 Hello, hello, welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Navi Horky. Hi, I'm Sherin Tan. Welcome back to the show. We have a little Tuscan versus Pia Monti tasting with a big name in the wine industry. I mean, Bombay. Bombay. So for those of you who are familiar with Italian wine, you know some of the most revered and greatest Italian wines are from Tuscan. We're talking Cante Clasco, Brunello, Motocino, which will taste now vino nobile, then in Pia Monti with Barolo Barberesco. So it's really gonna be a cool contrast here today, right? Mm-hmm. So we're gonna taste a couple of wines from Banffi today. Now before you, you know, sometimes some hardcore wine geeks, they see a big brand name like Banffi, they can say eh. But you know what, Brunello de Motocino actually owes a lot to Banffi, you know, started by an American Italian family in the late 70s. They kind of helped bring Brunello de Motocino to the forefront in the United States, which is the number one market actually for Brunello de Motocino. And this Banffi that we're about to taste, this is the first experience I've ever had I had Brunello many years ago. I'm pretty sure that was my first test wine in Singapore. So that's pretty amazing. These wines are super widely distributed. You can find them all over the place, which is kind of cool. You know, we're gonna taste today the Brunello de Motocino 2014 current release. They also make a Rosso de Motocino 2017, which I thought this wine was really nice for a simple... He drank it all. We're a simple... What's he saying? Signed you'll make sure that we have Shireen's favorite with the reserve. They make the Poggio Alamore Brunello de Motocino 2014 single when you do like this wine a lot, right? Yeah, it's either this or this that I had as my first Brunello. I can't remember. Oh, okay. Back in years ago. This was actually my first Brunello. So let's get to... You know, for those that you don't know, Brunello de Motocino, Brunello is a specific clone of San Giovese. Bigger, these wines are bigger, richer. They need to be aged for... No one's need to be aged for at least, I think the requirements, four years. Two years in the barrel and four years before release. So some serious wines. We're gonna taste the Bafi 2014 Brunello de Motocino. 2014 was a horrific year in Tuscany and a lot of Europe. I mean, we're talking one of the worst years ever. So we're gonna see what Bafi brings to the table in such a terrible year. Let's give this a go. Sorry, we have different shaped glasses because last night I broke our matching glass. Like that. Let's give this a go. More of a slimmer, even by the color, you look in the color, more of a slimmer slender Brunello, right? I would say that there's a little bit of color variation of the colors are lighter by now and you see a little bit of brown tone to it. It's almost like a, it's really almost like a, it's kind of like a peanut and water type color. Really? You don't agree? No, no, I just... So with notes, this doesn't, you know, you're gonna have some cherry, a little bit of pepper, sweet cedar, right? Not a ton of tobacco. You usually get more tobacco in Brunello. There is a bit of tobacco, but I guess it's more in the softer back tone of it. I also get fall leaf as well. You're actually quite nice for 14. 14 was a terrible vintage. No producers that did make Brunello made it as a drinking early vintage. Usually you want to drink these wines with at least 10 years of bottle age. Let's give this a go. I'm really fond of this. Matt, what is the retail price of this wine? I think in the U.S., it's anywhere from 70 to 80 bucks. Right, right. So is that Brunello de Montecino's or not cheap wines at all? Different from the other vintages because it's clearly softer, lighter, but it also brings tremendous freshness to the wine. I'm actually really high on this style Brunello because this is quite, really quite different from typical Brunello. Yeah, this reminds me of actually, we have some tuna de cesta, Brunello de Montecino, which is lighter, kind of like this. I'm actually pretty darned. A lot of people have this bottling and are not so impressed, but I think this is very good for an early drinking vintage, right? Yeah, I was definitely emphasized on early drinking vintage. I do think that it has got a couple more years ahead of it, but I'm pretty sure the tertiary tone would eat over the primary very soon. Yeah, at the same time, if you are into, you don't mind having a lot more tertiary than primary, this is great because it's very nice, it's lighter, almost coming closer silky, but I really appreciate the acidity in this wine. It's what I like about San Giovese, sour cherry and lots of tangy acidity. Tanics are soft, Brunello tans can be hard a lot of times. You know, for me, is this the greatest Brunello de Montecino in the world? No, it is not. Is it a very nice and enjoyable drink, especially if you want the Brunello flavors without having age? I think yes it is. Yeah, I agree. Just let it live to open for a little while longer. I really think it can bring some surprise. I mean, I'm for me, I'm in the 90 plus range for this. I'm gonna, I think that I applaud them very much for doing a good job in tough vintage. First up, up in complexity, you can try the Poggio della Mure, Mure 2000. This I thought was exceptional. We already tasted it. I thought it was exceptional for 2014 for such a tough vintage, right? You really like this. No, I enjoy it, but you know, we talked about this several times in Italy, people