Over the Hill

Sometimes you keep a wine too long and it is past it's prime. Tonight I had such a wine. I bought this 1995 Brunello di Montalcino a few years ago and kept it stored away in my cellar. I've been waiting for a special occasion to open it. It happens to be my birthday, so I a grabbed it. It was good but I would say it fell flat with regards to my expectations. You can see in the glass below that the color was a bit over the edge. It was almost orange in color with a deep brick red. You could tell it had some age on it. On the nose you could not really discern any fruit other than perhaps something akin to warm stewed prunes. It had some barnyard manure smells and it just reminded me of old earth. On the palate it presented with a flash of fruit right up front along with a mineralness of rusty barbed wire and an interesting sharp acidity. It had absolutely no tannins to speak of. The fruit was not identifiable and it was a bit thin on the end. To its credit it opened up a little bit with some air to present more cherry notes in the flavor. I enjoyed it with a rosemary chicken creamy pasta.