Two more examples why you should be VERY cautious before paying, say, $25 or more for a bottle of wine:

Jane made a fabulous veggie lasagna, with Beyond Meat crumble that is a very good faux ground beef. The sauce (both red and Bechemel) was great, and there were Ricotta, Cottage, and Parmesan cheeses to provide more mouthfeel. It was really spectacular, and makes me wonder how I can be the one with 10% Italian genes, but not her.

Anyway, I pulled first one expensive wine, and then another, and both came up short and it was embarrassing to sort of fail her wonderful dish with subpar wines. The first was Maryhill 2016 Barbera (Proprietor's Reserve)-my note says I liked it at the winery last summer and paid $33. I held it only 10 months in perfect storage, but tonight it was bad: no fruit on the palate, and maybe a bitter coffee note at the beginning of the finish. Not good.  A Barbera should be lively. Maybe the wine at 3.6 years since harvest is simply tired out (likely), but in that case I'm sorry they sold it, or maybe they should've sold it with a label "drink by Sept 2019" or whatever. (I used to add "drink by" labels on all my wines, and I'm sorry I don't still do it--it's difficult as a winemaker to know when your wine will finally head downhill. One of my customers forgot about one of my Cayuga white wines, I think from 2017, and recently found it and opened it and told me it was great. Whew. I would've said drink it within about 1.5 years.)

So, when Jane said she really didn't like that wine, I said let me grab a different one, and I came back with a Walla Walla Vintners 2016 Sangiovese, which I bought at wholesale from one of my distys. WWV has a great track record, but sometime in the past few years Gordy and Miles sold out (finally retired) and somewhere in there the winemaker changed. Not sure if that's involved here, but this wine is also disappointing: No fruit on the palate, and there's a tiny tiny bit of Brett on the palate, and when that's the only note you can discern in a wine, something is very, very wrong. This one's about $20 at retail (and I paid a bit less), but DUDES! You can find much better Sangios at the grocery store, for almost half that price.

I say again, it's easy to overpay for wine. Anyone can do it; it takes no skill at all. What is difficult is finding great wines at lower prices, and there are many to be found. And, worse, there is VERY LITTLE correlation between a wine's price and its quality. If you pay more than about $25 for a bottle of wine, the excess is just about all "excess profit" (meaning, extra profit on top of what is already a reasonable profit). Why would you buy into a system where you pay $80 for a wine that isn't better than another wine costing $20? How smart is it to buy the $80 bottle? If I were trying to impress somebody, I'd serve them a great $20 bottle, and they'd be amazed, and then I'd say, "Hey! Now I have $60 in my pocket, so what should we do with it?"

Finally, please let me say that these are both very good wineries. I am not meaning to impugne all their wines-that would be foolish. I am saying that almost no winery in the world, which charges high prices, is consistently worth those higher prices. Some are--I would never shirk an offered Latour, Lafite, DRC, Petrus, Pichon-Lalande, Margaux, Eschezaux. But if your label isn't on that list, be cautious about paying more than $25 for it.

Review of 93-point Castelli Martinozzi 2012 Brunello di Montalcino

I've been drinking and collecting fine wines for more than 40 years, and have been making wine for more than 25 years. Wine Spectator gave this wine 92 points in 2017, saying:

"Underbrush, scorched earth, dark spice and grilled herb aromas slowly take shape on this full-bodied red. The chewy, enveloping palate doles out mouthfuls of fleshy black cherry, juicy blackberry, ground pepper and clove while ripe tannins provide support. The lingering finish closes on a mocha note. Drink 2018–2026."

Wow. And we drank it tonight inside its drinking window. It was pretty bad.

It is NOT full-bodied. Way too thin. It has the right acid, but no fruit. Makes me wonder who spiked the bottle that Spectator tasted, because usually they are trustworthy.

This kind of evening makes one wonder if cellaring good wines for years, under proper conditions, is worthwhile. Seriously, you can buy $12 Sangios that deliver more fun than this (and this was $45). 

It takes no skill to overpay for wine. Any fool can do it. And we're all made fools when an expensive wine that's supposed to be good, isn't.

Dissing on Washington Sangiovese? The Goldilocks Syndrome

I want to believe. I want to believe in Washington Sangio. I love K Vintners' wines generally, but their Guido Sangiovese is too dark in flavor for me. And tonight, we suffered through a Five Star Sangio (and I love their wines), but this one sported flavors that were way, way too dark. The acidity was great but the flavors, instead of the proper cherry notes of an Italian Sangio, were deep into dark purple fruit territory. And the wine was a bit hot at over 14% alcohol. It just doesn't work with Italian fare. And yet, many Italian Sangios are so lean, so austere, that yes even with their cherry fruit that don't marry well with Italian food either. Who wants to bathe in burning acid?

What I think we need is a WA Sangio that is grown in a cooler spot and still has the red fruits we expect. Can any of you suggest one? Or we can drink Brunellos (and Rosso di Montalcinos), which are grown in the warmest part of Tuscany (from the Sangiovese "Grosso" clone), and at their best those are just right.

Compare: 2012 Guido K Vintners Sangiovese

Wow! We enjoyed this tonight with Italian-style grilled chicken (slathered in olive oil, Tuscan spices, and fresh Oregano and Rosemary), with whole-wheat egg noodles and a wonderful veggie-heavy cream sauce. This wine came with our K Vintners allocation. The wine is about $42 Retail; wine club members get it at a cheaper tariff.

Wow! What a nice wine. Not too fruit-forward, though truth be told I appreciate nice fruit notes in a wine. Compared to a good Italian Sangio, this was fruitier, and had much better bouquet, and was delightful with the above dinner. We drank the bottle effortlessly, with gusto.

This wine came to us through our K Vintners club membership. Not sure how difficult it is to find on the market. But what a pleasure!