call it the three big Bs. So, Barbarolo, Barbarisco, and Brunello. And I've always been much more of a Brunello drinker. And when you give me a classic Brunello, right? The one that's pretty oaky. Chocolatey, you know, full body, lashes. It's actually the kind of one that I really enjoy drinking. Yeah. Shareen like this for those of you that like that little bit more oak, little more structure, bigger chocolate. Me, I prefer the Roce da Montecino, which I gave 90 out of 100. I thought it was excellent for a light San Giovese. And this style, I much more prefer with sharing like this, but that's why we have different palates. We're gonna move on to Piedmonti. You know, you know, we're hardcore, you know, we're in the wine trade tasting, you know. I was shocked that Banfi had a Piedmonti project, right? That was very cool to discover about their Piedmont project when we're at a B2B tasting in Barbarisco. Yeah, so it was really interesting. What they do, they actually don't make, so it's called Piedmont in English, Piedmonti in Italian, Northwest Italy, you know, known for Nebbiolo Borolo, Barbarisco. But ironically, the Piedmonti's project focuses on sparkling wine, which we have this Banfi Brut. This is Pinot Noir Chardonnay Pino Bianco on the lease for three years. I thought it was really good, kind of French Accord type style, fresh fruit, easy to drink. But they also make a Dolcetto or Barbera and an Albarosa. So that's what we're gonna taste here. Ironically, Banfi gave us our first ever Brunel de Montalcino, and I think it was one of our first ever Albarosas too, right? Yeah, so we discovered Albarosa at a B2B tasting in Barbarisco. There was several different Albarosa out for tasting. But I think what they definitely gave us was the first each Albarosa, because they were the only producers at an event where they had a new vintage of Albarosa in 2011. I spoke with the staff from Banfi and they talked about how they really wanted to show not just the quality of Albarosa, but also the aging potential. And I think through that bottle, it really showed us the potential. Yeah, so we have the Banfi La Luz Piedmonti Albarosa 2016. Albarosa is a cross. What they originally thought was Nebiolo and Cross with Barbera. Later they found out it's Chateaus and Barbera. For fans of Piedmonti, Piedmonti wines like me, which I still think it's one of my, one of if not my favorite wine region in the world, Nebiolo prices are through the roof. Barbera is starting to get up there. Albarosa is really a nice alternative because these wines are very inexpensive, deliver the same kind of profile and quality. This is a darker effort. So excuse me, you're not giving Nebiolo color. You're getting more Barbera-y color, purple cranberry. Let's give Yori, go ahead with it. What would you get on the nose here? It's very close to being Barbera. You get your cranberry, red fruit, red cherry, hazelnut, a little bit of baton of soy and early notes. Not as high, sharp, edgy acidity as Barbera, but you definitely still get a certain crunchiness as though you're just biting into fresh cranberries, sort of acidity and freshness and juiciness. You know what I love about Piamonte wines? They have always, for me, a little bit of hazelnut and a little bit of stemming acid in them too, as well. So let's give this a go. It smells really, really good. This was at the bar on Albarosa tasting, one of my favorite Albarosa as well, even among the young pages. Mm, very nice. Very Barbera-y, right? Tart, like you were talking about, cranberry cherry. Really silky smooth mid-palate. Fur, slightly chewy, but not overly aggressive tannins, so it's not super drying, right? Yeah, it's definitely not drying tannins, but you feel the presence of tannins sitting on your palate at the end, which really stretches out the finish and gives it a very good structure to the wine. I love it in Piamonte. The reds are, you know they're Italian, but they have this certain kind of Frenchiness about them, maybe some stemminess, some roundness to them. I actually think when I taste this now, let me shit, I'll save my opinion. What do you think right now? No, I said everything that I said to Rui. How about quality level and everything like that? In terms of quality level, I think this is a very classic, precise flavor, profile, good structure, nice acidity, easily like a 90.1 if you want to judge it based on other Albarosa. I'm 91 on this. I think it's for Albarosa, I think it's fantastic. I think people, like I said, looking for alternatives in Piamonte to Barberasco, give Albarosa a try just because it's a cross, doesn't mean it's a red-haired step child, I think it's a very beautiful wine. So, nice job, Banfi. I think what's important though, so those scores are kind of like working scores because Albarosa is too relatively new to us and to many other people as well. And it's so important to taste a different variation, to taste different vintages, to understand how it would evolve and its potential. So to say it's 91 is actually potentially much higher in the future. Yeah, and this wine ages wonderfully. So guys, check it out, check out some of these wines, you know, I'll put them in the description box, you know, just because it's a big name, don't go poo-pooing on it. I think these wines are, what's great about them is they're available all around the world too. So check that out, guys. If you like this video. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel. 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