Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Marchesi de Frescobaldi 2008 Tenuta di Castiglioni (Italy)

Yesterday was the 15th annual Italian wine tasting event here in Toronto, and the Italians were here in full force with 100 producers tasting about 6-7 wines each.  The key is to find wines that are exciting and good value, while stillbeing available, and I think I found one.  This Frescobaldi wine is a blend of the international grape varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and the Italian stalwart Sangiovese.  I was so impressed with this one that I ran out last night and bought a bottle - tonight I opened it to see if it was just the thrill of being around so many Italian wines or was it really that good?  The answer: it really was that good.  This wine could still use some time in the bottle to come around and smooth out a bit because right now it shows lots of deep black fruit aromas but little else.  The palate shows more with blackberry, cassis, black raspberry, cinnamon, pepper, beautiful spices, vanilla and wood notes - this is a powerful and delicious wine that calls for a hunk of meat now or at least 5 years in the cellar to smooth.

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