I had what has to be the most spoofilated wine of my short little wine life recently. It was so bad that all I could do was muster one sip and that was hard without puking. You may wonder what this dreadful wine is. Well you will have to read through the whole note and wait till the end to discover what this little gem is? Or should I say big as this was friggin' ginormous. It was like the whole spoofilation machine was in your mouth as soon as you sipped it. The color was a dark, non see through purple and the nose smelled like bad cough syrup. Viscous bad cough syrup. The palate was just an explosion of heat, overextracted fruit, oak and like a demi-glace-type texture. It burned all the way down my throat and the taste of red alcohol cough syrup could not leave my throat. I had to have a full glass of water to rinse my mouth out. The worst thing is that wine is made from a grape with so much promise, Sagrantino. Yup, you guessed it's the anti-Sagrantino I had, the 1997 Arnaldo Caprai Sagrantino de Montefalco "25 Anni." It probably tasted better in its youth but now its like a young hottie who had plastic surgery and now she's 80 and still has big fake tits but the rest of her looks 80. Yeech.
Drink Paolo Bea!!!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Entering Spoofville
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
18 comments:
Great post, Sagrantino is a grape that do not have much aging potential, unless you are talking about Bea. On more personal note I think that Marco Caprai is a bit arrogant and definitely not a pleasant person to talk to, could be that his bad character maybe is now showing also in his wines????
Buona Bevuta a Tutti
ww.de-vino.com
www.de-vino.blogspot.com
LOL nice image at the end there!
Most spoofilated wine you've had? Clearly you don't taste much Ribera del Duero and Rioja 'alta expresion' wines. Also, I imagine you don't waste any time with current release Napa cabs. And for that you're a happier person, no doubt.
Ugh. Reminds me of a god-awful experience a few weeks ago (which might match your's) - Glaetzer Shiraz from 1997 - no fruit left (despite the massive extraction in the youth), just a massive mess of oak, caramel, oak, wood splinters, melted plastic, oak and alcohol.
Might have been hedonistic, opulent and point-worthy to some - although I just reached for water, then Riesling.
do you want to spark up a double mag of 1999 Bea next thursday night?
Yes ...yes ...yes....bad plastic surgery
Drink Antano
That's a great post!! Definitely a modern styled Sagrantino that can't hold a long life..
To follow your example that was probably an old saline implant (vs. the more modern silicone gel implants) that exploded and made a mess in the flavours and colors...
But definitely the old saline implants looked good on who had them back then!
de vino said...Sagrantino is a grape that do not have much aging potential, unless you are talking about Bea.
What about Scacciadiavoli? I haven't tried an old one yet, but it would not surprise me at all if they turned out well. Any thoughts on the best time to try Bea? I've loved them young and am holding a few.
Thanks for all your comments. Quixk summary.
Amon Ra by Ben Glaetzer I have had and I would rather drink it than the Caprai.
"Rioja Alta Expression" just scares me.
And don't me wrong I am not anti breast-implant. Just wanted to clear that up.
Lyle - young Amon Ra's not bad, but with age it's disgusting. I've got another bottle (yes, I actually bought it) if you ever want to see how god-awful it is.
Lyle,
Prior to 1996, these were just very tannic monsters (the 25 anni, I mean). In 1996 and 1997 there was a definite change in style and your experience pretty much mirrors mine.
But I still have some 1994 and 1995 that are not of the same ilk.
And while agree Bea is the man with sagrantino, I have had some very nice bottles in Italy from producers I never heard of.
Best, Jim
No it didn't taste better in its youth. It sucked then. It sucks now. It will alwyas suck.
Joey G.
Joey G,
I was trying to be diplomatic. It's hard but I am trying.
Breast Implants for vanity are wrong! Like Jerry said"It's like using a corked bat"
OK, Gabrio's favorite person in the world is not Marco Caprai. I know this. I pretty much agree. A real figlio di papa'.
So yeah the 25 Anni is too TOO.
But the Collepiano, less tricked up and manipulated (seeming) is a pretty good glass. A glass because you can't drink any more, but still.
And according to Roger Corder it's a procyanidin star.
Still costs too much though.
I have not had this in a few years. I did have it in 2006 at a very nice restaurant in Sorrento, Italy. I found it great. Now, you can temper that because of the setting. It also had an hour decant, but I really liked it. Yes, there is plenty of oak and the wine was primary, but I certainly found it less so than more recent vinages. I would have suspected this would be shut down at this point. I don't touch Bea's for at least 10 years and I think this wine will not be "in balance" for at least another 5 years. Different strokes though.
Spoofed? Perhaps, but the most ever?
I never thought my first post on a blog--any blog--would be about wine, but here goes:
de vino said: "Sagrantino is a grape that do not have much aging potential..."
Sagrantino by Caprai (and Bea) is one of THE MOST age-worthy wines produced, with some recent vintages being more approachable sooner after bottling than others (isn't that a great thing about wine year over year--that you can have variation?). I'm not sure where you're getting your facts.
Lyle: if you thought the '97 Venticinque Anni was over-the-top with oak and tannin, you probably won't like the '98 version as I recall that being more than a blow-dryer for the mouth when it was available in 2002/2003. It's probably settled down considerably by now and I'd be curious to try it again. The '99 "25th Anniversary" by comparison was velvety smooth and elegantly soft even in 2005 when I first had it.
2000 was a phenomenal year, even for the Caprai Collepiano Sagrantino. Collepiano is a great wine--especially when paired with appropriate food--and is also interestingly produced, as I understand it, from the same vineyard as the 25th Anniversary wine, though the best-of-the best hand-harvested grapes go into the 25 Anni and they both see generally the same ~2 yrs of oak.
When I had opportunities to order '93, '94 and '95 plain "Caprai Sagrantino di Montefalco" at restaurants 10 or more years after their respective vintages, it was great to see how time had broken down Sagrantino into its many more subtle characteristics such as aged Barolo-like garnet orange color (vs. the opaque purple of usually younger Caprai Sagrantino I've had), more subtle tannin up front--though persistent enough to let you know you've just swallowed a special taste of wine, amazing depth of dark fruit flavors without the WA-PAM! French oak that you're usually bombarded with on these younger, newer-style wines, etc.
I suppose a Caprai Sagrantino defender (relative to the other posts) would have to reiterate the importance of proper breathing and food pairing (of course), and of giving these wines (like many great wines) the benefit of patience through bottle-ageing before throwing it under the bus. One may ask: "Isn't 11 years, as in the case of the '97 25 Anni, post-harvest enough?" For some Sagrantino vintages--yes; others, no. These wines can age 20 years or more. I had a '99 Barolo Monvigliero vineyard last month and BOY did it need some more time while the '01 version a while back was tasting amazing at that less-aged time.
If possible, I'd revisit '97 in 2009/2010 and look into doing a vertical tasting just to see how profoundly different a year can be with Caprai's Sagrantino.
-Dave (at 11:48 pm Pacific time vs the middle of the night Eastern)
Great post Dave. Welcome. Just caught it.
Post a Comment