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Bonaventura Maschio La Grappa 903 Barrique
Grappa/Marc — Italy
Reviewed
January 31, 2020 (edited February 3, 2020)
Bought this bottle in Panzano many moons ago after the enoteca’s shopkeeper eloquently and patiently explained in Italian about grappa and the different styles. (Note - I don’t speak Italian but somehow followed him extremely well). I have very much enjoyed this arbitrary purchase but am nearing the end of the bottle so thought I should record my thoughts.
A blend of red and white varietals. A very pale yellow in the glass. A touch oily with closely spaced legs. Pomace, modeling clay, dry grain chaff, and a hint of plum on the nose. A touch of cleaning fluid. No ethanol.
Gentle simple syrup coats the tongue but not very sweet overall. A drying astringency sets in quickly with quince, grape skins, a pleasant bitterness and a chalky note. More plum.
A short finish comprised of mostly the astringency and plain sugar note.
Overall, grappa is nowhere near my go-to spirit but I’ve enjoyed, and occasionally craved, this stuff. Quite approachable.
35.0
USD
per
Bottle
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@cascode absolutely. Let's presume your palate has matured just a bit... but the sole reason is to enjoy, which is both taste and environment. Good lesson there.The ability to buy bulk local wine out of the stainless tanks in every shop, refilling used 1L water bottles, is mind-boggling to this midwestern American boy. I’ve “coerced” the wife into bulk vs bottle taste-offs of the local style everywhere we’ve stayed in Italy, although we did Prosecco instead of the red in Venice. If I recall that resulted in a 4 pm pre-dinner nap. I suppose a generation or two before my time you’d send your kid down to the store’s beer taps and fill up tin pails with suds and carefully march home without sloshing too much lest you risk dad’s ire, so maybe not so foreign a concept.
PS - Funny how time and place can change the taste - the best wine I've ever drunk was a cheap rough veneto red decanted from a plastic barrel into an empty Coke bottle from a corner enotica in Venice. I lived there for a few months in the '80s and lived on that stuff - 10 lire for 1.25 litres and we never lived better.
Great review, and I agree - not a go-to by any means, but just once in a while ...