originally posted by SFJoe:
It does seem like a bull market price, but given Levi's soft sell, will have to bear in mind.
Levi, were these late releases, or what do we know about provenance?
It is over 40 years old and not usually met with. I consider the pricing cheap. I am certainly not a man of any particular means, and I paid every dollar of the price myself and was in retrospect quite happy to have done so. No one is suggesting that the price is insignificant. Nor was the bottle. And unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight to lay a few down 10 years before I was born. If anyone ever sees a better price, I am sure they will have the courtesy to let the board know.
My original post serves as a name check that might lead others to consider something that is probably all too often passed over while reaching for a Burgundy or Brunello or what not on the same shelf. It was a courtesy, as opposed to just keeping that information to myself.
I didn't provide a note in deference to Mr. Dressner. Also, to really and seriously drink a wine like that and talk about it's high toned red morello cherry nuances (which it did have) is just ridiculous. I think everybody here is smart enough to know that great old wines come together in a way that blurs the boundaries between one flavor or note or fruit allusion and twelve others.
If anyone really must have notes, notes, notes please check the search function. I just provided a few days ago a bunch of notes on younger wines consumed on my trip to Japan. Hopefully that will satisfy the hunger of the notes dieties. If not, so sorry.
I think that the wine compared more than favorably with any older Brunello of my experience. That is worth bearing in mind as the Rubesco is mostly Sangiovese. Has anyone come across a 40 year old Brunello for around $200 a bottle lately? No? Then I might suggest that if you were curious about how well sangiovese can age, that you take a look at how Rubesco ages. I mean, does anyone even come across a Brunello that isn't Biondi-Santi from that long ago? Rubesco is an alternative.
I myself often wonder about the outer limits of a particular kind of wine. Like for instance, I have tried excellent Nero d'Avola from the mid-80s. But I opened a bottle of something from the mid-70s from the same source and it was shot. I have glimpsed what Loire Chenin is capable of thanks to the generosity of the Gentleman of Tribeca. How well can Sangiovese from Central Italy age? What should I be thinking of in terms of long term cellaring? Well, I have provided here a data point. I have in the past provided others (La Parrina Rosso '75, for example). Just as an aside I'll provide one more: Badia a Coltibuono '65 was good (but not something I would consider amazing, like the Rubesco was) and certainly very much alive a couple days ago.
Anyone who likes older Oddero would probably be impressed with older Rubesco as well. The level of complexity was on par with older Barolo.
My bottle had a grey market sticker on it. I was told that it had arrived in NYC about 3 weeks ago, which I considered to be a goodly amount of time for it to have recovered from any travel induced sickness. When I approached the local distributor about a year ago regarding getting some older Rubesco for the restuarant I was told that the estate hadn't been making late releases recently. I did purchase some '04, though, for my customers and for Steve E. to have on his next trip to NYC.
