Betsy was making a Bolognese sauce, and needed white wine. She started
reading labels while in my cellar, I stopped her at the 2002
Mastroberardino Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio (Bianco). When I got home,
I sampled. Not exactly a flavor powerhouse- light apricot and apple
fruit, just a hint of nuts and herbs. Somewhat dilute compared to other
vintages, maybe worth the $6-7 I paid as a cooking wine but not this
wine's normal tariff. B-/C+

With dinner, the 2001 Felsina Berardenga Chianti Classico. Dense black
cherry fruit, moderate tannins, pleasantly high acidity. Some leather
and meat on the nose with some time. Structured Chianti that needs
time. Very nice. B+

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent
wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't
drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no
promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of
consistency.

DaleW wrote:

> With dinner, the 2001 Felsina Berardenga Chianti Classico. Dense black
> cherry fruit, moderate tannins, pleasantly high acidity. Some leather
> and meat on the nose with some time. Structured Chianti that needs
> time. Very nice. B+

Dale, I've still got some '97 Berardenga (isn't it a CCR?) down in the
cellar. Is it time to drink up, do you think?

Mark Lipton

DaleW wrote:
> Betsy was making a Bolognese sauce, and needed white wine. She started
> reading labels while in my cellar, I stopped her at the 2002
> Mastroberardino Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio (Bianco). When I got home,
> I sampled. Not exactly a flavor powerhouse- light apricot and apple
> fruit, just a hint of nuts and herbs. Somewhat dilute compared to other
> vintages, maybe worth the $6-7 I paid as a cooking wine but not this
> wine's normal tariff. B-/C+

Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio has long been a wine with a famous name,
but in the past it could be some of the worst wine that Italy exported
under a place name. The present Mastroberardino, and one or two
others,are at least well made, but seldom are among the top wines of
Campania. Besides the white, I have tasted the red and a slightly
sparkling white in the distant past. The red had more character than
the white, but was rather ordinary. The less said about the slightly
sparkling white, the better. There also is supposed to be a pink
version that I have never had.

Mastroberardino, and now 2 or 3 others, make Greco di Tufo that has
much more character and substance than most Lacryma. Mastroberardino
bottles more than one quality, with top examples being very good
indeed.

Mastroberardino and a few others also make Fiano di Avellino that can
be very good for the best quality bottles. Since it is more famous than
Greco, it tends to cost more. I have often found that I like Greco just
as well as Fiano, and Greco often costs less. Neither top Greco or
Fiano are the bargin that they were several years ago. Of course the
tastes of Greco and Fiano are rather different, as would be expected
from wines made from different grapes.

Of course this is all likely not news to you, as you likely can easily
find everything from poor to very good examples of all of these wines
in NYC. However I thought others might like a little background. And
even good examplesof these wines now are distributed to most major
cities across the country.

"Mark Lipton" > wrote in message
...
> DaleW wrote:
>
>> With dinner, the 2001 Felsina Berardenga Chianti Classico. Dense black
>> cherry fruit, moderate tannins, pleasantly high acidity. Some leather
>> and meat on the nose with some time. Structured Chianti that needs
>> time. Very nice. B+
>
> Dale, I've still got some '97 Berardenga (isn't it a CCR?) down in the
> cellar. Is it time to drink up, do you think?

Noooo, nooo, Mark! If you're referring to the Rancia, it needs time! That
wine is a monster. I bought as much as I could afford and I'm trying to
stay out of it.

Tom S
www.chateauburbank.com

Mark Lipton wrote:
>
> Dale, I've still got some '97 Berardenga (isn't it a CCR?) down in the
> cellar. Is it time to drink up, do you think?
>

Mark,
Different wines. Felsina makes a regular Chianti Classico, a basic CCR
(only for US, I think- a recent wine), the Rancia CCR, as well as the
Fontalloro IGT.
Tom says the Rancia isn't ready. But if this is the basic CCR (not the
single vineyard Rancia, which ages 10-20 years in good vintages), my
guess would be that it is. It's typically a bit woodier and bigger than
the regular CC, but my guess is its ready.

I agree with most of what you say, though overall I tend to like Fiano
more than Greco. With both grapes, I tend to like the Feudi di San
Gregorio more than the Mastroberardino (by a hair). But I like
Mastroberardino's reds.

In 1985 I went to Mastro's after Vin Italy. He relieved me & Jim(Morris)of
about 26 cases of wine given us or bought. They were in Hubleins next
shipment to DC. Mayflower in DC had arranged a 30 case drop at Fossi for us.

Sig Mastro(Walter not his son Carlo) told us Hublein wanted only one
bottling of Taurasi, Greco, Fiano, Lachryma from the normale uvaggio but
labeled Riserva or with a cru name. Mastro was free to sell the real
Riservas elsewhere in the world; thus there was a dramatic decline in
quality, which Hublein gambled the consumer would not notice + having tasted
some great wines from the brother's Ceretto and Monsanto--when the wines
came into DC they had lost their complexity. The Hublein guy who led the
tasting, then opened up his own samples and immediately noticed a difference
between the wines shipped in a container and those hand carried.

I did some nosing around with shipping companies like DANZAS & Hilldebrand
and found out Hublein used a large, naturally heated & cooled warehouse in
France and never used reefers in shipping and never monitored the movement
of wine from an Italian port to France. So the wine could have been on a
Livorno dock for a few days.

Hublein had a split personality in the wine biz---In California they left BV
alone but really screwed up Inglenook. Same thing in Italy were they tried
to get Bruno Ceretto to acquire more vineyards for their Arneis because it
sold real well and they needed more juice to meet demand.
"DaleW" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> I agree with most of what you say, though overall I tend to like Fiano
> more than Greco. With both grapes, I tend to like the Feudi di San
> Gregorio more than the Mastroberardino (by a hair). But I like
> Mastroberardino's reds.
>