I think it’s time to let sleeping Brunello lie.
The last few 2004 Brunello I’ve had haven’t been as expressive, as seductive as they were 1 year, or even 6 months ago. As with many serious examples, wines go through phases wherein they “shut down” and become somewhat shy on both the nose and palate. Bordeaux are notorious for this. It happens with most major wine regions and it’s happening now with 2004 Brunello.
The 2004 Casanova di Neri Tenuta Nuova Brunello is a major wine. I don’t recall the praise it received from many of the critics but it was only a point or two less than James Suckling’s 100 point review for the 2006 version of the same wine. This weekend, this wine was brooding, monolithic and almost angry that we uncorked it.
The wine is dark, among the darkest Brunello I’ve seen. Perhaps only the 1999 Fanti was darker. On the nose the wine is shy, with trace aromas of black cherry and faint tobacco tones. In the mouth, the wine seems repressed, unable to exert it’s exuberance. Relatively modest flavors of berries and earth are pleasing, but simple and not particularly intense. The finish is angular, hard, lacking finesse, tannic and short.
I have to reserve judgement on this one because of the pedigree of the wine we’re dealing with. The 2001 and 2003 were sensational and 2004 is a better vintage. The wine was not flawed in any way, so if you’ve got these, bury them in your cellar and see where they are in 5 years time. Salute.
 |
| The 2004 Tenuta Nuova Brunello – Let sleeping Brunello lie |
November 19, 2012
Leave a comment
1148
