Capezzana Ghiaie Della Furba IGT 1999

Dipping a toe back into wine-merchanting has its ups and downs. One of the better 'ups' as it were is finding an old vintage kicking about, a bottle hidden or obscured by others on the shelves or in the odd mixed case out it the stores. It's even better if it's from a cracking year. I found this bottle while reorganising the Italian shelves, hidden among newer vintages. It's a fairly typical Bordeaux blend with a bit of Syrah thrown in for measure. Wines like this tend to let you know they're Italian before their varietal character appears.

Blood ruby red on the edges. Possibly some rust beginning to appear.

The nose is soft at first - cherries and sweet dust, like a mahogany clad office somewhere hot. Then the cherries give a bit of bite. Black cherries, not red cherries.

This is a serious wine, but the there's still a nice rusticity to the palate. Big ripe and sour black cherries with a touch of compote - there's good, classic dustiness and its all held together with sinewy, binding acidity that makes me wish I had some good food to go with it. The fruit is cherry, though the texture reminds me of briars. Really enjoying this. The length is nice. Not too showy or overdone. Yum.

****(*?)

This may well be a 5 star wine, but I'm worried I'm being too nice. At the same time, I don't want to deprive it. So there's a question mark. Oh well.

Tasted 17/2/10 at Luvians Bottleshop