Selvarossa Riserva 2013

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One of the things that I find most impressive in wines is the way they age and acquire new tastes which often enrich the original one. 

This is what happened when I first tried this Selvarossa Riserva 2013. Lost and forgotten in a box in the warehouse of the wine shop where I work, the sommelier has decided to open a bottle of it before deciding to put it out of the program making space for the 2017 vintage.

In the glass we could see some of the effects of ageing such as some loss of colour and sediments. In the nose there was a walnuts, tobacco and some leather which promised quite a developed stage of fermentation. This was confirmed with the first sip which shown and full-bodied and rich red with very mature red fruits. 

Fascinated by it, I soon started recommending it to several customers and it was soon sold out. When there were only two bottles left I had a young customer who was particularly excited with it as soon as he tried it. After getting the last two bottles, he looked at me and asked me what would he do if he would like the wine even more at home and then be unable to get any more bottles. I have answered that it was part of the charm of it, but not convinced by my fable argumentation he ended up not buying them. 

Two minutes after a colleague of work asked me whether I still had some bottles left and there they went raising a genuine happy smile on Mario's face.

In my case, I still have a last bottle home ready for a tasting next week.
 

To celebrate the fragility of the present I leave you with a haiku from Matsuo Basho:


The cry of the cicada
Gives us no sign
That presently it will die.

 

 

 

17/20
Country: Italy
Region: Puglia
Grapes: Negroramaro, Malvasia Nera
14,5%
Winemaker: n/a
Website: https://www.cantineduepalme.wine/it/rossi/251-selvarossa-salice-salentino-rosso-riserva-2010.html

Location: Hamburg, Germany

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