Wine Blogging Wednesday #48: Back To…Brunello?

August 13th, 2008

Brunello di Montalcino, Italian wine, Sangiovese, WBW, Wine Blogging Wednesday

This is going to be a brief post. It’s Wine Blogging Wednesday, and the theme from Lenn Thompson is a good one: to choose a wine that gets you back to your roots as a wine drinker and wine lover. Sort of ‘the wine that changed your life,’ if you will.

Personally, I hadn’t much been interested in wine until about the year 2000, when I took a trip to Italy. I went back on my honeymoon a few years later, and both times my husband and I stayed in the Montalcino area.

On one of those trips the two of us took a tour of Castello Banfi, which was impressive and grand (albeit not a typical producer, being American-owned and massive in scale). More so, overall we consumed quite a large amount of Brunello - I believe the 1995 vintage the first time around, and the 1997 vintage on our second trip. My exposure to these wines, in the region where they were made, the local history and culture — this really solidified what is now not just a hobby for me, but a way of life.

So I had my wine picked out for WBW #48. Well, two wines. The 2001 Castello Banfi Brunello di Montalcino, and their upper-end bottling, the 2001 Castello Banfi Brunello Poggio Alle Mura. I checked all sorts of online resources including Cellartracker, eBob and the Spectator, and the consensus seems to be that they won’t be ready to drink before 2009. I have only one bottle of each, and I couldn’t bring myself to open either of them before their time.

Maybe it’s rubbish, or maybe I’m being protective of the wine that captured me so (sure, they’re from a different vintage from the originals, but supposedly an even better one). I’m not ready to have the romantic notions that seduced me into a life of wine shattered, and hope that next year when I pop the cork on at least one of these, I’ll fall in love all over again.

So, am I an idiot? Should I have ignored conventional wisdom and opened one of these bottles, perhaps prematurely? It’s still Wednesday, and I could possibly be persuaded to reverse my decision to sit this one out.

2 Responses to “Wine Blogging Wednesday #48: Back To…Brunello?”

Taster B
August 13th, 2008 at 8:19 am

We were talking to a wine shop owner about Brunello. He said that back in the day, they were not made to age forever but, then producers started making them that way to compete with France BUT THEN the whole Parker/Rolland thing turned the tide again so that now a lot of the Brunellos are actually drinkable at release. I can’t speak for your bottles. I can’t speak for any of it really. That’s just what a wine dude told me. I’d say open one today and save one for next year.
noble pig
August 13th, 2008 at 9:26 am

I am really enjoying everyone’s posts today about their wine experiences in the early years. Yours is also fascinating!

get your wine on

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Technical Difficulties:

It’s hard to be a blogger when you don’t have a computer. Mine is in the shop. I’ll be back soon, I hope!

Cheers,

Jill

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