(Glass; Riedel Sommeliers Bordeaux Grand Cru)
One should care on generalizing. This wine is under the consultancy of Italy’s most famous wine oenologist; Riccardo Cotarella. Like his French opponent; Michel Rolland – he has been criticized for making wines under their influence taste the same. Think of a great song producer – you can hear his or hers style – not necessarily bad music, but wines lowers love diversity and hate uniformity. Personally I have tasted my share of Cotarella wines and I think some of them share a common personality – with overripe fruit, blackcurrant and rather boring lush and velvet pleasing fruit flavours. However – Montevetrano is different. On opening you have some of the same creamy blackcurrant, but it’s like the soil and the minerality – takes over and brings these flavours to a higher level. The minerality is simply breathtaking and it makes the wines so linear (me love), with incredible fresh Italian herbs. With time in the glass the blackcurrant is almost transformed to just currant as the minerals is infected the wines from all over. Additional you also get some cappuccino, buttermilk and iodine. The taste is beautiful; incredible firm, cool tempered and with exceptional curl and fresh attack. It went down faster than I can spell Montevetrano and I simply licked the last drops out of the glass.
For more information – click here http://www.montevetrano.it/
(3/1-2009)
One should care on generalizing. This wine is under the consultancy of Italy’s most famous wine oenologist; Riccardo Cotarella. Like his French opponent; Michel Rolland – he has been criticized for making wines under their influence taste the same. Think of a great song producer – you can hear his or hers style – not necessarily bad music, but wines lowers love diversity and hate uniformity. Personally I have tasted my share of Cotarella wines and I think some of them share a common personality – with overripe fruit, blackcurrant and rather boring lush and velvet pleasing fruit flavours. However – Montevetrano is different. On opening you have some of the same creamy blackcurrant, but it’s like the soil and the minerality – takes over and brings these flavours to a higher level. The minerality is simply breathtaking and it makes the wines so linear (me love), with incredible fresh Italian herbs. With time in the glass the blackcurrant is almost transformed to just currant as the minerals is infected the wines from all over. Additional you also get some cappuccino, buttermilk and iodine. The taste is beautiful; incredible firm, cool tempered and with exceptional curl and fresh attack. It went down faster than I can spell Montevetrano and I simply licked the last drops out of the glass.
For more information – click here http://www.montevetrano.it/
(3/1-2009)
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5 comments:
Always good to see that we like the same wines. I looked in my Archive and found a TN from the 2002 vintage a year ago.......
2002 Montevetrano
This wine from Silvio Imparato together with Ricardo Cotarella achieved cult status in the mid 90s, as Robert Parker called it the “Sassicaia of the South”. This wine is based on 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 10% Aglianico. Yes, it is a wine from Cotarella, but don´t expect another blockbuster. The vintage 2002 was very difficult in Italy, this means unsually high rainfall in the summer, but despite this bad vintage, this wine is a good example of why Montevetrano is considered to be a great wine. Every sip is pur joy! Such elegant and lovely balanced with flavors of leather, tobacco, red berries and with the warmth of the south. Fine-grained tannins, good acidity and a complex finish. WOW
Cheers,
Martin
www.berlinkitchen.com
Hi Martin,
Our tasting notes says almost the same – how good are we ;-))))
Lovely wine and I still have some left.
Best,
/Thomas
Hey "Mad about wine"
Just became the lucky owner of Messorio 1997 and 1998 + Redigaffi 2000 :)
I have noticed that you quite a bit about this so I hope I can get your recommendation and views upon these wines and also toward keepting these in the celler for how long?
Best regards,
Christian
faerge64@hotmail.com
Hi Christian,
1997 Messorio - You are a very lucky man.
I have tasted Messorio 4 times – I think. The wine is unbelievable good. I would go as far as calling the 1997 the best Super Tuscan wine I have ever tasted. The wine has evolved beautiful since release. It’s really elegant now and certainly has it’s resemblance to right bank Bordeaux. No one knows how far it can hold – as Messorio was “born” with the 1994 vintage. I would not hesitate to open the wine right now.
I haven’t tasted the two vintages you mention on Redigaffi, but I have tasted other vintages; 1997, 1999 and 2004. Redigaffi is an entirely different style, compared to Messorio. Messorio is a cooler tempered wine, with minerals, Tuscan herbs and elegance. Redigaffi is more bombastic and bolder. For me Redigaffi needs some time to get rid of the high level of oak, which I find a bit dull. In my opinion Redigaffi is always a step behind Messorio – but taste differs.
Good luck with the wines.
/Thomas
PS. The former wine maker @ Tua Rita / Redigaffi was Luca D’ Attoma. He is now the consulting wine maker @ Le Macchiole / Messorio. Luca D’ Attoma is known to love elegant wines and dislike the overripe style. Since 2001 Messorio and forward, I have sensed an even more delicate style of Le Macchiole. Maybe that was why he left Tua Rita – which defiantly makes a more ripe style of Merlot.
Un ottimo vino complimenti per la scelta.
Gustatus.blogspot.com
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