Sigh … a writer’s work in just never done … Here I was trying to get after all the exciting admin items on my agenda for the day, when someone (Kathy M., if you must know, who happens to make some of the greatest white bean bruschetta on earth!) popped into my office with an open bottle, and a full glass, of 2007 Monte Bello. Sheez, I’m trying to get some work done here!
Well, one must answer the call, I suppose, so here goes!
Sigh, a writer's work is never done ...
Oh wow, that smells really good … I mean, really, really good … Juicy aromatics, lots of dark, succulent berry sweetness, just a hint of minty eucalyptal character (the cab franc! the cab franc!), wickedly inviting … and my, what rich color you have! (all the better to toast you with!); almost impenetrably dark, leaving a rich slick of color and viscosity along the bowl as I swirl … Ok, just one more sniff before a sip … mmm, that really smells good … surprisingly crisp, clean, and clear bouquet, fresh as a mountain spring, unique given how concentrated the fruit is … wow, that tastes good too; beautiful minerality, scads of mountain acidity, plush plummy fruits, mmm … my lord, those are lovely tannins too; aggressive, sure, chalky, yup, adhesive, a bit, but it’s a young Monte Bello, one must have structure … and the architecture here is impeccable … gothic decadence against modernist/minimalist compression … for the most part, everything resides in the front, and the front-end of the middle, not too much activity yet mid-to-back-palate, but again, it’s young. So very young … Wow, this is delicious. Truly delicious. How this much elegance can be balanced against so much opulence is an astonishingly tasty mystery, to say the least …
