Uccelliera

Back after a long year without a single blog. That's a direct result of starting to work for Microsoft - a wonderful, exciting and challenging experience, but no time for wine blogging. Comes our vacation to Umbria, Italy and there is a bit time to blog.

Taking the advantage of Tuscany's proximity to Umbria, we headed towards Montalcino. Uccelliera is not a big producer (20,000 bottles per year) and that's exactly why it was chosen. The bigger Brunello houses are geared to cater to the international wine drinker and this shows in the wine. Uccelliera is positivly unique. These are wines with personality.

Uccelliera has very modern wine production equipment and still experiments in creating the best Brunello. They age the Brunello half in new oak and half in big Slovanian barrels. The later provides the more delicate aromas that are associated with "old" world. We drank the same vintages (2006, 2007) from both methods and the difference is clear: the wines from the big barrels is more delicate, with less tannins but less pronounced fruit. The small barrels result with more spice and bigger fruit. The combination is irrisitable. These Brunellos are 1st class, among the best I've tasted.

We had an Uccelliera Rosso di Montalcino 2006 with dinner a couple of days later, which was excellent. Food friendly wine, just the right cmbination of sweet red fruit, black fruit, spice and oak along with the right acidity. Excellent / Exceptional (89 - 91)