Working in this business can present some great opportunities for professional development. We really do have to taste hundreds and hundreds of products every year, so that we can properly represent what we sell. With our weekly wine tastings and presentations from the sales reps, we work hard to stay informed.
That’s the mind-set I took on a recent vacation to Italy. Prior to reaching the Tuscany region, I’d made appointments to visit several wineries. Seeing the grapes growing and talking with winery workers would give me important additional insights into Italian wines generally, and wines that we sell specifically.
Let me say this about wineries in Tuscany: They’re not easy to find. Castello Banfi has an enormous property by any standard, and even that was a challenge. Getting from town to town was a relatively simple process, but finding that one turn on a country road that isn’t well-marked can be, well, interesting. On the other hand, there are tasting rooms all over Tuscany, and wine is sold in virtually every place of business, including rest stops on their turnpike, the Autostrada.
Our first winery was Castello di Bossi. The winemaker lives in a beautiful old castle on the property, where they’ve been making wine since the 1980s. Wine-making at that parcel, however, goes much further back. We carry their Chianti Classico, as well as their Corbaia blend, and they were among the wines I tasted there.
Before we tasted, of course, there was time to walk around the property. We had the chance to grab a couple of grapes right off the vine, and the Sangiovese tasted surprisingly sweet. Coming back into the main building, we got to walk through their old bottle room. Here, there were stacks of wine bottles that were filled as far back as the 1960s. Some were simply stacked one bottle atop another, rather than sitting in a rack.
These preliminaries were useful, but the main event, the tasting, awaited us. First up was the Chianti Classico, which we sell for about $17.00 in the Bottle Club. The Chianti starts with notes of toasty oak, joined by ripe cherry and a touch of violet. It’s a well-balanced wine, with the tannic structure helping to integrate the alcohol and the darker fruit notes that cross the palate ahead of a long finish.
Next, we stepped up to the Berardo, their Chianti Classico Riserva. This was, by a very slim margin, my favorite of the table wines we tasted. Hints of menthol are intertwined with decadent spices. It’s full-bodied and structured, with loads of dusty black fruit. 100% Sangiovese, Berardo spends 18 months in barriques.
Castello di Bossi also does some great work with international varieties, as evidenced by the outstanding Girolamo, which is 100% Merlot. Ripe red and blue fruit jump out of the glass, with raspberry being especially notable. It’s medium- to full-bodied, yet silky across the palate.
The final table wine was the Corbaia, their Super Tuscan, which blends Sangiovese with Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s a complex wine, with a black fruit jamminess beautifully co-existing with notes of tobacco and coffee. Corbaia is strong across the palate, and the sharp tannins suggest cellaring for a couple of years. Corbaia spends 24 months in barriques. The 2004 vintage is currently on the shelf in Lawrenceville and Woodbridge, and it earned 94 points from Robert Parker. The ensuing three vintages scored 94, 95 and 96 points respectively, showing clearly that Castello di Bossi’s Corbaia is a true world-class wine.
Castello di Bossi is located in Castelnuovo Berardenga, the warmest and most southerly of the Chianti Classico villages in Tuscany. That’s why they don’t offer a white wine. They do, however, offer an amazing dessert wine called Vin San Laurentino. This was the final wine in our tasting, and well worth the wait. This more resembles a port than a traditional Italian Vin Santo, with notes of sweet stewed plum, and a softness that is irresistible. The blend is Sangiovese, Trebbiano and Malvasia Bianca. It offers a kind of basalmic sweetness and freshness, which is stunning when you consider that it spends 8 years in a barrel called a caratelli. The 1999 through 2003 vintages scored from 93 to 96 points from Robert Parker. The bottle is hard to find in the US, but it’s as good a dessert wine as you can find.
A few words about our host, Lauretta Pianigiani. According to her business card, her title was “Sales,” but she was more of a brand ambassador. Of course, she knew the wines we were tasting, and could explain the nuances in perfect English. She was very accommodating with regards to our running a bit late (I did say the wineries aren’t easy to find), telling us that in Italy, 15 minutes late is actually early.
As our time at Castello di Bossi drew to a close, we were able to take a few pictures before piling back into the Fiat Panda for the next stop, Poggio San Polo.
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