Whenever I uncork a wine this old, I feel a mixture of excitement and dread. Did I wait too long?
It’s a terrible feeling to pour a bottle of wine that you know WAS good, and have it taste blah or even bad. You finish the bottle anyway, of course, hoping until the last sip that something magical is going to happen. But it rarely does.
Thankfully this was nothing like that!!! While I was pouring the bottle, brambly fruit and licorice aromas leapt out of the decanter. The wine was still very dark in color; not at all red around the edges. Encouraged, I took a little sip and swooned: this is was what great, old wines can taste like!
Giusto di Notri is a very famous (and fairly expensive) Bordeaux blend from cult winery Tua Rita. It tends to get scores of 96+ from the major wine critics. But it’s Giusto’s big sister, Redigaffi – a 100% Merlot bottled “Super Tuscan” style as an IGT wine – that gets more of the attention. A bottle of Redigaffi costs around $300; a bottle of Giusto, $100.
Here’s what Robert Parker had to say (in 2009!) about the 2006 Giusto di Notri.
“The estate’s 2006 Giusto di Notri is another weighty, powerful offering bursting with tons of primary fruit. Sweet herbs, cassis and graphite swirl around in the glass, adding further complexity. Like the other wines in this line-up, the Giusto di Notri needs time to reach the full range of its potential, but it is awfully impressive even at this early stage. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2026.”
Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
Parker certainly got this one right. Here we are in the middle of Giusto’s “best drinking” window and it tasted amazing: no longer “powerful”, but instead velvety smooth. Even my wife (who isn’t always a fan of older wines) immediately said “Yum!”
This wine is older than my oldest son (holding the bottle!)
Brixen Mortar Wines 