Saturday, April 4, 2009

Mondavi/Frescobaldi 2003 Danzante Primitivo (Italy)

With the whoaful results I had when I opened my last bottle of Danzante wine, I thought it best I also open this one. With, I hate to admit, the same whoaful results. This time it wasn't that the wine was corked, it was just aweful. The smell lacked fruit of any kind and the taste was all wood. Primitivo is the kissing-cousin (if not brother) of Zinfandel, so I was expecting plums and berries - in modern Primitivo's (like Ogio) they highlight their relationship with Zin by being very fruit forward wines. This one seemed to want to hide it. The oaking was very heavy handed and the wine was chewy in the mouth, but not in a good way. A very clumsy effort from a winery I expected a lot more from - in all their bottlings. And for those of you who are going to make comment that the wine is 5 years old what did I expect ... I expected an Italian wine with the legendary names of Mondavi and Frescobaldi attached to it to last at least a paltry five years.

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