2001 Le Macchiole, Messorio IGT, Bolgheri, Tuscany, Italy

(Followed closely over 2 days)

Opening: Literally a perfect wine - it reminded me so much of the 1997. It had such a refined sweetness, almost a raspberry perfumes, fresh herbs and so many delicate feminine floral components. The acidity was extremely firm and in the mouth the taste was to die for, combining elegance and concentration at the highest level. I am close to the perfect score – but unfortunately the wine turned completely.

From 30 minutes and 2 hours forth.

The fruit is changing in rapid speed and the wine is developing a plum, blackberry and blackcurrant note. The wine turned into a much more heavy and dense wine - developing a dull liqueur note that brought alcohol and took so much complexity away from the wine. The taste was even worse as the wine almost burned on the mid-palate, with no real acidity bite and again it was totally unrecognizable from the opening. All the notes from the opening were moulded together in one big juicy pot, giving the wine a tame and low characteristic look. The last drop I had was very powerful but the taste was starting to balance. I decided to put a vacuum cork in and leave it for day 2.

Day 2 – mid day.

Unbelievable transformation – for the fist time since the opening the herbs were back and in full force with iron/minerals attached and the wine was much more balanced. It’s not the same wine as from the opening as there where still blueberries, liqueur and even some liquorice attached. In general I rarely find liquorice in Tuscan Merlot and it could easily be the mixture between the herbs/minerals blended with the blueberries that created such a note. The taste is great – we are not talking about the same length that the 1999 has, but a much more elegant wine with a lot of dry attack bite in the front of the mouth, but still great on the back palate with a firm elegant profile.

Day 2 evening Still in great shape – the herbs are more dominate now. The blackberries and blueberries are still there combined with the liqueur note, but very secondary now and only detected when purring and additional amount of wine in the glass. The best part now is the very Tuscan profile the wine has the taste is again fantastic – very long, but also with a lot of dry attack and most importantly a fantastic bite and purity.

(97+)

Sun 19 Mar, 2006