Bastianich Calabrone Venezia Giulia IGT

Completely delicious. Notes of cherry, strawberry, plum, licorice, spice, coffee, fennel and herbs. Good with the chili, where the spice offset the perceived sweetness of the refosco grape. Probably even better with some more time.

This bottle was incredibly sweet. Like someone poured a gallon of sugar into the bottle I drank last January. Totally undrinkable. I refrained from rating on the assumption there might be something wrong with this particular bottle, acknowledging I could detect no specific defect other than the profound sugar component.

Decanted 1 hour, drank over 3 hours. Light on the nose, with candied red fruits and a smidge of deeper earth. Light playful red fruits on the palate, with fine, smooth and non-obtrusive tannic structure. Fresh to moderately ripened strawberries predominate, but there are a complexity of more subtle notes of chocolate raspberry, a bit of earth, and some youthful plum rhubarb pie. Not sweet, but balanced and harmonious. Finish goes on and on, and is the hidden gem here. …

I cannot believe how tasty this wine is. I have to find more of it - probably the best wine I have tasted. Extremely fruit forward for an Italian wine - absolutely delicious. Our guests agreed - fabulous!!!