Drinking Montefalco Sagrantino is kind of like having kinky sex. I mean, there’s the juicy anticipation phase when you smell all of that ripe red fruit and spice on the nose; then there’s the sexy, feel-good phase when the wine enters your palate like silk; and then… WHACK! The tannins smack/bite/spank you. This is not…
Category: wine review
High Tension Wires, Low Tension Views (Mas de l’Abundancia Montsant Recent Releases)
Jesús del Rio Mateu, proprietor of the Masroig-area Mas de l’Abundància – doesn’t just have an enviable name; he’s also got an enviably amazing vineyard view, enviably old vines, and sits enviably close to one of Spain’s critical-darling DOs, Priorat. He also has an enviably-close relationship to a good importer, Folio Wine Partners, owned by the…
First Coffee, Then Tannins (Antonelli Montefalco Recent Releases)
It’s a wet, chilly, grey Winter morning in San Marco, a locality that sits just outside of Italy’s Montefalco and the ridiculously-well-named town of Bastardo. And I’ve had to wait in the damp cold for a short bit, because Filippo Antonelli is a bit late for our appointment at his family’s winery (hey, welcome to…
Drunken Globetrotting Good Ideas (Domaine Bousquet Recent Releases)
Anne Bousquet has some of her best ideas when drunk. This isn’t something that I have experienced firsthand, mind you, but comes by way of her own admission (during an NYC media lunch at which I was recently a guest). And it’s the opinion of her wine-growing father, Jean Bousquet. More on that later. The…