Had guests® over this past weekend for a variety of birthday celebrations and tried the following:
The 2006 Castello Banfi Brunello di Montalcino is another shining example of excellence in this vintage. As others have written, this may be the best Castello Banfi estate brunello ever made and I’d have to agree. Surprisingly however, it was quite initially backward upon opening. With just a bit in the glass to “play with” before dinner, the wine seem restrained on the nose, very subdued in the mouth. The color is a deep, dark garnet. With the meal, after it was opened for about 45 minutes, it quickly evolved and blossomed. The nose showed some smokey meat, some fennel, and deep, bright, juicy berry fruit. Flavors echo the nose where the power of this wine is noticeable; but it’s elegant power. Lively. The 2006 vintage produced delicious long lived Brunellos and if you’re a Brunello lover, set some of this away. The best part, it’s reasonably priced at about $50 and it’s widely available. 95 points.
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| 2006 Castello Banfi Brunello |
Next up was the 2006 San Filippo Brunello. While clearly not to the level of their single vineyard “Le Lucere” bottling, this “normale” is an excellent Brunello. One of our guests® suggested that the wine was “simple”. By that, I think he meant that it wasn’t too complex at the moment, and I’d agree. But that’s not a criticism. The wine is deep red, and chock full of fruit and spice flavors and aromas. I think the complexity will develop as the wine ages, but it’s delicious now. This one would yield a QPR award as it can be found locally for about $33. Drink this while the Castello Banfi or San Filippo’s big brother, Le Lucere, age. 92 points.
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| 2006 San Filippo Brunello |
John, I found that the 2004 Banfi Brunello had a reticent aroma as well, but I like this wine enough to buy another, and I'm hoping to find the 2006 down the road.
A friend of mine is going to NY and said he'd try and pick-up a bottle for me of Barboursville Cabernet Franc Reserve at your recommendation;-/
NJ, I've been there and have read about the Pine Barrens, but mostly I hear about your Governor. When you quote a price for a bottle of wine, does that include taxes?
Hey – Castello Banfi is one of my favorite producers and I've got lots of experience with their wines. The 2006 surprised me a bit though, so the next time I try it, I will decant it. 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, it's going to be hard to go wrong. As for the Barboursville, good luck. What I get, I get from a friend who lives in VA. Barboursville won't ship to me. You can check their website to see if they ship to VT, if not, let me know and we'll work something out.
Forget the Pine Barrens…geez 🙂 There's so much more to NJ that people don't realize. And forget reality TV 🙂 As for pricing, good question and no. I typically am quoting the price on the shelf, including any discount I may have gotten.
Back to Banfi, hopefully within the next month or so, I'll be interviewing their head winemaker, and their CEO with the full interview to be posted here. Ciao!
The wine blogosphere has had several great interviews lately, and I'll be looking forward to Banfi's CEO.
Thanks,
Dennis