Banfi's 2007 Brunello di Montalcino

I had very high hopes for this wine when I opened it last night with a heavy Italian meal.  I had "won" it in a charity auction a month or so ago.

But it did not deliver.

As my neighbor Jeff described it, the aroma was "where the tire meets the road."  I thought maybe it was a bad bottle and re-checked the cork a few times.  The flavor was also not enticing.  More like sour cherries and an odd finish.

Ironically, the "official" scores for this vintage ranged from 89 - 94, so maybe we did have a bad bottle.

$$ / -

You can find this on wine.com for $65.99.

If you like this wine (or how it should taste), you would probably enjoy the Il Poggione Brunello di Montalcino, the Gaja Ca'marcanda Magari or the Antinori Tignanello.

James Tobin 2009 Primo

While this Sangiovese from Paso Robles started off as a "fistfull" of black berries and cherry, it ironically went down hill as it opened, tasting like dried, almost pickled fruit by the 2nd glass.  The smell was difficult to nail down--very pleasant to start and finishing somewhere between roadtar and leather (we actually argued about it).

Hmmm.

$ / -

You can find this wine for $16.99 on wine-searcher.