My turn to make dinner last night, but I was too tired to go back ojut to the store. A rummage through the fridge led to a pasta with a ricotta, spinach, parmesan and bacon sauce. Betsy threw together a green salad with mango and peppers. I opened a bottle of 1999 Cantele Salice Salentino Riserva. Label says it's 85% Negroamaro grapes and 15% Malvasia. Rather ripe dark fruit, decent acidity, some slightly drying tannins. Some light pleasant aromas of vanilla oak and roadtar. Not a bad wine for the price, and I've touted it in past vintages as a QPR favorite. But this doesn't excite me. Part of the problem is probably the match - an unoaked white would have been a better match. Yet a sip well after dinner still left me unexcited, and more than half the bottle remained. B-
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.