2015 Paolo Bea Umbria San Valentino

• Location: Montefalco, Umbria, Italy

• Comments: 70% Sangiovese, Montepulciano and grapes from the historic native Montefalco vine

• Question: How is this different from other Chardonnay you tasted before? What is unique? Would you justify the price?

• Producer website

2015 Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino

• Location: Brunellow di Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy

• Comments: 100% Sangiovese

• “Angelo Gaja makes a number of stunning Piedmontese wines (see my description of Gaja’s Chardonnay), but the heart and soul of the Gaja winery are his Barbarescos. They are always richly flavored wines, although those flavors usually sit inside a locked box of tannin, and you get the key only after you’ve aged the wines for several years. Gaja’s “regular” Barbaresco is often my favorite—a wine with beautiful licorice, cherry, vanilla, fig, and earthy notes, and a seductive sense of umami. Gaja’s top Barbaresco (for which you will have to hock the family jewels) is the single-vineyard Sorì Tildìn, which is massive and unyielding when young but with age reveals its sensual side along with a torrent of compelling aromas and flavors. Gaja wines always require two things: patience and money. (Karen, MacNeil, Wine Bible)”

• Question: What do you like about this wine? What other grapes or region of mind can be compared with this?

2015 San Felice Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Il Grigio

• Location: Chianti Classico, Tuscany, Italy

• Comments: 100% Sangiovese

• “Angelo Gaja makes a number of stunning Piedmontese wines (see my description of Gaja’s Chardonnay), but the heart and soul of the Gaja winery are his Barbarescos. They are always richly flavored wines, although those flavors usually sit inside a locked box of tannin, and you get the key only after you’ve aged the wines for several years. Gaja’s “regular” Barbaresco is often my favorite—a wine with beautiful licorice, cherry, vanilla, fig, and earthy notes, and a seductive sense of umami. Gaja’s top Barbaresco (for which you will have to hock the family jewels) is the single-vineyard Sorì Tildìn, which is massive and unyielding when young but with age reveals its sensual side along with a torrent of compelling aromas and flavors. Gaja wines always require two things: patience and money. (Karen, MacNeil, Wine Bible)”

• Question: What do you like about this wine? What other grapes or region of mind can be compared with this?