuscany, Italy and I'm jazzed to be sitting at the table with members of the Carpineto family. Usually at these dinners I put pen away and just enjoy the food, the wine and the atmosphere ... But tonight it was a little different as the family had a few of the oldest bottles in the room and they were worth talking about (and taking notes about), even if ever so briefly:  

A Carpineto 2001 Poggio Sant' Enrico, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano showed outstanding depth of character and balance of fruit. Is it peaking? Only time will really tell but I can't imagine it will get any better than this (one can only hope).  The finish also has a very appealing licorice and spice notes that keeps you coming back for more.

The second bottle from the Carpineto clan was the 1995 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Riserva, it's old, and past its prime but very drinkable.  Plenty of cedar couching what I am assuming was quite a bit of fruit in its hey-day ... I'm pretty sure that there is not much longer left in this bottle, but I was honored to taste it.