Hello; Well, so the brother-in-law, that is, the brother of Xina, presented us with a bottle of ripasso from a producer previously unknown to us. Yesterday we partook of parts of an elk, king of the forest in Sweden, with mixed mushrooms and mashed potatoes, and with this we opened the ripasso. [C] Very deep, almost black, purple [N] Strangely, an odour of mature cheese, reggiano parmigiana or similar, with a floral note. Weird, or what? AFter further areration, more notes of mineral, and dark fruit. Fiery, as a red prot. [P] Starts closed, aeration possibly too short, or maybe it would need further cellar time. Dark fruits, good length, walnuts, fruity sweetness, cream, chocolate and black coffee. Overall impression: A much better buy than the Greek we served the poor brother-in-law, at very reasonable SEK 115. Definitely a wine we will try to have in our cellar for unexpected elks. It would be even better with Bambi, since that meat is more gamey - elk is fairly anonymous, doesn´t taste very much in itself. I have once read somewhere (possibly in one of the books that dissed Welschriesling, hey, Herr Pronay?) that ripasso doesn´t evolve in the cellar. I do not know if that is true [1], no ripasso has survived more than
6 months in _our_ cellar. Perhaps somebody can tell me about that?
Cheers
Nils Gustaf
[1] And I cannot check in the books as they have, on the advice of said Herr Pronay, been trashed. [2]
[2] This is what passes for a joke in Sweden.