LCBO Sale Wine of the Week: June 23

Frescobaldi Nipozzano Chianti Rufina Riserva 2012 (Tuscany, Italy)

Sale $18.95, Regular $21.95
Discount (until July. 17): $3.00
LCBO # 107276 | 750 mL bottle

Tastes like: Dark and red berries, black cherry and raspberry, with savoury notes, vanilla and black olive. Serious layers.
Pairs with: Red sauce, lasagna, lamb, rib eye, osso bucco and meaty pizza.
Good for: Friday movie night with pizza, or a more robust cook out with grilled meats and a little karaoke.
Alcohol: 13%
Drink: Now to 2019.

Why we're drinking this
This is good Chianti. It delivers layers of flavours way beyond its price point, especially at $3 off. This is a DOCG wine, the top level for Chianti, and yet it’s selling for just $18.95. Deal! It has all the freshness and zip you want in a Chianti — that’s the Sangiovese grape for you. In cheaper wines, the grapes can be all sour cherry and dust, but here it’s rich with black and red fruit and a lovely lushness, indicating ripe fruit and lots of beautiful Tuscan sun. A serious wine. Drop a few in the cellar and pull them out over the rest of the year. This wine should be peaking for fall, but it’s really nice now.

Tasting note
Pretty, brooding, deep aromas of black berries, black cherry, raspberry, violet, coffee and dry dirt, with some warm oak and vanilla. A titch of tomato leaf and black olive. The palate is rich, almost unctuous, but still lively and tangy, as good Sangiovese should be. You want that zing and zip, that wild and savoury quality, which tames the fresh cherry and berry flavours, giving them weight and gravitas. There’s lots here to love, but this wine needs another few months to harmonize. Give it some rustic pasta and red sauce, fatty rib eye, lasagna (you want fat and meat!), and all kinds of lamb.

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This week's selection by kwäf Taste Bud Dick Snyder