Spent a couple hours this morning on a very informative zoom with the vigneron from this place and although I had opened their two least expensive and most-distributed wines the past week, had not really acclimated myself with what was in the rest of the care-package. Sure enough, there’s a 100% Merlot in there and lord knows I love myself some Italian Merlot (and we’re not talking super-Tuscan #winebro bling here). So I had to pop this thing tonight. Yes, it’s grown in clay; yes, it’s quite limited; and yes, it is very good: the kind of merlot LOTS of people should taste to get any California pancake-syrup visions out of their head. Black and staining, nearly impenetrable in the glass, ridiculously staining, and concentrating all things Bordeaux down into pure Marche splendor. Crazy nose of spice and tobacco, green vegetal droppings covering all sides in peppery achy angst. A blockbuster bouquet of concentrated elegance. Decanted heavily.

The intake is a passive-aggressive explosion of shocking acidity, bitter structure and copious ripe fruit: a dirty, gritty, chocolate infusion across shear walls of mouth-numbing tannin. The purple-blue edges defy a serious oak programme while still perfecting the polish a variety of aging styles going into the final product. From memory: this wine goes through oak-aging FIRST, then concrete and amphora, finally resting in classic Italian reserved bottle-age before release. The blackberry is pithy and aggressive, the pomegranate pulpy and raw, the final product flying in the face of the chunky nose and delivering PURE STAMINA on the palate. Mineralific tones undercut the richness of berry included, and tannin balance reflect a wine able to go three decades EASY. Buy two cases: drink one a year. That’s an order.

2020 IL CONTE VILLA PRANDONE ‘IX Prandone’ Merlot IGP Marche Italy 14.5

https://ilcontevini.it/