La Braccesca, 2005, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Antinori Agricola, Red-wine from Italy

4 points

WP_20150417_001La Braccesca isn’t something unique as I would usually prefer to write about. It is a huge vinery and owed by the prominent nobel family Antinori which is one of the most dominant wine producers in Italy. Still there are two good reasons to write about this wine!  First and as simple as it is: the wine is good, and second it is a good example that even big producers, their experience and probably passion of winemaking can have a positive influence as this wine belongs to the rather inexpensive ones among many other good but too expensive wines from Montepulciano. Of course all depends to trends and fashions but Montepulciano is a conservative and so traditional wine area which didn’t change winemaking too much except prices which are experience an unreasonable growth in my point of view. We cannot drink wine for more than € 20 or more every day and even this price level is already much too much for some good friends of mine. Perhaps we shouldn’t drink wine everyday anyhow, my doctor would probably say.

Nobile di Montepulciano is related to a smaller town called Montepulciano at the border of Tuscany and Umbria and all wines there named the same. MontepulcianoThis one consists out of 90% Prugnolo Gentile which is a very regional grape but as far as I know a culture of Sangiovese, probably the most famous grape of Italy – in particular Toscana and Umbria.

WP_20150417_003Open the wine some hours before you drink it if you have an elder vintage. The one I had was 10 years old now; the wine is very smooth, very mild and soft. Nipping the wine over two or even three hours I gave up my skepticism pretty fasten. It isn’t as dry as expected but still has a very Italian character – if there is something like this. The aroma is a mix of red fruits, vanilla and some tobacco. Just very classic, without any experimental marks – but why not! It is not a boring wine at all; there is too much quality for sure. Sometimes this is exactly what ones want. The color of wine is beautiful, rich and dark, invisible red. It looks like a glass of red-wine should look like sitting on a nice plaza of an Italian city, being a bit tired and just simply relaxed.

You can serve this wine with almost everykind of food I would say. It is is a red-wine you could drink along a guinea fowl or quails.