Milziade Antano, Montefalco Sagrantino

The sweet, rustic nose features incredibly deep maraschino cherry, strawberry, pipe tobacco, menthol, and clove. Nearly full-bodied with dense, finely grained tannin and pleasantly juicy acid, the structure is refined and elegant while the flavors, which have a slightly sweet edge, include beautifully-dialed tobacco and leather, cherry, black tea (that lives inside the tannins), blackberry, Chinese Five Spice, lavender, and dried mint. With about an hour of air exposure, the tannins smooth (but remain pleasantly grained) and broaden, further purifying …

PnP, which worked, and kind of surprised me at the same time. A good array of sweet red fruits, with avg+ complexity and final that gained weight with each glass. Not the most complex, but it's balanced, and showing good freshness. Drink now or the next several years. recommended http://www.italianwine.blog

Dark ruby with browning edges. In a lovely place right now, expressing leather, dried herbs and woody spices around a fleshy core of black cherry and Christmas pudding. Tannins are very well integrated and acidity keeps this medium-to-full bodied wine light on its feet. Enjoyed over two days, and it held up comfortably. Also, plenty of sediment, so worth standing up for a day before opening, followed by a gentle decant.

living up to the varietal - big, dark, tannic wine with beautiful blackberry, mulberry, cocoa and balsamic vinegar. It remained fiercely tannic over several hours and was a good match to a meaty bolognese with harissa. Style seems very traditional; there is nothing 'modern' about this wine. Powerful enough for any food and capable of silencing lighter fare. Excellent, big wine

Dark garnet and tawny in appearance. Nose of prunes, tea, mint, old leather, cocoa powder. Med bodied palate, nice balance here and those almighty Sagrantino tannins have softened and integrated. Prime drinking window.

Very interesting wine. Almost black in the glass with ruby rim. Beautiful bouquet of dark fruit, cherries and plumb. Hints of violet and liquorice with leather. Great bouquet, could sniff this all night. Bags of dark fruit on the palate. Fine grain tannins with good acidity. A dry wine with hint of sweetness on the mid palate. Lasting aftertaste. Loads of alcohol though, a dangerous wine as you could drink a lot of this. I opened this wine first thing …

Whoa, 98 points you exclaim. I'm being careful, because this perfectly resolved, richly tasdting wile is absolute perfection. So, why not 100 pts.? I thought the CTC would frown on that. Back to the wine. We drank it over almost 2 hrs at L'Artusi, the hip Italian restaurant in the West Village (NYC). Paid a hefty corkage fee and the sommelier professionally puured the wine into a fine carafe and we were on our way. Texture was velvety smoothe, with …

Holding up well. Still a lot of power, but tannins just about starting to wear off.

Real interest and enjoyment, big and dangerous. Fun stuff.

Nice

So in my wheelhouse. This is just exciting, the composition of flavors and layers of fruits is, for me, approaching magical. I admit bias to this producer and the grape, and I further admit that tannins are seldom if ever a problem. That said, I did not want this bottle to end. I will visit here in just a few months, and this made me consider staying in the area for another day for no other reason than to find …

Garnet color, full bodied, delicious!

Russk at Ken and Andrea's central Italy tasting. Still too young. The anti WOTF.

What a gorgeous nose of sour cherries, raisins, fresh tobacco leaf, tea, mint and a hint of burnt orange peel. So very floral and savoury; herbaceous. There is only a touch of earth and minerals, the finish isn't terribly long and if I'm going to be pedantic, ever such little bitterness on the finish. But leave those aside, this Sagrantino is idiosyncratic, seductive and moreish. The tanins are fine granular, and the acidity is wonderfully pitched to this floral, slightly …

Donato's 2012 Enoteca 100 Italian Tasting Event (Redwood City, CA) : Tough finish. B

Nicks birthday. I loved this wine. Medium bodied with lively acidity and beautiful fruit. Pencil shavings. Needed a bit of air.