Tenuta Grillo Monferrato Tornasole

2005 Cascina Grillo Tornasole, Guido e Igiea Zampaglione, Monferrato Alc 14.5% Dark purple Earth and sone Brett on the nose Powerful palate with plums and blackberries and a hint of mocha. Some underbrush and garrigue follows. Long smooth finish A nice “ wild” style of wine

Cocoa and ripe berry nose. Long finish. Medium tannin. Velvety palate. Week Brett smell that doesn't matter.

Decanted for 2 h. Ripe blackberry and blueberry aromas, with some herbs, earth, and a hint of anise. Palate follows with elegant mouthfeel, tannins come on back half with some black pepper. Acids keep this light and juicy. Nice balance. Still feels young with plenty of life. One of the better Merlots I've had.

Love this wine - just so good. Beautiful nose, crunchy texture and relatively long finish. Have had two bottles and am smitten. High-tone dark fruits, chocolate notes and violets on the nose. Hard to categorize this wine - but has an Italian angle to it. Great acidity and the dusty tannins seal the deal - provides a nice back stop.

Tough to get past the volatile acidity and "Band-Aid" notes on the nose, but the palate was much better than the nose. Mature, crisp, lean and very cool-toned. Dried fruits, earth and baking spices. Tough to drink by itself, but works much better with food. Saved some for two days later... but at that point it was an undrinkable mess.

Used for cooking.

Another bottle, similar to my last. Not really of fan of this, as I kept being distracted by the nail polish scents.

Not sure how to rate this. While there was some nice, high-toned, cool red fruits and herbs, this was heavily dominated by volatile acidity. So much nail polish aromas that it became off-putting. This got better with air and with food, but I wonder if it is a representative bottle.

A remarkable wine for being 100% Merlot! It evolved over an hour and a half of decanting/drinking. What changed were some very earthy cherry and clove aromas faded a bit, leaving the wine sort of empty for half an hour, but they re-emerged more mellow and integrated after about an hour. What was consistent were silky smooth but grippy tannin, long long finish, and a durable acidic base. Recommended with food, in our case homemade thin crust mushroom, spinach, and …