With the opening of my wine store, of course I have to get my friends together and have a dinner with wines together.  I quite randomly picked four wines from my wine store.  In addition to the four below, I also picked a bottle of 1994 Leoville Barton since there are quite a few Bordeaux fans there.  For the three bottles of wines from Tuscany, although they are all produced by using Sangiovese, they show quite different styles and it was quite interesting to have them drinking together in a wine dinner.

2006 Volnay, Santenots, Premier Cru, Pierre Morey
2000 Chianti Classico Berardenga Riserva, Rancia, Felsina
2005 Carmignano, Il Sasso, Mauro Vannucci
1999 Brunello di Montalcino, Castelgiocondo

The first bottle we have is a red Burgundy from Volnay – 2006 Volnay Santenots Pierre Morey.  Without any decanting, the wine immediately show intense aromas and very floral.  There is already some developed nose of mushroom.  Although still mouth-coating, this is still a very elegant wine.  A very good Volnay.

After Burgundy, then we started our journey into Tuscany.  The first bottle is Felsina Rancia Chianti Classico.  Produced by using 100% Sangiovese from the Chianti Classico region.  This is one of the best Sangiovese produced outside Brunello and considered by many to be one of the Italian greatest wines even though it is inexpensive.

I have two vintages of this wine, 2000 and 2007.  In term of quality, I think 2007 is better than 2000.  However, older vintage wines are rare and I would like my friends to have a chance to try more older vintage wines.  So, I finally decided to pick the 2000 one.  This Chianti is produced by grapes from a single vineyard known as Rancia.  Since this vineyard is closer to the Brunello region, it is warmer than most of the other Chianti vineyards.  The wine is rich and dense with more black fruit than red fruit flavours.  Silky tannins.  I think it is quite a bit Brunello in style than a typical Chianti.

The next bottle is Il Sasso.  This bottle impressed me!  This wine is produced from the Carmignano region, a region I guess not many people know.  It is located north of Chianti and attained the highest Italian appellation status of DOCG.  The most special thing about Carmignano wine is that by law, it can blend with other international grapes.  So, this wine has 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot.  Comparing to Felsina Chianti Classico, I found this wine has more power with greater concentration yet even more elegant!  Maybe because of the addition of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, this wine shows even more black fruits character than the Felsina Chianti Classico.  It is extremely floral and I really like it!

We then followed to the best region in producing Sangiovese, Brunello di Montalcino.  To compare Brunello with Chianti, Brunello is almost always a more muscular and powerful expression.  Brunello’s region is warmer and grapes are usually riper.  The use of Brunello sangiovese clone also helped.  However, since our Felsina Chianti Classico is already a more powerful expression of Chianti, the difference between a Chianti and Brunello this time is not as obvious.  Since this is a bottle from 1999, it is already matured and at peak now.  The wine is concentrated, balanced and elegant.  Plum, black cherry, dried herbs and chocolate.  This is bottle of the night to most people other than the few dead hard Bordeaux fans.

The final bottle 1994 Leoville Barton, a bottle that my Bordeaux fans waited so long, haha.  This is my fifth or sixth bottle of this wine.  Tasting notes are consistent as previous.  A very good wine from the weak 1994 vintage.  See my previous tasting note here.

Purchase Regis Wine

2006 Volnay, Santenots, Premier Cru, Pierre Morey (Normal $628/ Special $534)
2000 Chianti Classico Berardenga Riserva, Rancia, Felsina (Normal $488/ Special $415)
2005 Carmignano, Il Sasso, Mauro Vannucci (Normal $348/ Special $296)
1999 Brunello di Montalcino, Castelgiocondo (Normal $598/ Special $508)

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