Bright dark ruby, staining with no edge. This is, I believe, THE most perfumed wine I have ever smelled in my life. Hyperbole aside, it is BRAIN-NUMBING and NOSTRIL ORGASMIC the amount of floral and nectar contained in an early breathe of this thing. Piles of Natal Plum and Gardenia clog the senses, Lilies waving along a wall of Jasmine. An oaky beauty also shines, polishing the perfect tidbit of honey Euro funk and cellar you HAVE to have in an IGT like this. But it’s a BABY. The floral blows off soon and leaves grainy fruit and petrichor, not slutty–thin to a razor point.
Don’t let these labels confuse you. I’ve had a hard enough time keeping them straight in the cellar. There’s GIGINO and GIGETTA and GIGIO, all very monochromatic and similar. I would hate to be a shop-keep in a wineshop. Seriously, they can’t even keep the BV ‘Napa Valley’ out of the ‘Rutherford’ and the CSJ ‘California’ out of the ‘Sonoma’. I had a shop owner in Napa tell me once they discontinued Nickel & Nickel because the plethora of labels they produce are too repetitious. These three are VARY hard to keep straight. I reviewed the GIGETTO here. Still, the labels are well-done, and the trio look great together.
In the mouth, almost-100% Sangiovese typicity strikes hard. Well fruited, but nothing even approaching ‘over-ripe’ and the dagger of acidity pokes and twists its way in to every crevasse. Spicy and sharp, the absolute infantism of this wine strikes again hard. Such an unbelievable food-wine, it just BEGS for rich spicy sauces, buttery reductions and aged meat. Bright and lively, while still maintaining an elegance and poise telling you it means business. A bitter wash of tannin out the tarry back door makes you want to cram your nose into it again. Fun to drink now and polishing well for at LEAST a decade. Good luck keeping your hands off it that long.
2013 POGGIO la NOCE Gigio Toscana IGT 90/10 Sang/Colorino Italy 14.0

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