There are some wines that everyone should try at least once. Very few have the opportunity and time to get into the layers of mystery that lie in a great bottle. Sure, we all drink wine, however few us really appreciate what it can be. I am here to hopefully help you discover some of the great wines just after I have gone through the process of being the kings taster. Something I have to say relatively speaking, relative to time that is, we are on this planet for very little time. Take a look at the stars on a very dark night. If light travels at 196,000 miles per second and we see a star that is say just one light year away, well, thats the number of seconds in one year times 196,000 right ? Get it ? So relatively speaking we are dots. I guess I am learning that some things in life have to be tried and tested if you have any grain of intelligence. We have the need for exploration, I mean what if you get to the end and you say to yourself what if ? Good food and wine are essentials with so little time to try all that is available. They have been with us since before Christ. If you look closely at the famous paintings of the last supper, you can see a bottle of Brunello. I want you to drink great wines and leave the geekiness and snobbishness out of it. It’s not geeky, it’s not snobby, its just a great piece of land that is well positioned, perfect for growing grapes that produce good wine that we need to drink, end of. Now, one such wine is Brunello di Montalcino. Montalcino is a small medieval village south of Siena in Tuscany. It will take you roughly forty-five minutes to get there from Siena. A beautiful place is Montalcino. There is a very nice cafe lined square and the village sits on a hilltop, a plateau really. I have come for the second time after visiting last year swearing to myself that this year I will deepen my knowledge of Brunello, its people and its culture. Brunello is a wine made strictly from a clone of Sangiovese called Sangiovese Grosso. Now, in my experience there are four types of wine that are just amazingly delicate. One is Burgundy, why ? Well Pinot Noir that comes from great vineyards has a great structure, its very thin as a liquid in the way it forms globules in the mouth, the flavors linger for the longest of time and the acidity is perfect. Its meant to be enjoyed and thought about, but if its good this will happen automatically. Driving the kids to school two days later you will find yourself thinking of this fine drop. Merlot, this grape also produces fantastic wines, Pavie Maquin, Larcis Ducasses, to name but just two, I could go on, there is Masseto from Bolgheri, which I have never tasted but if its anything like the price, I’m pretty confident about its quality. Merlot based wines when well made also form a similar structure in the mouth, very simple, but thought provoking. Then there is Barolo. Guissippe Rinaldi makes a wine, a Barolo ‘Le Coste’, my favorite wine of all time. Simply put…. Nectar. I remember the first time I tasted the wine. It was an experience that everyone should have, like going to New York City for the first time. So, Burgundy, some right bank Bordeaux such as Pomerol, or St Emillion, Barolo, and what is the forth?

Brunello. This is a wine fit for kings. Very delicate, very opulent, very delicate. Loads of fruit, like sour cherry. But for me it’s the combination. I’m not one of these guys that can rant about a wine unless it has been accompanied a great meal and a great night out. But this bad boy, as John Travolta said in Pulp Fiction, is where your extra $500 goes. It needs bottle age. It has so much potential to change and evolve that its rude to drink it before four years and thats being conservative. No one wants to wait anymore. Pity.

Something that I found very smart of the producers in Montalcino is that they produce another wine called the ‘Rosso di Montalcino’. This wine is aged for a year in the large Slovenian oak ‘Botte’. It has similar characteristics to the Brunello, only far less structure and aging capacity and is meant to be drunk with immediate effect. Its very fruity and goes well with everything.

Anyway, I came to the Benvenuto Brunello fair this year to see what its all about and to try  schmoozing some of the producers into letting me have their brews. I told you guys already, I want to sell decent stuff and only decent stuff. Brunello is on the hit list. Guess what, I did it, I actually did it. I met some great people from Montalcino who make the very best Brunelli. They are not interested in having their names trashed all over the market like some cheap Spanish Garnacha. These guys are pros. They know that the wine is excellent. The buyers will always be there, always. They are protective of their asset and I must say, I am delighted to say that I also was selective. I walked the room of many producers. I tasted many of the wines. Tasting is very hard. You have to really concentrate, and when its good you want to swallow. You want to swallow because you know its too good to spit, so if you are not careful you can end up pretty smashed. Thats my trigger. Some of the wines are fat, some are thin, Armilla was perfect. Funny though, It was the lady at the stand beside Armilla that I wanted to get at. However, her wines were already spoken for in LA and California. So I thought I would just try the wines from Armilla, zazzzzzzzummmm. Excellent, even better. On good Brunello, I get aromas of Darjeeling tea. Yes thats right Darjeeling tea, plus Strawberry and sour cherry. The tea thing is very slight, the fruit is very prevalent and the wine is just like the Barolo of Rinaldi. Now I feel like I am giving analogies on wines that very few of you have tried, but you have to trust me, try it just once if you can. I dare you.