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Brunello di Montalcino 'Castel Giocondo' 1994 Frescobaldi

9/99. In a local restaurant for $80, typical Israeli restaurant pricing!.
We tried a new, very good and moderately priced (except for the wines...) Italian restaurant in Tel-Aviv.
A wonderful paper-thin crispy pizza, a superb seafood risotto (huge plate filled with king prawns, fresh mussels, calamari and crab), a cheese ravioli, fettuccine ragu, one dessert and one coffee. All that for less than $50. The wine added $80 to the bill though...
A very well known Brunello, from the famous Marchesi di Frescobaldi's famous vineyard. A wine I never tasted before.
COLOR: Medium purple color, some clearing around the rim.
NOSE: Deep, even very deep and pleasant aromas of dark fruits. Deep but not particularly rich. Firm wood tones add dimension. Very good nose, if somewhat monotonous.
TASTE: Good fruit, fine grip, tannins and acidity. Pretty tasty and reasonably concentrated and complex. Lacks in fatness and winyness though, so perceived as a bit thin or hollow.
LENGTH: Medium-short aftertaste.
TEXTURE & BALANCE: Medium bodied wine of some style and expression. Good fruit, nice concentration and quite well balanced. Perhaps too young, but appears a bit short in fatness, viscosity, winyness - whatever you call that quality which make the wine feel smooth and mouthfilling on the palate.
OVERALL: Very-good-plus. Perhaps the vintage is not a great one. Perhaps it was too early to drink, perhaps it wasn't stored properly (and I suspect all of the above!). But to be honest - I expected more.
MARK: 16.5/20.BUY MORE? Certainly not for this price! (I might for, say, $20-$25 as I suspect it costs)


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Wine & Food Adventures

Copyright 1996-2003.
Jacob "Yak" Shaya.