2009 Scopone Brunello di Montalcino

Happy Sunday!  Today was another afternoon of raking leaves, but since they will be picked up this week, I'm almost done!  Just a few more scattered areas to address and then it's over till next year!  Who knew shade was so expensive?  So to celebrate, tonight I've decided to open a nice bottle of wine, the 2009 Scopone Brunello di Montalcino.  I bought this wine from Wines Till Sold Out and it's had some mixed professional reviews, so let's see what it has to offer.

The wine is a nice deep ruby red color in the glass, perhaps a little darker than I was expecting.  The nose presents aromas of ripe black fruit, oak and baking spice, with a hint of smoke.  The taste is interestng, as it starts out with a bit of cherry cola, mocha and dark chocolate, that transition to a bit of anise and dried herbs.  The tannins are big and in your face, and as Wine Enthusiast noted, it has "an excruciatingly dry finish" and I couldn't agree more, this is perhaps the driest wine I've ever tasted.  The saving grace is that the finish is rather short.

Overall, I would rate this wine a 7.5, it's nice but nothing spectacular and it definitely needs food as drinking this by itself might cause headaches!  Tonight I am enjoying this wine with a more traditional southern Italian dish of linguine with mussels, tomatoes and basil.  Thankfully the acidity of the San Marzano tomatoes really cuts through the tannins and dryness of the wine.  Cheers!