Pretty perfect — 4 months ago
Nicely balanced Rioja.with deep ruby color and medium body. Paired with pork sausage and turkey gumbo, it was a perfect match, especially with the sausage. Drank in January 2025 At 6 years old it had aged well! — 5 months ago
Black wild berries and a little earthy funk on the nose, light on the palate with some richness of fruits (mulberry, black plum) and gravelly minerals with some very soft tannins. — a month ago
Smooth, earthy / volcanic, deep. Great after taste. Not too fruity — 4 months ago
Another big boi from this producer. Obviously uses at least a significant proportion of partially dried grapes. Fairly saturated color. Nose is rather subdued, reluctantly giving up scents of leather, underbrush, crushed rock, and dark cherry underneath all of that non-fruit stuff. In the mouth, it’s big, with initial slightly bitter, extracted notes. Tannic. Dissimilar from straight Valpos in its size and austerity. Dissimilar from Ripasso-style Valpos in that the fruit is not especially ripe or sweetish. It will go well with our stuffed shells in red sauce, but is a little challenging on its own. It occurs to me that this might fit in well in a tasting of 2017s from the left bank in Bordeaux. In other words, very atypical for a Valpo. Still, it’s pretty good, as long as you don’t harbor any expectations of typicity.
UPDATE: two nights later (using a vacuum closure), this has actually improved. Kind of amazing for a Valpo of this age. The fruit has moved closer to front-and-center, and it seem a bit more Calpo-like, though it’s still pretty large-framed. Upping score from 8.8 to 9.0. — 5 months ago
Perfect chilled red from Sardinia at bonafini — 6 months ago
Riccardo L.
Mmmmmmmmmm. Never disappoints. — 18 days ago