From the notebook: Grand Italian wines from the Grandi Marchi Masterclass

Carpene Malvoti ,1868 Cartizze Valdobbiadene Superiore DOCG NV
100% Prosecco.

Bright, pure nose – white flowers. A little sweet fruit on the palate but otherwise all about purity. Great length. The finest red apple fruit and clarity. Absolute top shelf prosecco – such energy and softly integrated acidity. Such a rare beast to find prosecco as clear and balanced as this. Lovely – clean and pure. 17.8/20, 92/100

Ca’del Bosco Cuvée Prestige Franciocorta DOCG NV

75% Chardonnay, 10 % Pinot Bianco, 15% Pinot Nero
Chardonnay dominant and shows it though this is clearly a ripe style – bursting with buttered São richness. Almost thought this had seen oak given the fullness and rather full. A very rich mouthfeel, perhaps a fraction broad through the finish? Good at least. 17.5/20, 91/100

Argiolas Is Argiolas Vermentino do Sardegna DOC 2012

Vermentino becoming more popular apparently. Now planted all over Australia too. I wonder if Australian drinkers will really hook into Vermentino though?

This is quite perfumed for a Vermentino backed by a palate of very bitter phenolics and apricot skin firmness. I like the intensity here though it’s probably not a regal wine – just intense fruit. 16.8/20, 89/100

Antinori Tignanello Toscana IGT 2010

80% Sangiovese, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc. I have mixed emotions about Tignanello. Sometimes I love it, but more often I find it a caricature. The ’11 tasted earlier this week was a very different wine again..
Very bright colours – blood red. Very expensive formic new oak on the nose. Expensive new oak palate. If I didn’t know better of call this American oak. Quite new world intensity of flavour, actually it tastes new world all over – like a Barossan red with its blackness. Oak tannins too. Modern sexy sure but a great wine somewhat hobbled by oak. Will improve but high oak tolerance required. Perhaps you could call that part of the style. Long termer though. 17.8/20, 92/100+

Umani Ronchi Cumaro Conero Riserva DOCG 2008

100% Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. An esoteric wine perhaps, but had real heart. I like.

Moderate style driven by tannins and cherries. Surprised this sees barrique – crammed with rather savoury flavours and excellent tannins. Such a savoury slow burner with a meaty almond heart. I like this for its furry rusticity too – beautiful heart of blackness. Energy through the finish too. Has a wonderful Italian farmhouse wine note to it that I really like. 18/20, 93/100

Tasca d’Amerita Rosso del Conte Contea di Sclafani DOC 2008
Sicily. 40% Nero d’Avola, 25% Syrah, 23% Merlot, and 12% Perricone. Matured in small barrels. 

Sicilian and carries the roasted heart of dark Nero. Roasted black characters with the inky fullness of drying grapes. Certainly gives an impression of full dryness but also cooked and a little drying too. Interesting for its rustic blackness and drying tannins but also cumbersome and raw to finish. 16.5/20, 88/100

Mastroberardino Radici Taurasi DOCG 2007

100% Aglianico.

Wild and a little smoky, this is very dry and extractive. Proscuitto and lots of tar with puckering tannins and a furry edge. I like the Italianate rusticity to it but profound? No – quite obvious. Still plenty of joy here. 17/20, 90/100+

Rivera Il Falcone Castel del Monte Riserva DOC 2007
70% Nero di Troia and 30% Montepulciano.

Wonderfully rustic and wild style. Lovely sticky Italianate tannins and lots of extraction. Mid weight though, smoky with a hint of undergrowth and some very powerful tannins. Still, a freshness lift on the finish. An obscure, but powerful red with a wonderful mid weight but tannic form. Yes. Feels regal and ‘don’t mess with this’. You never know whether this is too rustic or just bang on. I’m leaning towards ‘bang on’. 18.1/20, 93/100

Michele Chiarlo La Court Barbera Asti Superiore 2007

Smells of cask, Brett and a scorched blackness. Where is the varietal expression here? A little hollow and lacks any real Barbera character. 16/20, 87/100

Pio Cesare Barolo DOCG 2009
80,000 bottles are produced of this now!

Just a little oxidation on the nose, the big oak giving a little caramel richness and a quite soft, traditional style. Honest, gentle, Barolo for the people. But not profound in any way. 16.8/20, 89/100

Biondi Santi Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Riserva 1997

Ahh such classic energy. Almost untouchable balance – you just want to drink it. Such a moderate wine, ferrous cherry flavours, but a very pure Sangiovese expression. Licorice tannins. Regal. Will live forever. Love this stuff. 18.7/20, 95/100

Masi Costasera Amarone Classico DOC 2008

Suddenly we launch into dessert – in a glass. Surprisingly generous and fruit forward for an Amarone with no oxidation in site. A good year for Amarone? Deep and inky, it is still all front palate, the style so bound up in structure that it is actually quite subtle. Sure there is still the fruit cake dried fruit character but it is subtle and fresh this year. No single vineyard Amarone this year. Coffee beans. Botrytis on the Corvina this year apparently. It looks quite classic but also backward too – not all that much pleasure now. Good potential though. 17.5/20, 91/100+

Donnafugata Ben Ryè Passito di Pantelleria DOP 2010

100% Muscat. Sadly I didn’t get to Pantelleria when I was in Sicily a few weeks back. On my ‘get there’ list.

Tropical and juicy, pineapple juice lightness with honey flavours. Fresh and light but lacks anything head-turning, the finish shorter than you’d expect. I want more here. Maybe marking too hard. A pleasant experience nonetheless. 17/20, 90/100