2004 The Blend of Poggiotondo

Well, as you may have heard, the eastern seaboard of the US got hit with a pretty big snow storm this weekend. And while most people were at the grocery store on Friday night picking up bread, milk, eggs, and toilet paper – you know, because you never know if you might be snowed in for a day and your family of say 12 is going to eat up all of the bread and eggs, drink all the milk, and use up all of the toilet paper in the known universe in those 24 hours (oh no! we might starve and be forced to drink water, eat ketchup, and use paper in the bathroom) – I had my priorities in order and stopped at the liquor store to get gin and wine!

I know that some folks drink wine every day and as such, purchasing wines that are around the $15 price point can be a bit spendy, so I sought out a wine around the $10 mark to review. That’s how we ended up with this....

The facts:

2004 The Blend of Poggiotondo
Region: Tuscany, Italy
Variety: 40% Sangiovese, 30% Merlot, 30% Syrah

This is where I’d normally provide a photograph of the wine. In this particular case, I’m going to refrain from that practice lest you see this wine in a store, recall the photograph from our blog, and purchase it because you can’t recall what we said about it, but you know you’ve seen it before. Read on and you’ll see why.

My take:

When you first pour the wine into your glass, it smells purple, with the slightest bit of chalky pink candy. Seriously. Not necessarily a bad thing. But, it quickly turns to something strange – I’d say gray becomes the predominant color. And it tastes exactly the same way. It’s purple, gray, and chalky. When Jonathan and I were talking about the wine, trying to figure out what it was all about, I specifically said, “it tastes like gravel and ash in a liquid mouthful.”

Yeah, not a fan. And I say this knowing full well that I do not like a gray wine. However, I know what a good gray wine tastes like – there is a gray characteristic to a lot of malbecs that Jonathan likes that I simply don’t care for. This is not that same gray. This is a bad gray, at least in my oh so humble opinion.

Other qualities, just in case you want more info – it’s dry, medium bodied, a little spicy, and there’s still some purple (somewhere between grape and currant) in there, despite the ashy flavor.

This is not one I’ll be buying again. In fact, I’m not even going to drink a full glass.

Price point: We bought locally for $10.99, but an internet search revealed bottles for as little as $8.27.

2006 Poggio del Falco - reviewed by Kerri

For this review, I have to start with the story, so I’ll end with the facts.

The other day, I wanted wine after work. So we opened a bottle of something (don't recall what it was and unless you want to know what not to drink, it doesn't matter) that smelled like really ripe blackberries. It didn’t taste like ripe blackberries; it tasted like jam – and not in a good way. At first, I thought, it’s okay; not my favorite, but I don’t hate it.

I tried some cheese (both manchego and a sharp cheddar) to see if that would make the wine any better. The cheese had no flavor compared to the wine! How is that possible? Seriously, how is it possible to make a sharp cheddar taste almost like nothing???

So, we poured it down the drain. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again… life’s too short to drink bad wine.

Then we opened the Italian Poggio del Falco.





OMG.... I hadn’t even taken a sip and I felt compelled to break out my laptop to start writing. The color is beautiful – that brownish red I’ve come to love. And the nose is so pleasantly sweet – like sweet tobacco. And not in a bad Marlboro kind of way (and that's not to disparage Marlboro - I've been known to smoke one here and there), but in a sweet, vanilla, pipe tobacco kind of way. And for some reason the nose reminds me of sweet alyssum, though I admit I haven’t actually smelled sweet alyssum in a couple of years.

After smelling the wine for I’d say a good 10 minutes (I could smell this wine forever), I finally took a taste. Ahhhhh, now that’s what a wine is supposed to taste like. And this is where I fall down in terms of reviewing the wine. After several tastes, I was still having trouble describing it. The only thing that kept coming to mind is that it tasted exactly like what wine should taste like! I realize that's not exactly helpful, so.... What I can say is this:

It tastes a little brown-red; definitely does not taste as sweet as it smells. The texture is that nice resting place between suck your mouth dry and coat your mouth with creaminess. It has a rather long finish. I’d call it medium bodied, though tasting notes online say it’s full bodied. I think the only thing that would make it better is if it were velvety in texture.

Important safety tip – be careful at the bottom of the bottle. There’s a fair amount of sediment and I’d venture to say you don’t want a mouthful of that.

Everyone should try this wine! Well, okay, everyone who is a fan of old-world style wines. If you prefer a full-bodied, in your face, fruit forward, hello I’m a huge wine party in your mouth kind of wine…, then this is not the wine for you.


So there's my story. Jonathan’s on vacation now and didn’t feel as compelled as I to write something up while we were drinking it, so this is a wine review - 1 way. But don’t misunderstand – he did enjoy the wine and I've already ordered 2 more bottles so he may post his take in the not too distant future. Personally, if I had the space for at least half a case, I’d order at least half a case. Maybe we need a bigger wine fridge. hmmm....

Now for the facts:

2006 Poggio del Falco
Region: Tuscany, Italy
Winemaker: Michele Barbiero of the Morazzano Estate (Turner Wine is the importer)
Variety: Sangiovese, Merlot & Cabernet Sauvignon (organic)

Price point: $15-$20