I love to get excited about a wine. And a great Italian red
is squarely in my wheelhouse when I need a wine to be excited about.
Delivering on this promise is a beautifully vibrant wine made
from 100% Merlot, and grown in the biodynamically-farmed marlstone soils of
Greve in Chianti Classico. Querciabella’s Palafreno was first made in 2000, and
since then it’s become one of the estate’s top wines.
The production is intensive – low yields are harvested and
destemmed into stainless steel and concrete tanks for long and slow fermentation.
After 12 months of élevage in new and one-year old barriques from Allier,
Tronçais and Vosges – top lots are assembled
and put back into barrel for 6 additional months.
Mine was a bottle of Querciabella 2004 Palafrena, Toscana IGT; received as a gift from a friend and brought along to a great little Italian restaurant where I live for a special occasion dinner. With 2004 being
a top recent Tuscan vintage, I hoped to find this coming into its own. What was
readily apparent upon opening was the beautiful tension between rusticity and
refinement.
Dark and dense in the glass – it featured aromas of cedar,
black olive, black cherry and dried lavender. It quickly came to life with a palate
of generous dark fruit of the Merlot along with the dusty earthy mineral and
dried floral notes reminiscent of Chianti Classico. It had vivacious, rich, and
rustic characteristics – finishing with sharp acid and leathery gritty tannin,
along with good length and concentration.
This had great flavor, depth, nerve and structure. It showed
the highlights and excitement of Bordeaux
varietals in Tuscany along with that
salt-of-the-earth realness that is so awesome in the great reds of Italy . I loved
it – definitely one to get excited about. ($85, still some availability online,
drink/hold).
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