Thwarted; or Maybe I Should Sue Zuckerberg, Too.

I was hoping to do a side-by-side comparison of two whites from La Biancara di Angiolino Maule this evening, the 2009 versions of the ‘I Masieri’ and ‘Sassaia’ bottlings. Unfortunately, it didn’t work that way as the Sassaia was corked. Damn. Hate when that happens. Luckily, the I Masieri was fine and darn tasty at that (especially for a roughly $15 bottle of wine). The LDM site has a breakdown on the differences between these two and their other wines’ differences. According to the Maule website, the Masieri bianco is made from Garganega grapes that are fermented in stainless steel without any prolonged skin contact with a little bit of SO2 added. It’s meant to be no-frills and rough around the edges; a little country wine for the table.

What I found in the Masieri was a light straw yellow color, just a touch hazy. It didn’t taste like a ‘little’ wine to me. It was fairly complex in a way that belied any sense of a ‘lesser’ wine. It had that twang of almonds and citrus peel on the nose that I get from some orange wines. Along with a fairly heavy mouth feel, I could have sworn this had seen some prolonged skin contact. The palate was full of citrus and apricots and minerals all punctuated by a racy zip of acidity. It was fine with my dinner of a baked potato, but I imagine this would really shine with some salumi or a cheese course.

In a way, I’m kind of glad that the other wine was corked (hopefully I can get an exchange on it). As much as I’d like to have geeked out examining the two, looking for commonalities and differences, thinking about how one is ‘more’ or ‘lesser’ or how one ‘speaks to me’ more (and I’m not saying it’d not going to happen once I get a new Sassaia bottle). It was great to have a glass with dinner and then finish the rest of the bottle with Ms. Dérive while watching The Social Network on DVD (pretty good movie [thanks SAG member co-worker!]) and not have to think that hard on the wine.