I’ve always found this wine to be charming and intriguing, with it’s unusual blend of 20% grechetto, 20% malvasia, 20% chardonnay, 20% sauvignon and 20% garganega. Malvasia always adds something interesting, and some of its floral soap aromas peek through.
This bottle, purchased a year ago, showed strangely, though. It looked like a rose when poured, with a fairly dark, faintly pink hue. When I’ve had Santa Chiara before, it’s always looked like a normal white.
I thought it was shot at first, but after a little awkwardness in the first few minutes, it proved to be quite fresh and flavorful. It’s got a lot of body, but acidity to keep it bracing.
Has anyone else had experience with bottles this old? I bought this from Chambers Street and had it in my wine refrigerator, so I don’t think it was mistreated.
John,
It may be that the winemaking has taken a turn towards the slightly orange. I tasted the 10 earlier this year, and it definitely shared some of the color and characteristics of a very lightly “oranged” wine. According to Rosenthal’s site, the wine spends two weeks macerating on the lees - not sure if that’s always been the case.
It’s definitely in the light orange category. I’ve loved it for a while but have never tried aging any.
Interesting.
I don’t recall the vintages of the other bottles I’ve had of this. But since the current release seems to be 2011, one or two of the other bottles must have been from vintages after 2006 and they were lighter.
Maybe it’s vintage variation or maybe it’s just age. I certainly haven’t had an eight-year-old one before. But this helps to make sense of why it was fresh yet so pink.
I’ve had the 2007 version back in 2009. More on the pale straw color with slight golden tint. It didn’t have a hint of orange in it.
Inspired by this thread, I ordered the 2007 off a restaurant list last night. It was pretty orangey, almost salmon or copper in color. The wine was wonderful, and worked well with a very wide range of foods.
The Coenobium wine Beas make in Lazio has many of the same “light orange” characteristics. I find both are pretty compelling and versatile wines at the table.