Browse Tag

marches

Al Piceno

[bottle]Boccadigabbia 2005 Rosso Piceno (Marches) – I used to drink a lot of this. And then I stopped. I’m not sure why, and even less sure after this revisit. Here’s a broad-shouldered, spicy fruit stew of ripe berry flavor with just a dash of black pepper. Some of the edges are a little polished and rounded off, which might concern purists, but the immediate appeal of the wine is hard to deny. (4/08)

Dei off

[field]Bucci “Villa Bucci” 2000 Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico “Riserva” (Marches) – Mildly corked, and that’s not all that’s wrong with it. (4/08)

Palaces

[bottle]Pilastri 2006 Faleria Palazzi (Marches) – Shattered-glass intensity, with sharp fruit and biting acids ripping and tearing at the palate. There’s lemon verbena and other pleasantly herbed green melons somewhere in the lime green explosion, but this wine is dominated by its structure and its sheer presence. Really, really fabulous. (12/07)

Saladini course

[botti]Pilastri 2006 “Consenso” Rosato (Marche) – Beautiful strawberry notes dusted with the spice rack (more the dried herbs than the ground pods), with a fine, appealing balance and something on the finish that tastes like albino walnuts, if that makes any sense. There’s light complexity in its mix of fruit and spice, but it’s so juicy and drinkable that resisting a hearty quaff will be difficult. (7/07)

TN: Throw me a Valbona

Belisario 2005 Verdicchio di Matelica Terre di Valbona (Marches) – Mixed culinary herbs and grasses with green-stemmed citrus, pink grapefruit zest, tart tropical notes, and a nicely-balanced increase in weight and presence on the finish. For verdicchio, this is positively polished. But in a good way. (2/07)

TN: Offida heads

San Giovanni “Kiara” 2005 Offida Pecorino (Marches) – Dense and unsupple, perhaps a bit like tasting a wall, with very slightly rotted stone fruit, cantaloupe and turmeric, then some biting, bitter nuts on the finish. It sounds bizarre, but it actually works…though the wine could definitely use some more acidity. The finish is somewhat abrupt. Interesting, though perhaps not immediately appealing. (2/07)

TN: Oh when the grapes go Marches in

[label]Coroncino 2004 Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi “Gaiospino” (Marches) – This wine has presence and style, but it also has a quite noticeable dollop of wood, and there’s just not enough other stuff to stand up to it. A little acid rears its head here, a tart melon there, a squirt of lemon spatters off the surface, but mostly this is a lightly- but over-oaked wine that just doesn’t bring much authentic pleasure. (1/07)

TN: Jesi rides through the night

[Villa Bucci]Villa Bucci 2000 Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico “Riserva” (Marches) – Corked. (11/06)

Villa Bucci 2000 Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico “Riserva” (Marches) – Not corked, perhaps, but still not quite intact. Maybe mildly corked. There’s enough pleasantness here to render it drinkable – old hay, soft minerality, delicate yellow-tinged fruit – but it lacks the complexity and verve that usually marks this wine. (11/06)

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