Thursday night in Tuscany

The theme for this Thursday night tasting was Italian wines from Tuscany. George wasn’t available so Alan stood in for him. Alan did some research on the area and educated us on the areas in Tuscany and the applicable regulations for the wines in those areas. We tasted four wines, actually five since we had a bonus wine before the official wine tasting started. The bonus wine was a 2007 Duckhorn Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

It was a dark ruby color. It had dark fruit in the nose and dark fruit and spice in the flavor, a little oak but not overdone. There was a moderate amount of well integrated tannins and overall the wine was well balanced with a moderately long finish. A very nice wine!

Now to the Tuscan wines.
2006 Nipozzano Riserva Chianti Rufina by Frescobaldi– We had this a couple of weeks ago so you can compare this review to the one in the Wines and Appetizers post for differences or similarities. It was a very dark ruby color and there was smoke, licorice and dark fruit on the nose. The flavors were of cherries, dark fruit and a bit of vanilla. Moderate plus tannins, good acid and a long finish. The group selected this as the number two favorite.

2005 Tempo Morellino di Scansano – Dark ruby color. Minimal fruit in the nose. Tasted of tart cherries with a significant amount of chalky tannins. Nice acid and a long finish. This wine also had a light mouthfeel.

2006 Tenimenti Angelini Trerose Vino Nobile di Montepulciano – This wine had a dark garnet color with a burnt match smell in the nose initially that blew off to rich dark fruit with a slight amount of mint. Big fruit and tobacco flavors and big tannins balanced with a nice amount of acid. A big complex wine, somewhat Bordeaux like. This was the groups number one choice.

Update October 2012 – We opened a bottle of this we had in the cellar, it had changed a little but still had great fruit and complexity. Still drinking very well.

2008 Banfi Rosso di Montalcino – A medium ruby color with a minimal nose. Rich ripe fruit and spice flavors. Light mouthfeel, moderate plus tannins and well balanced. It had a moderately long finish with flavor and tannin.

This was a nice selection of Tuscan wines, next week we will do wines from the Piedmonte area of Italy.