Nice color in the glass, an almost opaque dark red at it’s core fading to translucent red at the rim. Very reticent nose; air reveals hints of menthol & cherry fruit, but this bouquet is very ungiving right now. Nice legs. On the palate, sweet red fruits and a nice finish, but still youthfully one-dimensional at this time. Very nice structure & supporting acidity.
Reminiscent of the '04 riserva at a similar stage, I like the components in the bottle, but I think drinking it right now is premature. Better to sock this away and if you must have a riserva, drink one of the '05’s.
Thanks for the note. I love just about anything Felsina I can get my hands on, have a fair amount of older Fontallaro and Rancia and am really looking forward to all of the 06s. Hate to hijack the thread, but I assume you are also a Rancia lover, so,
Just as a point of reference, I had the pleasure of tasting the 06 Rancia at Max’s about a month ago and while I cannot remember how long the rep had it opened, to me it signalled another fantastic vintage for this bottling. Well structured, approachable, to a point for a wine with this power, while also showing a bit of what is to come in 5, 10+ years. I would echo the youthfully one-dimensional with solid structure/ acidity comment.
I’m glad to hear the Riserva is in a pretty good spot, as I will likely pick up some of this to protect my Rancia.
Kevin, I don’t know if the winery would necessarily agree with this, but at least to my taste I find the Rancia is more approachable younger than the Riserva. Don’t know enough about the elevage to speculate as to why that might be, but I know that the '04 Rancia definitely drank better younger than the '04 Riserva - not as much of a difference in '05 because both wines drank well young, but I will be interested to try the '06 when I see it.
Big Felsina fan here. I believe both the Riserva and the Rancia need serious cellaring time, in the order of 10+ years. I would definitely recommend against uncorking the 2005 and/or the 2006 now. Regarding vinification, the main differences between Riserva Berardenga and Rancia are (1) the origin of the grapes, which is Vigneto Rancia in the case of the grey label Rancia bottling, and several other Felsina vineyards in the case of the Riserva, and (2) the Rancia is aged in oak for a year and half and then kept in bottle for six months before release, while the Riserva is aged for 12 months in oak and three months in bottle.
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}