Betsy decided to make a recipe of veal chops in a honey/sage/grapes sauce (from Food & Wine magazine's current issue) for dinner last night. Recipe was from the Marche, author suggested a medium-bodied Italian red. A friend who had just returned from Italy had brought me a bottle of the 2001 Cantina del Taburno Delius (Benevento Aglianico del Taburno DOC) as a thank you for giving him some shippers. I knew nothing about the wine, decided why not try it? The few Aglianico-based wines I'd tried were mostly medium-to-full bodied. Yikes, mistake. This was a massive, dense, tannic wine, with enough wood to panel a
1970s den. Big and chewy, virtually undrinkable at first, a total mismatch with the (delicious by the way) veal. I drank a glass of leftover mediocre Gevrey. Some air softened the tannins a bit, there was some underlying black plum and roasted cherry fruit, along with some spice. But the oak hung in there aggressively. Maybe a steak would've helped. A B- for my tastes, but certainly an impressive wine in its own way. Luckily before dinner we had toasted young Master Lipton with the Dönnhoff Qba, so I don't feel we gave him an oak jinx. :)
Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency Dale
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