Da Vinci Chianti DOCG 2006 Tasting Notes

I've enjoyed previous vintages of this wine at restaurants, where it has performed well with food, but this is the first time I've put it through a formal tasting. The wine has a deep purple hue, barely yet palpably transparent. I let this wine open up two hours before tasting, then enjoyed a nose of black cherry, prune, dried cherry, nutmeg, black pepper, mushroom, and freshly tilled earth. My first impression in the mouth is a little alcoholic heat matched well with characteristic Sangiovese acidity. Redder fruit came on the palate: good ripe red cherry, dried red cherry, a touch of raspberry, the piquancy of black pepper and a slight yet satisfying bitter tinge of nutmeg. The tangy acidic pucker frames the initial attack of the wine, but the mid-palate brings more earthy tones. The finish, medium long, has a lovely smoky earthy mushroom-like element to it. The tannins, as one would expect from Sangiovese, are soft, round, and yet hard-working, highlighting the finish quite nicely. This wine does not see much wood (13% aged six months in new and used American oak) but I did enjoy some fragrant cedar on the finale.

Ultimately, the da Vinci is a wine that performs a few key vinous tasks exceptionally well, a wine I consider food friendly above all. Winning acidity and its accompanying fruit is the main show, but those aromatic extras I mentioned—a bit of smokiness, earthiness, stimulating spice and a real sense of place, are quality extras. I rarely comment on a wine's label, but this one is extremely tasteful, a simple sketch of a woman's face; the artist the cooperative hired for this bit of artwork has obviously got a real future in the wine label business.