It is always a pleasure to be poured a glass of wine that from the first moment you know you are in safe hands. I may taste and drink more wine than most, I generally taste mediocre or boring wines, I accept that to get to the good stuff you have to wade through a ton of crap. This week's wine is a true gem, beautiful, sexy, and stop you in mid-sentence wine, Le Macioche Rosso di Montalcino 2007. Last week I received an email from a guest looking for a few Rosso's that he had seen in the Wall Street Journal. I pulled up all the Rosso's that we sell and I was depressed to see that we only had a few and I was not pleased by the quality we had, so I made a phone call. The next day four Rossos, plus one Texan and the owner of a wine company were at my desk pouring a line up of wine that made the rest of my meetings that day seem horrible.
Wine: Le Macioche
Region: Rosso di Montalcino DOC (Tuscany, Italy)
Grape: Sangiovese
Vintage: 2007 (image is not the wine I tried)
Retail: $25 to $28
Fun Fact: Le Macioche is a more traditional producer using only large 1,000 liter oak barrels, so there is no overt oak aromas of flavors in the wine.
Tasting Notes: The moment the wine is in the glass there is a beautiful translucent cherry red color that warms the room and makes you want Rosso colored glasses. The nose is so captivating that you may never want to take a sip (but you should). A variety of cherries were the first aromas to hit me: sour, Bing and Rainier. As the cherries kept filling my office, aromas of red plums, hints of almost ripe blueberries, dried flowers, a bouquet of dried herbs (rosemary, sage, thyme) and dried tobacco leaf greeted me with each sniff. The wine does not explode out of the glass it dances a ballet for your senses. I was so taken by its elegance, purity and beauty that once the wine hit my lips I knew I was closer to Nirvana. The palate continues the theme of elegance, subtly, and beauty by giving the tongue a massage of fine tannins (not deep tissue) and then a kiss of acidity that brightens the finish. The harmony and balance of the wine is un-canning and deserves a meal and friends. Le Macioche would be a great match for roast meats (lamb, goat, pork, venison) with sage, rosemary and thyme. It would be fantastic with pastas and rich meat sauce. You will be rewarded by finding six to twelve bottles and stocking them away for the next few years. A true classic!
hey, who distributes this?
Posted by: tom | 09 July 2009 at 04:10 PM