I understand that we all have our reasons for saying why each of these bottles could be enjoyed right now. Personally, I wouldn’t want to open the Sagrantino or the Barolo, but to each his own.
However, I think that the point that is touched on here and that is a problem, is that the majority of restaurants do have a lot of young wine on their wine lists and really should have a selection of older bottles. That’s become the main reason for me to almost alway opt for the corkage policy.
Yes, and if a restaurant does have good mature wines at reasonable prices, people like us descend on it like locusts gobbling up every bottle.
You don’t always have to buy the oldest wine to make the “smartest” selection on a wine list. If it were me I would buy the COS or the Occhipinti FWIW. They are way more ready to drink and better values IMO.
Excellent advice…we tasted both with the winemakers last week in Verona and even the newest releases were ROCKING!
That PB Sagrantino would probably benefit from having been opened 24 hours earlier, and maybe even 48 hours.
[Although, in all honesty, they should get some props just for having PB on the list in the first place.]
Decided finally, and after much back and forth, to go with the 2005 Paolo Bea Sagrantino di Montefalco. I had them open it and decant at 2:30 and we started drinking it closer to 6:30 PM, so about 4 hours in the decanter.
As before, I found the Bea to be more delicate and nuanced than one might expect given the overall reputation of Sagrantino (e.g., Caprai is probably the other extreme here, with its backward and at least initially largely monolithic character). On the nose, dried cherries and cherry blossoms, with a faint musty aroma that suggested damp earth. In the mouth, this shows an almost candied cherry character which comes across (perhaps surprisingly) as light on its feet. The attack is sweet and detailed, with some lingering tannins emerging on the persistent finish. The grip and focus on the finish is very good, but I expect some more bottle age will further intensify this wine.
Alongside it we had the 1997 Percarlo Tuscana Rosso (100% Sangiovese), which despite being opened about 5 hours in advance, had a slower start than the Bea. However with about 1/2 hour to 1 hour in the glass, this strengthened and intensified considerably, with dark cherry and balsamico aromas emerging on the nose while the sour cherry flavors intensified and focused in the mouth. By the end of the delicious pasta dominated meal, this was showing the best length and palate intensity. A beautiful bottle…