<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some time ago I spoke with my friend Dr. Renzo Cotarella, managing\ndirector of Marchesi Antinori s.p.a., since every now and then we meet for\ndinner to talk and to taste new wines or new vintages of the wines they\nproduce. Last time Renzo invited me to dinner at Luciano Ghinassi’s Florentine\nrestaurant La Buca Lapi. I have known Luciano for a few decades and have\nfollowed him to all the restaurants he has had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the evening of the dinner Luciano told me: “I started working\nright at Buca Lapi, I was a kid, together with Giorgio Pinchiorri. I owned\nseveral restaurants until about 30 years ago I bought the restaurant that\nbaptized me into the world of catering”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luciano is a perfectionist, his products are top quality, he usually\ncooks meat, but sometimes he cooks fish, which he proposes off the menu,\nneedless to say that when he proposes fish, the dishes, as they say, are\nmouth-watering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let’s go back to the evening. Also invited to this friendly evening were\nSergio Antonini and Leonardo Grint, a friend of Renzo, a person not working in\nthe world of wine but a lover of excellent wines. Renzo brought the Perrier\nJouet Belle Epoque 2012, mindful of the fact that I really like it, the Badia a\nPassignano 2019 and the Solaia 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Badia a Passignano, 100% Sangiovese, in a new guise because up until\nthis vintage, in recent years, at least for me, the wine was a little too\ninfluenced, I would say conditioned by the wood and therefore the fruity notes\non the nose were hidden by the mint and chocolate, typical of a somewhat\ninvasive wood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fortunately Renzo, an immensely competent person, decided to replace the\nHungarian wooden barriques with Tonneaux (double barriques lit. 450) of French\nwood. The result was seen immediately because the wine has fruity notes on the\nnose and the tannins are not drying to the taste as in the past. In response to\nmy observations, Renzo told me that I am at the beginning of this change. This\npleased me because the new Badia a Passignano has once again become a pleasant\nwine for me. As for Solaia 2019, I can confirm that it is at great levels. It\nis a wine that I have always loved. In recent years Solaia has reached very\nhigh levels even if I remember well and with pleasure the vintages 1997, 1994,\n2001 and 2007. The vintages 2015 (100\/100), 2016 (100\/100) and 2018 (98\/100). Obviously\nat the beginning of the evening I was very curious to hear about these wines.\nLuciano offered us his menu, as always I chose his excellent ribollita and a\nveal loin, excellent with white beans and roasted potatoes, to end with his\nfantastic apple pie. Aldo Fiordelli, a journalist and friend who is an expert\nin cooking and wine, in his book on Florentine steak, considered Luciano’s\nsteak to be the best in Florence. Going to dinner at the “Buca Lapi”\nis always a great joy to share with friends like this evening. As regards the width of the tannin, it is important\nthat you make the following clarifications, so that it can be understood. I\nfeel the tannin of the wine on the upper gum. The total width of the tannin is\n6\/6, i.e. the entire width of the upper gum. Obviously, if the tannin is less\nwide, it could be for example 5\/6 and so on. The width of the tannin is\nimportant when the quality of the same is of a good or high level. If the tannin\nis wider, the wine is more worthy of attention, but the tannin, as I specified,\nmust in any case be of good quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let’s now go on to describe the wines tasted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now we come to the tasting notes of the wines of the\nevening.PERRIERE\nJOUET BELLE EPOQUE, vintage 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n (Grapes: 50% Chardonnay,\n45% Pinot noir e 5% Pinot meunier)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Shiny golden yellow with slight gray-green\nreflections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bubbles are fine and quite numerous. The olfactory examination highlights flint and brackish. Followed by aromas of juicy thigh pear, white flowers among which anemones stand out, blond leather, cotton starch, mineral smoke, both ripe and dry banana. Slightly pastry finish and salted grilled almond. On the palate the bubble is fine and caressing. Sapidity and minerality accompany notes of lemon, yellow grapefruit and thigh pear. The body is moderately medium, set on elegance rather than power. Thanks to sapidity, minerality and generous but dosed freshness, the wine is perfectly balanced, not making you feel the alcoholic mass, not even with the imagination. Its delicate but present persistence is long with a mineral and citrus finish of lemon and yellow grapefruit right away. (96\/100)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n MARCHESI ANTINORI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n BADIA A PASSIGNANO, vintage\n2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Chianti Classico D.O.C.G.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Great selection <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n (Grapes: 100% Sangiovese)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ruby red color with\nslight purple textures. Olfactory mix made of pleasant fruity aromas of fresh\nplum and cherry, glaze of varnish, black pepper, nutmeg, mint, eucalyptus,\nhints of bois\u00e8, licorice, chocolate, to finish with final references of peeled\ntomato. This last perfume feels good even when the glass is empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When tasted it reveals a\nmedium dosed body and a perfect balance between alcohol and freshness, while\nthe tannins are wide (6\/6 -), sweet, initially silky and then slightly dry the\nupper gum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its gustatory\npersistence is long with a finish of light wood and violet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Resting in the bottle will help the wine lose some of its bois\u00e9 taste. (93\/100)<\/p>\n\n\n\n MARCHESI ANTINORI <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n SOLAIA, vintage 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n (Grapes: 75% Cabernet\nsauvignon, 16% Sangiovese e 9% Cabernet Franc)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Intense purple colour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The olfactory approach reveals aromas of mint, eucalyptus, bois\u00e9, Tuscan\ncigar tobacco, pea skin, blackberry, cassis, laurel, chocolate, internal white\npart of watermelon, black pepper, candied cherry and vegetable leather (it is\nthe worked leather that looks like the sweet of the leather).<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the palate it has a medium body that is not powerful but fine and\nelegant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well balanced wine with freshness dominating the alcoholic mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tannins are sweet, wide (6\/6) initially silky and then slightly dry the upper gum (exuberance of wood tannins). Flavor of mint, chocolate and bois\u00e9 that remains throughout its long persistence. (96\/100)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Wonderful evening for company, food and wine. Those are the evenings\nthat stay in your heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some time ago I spoke with my friend Dr. Renzo Cotarella, managing director of Marchesi Antinori s.p.a., since every now and then we meet for dinner to talk and to taste new wines or new vintages of the wines they produce. Last time Renzo invited me to dinner at Luciano Ghinassi’s Florentine restaurant La Buca […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.paolobaracchino.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/IMG-20230213-WA0038.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pav13q-3is","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paolobaracchino.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paolobaracchino.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paolobaracchino.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paolobaracchino.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paolobaracchino.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12676"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.paolobaracchino.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12679,"href":"https:\/\/www.paolobaracchino.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12676\/revisions\/12679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paolobaracchino.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paolobaracchino.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paolobaracchino.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paolobaracchino.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}