I tasted this wine at Morrell's Wine Bar on West 49th in New York City. Bottle was opened new just before serving in Spiegelau stemware. This has an absolutely gorgeous, deep and vibrant purple color in the glass. Powerful smoky nose of red berries. Slightly spicy cherries and raspberries on the palate. Tannins started to soften after sitting in the glass for an hour so I would say decant at least 1 1/2 to 2 hours prior to serving. I would peg this in the 93-95 point range. A definite buy if you can find it. A nice effort from Gaja.

Agreed. I had a glass at Morrell's on Friday night and it reconfirmed my feeling from the SFW tasting a couple weeks back. It's great wine.

How much for the glass?

I paid $25 (ouch). I could have purchased a whole bottle for $50 from WL or SFW.

Oh well.

Morrell's pricing is lunacy even for Manhattan.

$27.00 a glass, $105.00 for the bottle at Morrell's. I think the release price was somewhere in the neighborhood of $60.00 a bottle.

WIML - Spec's has this by special order at $57 per bottle. Maybe less cash price. I'm ordering some this afternoon. PM me if you want any. They also have the Promis.

This is a no brainer Winetex. PM on the way.

I also had a glass with WIML last night at Morrell's. I completely agree with his notes.

Great stuff.

It definitely needs time and a good steak.

Doc

The wine list at Daniel has Gaja Magari 2000 on the wine list at $139. Is this the same ??

Yes indeed. I would consider ordering it if they will decant it. It doesn't need forever but will shine with some decanting.

There's a first time for everything!

I opened a bottle of the '00 Ca'Marcanda Magari last night to have with steaks. I poured myself a glass and was blown away at the aromatics of the wine and enjoyed it tremendously. Olives, herbs, sweet oak, balsamic elements, with dark and plush fruits just dancing all over the place. I thought this was an Italian version of a great St. Estephe.

My wife OTOH vehemently hated this wine and refused to finish her glass. She said it smelled like peanuts and it was too woody for her tastes. We've never disagreed on the taste of wine before - sure, we've had various degrees of likes and dis-likes, but never this diametrically opposed in opinions.

She asked me not to buy anymore of this wine, but I might have to sneak in another bottle or two.

BTW, the wine had heavy sediment lodged to the bottom of the cork and it seemed pretty well integrated and was an elegant drink that really did not need decanting. Anyone else experience this?

Jaimetown - we had this at Babbo Friday night. There was quite a bit of sediment in the glasses. I'm suprised your wife didn't like it as it is a crowd pleaser. I bought a case of this (some for others) and am pretty happy that I have a few bottles left. My local store still has it on the shelf so if it gets low I will maybe pick up a few more.

FYI - the Promis is throwing sediment as well.

DdB - you're gonna like this wine if you haven't already had it.

Sediment - just another food group.

I know, I couldn't believe my wife did not like it - she has pretty good taste in wine. BTW, the Magari is selling for $47 around here on sale - a pretty good price I think.

Hey DdB,

I haven't tried this wine yet, and I've got a case to deal with. If you haven't tried it yet either, maybe we could plan on this as one of our bottles on November 8?

There's a lot of merlot in this, isn't there? Perhaps a pairing vs. Falesco Montiano is in order?

How long should this cellar ? Bought 4 bottles, $50 ea. plus $12 shipping.

I can't remember what my maturity estimate was but there is a review of this wine in Oeno-File Volume 2 Issue 2 iirc.

stemor - I have not had the Magari yet - let's do it! The blend is 50% Merlot 25% Cab and 25% Cab Franc IIRC.

Now we just need to decide what's for dinner. I'll PM you next week and we can discuss.

WT - I'm glad to have some on the way