Carpineto - 2009 Vigneto St. Ercolano Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG

Today's wine is a special red blend from famed Italian producer Carpineto. Founded in 1967 and based in the medieval town of Montepulciano in the Siena province of Tuscany, Carpineto has a really nice spectrum of wines: everything from the tasty-yet-cheap Dogajolo at $10, to some middle-of-the-road Riserva Chiantis, to today's wine, a ten-year-old blend for $50. Over 95% of Carpineto production is of red wines, the majority of which are wines which age three years or more before reaching the market for sale, with over 250,000 cases of wine being sold annually. Additionally, you'll note that this wine has a DOCG statement on the neck - under Italian wine laws, DOCG is the highest designation of quality of wines. DOCG stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (Denomination of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin, DOCG).

Today's wine is a blend of 85% Sangiovese, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 5% Merlot. It's estate-produced entirely in the St. Ercolano vineyard, and underwent extensive oak aging in new French and American barrels for a year, followed by four years in bottle. Only 12,000 bottles of this vintage were produced. Sounds great, right! Let's dive in.

Popped the cork and something immediately felt off. The cork had purple streaks on it and the flat part of the cork was somewhat darker than the rest, and projected a somewhat stale odor.

By the way - it's a myth that smelling the cork tells you anything about the quality of the wine. It does, however, help you identify any "off" flavors or detect cork taint. If the cork is bad, the wine is likely to be compromised and smelling (and inspecting) the cork will help you figure that out sooner rather than later.

So the cork smells weird - like musty carpet and peppermint candies. I poured the wine into the glass via my Vintorio aerator, and it pours a dark, deep, blackish-ruby. The bouquet, or aroma, is sort of peppery and nutty, with an alcohol tinge to it. Well, I think this is skunked. Only one way to find out.

OK, so this is not matching up with what I observed in the cork and in the glass. Instead of a nasty, skunked wine, the liquid in the glass is super refined and quite dry. Leather is the major flavor, backed by a dash of oily licorice, graphite (yes that's a thing), and black pepper. There are some shadows of black fruit like blackberry, and the finish is dusty and dry with solid plum notes - the first real showing of fruit in the entire thing. Lots of intricacies here!

With tons of sediment in the bottom, this is a wine that is definitely on the older end of the spectrum yet still shows a solid "structure" - i.e. a heavy wine that was built to last and to stand up to aging. Served with a truffle salt steak, garlic mashed potatoes, and spinach, this wine provided a deep, refined base, and didn't overpower the meal. A nice find! At the time of this post, we have one more for sale at D'Vines for $49.99.