Let me clarify something before everybody stars getting up my nose (again) ... yes, yesterday was my birthday and no I did not crack open an Ontario wine to celebrate. The fact is I cracked open 22 Ontario wines to celebrate, many of which will find their way into various blogs, newsletters and sites in the OntarioWineReview universe. But upon finishing that tasting I wanted to having something very special to celebrate my most recent milestone (another year). In so doing I opened a bottle of wine that I brought back from my trip to Italy, which occurred a little over a year ago. Now someone was aghast that I would open a bottle of Barolo so young, but I looked it up on the internet and learned that this particular wine was aged a mere 6 months in oak and if memory serves, 2004 was an okay (but not great) year in Piedmont. But even if I did not have that knowledge at my disposal, or access to the internet, I think my mind was made up: off the shelf came the bottle, out came my corkscrew and pop went the Cork (quite the pull considering the cork was a good 2 inches in length). The nose was quite inviting, I enjoyed sniffing at smoked, dried red fruit (like currants, cranberries and sour cherries) along with a slightly herbaceous/herbal aroma. The palate was smooth and spicy with good tannin structure and a long wood-driven finish that contained lots of spicy-herbal character and some hints of dried red fruits. After about an hour (or so) in the glass things got even better, as the wine smoothed out even more, slip-sliding down the throat oh so smoothly yet keeping the spicy herbaceous characters and tinges of dried fruits that I was delighting in. Happy birthday to me indeed, and a big thank you to all of you who wished me a good one in the process - especially on Facebook and in person. Cheers.
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