Tuesday, September 9, 2008

2003 Lorenzo Begali Amarone (aka drinking to forget about the USC disaster)

So the day after the UVa-USC disaster, I figured what better way to redeem the weekend than buying and drinking a lot of wine. After a few stops at local Charlottesville stores, we went out to visit a couple of local wineries, Veritas and Afton. I must report that I am still underwhlemed by most Virginia wines, so no details to give. We then went to downtown Charlottesville to visit a fine wine bar I found last year, Enoteca.

This is a fine wine bar, specializing in Italian wines, and I found a gem that seemed an easy choice for Loudoun, Ashley, and I to split - the 2003 Lorenzo Begali Amarone. Having tasted a couple of Begali Amarones before (including the 03 I think last year and the full lineup in a fantastic tasting at Vinitaly) I was confident we would not be disappointed, and we were not. Ashley is not a huge red wine drinker, especially of bigger, fuller reds but she was quite enamored with this one. it was a great wine to redeem the weekend. I also recommend the wine bar itself, which offered a great selection of Italian wines ranging from inexpensive easy quaffers to some true hard-to-find gems (the Paolo Bea Sagrantino was tempting but a bit more expensive at $164).

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