ENTHUSIAST OF ALL

As I mentioned a few times, I’ve been really busy this spring and have fallen way behind on this blog. Now things are slowing down, and I’m ready to catch up. I didn’t give you a wine of the month for May, so I’ll go ahead and do that now, along with the wine of the month for June.

I hosted an Italian wine tasting last month that featured an elaborate selection of top tier reds from all over the country. The wine that I selected as the wine of the month for May was ranked as the #14 wine of the year by the Wine Spectator in 2005 and is still available somehow at the Binny’s in Chicago at Wells and Grand. For June, I’ve chosen a very affordable Shiraz from the highly acclaimed 2005 Barossa Valley Vintage.

WINE OF THE MONTH- MAY

Tenimenti Luigio D’Alessandro Syrah Il Bosco 2003, 94 Points, $45

This beauty displays deep, complex aromas with port-like raisin, dark chocolate and blackberry notes. Full-bodied and complex flavors begin with initial blackberry and black licorice flavors and evolve into chocolate, pepper spice and strong caramel that lingers long and impressively. Dry, leathery finish with chocolate carrying over the fruit and light spice.

WINE OF THE MONTH- JUNE

Thorn-Clarke Shotfire Shiraz Barossa 2005, 91 Points, $18

Aromas and flavors of intense, deep, creamy black cherry, raspberry, plum and vanilla. This Shiraz is amazingly well-defined and focused. Light pepper spice and oak linger in the finish behind the red fruits with light chocolate undertones. Well-balanced and full of flavor. One of the world’s best bargains year after year.

This entry was posted on June 22, 2007 at 3:11 am and is filed under Vino. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.