I had the opportunity Tuesday night to speak at a wine dinner with one of my long time favourite restaurants, Court Street, in Hoboken. http://www.courtstreet.com/ In addition to the great food and company the really interesting part of the evening for me was the opportunity to taste some older wines out of the restaurants cellar. Even for those of us in the trade we seem to always be completely focused on the current vintage. I always seem to get questions at events about aging potential on different wines and cannot help but wonder whether it is a moot point, every study done on wine trends agree that by far most wine is consumed within several hours of purchase. The menu on Tuesday was all about wines we had sold Court Street over the last 15 years, I can tell you it is a special kind of tense experience to present a lineup of older wines and hope everything shows well but the night went as smooth as we could have hoped. I thought all the wines showed great but the star of the evening for me was Tenuta Caparzo Brunello di Montalcino 2001. I recently tasted the 2006 vintage from this great estate and the current vintage has all the intense Garnet color and wild berry notes on the palate you would would expect from young Brunello. The 2001 was eye opening; the extra 5 years aging allowed the tannins to soften and more mature, complex flavours to show, chocolate, anise and a bit of cigar box. The 2001 is still bright in color and probably still has a ways to go, maybe another 10 years but it is drinking beautifully right now!
Elizabetta Gnudi Angelini (owner - Caparzo)
No comments:
Post a Comment