Medium ruby with considerable orange out toward the clear rim. Deep, smoky, delirious nose, thick on concentration with no sangio funk what-so-ever. Stewwed roses and grainy elixir, bringing up a saccharine-charged mud–but still falling short of any compelling earthiness in the glare of tired flatulence. Significantly riper and chubbier with each swirl.

Tasting it directs a one-dimensional coating of acrid swill onto the palate. It’s not un-drinkable, and I am impressed with the amount of sharp bite a sorta-acid compels the tongue into twisting revolt. The fruit a dark, hot chili, more grainy and chewy than actual briar or complexity. On one hand: the most interesting wine I have experienced from this producer, but my love for the grape causes halt to out-right recommendation. Canned berry cranked up to 11 is the name of the game. The typicity here is: FLAT OUT PASO, not Sangiovese or Tuscany–except in perhaps boomer-bright Super-Napa clones. At 4, it is certainly not ageable, and the decided stamp of maceration and forced structure already dooms it from perhaps what *might* have been an interesting wine on release, but it’s all too soon. Tannin a sharp-bitter affair, exacerbating the nuance of glycerine-y chub in a juxtaposition impossible to ignore and unbalanced to the inth-degree, the finish a burning layer of thin vibrancy impossible to smile about.

2019 OPOLO Sangiovese Paso Robles 14.5

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